5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (March 29)

4. WWE Conflates Diminutive Performer With Legendary Heavyweight Boxer Via Name Change

Ali greatest
WWE.com

This week, Vince McMahon went full Vince McMahon. No, he didn’t molest his daughter, bury a promoted NXT star and lie to shareholders—but he did drop the ‘Mustafa’ from Mustafa Ali. He is just ‘Ali’ now.

‘Ali’.

The funniest thing about this particular name change is how pitifully thought out it is. Not that Vince actually thought about it, which is the magic part. He simply decided, on Monday morning, that he would inadvertently annoy and or amuse his public. He pisses us without a second thought. It’s impressive, really.

The word 'Ali' has such iconic connotations that we can now only associate the diminutive babyface with the most famous heavyweight boxer in all of history. How did Vince not think of this? The guy refereed the first WrestleMania main event, for f*ck's sake. Just be grateful Mauro Ranallo no longer commentates on SmackDown. “Ali might be the size of a bee, but that 054 sure stings!”

And, since the guy referred to WarGames as the “Chamber of Horrors”, and often crotches himself in the pursuit of gimmicky wordplay: “Ali is on fire! This building is shaking!”

'Ali'.

Vince just threw this guy under the bus and flattened him into a meme, which is quite fitting.

“F*ck off, Ali," indeed.

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!