Plans change.
On the July 30 edition of WWE SmackDown, Ali picked up a non-title victory over Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. The victory had many, including Ali himself, believing he would be next in line for a shot at the IC Title.
But that wasn't the case.
WWE never followed up on Ali's victory as Nakamura disappeared from television and Ali ended up losing to Dolph Ziggler one week after his victory over the IC Champ. Ali was then inserted into the King of the Ring tournament while Nakamura sat on the sidelines for a few weeks. Nakamura returned to television on last night's edition of SmackDown, aligning himself with Sami Zayn. Meanwhile, Ali competed in a dark match against Samoa Joe. With Nakamura's new partnership and Ali moving on to tournament action, fans have wondered if the angle between the two has been dropped. Ali took to social media to confirm that the feud is dead, at least for the time being.
— ALI / Adeel Alam (@AliWWE) August 21, 2019
Ali will be back on television next week when he faces Buddy Murphy in the first round of the King of the Ring.
