— Prior to his unexpected release from WWE last month, Mustafa Ali had a significant storyline in the works that involved him challenging Dominik Mysterio for the NXT North American Championship, with plans for him to capture the title. This information comes from a report by fightfulselect.com. However, with Ali’s departure from the company, these plans underwent a drastic change, leading to Trick Williams becoming the new champion by defeating Dominik at No Mercy.

— The report further details the original creative direction, which featured Dominik successfully defending his title against Dragon Lee on the September 25 episode of Raw. In these plans, it was Ali who would have intervened, costing Dragon the match and setting up a triple threat title contest involving all three wrestlers. As mentioned earlier, Ali was slated to win the championship in this scenario. Unfortunately, Ali’s unexpected release disrupted these plans and reportedly left WWE management, including Shawn Michaels and his team, frustrated, as they had tentative creative plans for Ali in NXT that extended into the spring of 2024.