I miss... Muhammad Hassan

[D-Man]

Yup... I said it.

Besides Vickie Guerrero, I can't remember anyone generated more heat than this guy. Although his stint with the WWE was short-lived, this guy made his mark. He was instantly the biggest heel on the roster and was almost immediately put in angles with the likes of Chris Benoit, John Cena, Shawn Michaels, and the Undertaker. He also had an "unpinned" streak for a while which got him more heat.

He was released from his contract due to a controversial television angle that ironically happened during a real-life crisis that occurred in London. Couple that with the fact that the UPN Network did not want the Hassan character on television and you can understand why Hassan was released from his contract 7 months after he debuted on television.

Does anyone else remember this guy? If he was never released, how far do you think the WWE could have gone with his character? Would he still be around today?

Let's remember Muhammad Hassan here.

 

[klunderbunker]

The original plan for Hassan was to win the world title from Batista at Summerslam in Washington D.C. so yeah there was definitely a lot of force behind the guy. That being said, the problem at the end of the day was the 7/7 bombings. Simply because it wasn't in America doesn't mean it wasn't a big deal. I've ridden on those trains before and given how many people use them in London, it would be an easy way to shut the city down in addition to the obvious loss of lives. If you're WWE, you can't air that stuff the day of the bombings.

As for the guy playing the character though....eh. He wasn't that great in the ring and he was beaten up by Hogan and Shawn way too early in his run. At the end of the day, Hassan was just a guy who wrestled with an interesting gimmick. He came off more as whiny than intimidating though, which is where he fell flat.

 

[DethMetal]

I created a thread similar to this a couple of years back. I always thought that Muhammad Hassan was pretty good, and I thought it to be a shame that he got released purely out of a real world coincidence. The heat that he generated was insane, and it wasn't even because he was a major heel; the fact that his gimmick was Arab-American gained all the heat for him. He was alright in the ring, and his mic skills were better than most. With more time, he easily could've been a world champion. Hassan could've been a major heel. Whether he would be around today is debatable; while he played his "mistreated Arab-American" role greatly, there's only so far that it could've gone, and I don't really know what other gimmick he could've played.

 

[SuperKick36]

The original plan for Hassan was to win the world title from Batista at Summerslam in Washington D.C. so yeah there was definitely a lot of force behind the guy. That being said, the problem at the end of the day was the 7/7 bombings. Simply because it wasn't in America doesn't mean it wasn't a big deal. I've ridden on those trains before and given how many people use them in London, it would be an easy way to shut the city down in addition to the obvious loss of lives. If you're WWE, you can't air that stuff the day of the bombings.

As for the guy playing the character though....eh. He wasn't that great in the ring and he was beaten up by Hogan and Shawn way too early in his run. At the end of the day, Hassan was just a guy who wrestled with an interesting gimmick. He came off more as whiny than intimidating though, which is where he fell flat.

I agree 100% with the part about the bombings, WWE made the right move.

However, I have to disagree about the ring and promo part. He was fresh. He didn't have alot of experience yet. He was talented in the ring, but still green. Of course his matches weren't "WM" type matches. I did see potential in him though.

His skills on the mic were MEANT to show him as someone complaining rather than intimidating, that's why it got heat. That's the same reason why Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels beating him up was great, because they were "sticking up for America" and beating up the anti-American. Still, beyond the whiny-ness he was connecting with the crowd, he was a controversial gimmick and he sold it, IMO.

Now, that being said, perhaps he should have been more intimidating at times to keep his character legitimate as a contender. I think you're right in stating that, particularly IF the WWE did put him over Batista to win the championship, they would need to have him seem like a real contender rather than someone who whines all the time, but I still think the complaining is what really got the heat from the crowd.

I do miss Hassan, but I'm glad the WWE avoided the mainstream media meltdown keeping him around may have caused.

Just a sidenote: I'd love to have his character come back and have a feud with a face Jack Swagger character... THAT would be some interesting stuff... Zeb vs. Hassan (and Diavari yelling his translations)

 

[Mr. HD]

I remember Hassan all too well. Loved this guy. From his debut confrontation with Mick Foley, beating up on JR & King, coming face to face with Stone Cold, all the way to his final feud with The Undertaker. He was the best heel around during that time. Simply amazing on the mic, could generate by his theme alone, and IMO pretty solid in the ring against the likes of Shelton, Benoit, Y2J, HBK, and Cena.

KB is right. If your the WWE, you can't air that footage. If you can't edit it or make a whole new segment, then scrap it altogether. Hassan was on his way to the top inside of a year. Shame how his career had to end though.

Sadly, I don't think he'd be around in today's WWE. Not the way they've toned down. He would've been repackaged with haste. Look at how lightly they're treading with this Coulter/Swagger angle.

