5 Interesting Facts About Mustafa Ali

#3 He used to wear a mask

His current mask in WWE is more for theatrics

It should come as no surprise that Adeel Alam had to hide his identity during the beginning of his wrestling career.

The reason for that was beyond his control, as all the wrestling promoters wanted to stereotype his as soon as they learned that he was a Muslim with Pakistani heritage, and wanted him to play a Muslim heel character.

To get away from this, Mustafa Ali ended up acting as a face and started wrestling under a mask. He pretended to be a Hispanic Luchador and did not reveal his real identity to the crowd.

However, he soon had to give in and become one half "Team Taliban" on the independent circuit.

“That was actually the idea of a promoter who wanted me to play a terrorist type of a character. I was never really a fan of portraying that, so I portrayed a character that could not escape racial discrimination in America.”

Ali told The Express Tribune.

In fact, in 2009, a documentary was made on Ali and his dilemma of being a Muslim wrestler who does not want to portray a stereotypical character.