Interview: Mustafa Ali on 205 Live, Fans Leaving Before Shows, Future of the Brand

A recent episode of the Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia podcast had Mustafa Ali as the guest and some of the topics discussed included his thoughts on being a member of the 205 Live brand, fans leaving before the start of 205 Live shows, and the future of the brand.

On the topic of his thoughts on being a member of the 205 Live brand, Ali stated he believes the brand to be the “ultimate underdog story” due to all the obstacles and difficulties the brand has faced in WWE.

“I think 205 Live is the ultimate underdog story. This isn’t a knock on any other brands; you have your stars on Raw, you have your stars on SmackDown Live, and I almost feel like NXT already has this amazing face to continue building stars, but 205 Live that is not the case. There is no foundation. We are not capitalizing off of stars. We are literally trying to build a brand and stars at the same time which is extremely difficult.

I call us The Underdogs. We are behind the eight-ball every night. When 205 Live first started out, we were going on after SmackDown Live. I don’t know if you have ever been to a concert, but it’s first the opening act and then the headliners come out, we were in reverse. I remember standing in Gorilla and it was me against Ariya Davari and we were watching the monitor, it was John Cena vs Randy Orton in a 2-out-of-3 falls match. We have to go on after that?

If there is ever a crew that goes out every night behind the eight-ball and have their work cut out for them, to be respectable, it’s the 205 Live guys.”

On the topic of fans leaving before the start of 205 Live shows, Ali stated he felt disheartened seeing fan interest in the brand gradually decrease but it also reminded him of the tough work needed to help make the brand successful in the long run.

“Obviously, in its early stages, there were some general interests from the fans to see what the show was about, but as time progressed people were losing interest in it. We were in a tough spot. As I said, they had just seen a Randy Orton and John Cena 2-out-of-3 falls match, so some [fans] would stay and some would leave. So yeah, it’s a little disheartening when you want to give it your heart and soul in this ring and when you look up half of the arena is gone. It reminds you of how much work you have to put in. It doesn’t matter if there are 500 people in the stands or 50,000 people, the 205 Live guys stick to the script and tear it down each night.”

On the topic of the future of the 205 Live brand, Ali stated he likes the direction the brand has been moving towards in recent months since it has resulted in a renewed level of interest from fans.

“Now, it is nice to say that and see the way it is turning out,” Ali said of 205 Live getting more respect from fans. “Now, people are staying and there are chants for 205 guys. We are on pay-per-views now. We are not done yet by any means, but it is awesome. The biggest thing with the 205 guys is that we are trying to build the brand and each other which makes it more difficult but we are all stepping up to the plate.”