When he was released by WWE, Ali was confident he had given it his all. However, things didn’t work out and Ali believes the two sides simply weren’t the right fit at that time. Still, he had confidence in his abilities and came up with an entire marketing campaign to push himself on the independent scene, complete with a version of Ali as a wrestling politician.

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Now that he’s in TNA, holding a championship and gracing the cover of magazines like Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Ali feels better about his career than he has in quite some time. During his conversation on “Busted Open,” Ali recalled drawing up a mock cover of PWI as a child with himself as the highlight, with a dialogue bubble asking why there weren’t any wrestlers who looked like him.

“So it’s very, very cool that almost 20 years later, I get to go, ‘Now there’s someone who looks like you,'” Ali said. “I’ve been told several times that no one’s really going to get behind someone named Mustafa Ali. … It’s a hard hill to climb but here we are, on the cover of PWI.”

Ali then shifted to promoting his title defense against Jake Something at TNA No Surrender, which Ali won. The X-Division Champion is now more than 60 days into his title reign, with plenty of momentum to carry him forward.

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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.