It looks like WWE have different plans for Mustafa Ali as the company doesn't want to cut him loose yet
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According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, WWE has no plans to release Mustafa Ali.
Ali requested his release from WWE on Sunday, stating that he “[has] a message that is much bigger than my dreams in pro wrestling” that he couldn’t achieve while working for the company.
Regardless of his larger issues, the news didn’t come as a huge surprise, considering his present use—or little of the same by the organization. Since losing to Drew McIntyre on SmackDown on October 29, the 35-year-old hasn’t featured on WWE programming.
Ali, and many others on the roster, is becoming lost in the mix at an organization that appears to have no clue how to portray several of its wrestlers. His ill-fated tenure as the brain of Retribution was particularly damaging to his career advancement.
It’s never easy to tell the difference between reality and amateur wrestling in pro wrestling. Perhaps the fictitious contract impasse is part of a wider plot to give Ali’s on-screen persona some impetus.
Many people would regard WWE’s decision to retain him under contract as unduly spiteful, presuming his plea was legitimate.
80 wrestlers were released from the NXT, Raw, and SmackDown rosters. Because WWE had committed screen time to develop its personas, some of the actions were completely unexpected. In other cases, it was a bright young player whose career had come to a halt after being promoted to the main squad.
It looks that WWE creative has no use for Ali right now, but rather than letting him start over in another organization, he’s trapped with his current contract.
READ MORE: Mustafa Ali the latest wrestler to ask for his WWE release – here’s why
Ali recounted a previous chat he had with Vince McMahon before the COVID outbreak began in an interview with Metro in October 2021. McMahon reportedly told Ali that he was “Too polished, too clean, too nice. I don’t know if you have it in you!’”
“After sitting at home for seven months and then finally coming back to Monday Night RAW, only to pick up a few victories and then to go back to not being on Monday Night RAW and now being stuck on Main Event, you’re kind of scratching your head,” Ali said. “Like, what have I gotta do? And then you realize, you’ve gotta go ask the hard questions. I went up to Vince McMahon himself and said, ‘What am I missing?’ [He said], ‘Too polished, too clean, too nice, I don’t know if you have it in you!’”
