When WWE announced that about a dozen performers, from long-time stalwarts like Dolph Ziggler, to NXT castoffs like Mustafa Ali and Dana Brooke, to performers in-between like Mansoor and Mace, who were once fixtures of television but lost their spots due to gimmick changes, it reopened the time-tested conversation about the promotion's performers being independent contractors.

On paper, the idea is pretty simple: because WWE doesn't consider its wrestlers to be full-time employees, they don't have to provide many of the benefits and insurance that, say, an MLB team like the Los Angeles Dodgers does when they sign a player. This, one would assume, would allow wrestlers to do as they please, wrestling in WWE then jumping to AEW, New Japan, or elsewhere if a better financial situation were to arise, but because The Fed almost never allows a performer to take bookings outside of RAW, SmackDown, or NXT, if creative has nothing for a wrestler, they often don't work, cashing their downside guarantee and waiting down the days until their contract either expires or they are released.

Discussing the challenges of being signed to WWE with nothing to do and the prospects of being tied to a 90-day non-compete clause that prevented him from immediately entering the indie talent pool while his name was in the headlines, Mansoor sat down for an interview with Denise Salcedo of Instinct Culture and needless to say, his response was fascinating.

“I can joke about it because I’m not bitter about it. It did bother me, believe me, but 90 days is a long time. At a certain point, you’re in bed and you’re trying to go to sleep, and all you can think about is, ‘What did I do wrong? What could I have done better?'” Mansoor said via Fightful. “At some point, you’re like, ‘I can’t live like this. I gotta just try and make the most of it and make the best of it.’ That’s exactly when it turned on for me. Probably a month after I got let go, I was like, ‘You know what? I am going to reach out to every single person I know. I’m gonna be DM-ing, I’m gonna be emailing, I’m gonna be texting, I’m gonna make this happen.’ The thing that I emphasized more than anything else about this process where I’m going on the independents is I can make it happen for myself, finally.”

Interesting stuff, right? But wait, it gets even better, as Mansoor had even more to say about his exit from WWE and how he plans to finally find out where he stacks up in the current professional wrestling landscape.

Mansoor is ready to test his mettle outside of the WWE Universe.

Continuing his conversation with Denise Salcedo, Mansoor revealed the challenges of getting such limited in-ring time during his run in WWE because he wasn't featured on television much as an actual wrestler, noting that he would sometimes go months without a televised match. Still, now that he's a free agent, the idea of testing his mettle across the indie landscape, with a match against Tony Deppen already booked in GCW for January, is incredibly exciting for the “International Hero.”

“The most frustrating thing about being in WWE when you aren’t being used is you had no other options. You’re technically a free agent in the sense you’re an independent contractor, but you can’t really work anywhere else. If they don’t want you to work, you’re not working. There were periods of time where I would go months without taking a single bump, or I wasn’t in the ring for a minute. You can train, you can try and stay in-shape and keep that ring rust off, but it really gets to your soul,”

“So now I can say, and I’m proud of it because if I fail, I failed because of me. If I succeed, I succeed because of me. I’m so content with that. I’m so happy, and I’m so excited to be able to go out there and say, ‘Listen, for whatever happened in WWE, what you’re about to see is who I really am, and you’re about to get the most serious and real indicator of my talent, and if it goes great, phenomenal. If it doesn’t, I’ll fade off into the sunset, but at least I get to know it was based on my own talent. That’s kind of the thing that I want to emphasize. It’s based on me. However it goes, I’m happy that I was able to do my best.”

Since landing on SmackDown in the first week of 2022, Mansoor wrestled a grand total of 34 matches between television, house shows and Premium Live Events, or almost 80 fewer matches than Seth Rollins wrestled in 2023 alone. While some of Mansoor's issues had to do with a weird mandate to keep his win-streak alive in order to capitalize on his popularity in Saudi Arabian, it also prevented the grappler from being able to have real storylines, as performers who can't lose either have to win a title or be held out of storylines entirely. Fortunately, there is no such mandate on Mansoor on the indies, and it's safe to say he's going to take some licks and earn some L's, especially when going up against a certified rascal like the “Schmuck from Shamokin.”