WWE 5 Burning Questions: Will The WWE Truly Commit To A Change?

Credit: WWE.com

5. Will creative continue to push Mustafa Ali?

Mustafa Ali’s push of sorts came right out of the blue. It was not expected in the least and certainly not on Tuesday nights. The Heart of 205 Live went toe-to-toe with the WWE Champion Daniel Bryan a week before. This week however, he actually pinned the champ in a tag team match, alongside former WWE Champion A J Styles.

However, the match, while good, had a couple of spots that made me go ‘ooh’. One is pretty obvious. Ali, while landing his finishing move; the 054 which is an inverted 450 dive, ended up kneeing Bryan. He might have hit Bryan’s chest and collar-bone in the process. If you watch the video, you can actually see him checking up on Bryan and the WWE Champion waving it off.

Fightful.com reported that Bryan insisted he was fine backstage and was even medically cleared to appear in the taping for the Christmas eve edition. It also said that Ali was very apologetic about the whole incident. Arguable, the live SmackDown crowd is intimidating and the high stakes match could have put some pressure on the high flyer. Earlier in the match too, during a running hurricanrana spot from the stairs on to Almas, Ali lost his footing but managed to recover.

Hopefully, management doesn’t take this as a negative sing, but will continue to allow Ali to learn and work alongside stars like Styles and Bryan. He is a star in the making and has a real connection with the crowd.