Mustafa Ali was to become the NXT North American Champion (Patreon)

The WWE NXT brand was going to look a whole lot different before the WWE releases.

Trick Williams is the new NXT North American Champion after defeating Dominik Mysterio at NXT No Mercy, however, that wasn’t the original plan. There were some incorrect reports stating that Dominik was originally scheduled to retain over Mustafa Ali. Actually, Mustafa Ali was supposed to win the North American Championship prior to his release. This is one of the reasons why NXT higher ups stated to us they were frustrated by the call to cut him.

Dominik Mysterio was always slated to retain the NXT North American Title over Dragon Lee on the September 25 episode of WWE Raw, but sources with knowledge of the situation told us that the original creative called for Mustafa Ali to cost Dragon Lee the match. This would have played off of Ali’s teases to appear on WWE Raw. After that, a triple threat match for the title would have been set for NXT No Mercy where Mustafa Ali would win the North American title. How things would have worked from that point aren’t clear, but Shawn Michaels, Mustafa Ali and NXT creative had tentative plans for Ali on the brand into March of 2024.