Miss this guy. Wonder what he's doing these days.

 

[RD_21]

Do I remember this guy? Of course I do, I was probably his biggest fan and I complained the loudest when he was released.

Mark Copani was AWESOME and they should have NEVER let him go. Look what happen with Swagger these days, if only WWE had back him up.

I used to always put a towel on my head and sing HEINHEINHEIN... HEINHEIN to my friends, man I loved that theme and that guy.

I really think he could have make it big if he had been allowed to remain the way he was. He was on a big push before WWE got scared.

What I loved is that like most heel he was getting booed for saying the truth and he was a really entertainning character.

I remember that the WWE wanted to send him in the developmental so he could be forget and repackage him, but he told them to f off as it should be. He wanted to become an actor anyway, just sucks that we never saw more of him whether in acting or wrestling.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Miss this guy. Wonder what he's doing these days.

I interviewed him a couple months back, hes a teacher in the New York area and wrote a comic book with Shad Gaspard, their hoping to get made into a film, it's called Assassin and Son. He also has no intention of getting back into wrestling, the last thing he heard was the CM Punk promo and has only made two wrestling related appearances since his release simply due to the location.

On Hassan the wrestler, loved him at the time, sad he got released, but he seems content with where hes at.

 

[pessimism101]

I definitely miss Muhammad Hassan. The amount of heat he would by the crowd after they hear just the first two seconds of his entrance theme was ridiculous. He was a nod to the evil foreigner gimmick, except he was American who forced people to think about the reality of a post-9/11 America.

Unfortunately, he became the scapegoat of an unfortunate situation in which a terrorist attack occurred in London and a terrorist segment aired on SmackDown not long after. The (incompetent and idiotic) media blasted WWE for airing a terrorist angle so soon after the London bombings, oblivious to the fact that a) pro wrestling is a work and the angle is nothing but fiction; b) the segment was taped prior to the London Bombings (a fact that was even mentioned prior to the segment, at least in Canada). Something had to give and the release of Muhammad Hassan was inevitable.

I've always found it ironic that the media was guilty of the very thing Muhammad Hassan had been accusing America of for months. Sadly, Hassan retired not long afterwards, but it would be awesome to see a program featuring Hassan and Jack Swagger/Zeb Coulter... make it happen, WWE! LOL

 

[BigThunder]

Giving him the fake terrorist cell was one of the stupidest things WWE ever did. He was gaining amazing heat without it. He and Daivari were enough.

A decent in-ring worker, and a really well executed gimmick at the start. Yeah, I miss him.

 

[Airehk]

I think Muhammad Hassan is a pretty cool guy. eh hates prejudice and doesn't afraid of anything!

But in all seriousness, I initially felt like: Here we go, another foreigner hating on 'murrica..
But then, he had a certain twist to it. He was a lot more serious, realistic and didn't jabber on about how America sucks for no reason and why his homeland is better. No cheap heat.

Now, its unfortunate for the infamous angle he had that coincided with the London bombings (which I was able to look at it differently, anyway) because it was starting to look like **** was getting real. The moment from what I remember looked serious; Hassan was standing there in the ring, slowly raised his arms and what looked like a bunch of freedom fighters/terrorists came out to do his dirty work. It was like we had a realistic dose of Undertaker's druids that actually did something. Think The Shield, only 10 or 20 of them. Sure this would have gone sour if it was over used, but it could have easily opened doors for certain superstars to make their debuts form OVW or of course the classic "rival in disguise sneak attack" opportunity.

I should chew on toilet paper because I'm talking **** here, but I really do feel there was a missed opportunity for a big heel star to grow.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I mainly remember Hassan for one of my favorite Wrestlemania moments:


Other than that, I don't recall anything truly memorable from his run in WWE. It's safe to say a lot of Hassan's heat was fueled by real life tragedies, and his character was in the right and wrong place simultaneously. When you stripped Hassan down to his core, he was just another generic anti-American heel. I don't miss him at all, but I'm glad he's happier now.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

I never thought Hassan was very good or had many(if any) of the qualities to make a real star. & as you already stated all of his heat was generated by his ethnic character & the events surrounding it. I honestly don't think he would have amounted to much of anything even if WWE decided to keep him around & as the same gimmick or not. I really never saw a future for the guy & I pretty much called his entire WWE career from the moment he debuted. I don't mind the Anit-American heel, politically incorrect Foreigner heel, etc. but Hassan always came off to me as a waste of time & nothing more. Never a solid or entertaining heel IMO. He was just one of the many key contributing factors to why I think 2005-2006 were the worst years, possibly ever, in the WWE.

 

[Richard]

It's unfortunate that sometimes in life you get these extreme co-incidences which for the sake of publicity can't be ignored.

