Booker T talked about Mustafa Ali asking for his WWE release

“If you don’t feel happy somewhere, the best thing for you is to get up out of there, I think. But sometimes, you can be not too happy and if the cheque is right, you can look past all that. Maybe the check wasn’t big enough to make him happy enough to look past that. Sometimes bringing the ideas to the company saying, ‘Hey, this is what I want to do, this is what I think can get over.’ That just may not be their vision, that may not be the way they want to go. As well as, it might be something that’s good that they want to give to someone else. Because, this is entertainment, this is not reality TV. Mustafa Ali, is he a good wrestler? No doubt. Can he go out and perform? No doubt. Did Mustafa Ali get a chance in WWE? Well, he was there from 2016 to 2022, between 205, SmackDown, the Retribution thing, he’s done a lot. Did Mustafa Ali do the stuff he wanted to do? Probably not.”

source: Wrestling Inc.