While speaking to Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Mustafa Ali expressed his desire to portray a campaign character in WWE, a chance he never got before his release. Now, Ali is bringing that vision to life in TNA Wrestling. He shared:

“So the vision (for this current character) was brewing in my head since actually the cruiserweight division in the 205 Live days, and there was a couple of instances throughout WWE where you would see, kind of, you know, examples of this character or pitches to this character or maybe one promo would pop up. But eventually, it would get shut down because the general logic with WWE was they don’t do anything political or religious, you know? Now that the character’s kind of up and running, I think people can see that there’s nothing political about it. It’s just the nuances of a politician; campaigns, protests, being voted, etcetera, speeches. I’m not saying anything political, and I feel that’s where the disconnect was with creative and myself so I have been thinking about this concept for years."

Ali also reflected on his post-WWE campaign video, stating, "The video you are talking about (post-WWE campaign video), I’m very, very, very, very proud of it because basically, it was a very well-thought-of marketing campaign. I was a marketing coordinator initially before becoming a police officer, before becoming a WWE superstar. But I’ve always had the sense of marketing and we all know what typically happens when someone leaves WWE. They have a prison break-style video… Is your character a criminal? Why are you breaking out of prison? The world’s gonna be watching this. Invest in yourself so that you can hit the ground running…

I think now, I’ve set the bar. I remember everyone really praising (Jon) Moxley’s prison break promo and when he did it, his video and the same thing with the Cody Rhodes list so now, I feel like I’m in the discussion now with that. Like, oh, if you wanna make a splash, Mustafa Ali’s Campaign video and the marketing campaign behind it, that’s the new measuring stick in the business.”

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, Ben Kerin Jun 08, 2024 03:07PM