Mustafa Ali: 205 Live Was A Huge Opportunity For A Lot Of Unsigned Talent

Mustafa Ali looks back on 205 Live.

In November of 2016, WWE would debut their weekly cruiserweight showcase program, 205 Live. Amongst the roster members through it’s run to 2022 were Mustafa Ali, Cedric Alexander, Tony Nese, Buddy Murphy (now Matthews) and more during it’s run.

While speaking to WrestleZone in a new interview, Ali spoke about WWE 205 Live, noting that it proved to be a huge launching pad and a huge opportunity for unsigned talent.

“Nostalgia is a hell of a thing. But the thing is, I think when you actually look back at 205, you go, ‘man, this was some kick-ass wrestling.’ It’s the lack of crowd participation. A lot of the crowd would leave after SmackDown, but even recently I posted like a highlight clip of, Cedric and I, just like highlights of us on 205 and then our WrestleMania match, it was like a very… and the amount of nostalgia and the fans, like, bro, ‘this was peak wrestling.’ It’s kind of a thing. You don’t know what you have till it’s gone. But that, that weekly episode, man, at the end of the day, 205 Live, it’s so much for so many people, myself included. It was really a launching pad for a lot of guys careers, you know, Cedric, Roderick strong, even made an appearance on 205 lives, Buddy (Matthews), Tony Nese and Ariya (Daivari) are doing well in AEW. Just so many guys were able to do- Tozawa was still kicking it, at the end of the day, it was a huge launching pad and a huge opportunity for a lot of unsigned talent.”

Elsewhere in another recent interview, Ali spoke about wanting to organize a 205 roundtable. You can read more about that here.

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit and link to the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.