As noted earlier, Mustafa Ali has asked to be released from his WWE contract.
There were rumors online that Ali had been on paternity leave but that was not the case at all. Fightful reported today that Ali only asked to be off for one show after the birth of his third child in November.
Prior to that, Ali began a new storyline on SmackDown where he said that fans booed him because of his name. The “New America” storyline was only referenced on one episode of SmackDown before it was scrapped. “You people choose to cheer for Drew McIntyre,” Ali said on the 10/29 episode of SmackDown. “You choose to root against me and the only reason you choose to root against me is because my name is Mustafa Ali!”
Ali later stated on Twitter that the storyline was scrapped, apparently because it was deemed to be too controversial. Ali tweeted, “a few weeks ago, I made a statement that some deemed controversial. my intentions were to bring a beautiful vision to life. unfortunately, for reasons beyond my control, I won’t be able to make that vision a reality. but I can share with you what could have been.”
Fightful reported that people in power at WWE changed their mind on the storyline and then Vince McMahon made a pitch for “something Mustafa Ali would never have done” and this lead to a heated argument between Ali and McMahon. Ali hasn’t been seen on WWE TV since that time. Click here for more on the scrapped storyline, including a promo that never aired on TV.
