I support 205 Live's Mustafa Ali
 

As a brown man from the other side of the fence, this is something I can get behind. I don't know how you white folks will take to this, but I am ready for Ali to fix this thang.

https://orig00.deviantart.net/4ec9/f...we-dbxd9da.png

Hope he loses to Hornswoggle

Cool idea, decent worker. I just hate his attire.

I second that. It's like a mashup between Reptile and Green Ranger.

Eh, I liked him when I first saw him, then I just found it impossible to care about any of those geeks.

At least he looks less like Seth Rollins Jr. anymore... though that has more to do with Rollins switching up to the Harlem Heat attire recently, but still.

How long before he becomes a terrorist?

Was about to say I can't remember a Champ of Asian heritage and then went oh yeh, Mahal and Khali.

A brown Evan Bourne-type with one move...he has an uphill battle for sure.

That’s one more than Enzo.

Enzo had a dance though, which almost counts for more.

One move? So I guess nobody watches 205 Live then.

That's fair. He's got a better apron dropkick than Roman. Actually, his apron game is bananas.

205 Live is way better than Raw and solidified my belief that an hour really is the perfect length of time for a weekly wrestling show.

Maybe when he says he's trying to fix things he means he's going to suicide bomb things?

In all seriousness though, a terrorist gimmick would certainly freshen up the cruiserweight division. That's something I could get behind.

Arabs are terrorists. It's in his blood.

Very true, but Enzo's mouth was worth more than any move you can find


I've watched every episode, pretty sure he does nothing that any other high-flyer could not do other than the Inverted 450. Not denying its not impressive, but he's always going to be known as "the guy with that move"

Wait, I was sure the "one move" was going to be the springboard Spanish fly

<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf404yQgh5W/" data-instgrm-version="8" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50.0% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GP T6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAA AElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; ██████████relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf404yQgh5W/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">I got to introduce the world to my world. @wwe #WWEChicago</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mustafaaliwwe/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Mustafa Ali</a> (@mustafaaliwwe) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2018-03-04T04:29:04+00:00">Mar 3, 2018 at 8:29pm PST</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async defer src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>

Literally just watched his recent 205 match with Jack Gallagher. Absolutely cracking match and some great spots.

However, as much as neither man performed badly, Jack Gallagher was the better of the two.

205 Live has been so fucking good the past month.

Agreed. A tournament started this whole thing and a tournament is bringing it back.

Mustafa Ali. Just so you know he's Muslim. The other choice was Mohammed Arab.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This Tuesday, I take on <a href="https://twitter.com/WWE_Murphy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WWE_Murphy</a> in the second round of the Cruiserweight Championship Tournament. <br><br>It's going to be fight. It's going to be dangerous. His eyes told me so. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/205live?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#205live</a> <a href="https://t.co/fTjBPbATFx">pic.twitter.com/fTjBPbATFx</a></p>&mdash; Mustafa Ali (@MustafaAliWWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/MustafaAliWWE/status/970350590596407296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">4 March 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Goddamn. This guy is the most likeable guy in the company but a huge mile.

Also, if he's shooting these himself, then huge credit and WWE needs to take notice. They did those selfie things to make things feel more real (and ruined it by putting words on the screen), but this is how you do it. Just a man in the street with a camera.

Mohammed Arab vs Chester McCracker.

The one selfie video I liked is when Mark Andrews did one from the Empire Bingo Arena (aka Cathays Community Centre in Cardiff)

It's a shit bingo room which has been cleared out and now operates as the base for Dragon Pro Wrestling Academy and Attack! Pro Wrestling events. Was kinda cool to see it on 205 live after going to a number of shows there.

Mustafa Ali is a hell of a promo. Too bad those two videos in this thread were just on Twitter and not on the main show.

Maybe because they think it would get him "too over".

They've got to have him sitting down in a soundproof room with his thoughts like the rest of the cruisers. He still comes across well in those, but yeah, not as good as this.

I retract this statement. They butchered the editing of the promo slightly, but they showed it and it made me really happy. The character work Ali has done off his own back has gotten me behind him in a way I haven't been behind anyone in WWE since Sami Zayn against Neville.

The match tonight with Buddy Murphy was both men's best match since joining WWE. I thought Buddy Murphy's nickname of the Best Kept Secret was dumb, but fuck, it was accurate. I won't spoil the outcome here, because you should go watch the match, but for the first time in a long time I was actually invested in the outcome more than a "I can't believe they're going with him" way and I thought I was way too jaded for that.

I want to see Mustafa Ali versus Cedric Alexander at Wrestlemania.

I'm hoping for Strong/Ali. You could tell a story of two men fighting for other things than just themselves with Roddy's family being brought up several times... But then Roddy takes some shortcuts and Ali gets tempted, but knows he can't because he just become yet another brown bad guy. It'll be hard to pull off, but commentary can put it over if they're on point.

Don't mind what the outcome would be (although in the moment, would likely be rooting for Ali) as either way could end up with some interesting stories.

The match would also benefit from being on the pre-show as opposed to being on the main show where things are rushed.

Racist.

You do realize the current cruiserweight champ is a black man right? Not sure how playing the race card on "white folks" works here.

For shame

Fuck up, Swiss. Since we're here though, Ali has grown on me quite a bit, and he's been having some really excellent matches. He's basically a tan Seth Rollins now.

Hello friend. The names Midnight Gertner. Glad to find another fan of Mustafa Ali. He's my go to for some hot high-flying action!

BITCHES, HE'S ON SMACKDOWN! WOOOOOOO...

Good for him. I've liked what I've seen. I can see them giving him a run with the WWE Championship to "shock people" and put the belt on a guy of Pakistani/Indian descent.

They need to let him cut some promos so people have a reason to care about him.....

Who needs promo when you've got bright and shiny lights?