What Could Muhammad Hassan Have Done?

[FunKay the Inevitable]

I first have to say apologies if this is in the wrong section or if this topic has been covered before.

Cast your minds back to the summer of 2005, John Cena and Batista are in the midst of their first world title reigns, the draft has just taken place and a fast rising heel and his mouthpiece have been taken to SmackDown. I'm of course talking about Muhammad Hassan and Daivari. Hassan had a winning streak defeating such wrestlers as Chris Jericho and The King and even faced Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels in a tag match with Daivari. When Hassan was drafted to SmackDown, the (reported) plan was as follows: Have him (briefly) feud with the Undertaker over who should become the #1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship (held by Batista) before going on to face Batista for the remainder of the summer and into the autumn (or fall as American's say). However that didn't happen.

Hassan's character was written off of television due to an 'extreme' twist his character had taken. You see, Hassan and Daivari's characters were two Muslim/American's who were upset with the way America continued to stereotype the 'eastern world' in the post 9/11 world. However shortly into the feud, the two characters changed, this is what follwed:

From Wikipedia: On the episode of SmackDown! taped on July 4, General Manager Theodore Long put Muhammad Hassan in a match against The Undertaker at The Great American Bash and placed Daivari in a match that night against the Undertaker. Daivari was defeated easily, but Hassan began to 'pray' on the ramp, summoning five masked men, dressed in black shirts, ski-masks, and camo pants. Armed with clubs and a piano wire, they beat and choked the Undertaker out, and Hassan put him in the Camel Clutch. Afterward, the masked men lifted Daivari above their heads and carried him away. Three days later, hours before the episode was scheduled to air, the London bombings took place.

The WWE omitted the footage from international airings but it remained in the American tapings and was leeked to the internet where fans found it disstasteful to say the least. The Hassan and Daivari character's were written off of television at The Great American bash and shortly afterwards Mark Copani (Hassan's real name) was released and Daivari was brought back to manage Kurt Angle and later Mark Henry & The Great Khali. My question is: What Could the Muhammad Hassan Character have Done in his run with WWE should it have continued?

Personally I believe that Hassan was a good heel character (up until the extreme twist) who did his job well. He had solid in ring work to boot and could have gone on to the main event for awhile. I always thought that Hassan could have done a great deal and won a world title and had a good reign. But these are just my thoughts,what are yours? Was Hassan World Championship material? Or was he just the flavour of the summer?

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

I thin he could have been a great, since the 9/11, all asian wrestlers, such as iranian, arabic, their characters have all been similar, there was muhammad hassan and diavari, sheik abdul bashir who I know what diavari, it's kinda boring seeing the same speechs and promo's about how they grew up in USA and they love the country etc..

So yes, I think muhammad hassan could have had a good title run in the wwe should he have stayed.

 

[MrHashasheen]

If they had kept him as the heel before the extreme twist, his gimmick could have gone far in my opinion. Facing people like Batista, Cena, and others, he could have run for a good while on being an Arab-American being persecuted and in fact pushed around in the lockerroom like Miz did in one of his promos to Raw.

 

[nero_moore]

He was, and still is, possibly one of my favorite heel character Ive seen in the WWE and had all the makings of a champ. Good in the ring, good on the mic, and a pretty good size (we all know vince likes his boys to be big). i really am surprised that vince even had the balls to let that go on the air as he is scared to do anything even slightly controversial. i would say he could have a very good world title run and maybe even form a tag team with khali when he joined the WWE and have hassan as a double champion (world and tag team)

 

[luxferre]

This guy could have been a GREAT character. I remember him debating with King and JR and them saying "if you don't love america then leave" and i was hoping he would correct them. bad writing hurt him here when he could have shone. The whole point of polotics is to make change to what you don't like and he should have gone down this road as opposed to the cliched bomber. WWE dropped the ball on this guy, all because of some bad racial profiling.

 

[hatehabsforever]

Muhammed Hassan could and should have been utilized differently and he could have been huge, a superb heel, if it had happened properly.

I liked his character when he first debuted as the misunderstood Arab American. A guy who dressed in typical American style clothes, acted like a typical American, but claimed to have been unjustly persecuted and discriminated against because of his Arab heritage (kayfabe).


He was an angry guy who cut great promos. "I'm just like all of you, I was born here in Detroit (I think), but I'm treated like an outcast because of my heritage." Which, mind you, I'm sure does actually happen in real life to some guys, especially since 9/11.

The mistake was made when they made him act like a terrorist, dressing in traditional Arab clothing, speaking the foreign language more than he did, and acting in a manner that was too controversial for a post-9/11 world. He could have continued to draw tremendous heel heat in the manner he originally was drawing it, plus he was good in the ring and had a good look. WWE went overboard with it and ruined a good thing. Which was really too bad.

 

[Tastycles]

The Muhammed Hassan character failed not because it wasn't given good direction nor because it wasn't well played by the wrestler, but because it was far too risky a character to maintain. The 80s Soviet wrestlers were good because even though the Soviet Union was the enemy and a consistent threat, there weren't any people in the audience actually suffering at the hands of the Soviets.

The trouble with Hassan is that yes, extremists are the enemy, but they are a very real daily threat, and not just 3,000 miles away but in the towns that wrestling companies are in. Hassan went because of the London bombings, but had it been a year earlier, the Madrid bombings would have been the reason it didn't work, if it had been later it would have been various things that have happened in the war with Iraq, the Mumbai shootings, the list is endless. The Hassan angle would never have worked because a company like WWE, who values patriotism and the forces so much would never risk offending those within the forces by trivialising attrocities. As a result, characters like Hassan don't work.