Below is video of Ali talking to the WWE reporter after his non-title win over WWE Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura on last night’s SmackDown.
Ali, who called out Nakamura for SummerSlam in a post-show tweet, was asked what was different from this match and the loss to Nakamura at Saturday’s Smackville special. That match was announced just hours before it took place.
“A heads up,” Ali answered. “For the first time in it seems like a long time here, I got a heads up. I found out early today, hours before, that I had a non-title match against the Intercontinental Champion and you know what? That’s the thing I needed. This entire year has been one giant roller coaster. I had the highest of highs when I came here – I pinned the then-WWE Champion Daniel Bryan, I was the guy who was supposed to be in the Elimination Chamber and then I got taken out, and I had to walk to the sidelines as Kofi Kingston, a guy who undoubtedly deserves this, I had to watch him reach the highest of highs while I sat at the lowest of lows, and I told myself when I came back I was going to pick up where I left off, and what better thing to do right now than to take the Intercontinental Championship. I said it once and I’ll say it again, Ali will be a champion.”