Mustafa Ali Is a Dark Horse To Win The Royal Rumble

Mustafa Ali announced on the latest edition of Raw that he would be entering the Royal Rumble, taking the place of Kofi Kingston who had to drop out of the match due to a jaw injury. Ali’s announcement called back to Kingston taking his place in the 2019 WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match after the Retribution leader suffered an injury.

Kingston’s inspirational performance consequently sparked the rise of KofiMania and led to the New Day member winning the WWE Championship from Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35. Save for an unsuccessful surprise bid for the WWE Championship at Fastlane 2019, Ali has not been in the World title picture since.

Just over half of the participants are confirmed thus far for this year’s Men’s Royal Rumble and the field is already rife with star power. AJ Styles, Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, Jeff Hardy, and a returning Edge are a sample of the many names set to compete in the January tradition, with Ali among the most recent additions to the field.

Mustafa Ali has shown remarkable growth over the years from being “The Heart of 205 Live” to becoming an overnight sensation on SmackDown, at least to those largely unfamiliar with his work before then. Ali appeared to be well on his way to establishing himself as a cornerstone on the SmackDown roster before he was suddenly pulled off of television.

Lately, Mustafa Ali has been competing on Raw as the leader of Retribution. While the group’s lukewarm and hokey presentation has thus far flattened any momentum they would’ve earned from having Ali at the helm, he has continued to excel on the microphone and in matches. His developing feud with The New Day should only improve his stock but why stop there?

Why not have Mustafa Ali win the 2021 Men’s Royal Rumble?

Mustafa Ali winning the Royal Rumble is a golden opportunity to bring his Elimination Chamber sub-out full circle and kick his rivalry with The New Day into high gear immediately after.

The WWE Championship picture isn’t too far removed from having a drawn-out battle between Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton, which compensated for an at-the-time thin field of challengers. The majority of the big names on the Raw roster are either fresh off of fruitless WWE Championship matches, would make underwhelming Royal Rumble winners, or both.

Ali is by no means an overwhelming favorite but a Rumble win could be the starting point to repair the damage done to Retribution and actually reform them in the imaginations of viewers as an actual threat.

A Mustafa Ali win combined with McIntyre retaining would set a path to an entertaining match between two acclaimed Monday night standouts. As cringeworthy as Goldberg getting another unnecessary World title run would be, it’d at least allow an opportunity to tie back to Ali’s Raw Talk tirade about legends and have him act as the voice of underutilized performers to forcefully take the spotlight back from the Hall of Famer.

The Road to WrestleMania—namely over the last decade—has been paved with unapologetic nostalgia. Bringing about the change that Mustafa Ali discussed after Legends Night could very well start with the Retribution leader entering the Royal Rumble as the dark horse and exiting the winner