A biography for Mustafa Alihasn’t been written yet.
“Embrace your colour, heritage, whatever you want, but don't let it confine you. Just live without labels.”
“It's very hard to be a family man, a father, a husband, an independent wrestler, and a police officer.”
“I've seen guys get hurt from strikes. I've seen guys get hurt from flips. It's the risk we take. I feel the fear of getting hurt will get you hurt.”
“Prior to the Cruiserweight Classic, I had a tryout with WWE in 2013 and was told that I wasn't what they were looking for at the moment.”
“I've had nights where it's very obvious that I'm the good guy, but I'm still booed, and you can kind of make a checklist about reasons why they're booing me, and one of the evident ones is because of my name and where I'm from.”
“I'm oddly comfortable in the ring.”
“If anyone understands the enormous mountain that cruiserweights like myself have to climb, it's WWE champion Daniel Bryan - who not only climbed that mountain but now stands atop it.”
“There are no limitations. There are no barriers. Nothing can stop you, and nothing can define you but you.”
“If I hear about a big match coming up, I'll get anxiety about it, and I'll start thinking about it, like, 'What's gonna happen? Is this my shot?'”
“What people don't realize here in WWE is, you can go out in any company, and you can have these crazy, five-star matches, and you can do all this stuff, and you don't have chains on you. The trick in WWE is to do it within this confined little box.”
“My favorite wrestler growing up was Bret 'The Hitman' Hart.”
“As a child, I was a victim of bullying because of my cultural background. I didn't look like all the other kids. I had a funny name.”
“Every single person in the Chicago independent scene said, 'You've got to be a bad guy. You're a Muslim. We're gonna make money. We're gonna call you Sheik Abdullah something. You're gonna wear a turban.'”
“I feel like a lot of Indian fans don't know about my Indian background, so it's funny online that a lot of fans call me this Pakistani dude. No, I'm Indian, too.”
“I think it's something much bigger than just pro wrestling and the industry I work in. It's across all media. You look at Hollywood movies: there's not the Muslim hero or the guy who looks like me and has a name like mine who is portrayed in a positive manner or in a leading role. So, growing up, I didn't have a role model that looks like me.”
“My dad is really the reason I have this hard work ethic. I can fully remember him leaving home at 5 o'clock in the morning and not coming back until midnight.”
“There were days I'd wrestle at 9 o'clock, and afterward, I often didn't shower and would just throw on sweatpants. I had my police gear in the car and would rush to get to the station by 10:30, clean myself off as best I could, and be ready for my shift by 10:59.”
“I was in high school after 9/11 happened. I didn't get bullied. I didn't get treated differently, but I definitely felt people looked at me differently.”
“Anything worth changing is not easy to change.”
“My entire life, I've had one mission to prove. It doesn't matter what your name is. It doesn't matter where you're from. It doesn't matter what the color of your skin is. All that matters is what's in your heart.”