I feel that it was just very unlucky everything in London went down when it did time-wise for everything that was happening in WWE with the Hassan character starting to pick up on the big time matches with The Undertaker and I think if it weren't for the events in London, he would have been a key heel in WWE. He already was but he would have been so much bigger if he was indeed able to grab the World Heavyweight Championship.

I am not sure if he would have been around today. With everything going on still today regarding 'terrorism', I think if it weren't for that event in London it would have eventually been another which could have resulted in his release.

 

[HBsam31]

I do miss him. He really did generate a lot of heat. I thought his promos were good, and he seemed to have potential in the ring. I think he would have gone pretty far, and it was rumored he was going to get the title. He was different, and he got over pretty fast. In the end they had to do what they did. It was just really bad timing, and Hassan paid the price for it. I think he would have been a top heel for a while had the gimmick been able to continue.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Giving him the fake terrorist cell was one of the stupidest things WWE ever did. He was gaining amazing heat without it. He and Daivari were enough.

A decent in-ring worker, and a really well executed gimmick at the start. Yeah, I miss him.

Yeah I agree with this. Hussan's character wasn't a terrorist he was an Arab American angry at how America has treated him and his people. It was a great character and gimmick and Hussan himself was a pretty good talent. I don't agree that he should have been challenging for the WHC but he should have had a better run.

The terrorist angle was just over the top and was kind of the jump the shark moment for this character. And the timing made things worse. He would have had an interesting character maybe even turning face eventually with Hussan making amends to America.

It would have been an interesting angle and probably would have been good PR for the WWE. Since WWE has been known of making insensitive cultural sterotypes (well Wrestling in general does) it would have been good to eventually have an Arab American being a face and defending the country.

I do recall a few things when he left:
- WWE gave him a cash settlement knowing there were no justifiable grounds to release Hussan

- Hussan, as I recall, was planning to go to Hollywood. Since someone mentioned he is now a teacher I guess nothing came out of that.

- This what pissed me off, after he left I think there were a couple in the WWE that threw Hussan under the bus. I even recall Batista saying that he didn't have the drive and passion. It seems like the WWE want's to sweep the bad press under the rug and say he left because he didn't have the talent.

 

[MINISTRYrising]

I think WWE made a big mistake when they released Hassan. Sure wwe had no choice but to pull the character in light of what happened in london, But to release the guy just seems like a step to far. WWE could have easily have sent Hassen to be repackaged or they could have simply taken him off screen for a couple of months to give the people of london time to grive.

 

[MrHashasheen]

Muhammad Hassan is perhaps one of my favorite wrestlers and characters. Even ignoring the fact that he's Arab-American (and me being Arab meant that a lot of what he said echoed with me), his character had such an incredible amount of depth and realism to it that you rarely see in wrestling. And then all that promise disappeared when they staged that cheesy "terrorist" attack a few days before the bombing, and they had to shuffle him off-stage in a hurry.

Someone remind me though: Wasn't it pretty much the American media who went ballistic over this? I don't recall hearing much from the British end of things.

 

[mojmass]

He wouldn't have gone so far even if he didn't counter the problems you mentioned because the head of the WWE is a selfish stubborn arrogant and racist guy like vince mcmahon and don't say i'm wrong and a good proof of that is this:
why should a young newcomer get beaten up by two of the best legend of the company hogan and michaels.
and many more proof like this throughout the history of WWE.
antonio cesaro would have suffered the same fate if he didn't changed his approach as an anti american and he was lucky that he wasn't arab because an arab gimmick is always hated in america for unknown reason or WWE makes it to be hated (another proof for them being racist)

 

[I_Like_All_Wrestling]

I don't the end of Hassan was due to bombings (though clearly things like that were part of it), I think it was due to the kidnapping and bags over people heads thing that they aired when Americans were being beheaded in the Middle East. I think that was the last straw. I remember reading the the network (UPN at the time?) put a lot of pressure on WWE after that.

Now with that said, I think most people miss Hassan. As pointed out, he was a clear "you hate me because I hate America" type of heel. The thing that made him so interesting is that he was making valid points. Even if you didn't like him due to his standard heel persona, I think most people would agree that he was decent on the mic and had a good look. He could have been something. In fact, he could have probably been one of the biggest heels ever if they had the balls to go that way.

 

[TheBottomLine]

My only memory of Hassan was Royal Rumble 2005. Raw guys got together,Smackdown guys got together,and started beating on guys from the opposite brand. Next thing you know, Hassan's music hit and everyone just stopped, and waited for him to get in the ring, as soon as he got in, they got him in a circle and absolutely whipped his ass. He was thrown out by everyone, then as he was leaving, Scotty 2 Hotty was about to enter until Hassan angrily attacked him. I never heard heat like that before in my life!