Mustafa Ali's Background Meant He "Had To Work Heel"?
Some xenophobic wrestling promoters can get in the bin.
16-year old Mustafa Ali, who was only just breaking into the wrestling business in 2002, was told he "looked a certain way, so the fans will never cheer you" by some unnamed indy promoter.
Wow.
The WWE high-flyer told this story to NBC 14 News, and said he point blank refused to let his Muslim heritage pigeonhole his career. He cried out that he wanted to be the next Rey Mysterio and leave fans slack-jawed by flying around the ring, but people around Ali warned him that the public at large wouldn't accept him as a good guy.
As everyone knows now, they were wrong. That didn't stop Mustafa from working under a mask "to hide the fact that (he) was Pakistani and Indian". He portrayed himself as a classic luchador early on, and says nobody could've known what he actually looked like.
Today, Ali doesn't have to worry about that sort of thing. Wrestling fans have embraced how passionate he is about changing the world on social media, and they love his in-ring style because it's entertaining. This guy has come a long, long way, and battled against xenophobia to get here.