Mustafa Ali On Why His Feud With Seth Rollins Was Dropped, Says He’s Good With It

Mustafa Ali had the start of a feud that didn’t get followed through on, and he recently explained why it didn’t end up happening. Ali recently spoke with Metro ahead of his Intercontinental Championship match with Gunther at Night of Champions and talked about his rivalry with Rollins, which happened in a series of segments last October before being 86’d. You can see the highlights below:

On his feud with Rollins not being followed through on: “I don’t think it was a knock. What I think happened was, I was this babyface that wasn’t fully developed, so you have to reintroduce me as this contender. Even though Seth was this bad guy champion, he was blurring the lines where the fans were really starting to sing his song, and they had to make a decision. Do we lean into this, or does he commit to being the bad guy?”

On Rollins’ babyface turn contributing to the feud being stopped: “The matches would have been incredible, but I feel like they pulled back on it because they’re saying, “Well let’s see what’s happening with Seth first”. What happened, happened. Good for him! He’s standing in Paris for 12 minutes while people are singing his song so I’m glad for him. Hopefully we’ll get to it again someday. But yeah, I’m good with that, I’m ok with that.”

On doing what he can to make things happen for him: “I’m not in the room, I’m not the one making the decisions. All I know is, when it’s all said and done, if I go my entire career without winning a championship, if go my entire career without having what I like to call a ‘promoted opportunity,’ i can look in the mirror and say, ‘I know it wasn’t me.’ I’ve tried everything. I’m in the best shape of my life right now, I’ve done numerous character pitches, developments, presentations. I know I’m putting in the work, I’m knocking on every door. I’m not the guy that’s sitting back in the locker room going, “If they need me…” No, I’m out there hustling and bustling. At the end of the day, what’s meant to be will be. I truly, truly believe that.”