Ali was recently interviewed by ComicBook.com. This was in order to promote the Money in the Bank PPV. During the interview, Ali spoke about WWE recently changing his name.
A few months ago, WWE dropped ‘Mustafa’ from his name. He is now known as just ‘Ali’.
Here is what he said about WWE changing his name:
“In the scheme of things, it doesn’t matter, and that’s the thing. I saw the … I don’t want to call it outrage, but the public concern about it and a lot of people pointed it out… was it a thing that Mustafa was too hard? WWE has been in this game for a very, very long time and they know how to market their guys.
I can tell you there’s been a dramatic vocal increase of my name getting chanted during matches because it’s Ali. As a performer, sometimes I’d be wrestling and one side of the ring would be chanting Mustafa, while the other side of the ring would be chanting Ali and then it just gets muzzled out because no one knows what to chant.
Ever since they dropped my first name, the chants have gotten louder I’ve noticed, and it can be for a number of reasons, it’s easy to remember, what not. Mustafa had a close meaning to me, but at the end of the day, like I said on social media, I’ll bring it up again, the name might have changed, but the man behind the name hasn’t. I’m still Ali. I’m still the same person and to me, that’s what’s most important. WWE isn’t making me change. I’m the same guy that broke it on 205 Live, I’m the same guy on social media. They’re not changing who I am as a person. So the name change, no, it doesn’t bother me.”
What do you think of the name change? Let us know in the comment section below.
On a related note, check out the 5 WWE stars who we think could have their names changed next by WWE.