While Mustafa Ali wasn’t able to win his SmackDown debut match against the New Daniel Bryan, he won a lot of hearts with his performance on the night.
His performance during the show was not only praised by the fans, but a number of WWE Superstars also commented on his debut and praised his hard work.
After his match, Mustafa commented on his debut for the brand with the following tweet, recalling how he got his first shot in WWE and how far he has come since then:
Last night on #SDLive, the guy that was an alternate in the Cruiserweight Classic, stood toe-to-toe with the @WWE Champion. Dream on, dream on. #205Live pic.twitter.com/w3uKzrkfxM
— Mustafa Ali / Adeel Alam (@AliWWE) December 12, 2018
For those who don’t know, Brazilian wrestler Zumbi was originally expected to take part in the Cruiserweight Classic tournament in 2016 but he wasn’t able to make it due to some visa issues.
After he was removed from the tournament, WWE announced Mustafa Ali as his replacement and Ali went on to raise enough eyebrows to be signed as part of the 205 Live Roster.