Mustafa Ali was the first WWE talent to announce his departure from WWE before the mass releases across the main roster and NXT occurred last week.
Recently, he had been working in NXT and reinvented himself. Originally, Ali was scheduled to challenge Dominik Mysterio for the North American Title this Saturday at NXT No Mercy. However, Dominik will now be defending the title against Trick Williams instead.
As previously reported, there was some frustration from NXT’s end over not having proper communication with higher-ups about the releases at a time when NXT has been attempting to stack the brand with familiar names.
According to the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that the decision to release Ali was made late in the process.
