A former WWE star recently admitted that they were not supposed to be part of a Royal Rumble spot that got a lot of fans talking.
Along with the surprise entrants and returns in the iconic match, many of the moments that occur in the Royal Rumble itself are still fondly remembered. From Kofi Kingston’s many Rumble saves to R-Truth bringing in a ladder as he thought he was in the Money in the Bank match, many stars have had their opportunity to shine in the 30-person battle royal.
Following their victory in the 2018 Mixed Match Challenge tournament, Carmella and R-Truth were set to enter their respective 2019 Royal Rumbles in the coveted number 30 spot. While Carmella did make it into the match, Truth was attacked by Nia Jax during his entrance, prompting The Irresistible Force to become the first woman to enter both matches in the same night.
Following her entrance, Jax got physical immediately with attacks on Dolph Ziggler, Andrade and Rey Mysterio. Following a brief stare down with Mustafa Ali, Jax eliminated Ali from the Rumble match to the shock of the crowd.
“It Wasn’t Originally Designed For Me”: Mustafa Ali On WWE Royal Rumble Elimination
Discussing the spot while speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Mustafa Ali noted that while he was the first choice for the spot, he was more than happy to be the one eliminated by Jax:
“So that spot wasn’t originally for me. I don’t know who it was for, but someone was not very much okay with getting eliminated by a woman. And I’m at this point where I’m trying to prove that I’m a pro’s pro. I’m down for whatever. I can kind of see, I think it was Jamie Noble, because it was some sort of frantic search.
I looked at Jamie and I was like, ‘What’s the spot?’ He looked at me and he goes, ‘Would you be okay with it?’ I just go, Yep. What is it? He goes, ‘Well, Nia is gonna beat up R-Truth, and then she’s gonna take everyone’s finisher. But before she does that I just need her to throw somebody [out].’ I don’t know who the original person is. I really don’t know. But I remember going it’s a scripted show. It’s fine. Me and Nia are homies. So I remember I told Nia hey, I’ll do it, and she was so like, thank you. I could see the sense of relief.”
Continuing, Ali added that while some may have been against the spot, he had no issues in creating a WWE moment for the fans:
“So I could see why some people were like man, that made you look weak. I go Nia is shoot strong as hell and could pick up anyone in this room right now, and she tossed me over. So we did the thing. Nia, can I do the whole [thing] I’m not gonna hit you. I did this thing and then she head-butted me, picked me up. Gets talked about to this day. Actually, I think the RKO and the 619 she took in the Royal Rumble gets talked about more.
But yeah, it was a moment. I could see how some of the guys were like, Oh, I wouldn’t have done that. One, I didn’t have a problem with it and two, I was looking at it like I think that goes a long way to Vince and to Bruce. This guy didn’t have a problem getting the spot over because that’s a moment. That’s what we want to do. We want to create moments. That was the honest intention behind it. So, yeah, it wasn’t originally designed for me, from what I understand.”
In other news, two WWE wrestlers recently announced their engagement.
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