The release of Mustafa Ali from WWE was both a total surprise and something Ali saw coming, according to the former Superstar.

Ali was let go from WWE in September 2023, despite being in the mix of a program over the NXT North American Championship at the time.

On a recent edition of the “Insight” podcast, Ali shared his reaction, and why it was both a surprise and not a surprise. He said,

“Not surprised that it happened. Surprised when it did happen? Yeah. I think I was in NXT at the time, and I actually had a pay-per-view match scheduled that weekend with Dominik Mysterio for the North American Championship.”

When asked if he was going to win the match, Ali shared that, as far as he was aware, the plan was for him to win the title. He added,

“What happens is the network deal is coming up, and this is when Judgment Day, specifically Dom, is just white hot. I mean, they’re still white hot right now, but Dom was next level right there. So they were like, hey, everyone in Judgment Day has a championship. We want to put a championship on Dom, and we want to spike the ratings for NXT.”

Ali has since competed in several promotions outside WWE, including TNA, where he briefly held the promotion’s X-Division Championship.