A heated argument between Vince McMahon and Mustafa Ali could be the catalyst that led to the latter requesting his release from WWE earlier today.
Back in November, Ali was gearing up for a new change in his character on WWE SmackDown that would have been based around him introducing a "New America."
Unfortunately, the idea was shut down, but Ali posted about it anyway alongside a video that would have begun the storyline, tweeting out:
"A few weeks ago, I made a statement that some deemed controversial. My intentions were to bring a beautiful vision to life. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond my control, I won't be able to make that vision a reality. But i can share with you what could have been," Mustafa Ali tweeted.
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Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select reports that WWE initially accepted the "New America" storyline but later changed their minds and turned it down. McMahon then offered another storyline to Ali, which was described to Sapp as "something Mustafa Ali would never have done."
This led to a heated argument between Vince McMahon and Mustafa Ali, and the WWE Superstar hasn't been seen on SmackDown since.
Vince McMahon has a history of not seeing eye to eye with former WWE talent
The situation between Vince McMahon and Mustafa Ali isn't out of the ordinary as several former WWE Superstars have come forward since departing the company to speak on the difficulty of working with Mr. McMahon.
One of the most notable as of late is former WWE Champion Dean Ambrose (now known as All Elite Wrestling's Jon Moxley), who spoke in-depth on podcasts and his biography about the issues he had when it came to dealing with The Chairman.
Perhaps if Mr. McMahon were more open-minded with his WWE Superstars, there would be a lot more main event talent he could lean on in 2022 instead of the select few that have been around for quite a number of years. Sadly, we may never know what might have been.