What if Mustafa Ali was never injured? – WrestleMania 35
After having pinned the WWE champion, Mustafa Ali was one of the wrestlers – alongside Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, Randy Orton and AJ Styles – who would challenge titleholder Daniel Bryan at the 2019 Elimination Chamber PPV. However, due to a legitimate injury, Ali was pulled from the match – being replaced by Kofi Kingston.
Fans were heavily behind the decade-plus long workhorse Kingston in the bout, with the Ghana-born superstar nearly going the distance. Despite the huge support for Kofi, he could not quite overcome the heel Bryan who eventually put Kofi’s WWE title dreams to bed.
Being held down by McMahon, Kofi was bombarded with a series of dire gauntlet matches, must-win scenarios. Eventually, with backing from his New Day tag partners, he rightfully earned a shot at the belt at WrestleMania.
At the event, Kofi was emotionally rewarded for all his work, toppling a heel Bryan – in a similar style to Daniel’s own road years earlier (with Bryan apparently insistent Kingston was to win).
The first African-born world champion in WWE, it was a moment charged full with feeling, heart-warming displays of joy and gratefulness shown by the likes of Mick Foley, Bianca Belair and MVP. A true history-making performance, Kofi was taken seriously in this role and showed that hard work does pay off.
Kingston would never have had this push has Ali not gotten injured, however. It seems unlikely that Ali – a relative WWE newcomer – would have gotten as over as Kingston if they even were planning on going in this direction. No matter if Ali would have ever been on such a successful run, it is a sad and undeniable fact he has not been on the same level since, fighting in the deep undercard and leader the ill-fated Retribution stable.