During a recent appearance on the “Pro Wrestling 4 Life” podcast, Mustafa Ali commented on why the RETRIBUTION storyline didn’t work, pitching an idea to work with Ricochet to Vince McMahon, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On pitching a Main Event feud with Ricochet to Vince McMahon: “The Main Event stuff happened because, after the fallout with RETRIBUTION, which was kind of like, again, plans changed with that. I’m kind of sitting there for a few weeks realizing they don’t really know where to put me and the request was simple. I just knocked on Vince’s office and said, ‘Hey, if you don’t have something for me right now, I get it. I’m the type of talent where if I don’t use it, I’m gonna lose it. You gotta get me in the ring. I need to perform. Can I just have Ricochet for four weeks on Main Event?’ He’s like, ‘What’s the story?’ I go, ‘Competition.’ That’s it. Doesn’t need to be anything elaborate. We don’t need any gimmick matches. I go in, ‘You know me, boss. We will carry it. We’ll do all our own promos.’ It wasn’t like, ‘Sure.’ It was like, ‘OK, we’ll see.’ The first match happened. Then the second match happened. And now the third match happened. Maybe there’s a fourth match coming, we’ll see.
“It was one of the things where we went and just did it ourselves and, as much love as the matches are getting, I think the promos that we’re doing on our own are getting just as much love, if not more. It’s this kind of thing where I just wanted to, ‘Oh, y’all forgot about it for a sec, let me remind you real quick. Put me in the ring and you guys will go, ‘wow.’ Give me a microphone or a camera and you will go, ‘wow.’ That’s what it is sometimes. In WWE, there’s so much content that comes out. So, you have to be able to constantly engage the audience and remind them because once you’re not in the mix, you guys will go, ‘We love Ali,’ but after a while, if Ali’s not on your screen, if I’m not on Twitter or Instagram, you’re gonna forget about me. It’s just natural. So, that was just my way of reminding people just who the hell I am.”
On why the RETRIBUTION storyline didn’t work: “It’s not sour grapes, honestly. I feel the vision….surely we’re gonna go this way, and then it doesn’t. The biggest thing I wish was if we just explained to the crowd who we are and why we’re here. Again, I cut this promo where I explained why each member had these names and these masks. I delivered, I thought, this profound…..I remember presenting this and thinking surely this is gonna make TV, and yeah we got traction online, but we never got to tell that story on TV……it’s all about the why. If the crowd knows the why, they care. If they don’t know the why, they don’t care. I don’t think we ever answered that question.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
