Mustafa Ali details how Saudi official got him booked on WWE Night of Champions 2023
Mustafa Ali initially wasn’t supposed to be on the WWE Night of Champions 2023 card — but a Saudi government official ended up getting him booked on the show.
While appearing on a live edition of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Ali detailed how his match against Gunther at the May 2023 event came to be. Ali had been sent over to do media prior to the show and had a conversation with someone who he didn’t know was a high-ranking Saudi official. That person then requested for Vince McMahon to book Ali.
“I was sent to go do media, like public relations for an upcoming event in Saudi Arabia called Night of Champions,” Ali said. “So I go there — I’m not on the show. I’m just going there as token brown guy. So I’m going there, I’m making everyone happy. Just because it’s, you know, you’re always going to relate to someone that looks like you, right? I do these little events. Obviously, very appreciative of the turnout here [at the podcast episode], but the turnout there was insane. They were expecting 500 people. There was like 3,000 people.
“So the guy’s looking at me like, ‘Oh, this Mustafa Ali, maybe he does the show.’ I was like, ‘It’s the Night of Champions, you have to be a champion to be on the show. I’m not a champion.’ And I didn’t realize I was talking to like the president of the GEA, which is the General Entertainment Authority that basically runs the shows in Saudi Arabia. He goes, ‘You leave it to me, I talk to [Vince].’ I go, ‘No, no.’ He goes, ‘No, no, no, I’m going to request that you’re on the show.'”
Ali said he believes McMahon was not happy about someone telling him what to do, which led to the infamous backstage segment on Raw’s go-home show for the event where Brock Lesnar told Ali to “get a life, kid.”
what the?!#WWERaw pic.twitter.com/vxdjrNTUpf
— WWE (@WWE) May 23, 2023
The Saudi General Entertainment Authority is headed by Turki Alalshikh, who is the person responsible for handling the relationship between WWE and Saudi Arabia.
Ali is now with TNA Wrestling after being released by WWE in September 2023.
“The cookies are going to crumble the way it crumbles, right? I know, when I look at WWE, I know that I knocked on every door, I presented every idea, I never said no for the most part,” Ali said on Insight. “And I did good work, man. I’m never going to look in the mirror and feel like, ‘Oh man, I failed…’
“There was nothing else I could have done. I tried everything, comedy, serious, being the little guy, this guy, whatever the hell. You know what I mean? So I walked away with that. And then when Brock said, ‘Go get a life, kid’ — I quite literally did that. I’m the f***ing man now.”
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.