Mustafa Ali

Every single person in the Chicago independent scene said, 'You've got to be a bad guy. You're a Muslim. We're gonna make money. We're gonna call you Sheik Abdullah something. You're gonna wear a turban.'

The way '205 Live' came about, there was a lot of trust put into our roster. Because if you look at it, the majority of our roster had not been in the developmental system and NXT. And the majority of us had not been on TV prior to that. So for WWE to trust us and literally hire us and throw us on live TV, it was very, 'Whoa!'

It's very hard to be a family man, a father, a husband, an independent wrestler, and a police officer.

I've always had faith in my ring ability, but sometimes it's how you are perceived, and how good you are doesn't matter.

I want to change how people perceived me when I came over here, change how the people perceive South-East Asians or Middle Eastern or Muslim or Hindu or whatever their identity is. I want them to just let that go and treat the performer as a performer.

Anything worth changing is not easy to change.

As a child, I was a victim of bullying because of my cultural background. I didn't look like all the other kids. I had a funny name.

My daughter's absolute go-to is Sasha Banks. However, we did do the 'Dance Break' one time in Chicago, so she keeps talking about Carmella.

My wife herself had an upbringing where she wasn't allowed to pursue what she wanted to do because of her parents. She wanted to go into photography and journalism, but because classes ran so late, she had to be home at a certain time. We don't want that for our daughter.

Prior to the Cruiserweight Classic, I had a tryout with WWE in 2013 and was told that I wasn't what they were looking for at the moment.

There wasn't a defining moment or match or even a person that made me want to wrestle. It all just sort of happened. Kind of like puberty.

At a young age, I was very aware I was different and not perceived in a good way. For a lot of my adolescence, I struggled with that, trying to identify where I belong and who my real friends are.