Mustafa Ali

Adeel Alam (born March 28, 1986) is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Mustafa Ali. He is currently signed to both New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), the latter in which he is the current TNA X Division Champion in his first reign.

He also makes appearances on the independent circuit.

Adeel Alam was born on March 28, 1986, in Bolingbrook, Illinois, the son of a Pakistani father from Karachi, and an Indian mother from New Delhi.

He was raised in Chicago, Illinois.

He has two older brothers.

Alam wanted to be a wrestler since his youth, idolizing first Bret Hart and later also Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Hardy Boyz, Chris Jericho, and Hayabusa.

Prior to signing with WWE, Alam worked on the independent circuit after his debut in 2003, while also working as a police officer in a Chicago suburb for four years.

Alam made his professional wrestling debut on February 2, 2003.

He worked in various promotions, including Dreamwave Wrestling, where he was a former Dreamwave Alternative Champion and Dreamwave Heavyweight Champion.

He also appeared in other promotions, including All American Wrestling (AAW), Freelance Wrestling, GALLI Lucha Libre, IWA Mid-South, Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW), National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Proving Ground Pro, and WrestleCircus.

During his first six years as a professional wrestler, he used a mask so he would not face discrimination.

He did it all during the day while working night shifts as a police officer.

He is best known for his tenure in WWE from 2016 to 2023.

In 2016, he competed in the Cruiserweight Classic as a replacement and through his performances, earned a full-time contract with WWE.

He initially worked for their new Cruiserweight Division as part of the 205 Live brand.

On June 25, 2016, after Brazilian wrestler Zumbi was not able to participate in the Cruiserweight Classic tournament due to visa issues, WWE announced that Mustafa Ali would replace him.

On July 20, Ali was eliminated from the tournament by Lince Dorado in the first round.

Ali appeared on the October 26 episode of NXT, where he and Dorado entered the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, but were eliminated by Kota Ibushi and TJ Perkins in the first round.

On the December 13 episode of 205 Live, Ali made his debut for the brand, wrestling Lince Dorado to a double countout.

On January 23, 2017, Ali made his Raw debut, teamed with Jack Gallagher and TJ Perkins to defeat Ariya Daivari, Drew Gulak, and Tony Nese.

Ali began feuding with Drew Gulak, when Gulak began his "No Fly Zone" campaign on 205 Live.

The feud culminated in a two-out-of-three falls match on July 18 episode of 205 Live, which Ali won.

In December 2018, he was moved to the SmackDown brand, moving out of the cruiserweight division where his ring name would be shortened to Ali from March 2019 to November 2019.

In February 2018, Ali began participating in the Cruiserweight Championship tournament; he defeated Gentleman Jack Gallagher in the first round, Buddy Murphy in the quarterfinals, and Drew Gulak in the semi-finals to advance to the final at the WrestleMania 34.

At WrestleMania on April 8, Ali lost to Cedric Alexander, failed to win the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.

Ali then started a rivalry with Hideo Itami, who interfered in his match against Buddy Murphy.

On the August 7 episode of 205 Live, Ali lost to Itami and collapsed afterwards, rendering him out of action for a short time.

On the October 24 episode of 205 Live, Ali defeated Itami in a falls count anywhere match to end the feud.

On the October 31 episode of 205 Live, Ali defeated Tony Nese to become the number one contender for the Cruiserweight Championship, but failed to win the title from Buddy Murphy at Survivor Series.

During his time in 205 Live, Ali gained the attention of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, who decided to put him on the SmackDown brand.

According to former WWE writer Kazeem Famuyide, then-WWE Champion Daniel Bryan was pushing hard backstage for a "hot young babyface" to be on television, arguing that all the babyfaces they had were pushing 40-years-old; this led to management choosing Ali for this push.

Ali made his first appearance on the December 11, 2018, episode of SmackDown Live, confronting Daniel Bryan and losing to him later that night and the next week was confirmed as a full-time SmackDown roster member.

At the Royal Rumble on January 27, 2019, Ali competed in the eponymous match, lasting 30 minutes and eliminating Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe, before being eliminated by Nia Jax.

In February, Ali was scheduled to compete in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship at namesake event, which would have been his first world title match; however, he was pulled out due to a legit injury, and replaced by Kofi Kingston.

Ali made his televised return at the Fastlane pay-per-view, as a last minute addition in the WWE Championship match between Daniel Bryan and Kevin Owens, which Ali lost after being pinned by Bryan.

On March 25, 2019, his ring name was shortened to "Ali".

At the Money in the Bank on May 19, Ali competed in the ladder match, which he failed to win, after a returning Brock Lesnar won the match.

In July 2020, he was moved to the Raw brand.

In October of that same year, he revealed himself as the leader of the villainous stable Retribution, thereby turning heel in the process.

He would be released from the company in September 2023.