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What's the story?
Mustafa Ali is the latest WWE Superstar to fall victim to the trend of shortening wrestlers' names. WWE has made it a habit of late to shorten the names of WWE Superstars for some inexplicable reason.
The WWE Star had his name shortened from Mustafa Ali to just 'Ali'. It is safe to say that Ali is not too pleased with the change, and he made his reaction clear on Twitter to his fans and followers.
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In case you didn't know...
Mustafa Ali is not the first Superstar that WWE has done this to. In the past, Apollo Crews had his name shortened to just 'Apollo'. More recently, Andrade 'Cien' Almas had his name changed to Andrade in the WWE.
Mustafa Ali had become really popular since coming to the main roster on WWE. Since his arrival, he has been one of the fan favourites on SmackDown Live. He was supposed to compete for the WWE Heavyweight Championship at WWE Elimination Chamber, but unfortunately, an injury saw him unable to compete.
Kofi Kingston took his place, and with inconceivable crowd support may be on his way to face Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania.
Mustafa Ali has been a Superstar who has defied stereotypes in the past and made it his mission to impress with his immense in-ring ability, while also showcasing his heritage.
The heart of the matter
Mustafa Ali reacted to getting his name shortened by WWE on Twitter. He was not too pleased with the decision and talked about the importance of the name Mustafa.
"Mustafa means the "chosen one" with an emphasis on being chosen from amongst the people. Name or not, nothing has changed. I fight for the people. I am one of them."
He said that the name meant that he had been chosen from amongst the people. But even without it, he would always be part of the people and he was one of them.
What's next?
Ali will be appearing on SmackDown Live under his new name from henceforth.
It will be interesting to see if the name change will bring a change in his character, however, such an eventuality seems unlikely.
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