Mustafa Ali returned to WWE television on Monday as the surprise partner of Ricochet and Cedric Alexander on Raw.
Ali, who was previously on SmackDown, hadn't been on television since December 2019 and hadn't wrestled since February 2019. He was able to pick up the victory on Monday, scoring the pin on MVP with the 450 splash in a six-man tag team bout.
Appearing on Raw Talk, Ali commented on his time on the sidelines.
"Seven months off. I haven't been here since December 2019, and as a performer, there's nothing more frustrating than not having control of your own destiny. You sit there, look in the mirror, and wonder what it is about you. What are you doing wrong? Sometimes, in life, things are outside of your control. What you can control is how you respond to that. I keep telling myself, 'I don't know when my opportunity is going to come, but I do know is, I'm going to stay ready,' and I was ready," he said.
Ali also noted that he felt very comfortable in the ring alongside Ricochet and Alexander as all three men have a similar style.
Later in the interview, Ali discussed police reform and racial injustice across America.
"I have four years of experience as a police officer. I saw it, I understand it. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that no real change will happen unless we change the criminal justice system as a whole. A lot of people don't know this; the earliest inception and creation of the police department was actually based upon capturing runaway slaves. That's reality, that's where law enforcement and the police department come from. When you have something that's designed from its inception to target a certain demographic, it's hard to shed ties from that. The criminal justice system as a whole is designed to profit, not protect, and therin lies the issue. In any facet of society, when profit is the motive, it always becomes the primary objective. That should not be the case when it comes to the criminal justice system."
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