Trivia / Mustafa Ali

• Creator Backlash: Initially played a stereotypical Muslim heel on the indies, before seeing a young fan looking scared and wondering if he'd taught them to hate, and then he swore off ever playing that kind of character again.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Ali was being pushed hard out of the gate after being moved from 205 Live to SmackDown and, going into 2019, appeared poised to take a spot in the WWE Championship match in the Elimination Chamber at the namesake pay-per-view, where his high-flying, hard-bumping style would have at least led to a memorable spot or two within the match, even if Ali didn't win. But then he suffered a minor injury a week or two before the PPV and WWE had to scramble to find a replacement. Given that they wanted a high spot athlete similar to Ali for the role, WWE settled on Kofi Kingston — a move that would prove to have unanticipated (and historical) consequences in the next three months.

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