Ali was one of the names Copeland wanted to work with.
Several months after Adam Copeland a.k.a. Edge made his return to pro wrestling at the 2020 Royal Rumble, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
WWE then began filming their programming out of the Performance Center. At that time, Copeland was looking to help talents, and he gave a list of names he wanted to work with to former WWE CEO Vince McMahon.
One of the names on that list was Mustafa Ali, and Ali shared that as he was doing an interview with Justin Dhillon of The Wrestling Classic. Ali also said that included on Copeland's list were Aleister Black, Cedric Alexander, Buddy Matthews, and Apollo Crews.
Ali shared that he and Copeland would FaceTime and work on promos. He feels how he approaches his promos currently in TNA with his politician-esque character is reflective of what he learned from Copeland.
“He (Adam Copeland) had come back to the company… I think it was the COVID-era and he had the conversation with Vince (McMahon) about how he could help out more, and he gave Vince a list of five guys he wanted to work with and it was like me, Cedric (Alexander), Buddy (Matthews), Aleister Black and I think Apollo Crews, and the big thing was promos. So I always felt very confident with my promos and then I went to Adam’s promo class, so to speak, and this guy, man, we would just FaceTime each other and he goes, ‘Alright, how you feeling today?’ And I go, ‘Oh, like this’ and just cut a promo. So, I just FaceTimed this promo to Adam on the fly right there and this guy just heard my promo, my words, my struggle, and he’d sit there, he goes, ‘Hmm, why don’t you try --’ and he’d cut the same promo back to me, but 100 times better with mannerisms and facials and thought, and you could see the gears -- I’m just, wow… So I owe him a lot right now. I feel like this politician, dictator-esque character that I’m doing in TNA, the cadence is just like -- we’ll shoot something and the director will yell, ‘Cut’ and we look up and I can see everyone going, ‘F*ck…’ Yeah, it’s Edge. Edge really told me about how to make your words mean something, your mannerisms, and it’s almost like you gotta forget that there’s a camera there. You gotta really cut the promo to that person. So, yeah, I gotta give him his props. I don’t think a lot of people know, behind the scenes, he’ll find somebody. If you earn his respect I think, I think he’ll give you the time of day, you know?”
Ali is regularly featured on TNA iMPACT, and one of the segments he was involved in featured the TNA debut of Cedric Alexander. To read more, click here.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit The Wrestling Classic with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
