More on Mustafa Ali’s WWE Return to RAW Brand

As noted before, Mustafa Ali made his WWE return to the RAW brand during this past Monday’s episode of RAW in Knoxville, Tennessee. Prior to his return, Ali had last wrestled this past October and had requested his release from the company this past January, which was denied.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE’s creative team had came up with several ideas for Ali’s return last week. One of those ideas reportedly originally involved Ali losing his return match against The Miz but everything else that had played out on Monday’s show went ahead as planned. Ali reportedly was not told ahead of time of WWE’s plans for his return and only found out after his meeting with Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis.

Ali reportedly was “more than comfortable” addressing his absence from the company and why it happened backstage to WWE officials.

In regards to Ali’s contract status, it was reported that his current contract is set to expire in mid-2024 although it is currently not known if WWE had frozen his contract and added additional time to cover his recent absence.