What’s the story?
Mustafa Ali has been impressing the WWE Universe ever since he arrived on 205 Live and in the Cruiserweight division, but it seems that not everyone is quite so taken with the first WWE Superstar of Pakistani descent.
The Illinois-born Cruiserweight has recently had his fair share of abuse on Twitter to deal with, with many ‘fans’ attacking Ali for his racial heritage and the actions of a minority. Ali has responded with nothing but class so far.
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Despite losing to Lince Dorado in the first round, Mustafa Ali was one of the big winners of the 2016 WWE Cruiserweight Classic. Ali was a last minute replacement in the tournament, but he impressed WWE officials enough to gain a contract out of it.
After a couple of losing performances on NXT, Ali signed with the company and made his 205 Live debut in December 2016, taking on Dorado in a match that ended in a double count-out.
Ali has been building momentum ever since, picking up many impressive wins and putting on a string of consistent matches in the Cruiserweight division. Despite his momentum, a small group of WWE fans still seem transfixed on Ali’s ethnic background.
The heart of the matter
Ali was recently asked on Twitter whether or not he was an Arab, to which the WWE star responded that he was just human. In a perfect world, this would diffuse the entire situation, but Ali’s night of dealing with fans on Twitter wasn’t over yet.
Later in the evening, he received a tweet from another ‘fan’, who said, ‘if your people could stop killing I’d really appreciate it, thanks’.
Ali once again managed to sum up the integrity to reply with class, deciding to tell the ‘fan’ that he was misinformed, rather than lash out. Such exchanges can only do good for the perception of Mustafa Ali, but it remains to be seen whether he will be able to maintain this level of class when dealing with such ill-informed and narrow-minded internet trolls.
Ali continued to have arguments with fans as the night went on but refused to stoop to their level while replying to them.
He concluded by thanking fans who rushed to his aid:
What’s next?
One can only hope that offensive messages stop being written, but Ali finds himself in a difficult situation nonetheless. Some commentators have recommended that the Cruiserweight ignores the trolls altogether as opposed to ‘feeding’ them, but the truth is that unless people are called out on their bigotry, little is going to change.
As an ambassador for a huge company Ali has further weight on his shoulders, but as of right now he is carrying that weight with nothing but class.
Author’s take
As wonderful as social media can be, the freedom it gives to bigotry, racism and downright idiocy will forever be one of the stains on the internet’s conscience. Mustafa Ali has been one of the standouts of the cruiserweight division, yet instead of talking wrestling, a small section of the internet insists on talking about ethnic issues that simply do not have any relevance.
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