If you ever dissect '205,' take a hard look at it, it's always been a fantastic show. Regardless of what's been going on, the wrestling has been the best not only in the company but on the planet. The only critique, if you really dissect it, is that the crowd isn't into it; the crowd doesn't care.
— Mustafa Ali
Embrace your colour, heritage, whatever you want, but don't let it confine you. Just live without labels.
If anything, who I am and my background helped propel me and helped me stand out.
Someone with my name and my appearance comes with preconceived ideas attached. My mission is to erase as many preconceived ideas, barriers, and stereotypes as I can.
I want to be the physical embodiment of light, you know? And I feel like now people know, when they see the lights go off and this light-up figure appear on stage, they know that's Mustafa Ali.
My entire life, I've had one mission to prove. It doesn't matter what your name is. It doesn't matter where you're from. It doesn't matter what the color of your skin is. All that matters is what's in your heart.
Anything worth changing is not easy to change.
I was like, 'Prince, prince. Prince Ali. People know that from 'Aladdin.' I'm a big fan of Muhammad Ali. I can't be Muhammad Ali. I'm looking up royal - Mustafa. Mustafa's a royal name. Prince Mustafa, OK fine.' Prince Mustafa Ali came from that, and it's an easier name for people to remember, too: Prince Ali.
I was in high school after 9/11 happened. I didn't get bullied. I didn't get treated differently, but I definitely felt people looked at me differently.
I've seen guys get hurt from strikes. I've seen guys get hurt from flips. It's the risk we take. I feel the fear of getting hurt will get you hurt.
A lot of people will comment, 'All the high flying will catch up to you.' I think any form of wrestling will catch up to you.
All the love in the world for Kofi Kingston, but I'm coming back for my spot.
At a young age, I was very aware I was different and not perceived in a good way. For a lot of my adolescence, I struggled with that, trying to identify where I belong and who my real friends are.
Nothing hits harder than that: nothing more frustrating than your body giving up on you before your heart does.
I think being the only Pakistani wrestler in WWE will bring some attention from the country as well. I'll do my best to do Pakistan proud and give them something to cheer about.
There are no limitations. There are no barriers. Nothing can stop you, and nothing can define you but you.
I'm oddly comfortable in the ring.
A lot of people don't know that I'm actually half Indian.
My mom said, 'You are reckless, and you need to get married.' And I was like, 'Okay.'
My dad is really the reason I have this hard work ethic. I can fully remember him leaving home at 5 o'clock in the morning and not coming back until midnight.
It took me 16 years to get to the WWE. And the reason for that is that I did it - I don't want to call it the responsible way, but I'm going to call it the responsible way. I went to school, I worked multiple jobs, and yeah, I chased my dream.
The whole idea of 'Secret Life of Muslims' is that we're just ordinary people. We're your neighbors; we're your coworkers. We like coffee, you know? We're everyday normal people with hopes and aspirations and fears.
I feel it's a lot easier to hate or dislike someone that you see as different. It is a lot harder to hate them when you see they are just the exact same as you.
I am the guy who always gets put in the tough spots. I'm the guy who gets put in these really dark spots, yet somehow, I shine through.
I didn't get targeted in high school for being a Muslim - it wasn't that - but I always felt like an outsider in that sense.
Lince Dorado and I go way back.
I do this maneuver, my finishing maneuver. It's called the 054, and it's a 450 splash, but it's going backwards. I know my opponents aren't going to be thrilled to hear this, but I don't know what I'm doing up there. I literally close my eyes, and I just jump, and my body just takes over, and thankfully I haven't hurt anybody.
My daughter's absolute go-to is Sasha Banks. However, we did do the 'Dance Break' one time in Chicago, so she keeps talking about Carmella.
Instead of pondering about what if or what could have been, I'm just going to go out there and do.
As a child, I was a victim of bullying because of my cultural background. I didn't look like all the other kids. I had a funny name.
One week, you're facing Daniel Bryan, and next week, you're teaming with AJ Styles. You're in the ring with the best in the world. Part of me wants to tell myself they don't just put anybody in the ring with them. I obviously want to be as good as them, and I feel like I can be and I can hang with them.
I'm a proud Muslim. I'm proud to have a Pakistani origin. And I want this country to accept me. I want to bring to light the fact that we are all the same.
I've had nights where it's very obvious that I'm the good guy, but I'm still booed, and you can kind of make a checklist about reasons why they're booing me, and one of the evident ones is because of my name and where I'm from.
I was like, 'Hey, I love highflying. I love lucha libre. Can I just put on a mask and pass myself off as a luchador?' Everyone was like, 'You're going to do what you want to do,' so that's what I did for the first four or five years. I just put on a mask and pretended to be this luchador.
I feel like a lot of Indian fans don't know about my Indian background, so it's funny online that a lot of fans call me this Pakistani dude. No, I'm Indian, too.
I am from Chicago, but my dad is from Karachi, Pakistan, and my mom is from New Delhi, India. So, I've got a little Paki-Indie fusion going on here.
I can't tell you the amount of support I'm getting from WWE. They're allowing me to express myself freely, they're promoting me, and they're letting me be me.
There's a level of exposure that 'Smackdown' and 'Raw' get that other brands like 'NXT,' 'NXT UK,' and '205 Live' do not get. But at the same time, I feel like I would not be who I am without '205 Live.'
I've always had this sense of responsibility to do what I can to help fix the world and help make this a better place to live.
People like things that make sense to them; your perspective is your reality.
One of the funny lines that Daniel Bryan said in a promo is that he made fun of me for driving in an SUV, and he asked why such a small man like myself needs to drive an SUV, but we're standing literally eye to eye, and I'm like, 'Ummm.'
When 9/11 happened, it affected everything. It affected me. I'm an American, and I'm like, 'Oh my God, this is evil. This is terrible.'
What happened was like any guy on the indie scene - I've been wrestling for 16 years; everybody thinks I'm this new, young. I'm like, 'I'm 32. I've been at it for 16 years. I just couldn't get to the next level.'
I feel comfortable in the air, me as a person. I feel very in control of my body. You can toss me from the weirdest angle. I just know where I'm at. I don't even know how to explain it.
My wife herself had an upbringing where she wasn't allowed to pursue what she wanted to do because of her parents. She wanted to go into photography and journalism, but because classes ran so late, she had to be home at a certain time. We don't want that for our daughter.
Every single person in the Chicago independent scene said, 'You've got to be a bad guy. You're a Muslim. We're gonna make money. We're gonna call you Sheik Abdullah something. You're gonna wear a turban.'
I still hold that pen; I still write my own story. So it's going to take a whole lot more than Samoa Joe running me over. And it's going to take more than Randy Orton kicking my face in. It's going to take more than Erick Rowan slamming my head through a table. You guys keep trying to put me down, but I will not stay down.
I will always rep '205 Live.' I will always support '205 Live.' I will always be the heart of '205 Live.' I will always be watching because you will never know when the heart of '205 Live' will beat again.
What people don't realize here in WWE is, you can go out in any company, and you can have these crazy, five-star matches, and you can do all this stuff, and you don't have chains on you. The trick in WWE is to do it within this confined little box.
If I hear about a big match coming up, I'll get anxiety about it, and I'll start thinking about it, like, 'What's gonna happen? Is this my shot?'
