Former WWE star Mustafa Ali recently shared a story about the chaotic night during WWE Raw’s 25th anniversary episode in 2018.
That special show took place at two venues in New York at the same time. One event happened at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, while another took place at the Manhattan Center. The broadcast switched back and forth between both locations during the show.
During an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Ali explained that the Manhattan Center show mainly featured promos and appearances by legends. He continued explaining how the situation unfolded, “There was an anniversary show for Raw. I think it was the 25th anniversary. I could be wrong, but one of those.”
“It was like 2018, ‘19, something like that, and it was when Raw was doing the Barclays Center and the Manhattan Center at the same time… The Manhattan Center, there’s a bunch of people that have paid a lot of money to attend this event. But here’s the problem that they didn’t plan, there was no actual matches there. It was just promos. There were legends coming out and cutting a promo”
Ali said the crowd started booing when they realized there were no matches, prompting Triple H to quickly step in and fix the situation. “So about almost an hour into it, the fans start realizing, hey, we got jibbed. There’s no matches and they start booing recklessly. So Triple H is at the Manhattan Center. He gets on the phone and he calls over in the Barclays. He goes, ‘I need matches and I need them now.'”
“So Mark Carrano goes, ‘Oh, I know, the cruiserweights!’ So he stuffs a bunch of cruiserweights into a van and just sends us blindly to Manhattan Center.” He said the situation was so rushed that no one even knew where they were going.
“One, Hideo Itami is driving. He’s like, ‘Where am I going?’ ‘I don’t know…’ So we’re running upstairs and everyone’s panicking, like, ‘Go! Go! Go upstairs! Go upstairs.'” When they finally arrived, Triple H gave them quick instructions.
“Triple H basically goes, ‘Guys, the situation is there’s no matches during the commercial break. I just need you guys to go out there and do the craziest sh*t. But do it like two or three minutes.’ ‘Alright, cool.'”
Mustafa Ali shared how he accidentally walked into The Undertaker’s locker room
Ali also shared a funny moment that happened before the match. “So I was wrestling Lince Dorado, and we run upstairs and we have our bags so we just open this door and we throw our bags down, we close the door, we start talking, like, ‘Alright, maybe this, this’ and you know, something quick, and the referee comes up and goes, ‘Hey, guys, where are you changing?'”
That’s when they noticed the sign on the door. “We look up, ‘Private locker room for The Undertaker.'” He said they quickly tried to apologize and leave. “Open the door sheepishly, me and Lince, ‘Hello, sir. I’m Ali, this is Lince. We’ve done a huge mistake.”
However, The Undertaker surprised them with a friendly response. “We’re just gonna grab our bags and we’re gonna leave,’ and we go to reach for our bags and he goes, ‘Hey, you guys don’t want to hang out with the motherf*cking Undertaker?’ Before I could say anything, Lince Dorado goes, ‘Hell yeah!'”
“We just pulled up a chair next to The Deadman and we’re changing… I told him I was a former police officer and he was like, ‘Oh sh*t.’ We’re talking about this and that, and Lince was a former teacher — he’s like, ‘Isn’t that crazy?’
He continued, “We’re talking to The Undertaker about life, and then we kind of forgot that we had to go, and the ref was like, ‘Guys! You’re on!’ So we just ran out and did our match, and then, yeah, it was just one of those wild experiences that The Undertaker told me to come hang out with him.” [H/T: Fightful]
Read More: Mustafa Ali Says Brock Lesnar Insult Was A Shot At Him By WWE Executive
