When Mustafa Ali came up short in his match with Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship at Night of Champions, it served as a variable inflection point in the 37-year-old's professional career.
Dubbing the contest a “make or break” for his professional career, Ali was tired of being championship-less in his seventh-straight year as a member of the WWE Universe. If, by his own admission, he couldn't get himself over the hump and dethrone Gunther in front of an audience of people who had “names like his,” he might just have to re-evaluate some things and find a new strategy moving forward.
As it turns out, that new strategy involved showing up on NXT to watch and later commentate on a tag team match featuring the NXT North American Champion, Wes Lee, alongside Tyler Bate versus Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler of Schism and The Dyad. Asked why he decided to take a trip back down to NXT, Ali noted that his match at Night of Champions has him starving for a belt of his own, and because he's a free agent, he's willing to show up pretty much anywhere a belt is being defended, even in developmental, to throw his name into the hat and take a shot at the title.
Could the day soon come when Mustafa Ali becomes the North American Champion? Sure; Wes Lee just completed his 10th successful title defense of the North American Championship, the most since the belt was introduced in 2018, and after 221 days with the strap, the time may soon come when a new champion needs to be crowned. If WWE decided that Ali is the man to take the title like Dolph Zigler did to Bron Breakker in 2022, it's hard to argue with the decision, as the high-flying Chicago native proved at Night of Champions that he has the fans behind him and the constitution of a champion.
What is @AliWWE doing here?!?!#WWENXT pic.twitter.com/TXOGqPAvMr
— WWE (@WWE) May 31, 2023
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