10 Wild Outside Bets To Win WWE Royal Rumble 2021

3. Mustafa Ali

Ricochet WWE
WWE

Again, because it's very weird: so much of WWE's storytelling in 2020 is driven by the failures of the talent.

It's quite remarkable. What happened to outsize heroes you never had a reason to think were ever bad?

Drew McIntyre was a failure, a big tall and shredded failure, until he overcame. Bray Wyatt's Fiend persona rose from the ashes of his failure. RETRIBUTION are the mutated byproduct of a broken system. The subtext of WWE programming is that it sucks sh*t. This self-own of a meta approach is honestly insane. What does it say about the company?!

It's not a shoot. And yet, WWE routinely casts itself as the most challenging protagonist in the company.

This leads into the assessment of one Mustafa Ali's Royal Rumble chances. His specific failure stems from the 2019 WrestleMania season, in which he suffered an injury with awful timing. He was cast aside afterwards, and has used shocking, inattentive booking to inform his heel act.

He might win the Rumble. If nothing else, the help of his goons should land him an iron man stint. Then again, one of them is T-BAR.

There's the bones of a theme of a story here - about what happens to a man when they look inward at their own failures, and how Ali and Drew McIntyre embarked on such divergent paths - but it's RETRIBUTION.

Come on.

Probability: 50%

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!