Report: Why WWE Released Mustafa Ali Revealed

On September 21, Mustafa Ali tweeted out that he was 'no longer working' with WWE, the first public release in an evening that saw multiple wrestlers released from their contracts.

After news broke, reports emerged suggesting that Ali’s recent character work in NXT may have played a part in his exit, but a new report from Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has suggested this was not the case, with Ali’s release being a purely financial decision.

Meltzer suggests that WWE did not see Ali being used on the main roster, but he was still making main roster money despite being part of NXT. Meltzer also suggests that it is ‘notable’ that WWE cut Ali without letting his current television programme play out, nor without wrapping it up.

As for where Ali could end up, Meltzer suggests the former Retribution leader could head to All Elite Wrestling:

“Ali is a strong in ring talent who talks well, and would be someone I could see ending up in AEW, particularly since Bryan Danielson has been high on him. Danielson had picked Ali to work with for the WWE title on PPV in early 2019 but he was injured by Randy Orton and his spot was taken by Kofi Kingston on the Elimination Chamber show. He did end up recovering and got into a three-way for the title with Danielson and Kevin Owens, where he lost the fall and was never pushed at that level since,” said Meltzer.