WWE released Mansoor on Thursday, along with at least 21 other talents. Mansoor, who was last seen in Maximum Male Models with Mace, signed with the company in 2018 and became the first-ever Saudi Arabia-born wrestler to have competed in WWE.
Mansoor was one of eight talents scouted during a 2018 WWE tryout in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to coincide with Greatest Royal Rumble, WWE’s first major event in the Kingdom. He and the other recruits were featured in a GRR segment where they took out Shawn Daivari and Ariya Daivari, and then Mansoor was signed to train at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. He would make his WWE NXT debut in September 2018, losing to Ridge Holland at a live event, and then his NXT TV debut came in February 2019 with a loss to Jaxson Ryker. Mansoor worked several dozen matches in 2018 and 2019, losing most of them, until he won the 51-Man Battle Royal at Super ShowDown in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He returned to NXT and won 11 out of 24 matches, and then defeated Cesaro (aka Claudio Castagnoli) at Crown Jewel 2019 in his hometown of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Coming out of the win over Cesaro, Mansoor began a winning streak that included a win over Dolph Ziggler at Super ShowDown 2020 in Riyadh. The streak went to 50 wins, if you include his EVOLVE matches, his win over Austin Theory at a WrestleMania On-Sale Party, and the 9 NXT live events he worked in the lead up to the win over Cesaro. Mansoor had been working WWE Main Event and 205 Live, but his streak ended when he made his RAW debut with a loss to Sheamus on May 3, 2021.
In an update, Mansoor and Mace discussed their WWE releases and careers on Twitch last night, and indicated that he was kept from WWE NXT TV for the most part because he wasn’t allowed to lose matches due to WWE’s deal with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
This seemingly confirms an April 2021 report, from The Wrestling Observer, that said Mansoor’s winning streak was done to keep WWE’s partners in the Kingdom happy. The streak ended less than two weeks after that report.
Mansoor’s streak went from September 20, 2019 to May 3, 2021. While WWE and the Saudi Ministry of Sport first announced a 10-year strategic partnership in 2018 to bring Premium Live Events to the Kingdom, it was announced on November 4, 2019 that the partnership was expanding to run through 2027, and to include two PLE shows in the Kingdom per year. It sounds like Mansoor’s streak may have been a part of the negotiations for the expansion deal in late 2019. Just months before in June, Mansoor was portrayed as a big star at Super ShowDown, and he defeated Cesaro at Crown Jewel four days before the expansion was announced.
Mansoor worked 5 WWE shows in the Kingdom – he was featured with other recruits at Greatest Royal Rumble in April 2018, he won the 51-Man Battle Royal at Super ShowDown in June 2019, he defeated Cesaro at Crown Jewel in October 2019, he defeated Ziggler at Super ShowDown in February 2020, and defeated Mustafa Ali at Crown Jewel in October 2021. Mansoor did not return to his homeland for Elimination Chamber in February 2022, Crown Jewel in November 2022, or for Night of Champions this past May. He also did not work Crown Jewel in November 2018 but that was before the push happened.
Like the other wrestlers working the big-money shows in the Kingdom, Mansoor noted on Twitch how he was paid good for wrestling in his homeland.
“I got checks from those Saudi shows that, I never thought I would see that amount of money in my life,” he said.
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more.
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