Mustafa Ali Didn’t Feel Like TNA International Title Was Legitimate Before His Reign

Mustafa Ali discusses his TNA International Championship reign.

Ali kicked off his reign by defeating Trey Miguel for the title at TNA Rebellion in April. He went on to defend the title against names like Adam Brooks, Starboy Charlie, KC Navarro, Rich Swann, and LJ Clearly.

Speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp for a new interview, Ali explained why his stint with the title was so significant.

“Man, not to make it seem like I was trying to this righteous thing, but the title wasn’t legitimate in my eyes. I know some people said, ‘Oh, you’re knocking the former champions.’ Well, okay. It is what it is. I won the championship in April and I want to say within two weeks, it was scheduled to be defended in ten different countries. No one on the roster did it before me, no one’s on the roster doing it now. That’s just me making my mind up. If this is going to be called the International Championship, it needs to be defended internationally. We did all over the place, we did Paris, Berlin, Tijuana, a bunch of spots in Canada. I just came back from Costa Rica, I’m going to Santiago, Chile this weekend. We have defenses scheduled all over. Then, Jason Hotch had to ruin the whole damn thing. But yeah, very proud of that. It’s legitimized the championship and it gave me an opportunity to kind of see all this talent from all over the world and be able to provide whatever guidance or insight into that. Then, even to recommend a few people over to TNA management to take a look. It’s benefited TNA in the sense of it’s legitimized not only the championship but we’re able to get eyes on worldwide talent.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Ali recalled being worked by Swerve Strickland in 2024. Check out his full story by clicking here.

Fans can check out Fightful’s full interview with Mustafa Ali in the video linked at the top of this article.