A new report suggests that WWE chairman Vince McMahon might have given up on Monday Night Raw superstar Mustafa Ali, just weeks after he returned for the ring for the first time in several months.
In a report published on Thursday, WrestlingNews.co noted that Ali’s return as a member of the red brand’s roster started off well, as he picked up a win in a six-man tag team match. However, recent weeks have seen him reduced to being an “afterthought,” given that he had easily lost to Bobby Lashley on last week’s Raw and dropped another match on this week’s Main Event , losing to Riddick Moss.
Justifying why he believes McMahon might have abandoned the idea of giving Ali a good push, the outlet’s Paul Davis wrote that his most recent loss was especially “notable” due to Moss’ lack of television exposure since the COVID-19 pandemic first prevented WWE from holding shows with fans in March. Davis added that Moss had a “decent push” before the pandemic but chose to take some time off because of concerns regarding his brother, who suffers from cystic fibrosis.
In addition to his win over Ali, the former college football star has picked up victories over lower-card talents like Titus O’Neil and Humberto Carrillo since returning from his hiatus.
The speculation regarding McMahon’s opinion of Ali as a performer came just one day after he appeared on WWE’s The Bump and shared his thoughts about his current standing in the company. As previously reported by The Inquisitr , the 34-year-old said that he wants to be given a chance to tell a good story and be featured in key storylines, though he also lamented how he wasn’t used in matches for six months despite the fact he wasn’t hurt.
Regarding the promotion’s future plans for Ali, there has been some speculation that he might be included in the recently launched faction known as RETRIBUTION — a group that might also include several new NXT call-ups. He was previously rumored to be the unnamed hacker in one of Friday Night SmackDown ‘s key storylines from earlier this year.
According to WrestlingNews.co , it doesn’t seem surprising that McMahon doesn’t appear to see much upside in Ali. In previous months, reports have suggested that the chairman had given up on similarly small wrestlers such as Ricochet and Cedric Alexander, who do not see much action on Monday Night Raw and are typically featured on “C-level” shows like Main Event .