According to a new report, Monday Night Raw superstar Mustafa Ali apparently has backstage heat for comments he made on last week’s edition of the red brand’s post-show, Raw Talk , where he blasted WWE for its use of piped-in crowd noises.
Quoting a subscriber-only report from Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select , Cultaholic wrote that company officials were allegedly unhappy over what Ali said about the effects that the company regularly uses to enhance audience reactions.
“I had heard that there was someone who took exception to him making light that they pipe in stuff… I asked about this, I was like, ‘What would anyone be mad at?’ And they’re like, ‘Well he said that they piped in noise.’ I said, ‘They do!’ And this person said, ‘Yeah, but we don’t want them going out there and saying that.’ I’m like, ‘Why not? It’s obvious. It’s okay. Baseball does it. Football does it. Basketball does it. Don’t treat us like we’re stupid.’”
As Cultaholic noted, those weren’t the only controversial comments Ali made on that episode of Raw Talk . During that show, he criticized WWE for bringing back several iconic former superstars to appear on “Legends Night” as opposed to pushing underutilized talents such as himself, Drew Gulak, and Akira Tozawa. He suggested that the guests who got to appear that night “can barely walk,” specifically calling out Hulk Hogan and asking why people have to hear him repeat his catchphrases for the “seven millionth time.”
A few days later, Ali took to Twitter to share a screenshot of himself from Raw Talk , suggesting in the caption that WWE is no longer sure that it trusts him to speak on a live microphone again. Although he did not provide any further context to his post, it was believed at that time that his remarks about Hogan and his fellow legends might have gotten him in trouble with officials. And while the RETRIBUTION leader was likely speaking in character, it now appears that it was something else entirely — his criticism of the piped-in noises — that might have hit a sore spot.
In addition to making the aforementioned remarks, Ali also kicked off a social media feud with Hall of Famer Sgt. Slaughter earlier this week. As documented by Comic Book , the former cruiserweight division star reacted to Slaughter calling him a “maggot” on the social media platform by referencing the early-1990s storyline where he worked an American turncoat gimmick. Ali’s RETRIBUTION stablemate MACE also joined in with a post that suggested Twitter should “delete [Slaughter’s] account next.”