Mustafa Ali Put His Job On The Line To Go Through With Horse Segment In TNA, Says He Was Almost Trampled By Second Horse Backstage

The segment was a success, but there was a scary moment immediately after.

In December 2025, TNA Wrestling was in El Paso, Texas, for their Final Resolution special. Mustafa Ali was involved in an eight-man tag team match on the show against The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz, Trey Miguel & Myron Reed), but he was also feuding with Elijah.

Elijah showed up on a horse, and Ali was dragged away via a rope that was tied to the horse. Ali told the behind-the-scenes story of preparing for that segment while chatting with Chris Van Vliet.

Ali said during rehearsals, things were not going according to plan. A Director for TNA stepped in and wanted to scrap the segment. Executives from AMC were present, and he felt it was not a good look for TNA. Ali was adamant about making it work and put his job on the line.

Come time for the segment, things went smoothly, but there was a scary moment when the horse was dragging Ali backstage. There was another horse that was left unattended because the horse handler was involved in the Elijah/Ali segment to make sure Ali’s leg was properly tied to the horse. Ali said the second horse started reacting erratically once it saw the first horse running by. Ali thought the worst was going to occur.

“For some reason, it’s always tied to Elijah. It was not in a match — well, technically, it was part of the match,” Ali responded when asked what’s been the scariest moment he’s had in a match. “So back in December, we were in El Paso, an incident that is now named the Lasso in El Paso. It was The Rascalz, shout out to The Rascalz. Hope they’re doing well. We’re doing this thing where I’ve had enough with the match. I’m out of here, I’m taking the high road and the lights go off and on, and then Elijah appears behind on a horse and the idea is that he attacks me, ties me up, he lassos me and he pulls me out of the arena on a horse. That’s not the scary part, right? Little context so I’ll give you twofold. There’s a story behind the story. Earlier in the day, we’re rehearsing this stunt, and this is just when TNA has announced its partnership with AMC so there’s AMC execs there and all this stuff like that, and there’s a director named George (Veras) who’s been with TNA for a long time, and we’re kind of walking through this rehearsal, and dude, it is not happening so, the horse is getting scared, the lasso is becoming undone. Elijah’s not tying it right, the cameraman’s out of position. Everyone’s messing up, except for me, and the director George is like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna pull the plug on this. We’re not doing the stunt. We got to come up with something.’ I’m like, ‘George, I’m telling you, we can pull this off,’ and he goes, ‘You don’t understand. AMC is here. This is a bad impression. We’re not doing it,’ and I don’t know what overcame me. I said, ‘George, let me do this stunt. I put my job on it. If it goes wrong, you can fire me on the spot,’ and without any hesitation, he goes, ‘Remember what you said.’ Sh*t, why do I get myself into these predicaments? Elijah’s my homie but I went up to him and go, ‘Dude, we have to do it this way. Trust me. There’s a guy that handles horses. Let him tie the damn lasso. No one’s looking at him. They’re looking at you.’ He’s 300 pounds of muscle. ‘They’re looking at you dude, relax.’ So we had the handler do the lasso off-screen. You just don’t see it, and then it looks like Elijah did it. So the stunt goes according to plan, I don’t get fired. But I almost die. This is why: What you guys don’t see is when the horse pulls me away, you see me screaming and all that stuff when we go down this hallway. The thing about this hallway is there’s another horse. No one told me there was two horses. The handler, because of me, was on stage doing the tying. No one is manning the horse. You guys ever see when one horse runs what another horse does? First it gets scared and starts kicking. So, the hallway… it’s slim, and there’s a horse right there. So as I’m kind of going yay, I’ve done it, I turn around, there’s a horse, and the horse is kicking, and screaming and jumping. I was like, all right, this is it, and this is how stupid wrestlers are, my first thought is, and there’s not a cameraman to get (this happening). So I just cover up. I say, thank you God for the good life and I just crawled up and the horse just missed me, like right here. I felt its tail almost, and I’m yelling, ‘Stop! Elijah stop! Stop! Stop!’ So luckily, security came and stopped the horse. I’m a very pleasant person despite what people hear. I got some students in the Chicago Wrestling Center over there. I’m very pleasant, right guys? I don’t get mad. I was on one that day. I was like, ‘Who put this horse over here!? There’s a whole other horse.’ So yeah, I never had a scary experience as bad as that in the ring. It was definitely the horse in El Paso. I’m alive, I’m alive, relax.”

In January 2026, Mustafa Ali re-signed with TNA Wrestling. He’s been with the promotion since February 2024.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.