{"id":102738,"date":"2021-10-20T16:24:41","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T20:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=102738"},"modified":"2021-10-20T16:24:41","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T20:24:41","slug":"mansoor-and-mustafa-ali-making-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/10\/20\/mansoor-and-mustafa-ali-making-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Mansoor and Mustafa Ali: Unsung, Underrated, Making History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>October 21\u2019s <strong><em>Crown Jewel <\/em><\/strong>is a loaded card, stacked with some of <strong>World Wrestling Entertainment\u2019s<\/strong> finest performers and most engaging current storylines. The <strong>Friday Night SmackDown<\/strong> women\u2019s title is up for grabs in a triple threat between current champion <strong>Becky Lynch,<\/strong> <strong>Sasha Banks, <\/strong>and <strong>Bianca Belair. <\/strong>\u201cThe Beast Incarnate\u201d <strong>Brock Lesnar <\/strong>will go head to head with \u201cThe Tribal Chief\u201d <strong>Roman Reigns<\/strong> for the Universal Championship, and <strong>Seth Rollins\u2019s <\/strong>and <strong>Edge\u2019s<\/strong> long abiding grudge will be settled in the Hell in a Cell structure. The Saudi Arabian event will be rounded out by the finals of the <strong><em>King of the Ring<\/em><\/strong> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/10\/09\/did-wwe-queens-crown-come-too-late\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong><em>Queen\u2019s Crown <\/em><\/strong><\/a>tournaments. However, although it&#8217;s far down the card from these colossal events and hasn\u2019t received the same build-up, <strong>Mansoor <\/strong>and <strong>Mustafa Ali <\/strong>will also be facing off in Riyadh, Mansoor\u2019s hometown.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mustafa Ali approaches Mansoor with some cryptic advice: Raw, May 31, 2021\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0HofBS2ZR9M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Mansoor and Mustafa Ali: Making History<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The match between Mansoor and Mustafa Ali is a culmination of one of WWE\u2019s best mid-card storylines of 2021 so far, and the breakdown of an ill-fated stab at being tag team partners. It&#8217;s also a history-maker for WWE, as Mansoor and Ali will be the first pair of Muslim pro wrestlers to face off in a WWE pay-per-view singles match.<\/p>\n<p>After winning the 50-man battle royal at 2019\u2019s <em>Crown Jewel<\/em>, Mansoor enjoyed a long winning streak on <strong>205 Live<\/strong><em>.<\/em> It was broken upon his Raw call-up when he lost to then-United States Champion <strong>Sheamus. <\/strong>Despite this ignominious debut, Mansoor was still portrayed as a chipper, wide-eyed newcomer starstruck by his new surroundings. Enter Ali: after the end of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/01\/13\/wwe-save-retribution\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>RETRIBUTION<\/strong><\/a> faction, which never found a clear purpose or meaningful storyline despite early promise, Ali was portrayed as a cynical loner. He warned Mansoor not to trust anyone on the Raw roster, but ironically, Mansoor took a liking to him and their unlikely partnership began.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Beginning of a Partnership<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Mansoor and Mustafa Ali had several face-offs with the latter&#8217;s former henchmen <strong>Mace <\/strong>and <strong>T-Bar, <\/strong>over the course of which Ali\u2019s loyalty to Mansoor seemed to grow. Ali seemed committed, if befuddled, by trying to make his way back to the light after his intermezzo on the dark side as the leader of RETRIBUTION.<\/p>\n<p>However, there was also believable tension built into the partnership, as Ali heavy-handedly advised Mansoor while rebuffing his attempts to bond as true partners. The dynamic was well played by both performers, a spot of realism amidst some of Raw\u2019s more implausible mid-card characters.<\/p>\n<p>However, their varying personalities-Ali\u2019s ruthless streak and Mansoor\u2019s insistence on fair play, win or lose-came to a head following a loss to <strong>Cedric Alexander <\/strong>and <strong>Shelton Benjamin.<\/strong> Ali reverted to his brutal castigation of his RETRIBUTION acolytes and dealt with Mansoor the same, attacking him in punishment for his failure. Despite the burgeoning hints of a face turn, and the hints of affection for Mansoor that shone through his fa\u00e7ade, Ali once again reverted to setting the bar for success too high for his cohorts, and responding with ruthless aggression when they let him down.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/uuDwiBC8O0g<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Leading Up to This Thursday<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>When Ali once again unloaded on Mansoor following his October 18 victory against Alexander on Monday Night Raw, a new Mansoor emerged: the wide-eyed hero worship of Ali was gone, as he fired back at Ali in English and Arabic. The character work between Mansoor and Ali is always tight and their final showdown before <em>Crown Jewel<\/em> was no exception. On social media, both men have also been united and unequivocal that their Crown Jewel match-up isn\u2019t their ideal scenario, but it is a huge step for the representation of Muslims in pro wrestling.<\/p>\n<p>With their nuanced and effective, natural, and poignant character work, Mansoor and Mustafa Ali have all the potential for a long-running saga of partnership, falling in and out with each other on par with <strong>Kota Ibushi\u2019s<\/strong> and <strong>Kenny Omega\u2019s Golden Lovers<\/strong> saga. Whether they\u2019ll be granted that chance or this schism is a permanent one remains to be seen. However, the fact remains that they will be the first two Muslim pro wrestlers to meet in a singles match on a WWE pay-per-view, making history just as <strong>Bianca Belair <\/strong>and <strong>Sasha Banks <\/strong>did by being the first two African American female pro wrestlers to headline <strong><em>WrestleMania<\/em><\/strong> earlier this year. Despite the lack of promotion of the bout compared to others higher on the card, this fact may live to be the most memorable aspect of <em>Crown Jewel 2021<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WWE Network<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peacock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 21\u2019s Crown Jewel is a loaded card, stacked with some of World Wrestling Entertainment\u2019s finest performers and most engaging current storylines. The Friday Night SmackDown women\u2019s title is up for grabs in a triple threat between current champion Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, and Bianca Belair. \u201cThe Beast Incarnate\u201d Brock Lesnar will go head to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3715,"featured_media":102787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,25,4,3],"tags":[1445,69,3595,5106,507,159,399,1838,7253],"class_list":["post-102738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-raw","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-bianca-belair","tag-cedric-alexander","tag-crown-jewel","tag-mansoor","tag-mustafa-ali","tag-sasha-banks","tag-sheamus","tag-shelton-benjamin","tag-t-bar"],"modified_by":"Robbie Sutter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3715"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}