Ali recently appeared on Edge and Christian’s podcast. Here are the highlights:
Being pulled from Elimination Chamber: “It was a situation where a number of injuries were just like kind of catching up on me. I was trying to work through them and I actually ended up fracturing my tailbone, like, right when I started on SmackDown. I was going to work through it, then another injury happened, and another injury happened. It was actually at a point of me trying to hold myself together by a few strings.”
It was actually a concussion that got me. I got rocked at a live event and I tried so hard to not sell it when I got backstage, but it got to the point where it was two weeks before the Elimination Chamber match, one of the biggest nights of my life, and I have no idea what the plans are. I have no idea what my involvement is.”
“But everyone that I talk to tell me, ‘make sure you’re ready at Elimination Chamber’. I was really focused and I was at a live event and I got rocked, man.” Ali added, “I’ve never been so down and depressed in my life, man. I was like, ‘oh man.’ That put me in a dark spot.”
“I’m at home and I’m watching the gauntlet matches on SmackDown,” Ali recalled. “I’m watching his performances. You start putting the pieces together and you’re like, ‘oh my God! I see what they meant by ‘be ready’. They just went an hour and he just beat this guy, he beat this guy, and he beat this guy. Oh my God, and he had an amazing performance at Elimination Chamber and it came down to him and Bryan. This is what they meant about ‘be ready’!’”
“What’s so cool about Kofi and Xavier [Woods] and Big E is that they actually contacted me that night after the Elimination Chamber, which is arguably one of the biggest night of their life, right? Like KofiMania was in full effect after that night, right? They called me that night to check on me and I was like, ‘how cool are those guys to check in on me?’”
Ali continued, “I think that speaks volumes about The New Day and Kofi specifically that he called and said, ‘I have to do you proud.’ This guy who has been here so long thinks he has to do me proud. Shout out to Kofi and New Day. You guys are awesome.”
