

Thanks to Sean Ross Sapp of www.fightful.com for sending in the following highlights of his interview with Ali:

When he learned of his call up:

"There was no advanced notice here. It's like a recurring theme up here," Ali told Fightful. "I had showed up for the Smackdown Live TV taping and was told that night that I would be having that match with Daniel Bryan. And I was assured it was just a one time deal. "One time, you're still on 205 [Live]. It's just a one time [deal], but make the most of the opportunity." And I was just thinking, "Oh, let me use this moment to get some exposure for 205 Live. Maybe I'll capture the [fans, audience] and bring it over to 205 [Live]." And then the following week I showed up and was told that morning that, "Hey, you're making the move to Smackdown. You're teaming with AJ Styles versus Bryan and Cien (Andrade), and you're on Smackdown now."

How much Vince contributes to his vignettes:

"They're mine. A hundred percent mine. They're not written. They're not produced. They're not directed by anything WWE. I showed a few samples Vince McMahon himself, some of the producers, and Vince's direction was, "If we get involved with it, it's gonna become its own thing. I like what I see, go out and make it your own." So he literally tells me when he needs them and I make them. It's very, very cool that someone's self-producing, self-writing, self-directing and making their own vignettes,"

His name:

The name might've changed, but the person behind it doesn't. And it's all good, know what I mean? Now it's easy. Now people know who I am. You know what really was happening, though? One side of the crowd would chant "Mustafa," and the other side would [chant] "Ali," and it was just a lot of confusion. Now there's no confusion."

His 2019:

"I think this year has been a huge rollercoaster for me," said Ali. "I went from the guy that was never on a pay-per-view to the guy that was in the main event at Money in the Bank, I pinned the WWE Champion at the time, Daniel Bryan. And yeah, I felt like I was being heavily featured and everything was going my way, and then obviously this huge injury comes up and completely takes me out of the title picture. And I've been back for a few months and I just feel like I can't get my feet underneath me for some reason. And it's just an issue of there's X amount of hours and so much talent, you know what I mean? I tell everybody that I've climbed that mountain once and that opportunity is there, I just have to climb it again."



MORE BACKSTAGE NEWS & RUMORS FOR THIS WEEK

Rajah.com Social Media Interaction

* Follow Rajah head writer Matt Boone on Twitter @MattBoone1984 * Follow the official Rajah account on Twitter @Rajah_News * Follow Rajah owner Rajah Kumar on Twitter @RajahNews * Follow the official Rajah Instagram account at Instagram.com/RajahNews * Follow the official Rajah Facebook page at Facebook.com/RajahWWF * Join the official Rajah Forums by signing up at Forums.Rajah.com * Chat with other fans about this article in the official Rajah Disqus feed below, or at Disqus.com/home/forums/rajahcom