Top TNA Star & Former Champion Mustafa Ali Signs New Contract With TNA Wrestling, Comments On The Motivation Behind It

Moments ago during an interview with Denise Salcedo on her YouTube channel, Mike Santana revealed that he’s signed a new contract with TNA Wrestling headed into the AMC era next week.

“A lot of thought and consideration went into this. With this huge announcement of AMC looming and what a year I had with TNA in 2025. It kickstarted with this Match of the Year feud with Mike Santana where we really delved into addiction and overcoming that – and this politician that was trying to expose that – all the way into this heart versus soul reunion match with Cedric Alexander where I’ve never been able to beat this man in my entire career – and I finally got it done using underhanded tactics, and then within that this internal combustion story within Order 4 where I’m being the big bully and picking on Tasha.

Just so many great moments in TNA for me as a performer I felt so fulfilled not just from my in-ring work, but from the stories I was able to tell – with that a lot of thought went into this and I want to actually give you some BREAKING NEWS here – just a few days ago I officially re-signed with TNA Wrestling.

I’m very very happy with it. TNA management – Carlos, Tommy, they’ve been very supportive of everything. I don’t want to say that they see the vision, but I bring it to them, and there’s so much trust that I feel like I’ve earned from them.”

Denise asked Ali about the thought process behind the decision, noting that signing with a promotion is a big deal.

“I’m just speaking for me – I know a lot of people like security and such – these are all important things – the people they work with, the bosses – I get that. I’m a little unique – and this might sound arrogant, I feel like the hourglass – I have nightmares about that. I feel like I’ve done so much in the game, but I’ve never transcended to that next level. The question is constantly ‘why? – why doesn’t Ali resonate on that level?’ People bring up cool stuff I’ve done all the time, but I’m not satisfied yet. So to ME, the investment and the thought decision wasn’t just ‘how do I take care of my family, but how do I make sure that I maximize whatever time I have left in my career?’

I’m not the oldest guy out there, but I’m not the youngest either. So I have this thought process of this battle against time. I can’t tell you how many times – and I’m just going to give him a shoutout specifically because he’s the guy I deal with the most – but Tommy (Dreamer), sometimes I have an idea and he’s not with it, it I go ‘Tommy I believe in this’ and he goes ‘alright, we’ll see. You better believe if you’re wrong I’m going to tell you you’re wrong.’ As long as I you tell me I’m right when I’m right. I’ve been right 100% of the time. So with that – you asked me about TNA and I’ve got a smile on my face. I’m saying ‘I did this and I did this’ and that was a huge factor in my decision and investment of time. If I’m going to give this company another X amount of years, months, whatever the agreement is – I want to make sure that I’m on the field, that I’m able to make a play. That’s not a knock on anybody else, that’s just me speaking – I know my time here is going to be well-spent – not to mention there’s a nice little paycheck that comes with it, so I get to take care of family as well.”

H/T Gerard at Bodyslam for transcription.

Full video:

TNA debuts on AMC network next Thursday night.

Ali is going to be on the iMPACT episode tonight to address his match for both the AMC debut on January 15th – where he teams with the Great Hands and Order 4 members John Skyler and Jason Hotch to take on Matt & Jeff Hardy and Elijah – and the Genesis PPV – where he’ll be taking on Elijah one-on-one.

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