Mustafa Ali Blames WWE Power Struggle for Killing His Hacker Storyline

Mustafa Ali finally revealed why his popular “Hacker” gimmick vanished without warning—and according to him, it had nothing to do with fan reaction and everything to do with backstage politics.

Speaking to The Wrestling Classic, the former WWE star explained how his 2020 hacker storyline was set to kick off with a high-profile feud against Dolph Ziggler—but never got the chance to fully play out.

“The only actual creative plan that I knew about (as ‘The Hacker’) was that the first program, the first feud was gonna be me and Dolph Ziggler. Dolph was doing this romance story with Mandy Sacs and Otis and then there was gonna be a WrestleMania blow-off, and the idea that I leak footage, or somehow I inform Mandy that Dolph’s intentions aren’t true and Sonya’s in on it, yada, yada. So that’s as far as that went.”

The storyline was supposed to culminate at WrestleMania, but while parts of the angle aired—including Ali’s hacker reveal—the whole character was dropped shortly after. Ali says a backstage “power struggle” between Raw and SmackDown leadership is what killed the momentum.

“The reason the character died is because there was a dynamic power shift at the time where Raw had its own writer and SmackDown had its own writer. I think it was Paul Heyman and Bruce Prichard, and there was some sort of power struggle with that and ultimately, the character suffered because of that.”

Ali believes both creative teams wanted the character on their show, but the behind-the-scenes tug-of-war left the storyline in limbo—and eventually, buried.

“I believe both shows wanted the character, and there was like a fight over it… I suffer from being too popular, legit,” Ali joked.

The hacker gimmick became a fan-favorite during its short run, teasing mystery and intrigue in WWE’s product. But in typical fashion, office politics got in the way—and fans never got the payoff.

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