Eric Bischoff Believes “Incredible Athlete” Mustafa Ali Will Be Determined To Prove WWE Wrong

Eric Bischoff believes that Mustafa Ali will look to prove WWE wrong following his WWE release.

Ali has had a rough go of it over the last few years in WWE. While there have been attempts to bring him onto television, the ball has been always been fumbled for Ali’s big moment. This could be attributed to him requesting his release from the company in January of 2022.

Yesterday, Ali confirmed that he had been released by the company at long last.

On the latest edition of the Strictly Business podcast, Eric Bischoff stated that Ali is an amazing talent.

“I think he’s an amazing talent. I’m pretty good friends with him, I’ve stayed in regular contact with him since I’ve left in 2019. I think the world of him, he’s an amazing talent and I know he has an amazing amount of drive and ambition. My guess, what I’ve come to know of him, suggests to me that if anything, he will be even more motivated and inspired than he was two days ago. I would not be shocked at all, based on his own desire, ambition, and abilities, to see him in AEW.”

Bischoff went on to say that he thought Ali was very frustrated in WWE based on the conversations that he had with him over the years.

“[He was] very frustrated, wanted to do more, [and was] constantly trying to figure out a different and better approach to his character. Frustrated with himself to a degree, frustrated with finding a way to crack the code and to make it happen. But that’s probably true for almost everybody in the talent business, whether you’re an actor, actress, musician, whatever you are. It’s a very tough business and a competitive world and you’ve got to figure out ways to reinvent yourself. So I think if there’s frustration, there may have been a time along the way — I don’t know this, he never expressed it to me, when he may have been thinking about leaving. I’m sure he’s very disappointed at this point. I think that disappointment will evolve into intensity and determination to prove that WWE made a bad choice.”

Eric Bischoff

After thirteen years on the indies, Mustafa Ali would sign with WWE in 2016 and was a large part of the WWE cruiserweight division. He would also function as the leader of the dead on arrival faction Retribution.

As mentioned, Ali requested his release in January 2022 and had it rejected, returning to WWE programming in March of last year.

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