Original plans for Muhammad Hassan in 2005.

[Toothlessagression1980]

Muhammad Hassan was supposed to beat the undertaker at the Great American bash thanks to interference again from the terrorists one of the men would take off the mask and reveal himself to be Randy Orton.

Muhammad was then supposed to go on and defeat Dave Batista at summerslam for the world heavyweight championship.

Muhammad Hassan had great mic skills but was still very green when it came to his in ring skills he needed alot of work in the ring, also his status as one of the greatest heels ever is kind of overrated anybody could get heat portraying the type of character he was playing.

 

[FromGlasgowScotland]

I've never heard him reffered to as one of the greatest heels ever, I haven't even heard his name being mentioned in possibly over 10 years.
I didn't really miss him when he left but still would have liked to see his character played out a bit more.

 

[d_henderson1810]

I always thought that getting rid of Muhammed Hassan was one of the greatest ironies in wrestling.

You see, Hussan was portrayed as your typical Arab heel. He was an Arab-American, angry about being prejudiced against about how he looked, and how he was judged wrongly.

The point was to put a scope on prejudice, and how you can't judge a book by its cover.

Yet, the terrorists attacking Taker, lead by Hassan, showed that he was the very thing he had said he was not. It showed that WWE also had the same prejudice that Hassan spoke against- the belief that being Arab automatically makes you a terrorist and bad person.

Maybe they should have had Hassan go face and chase off the people attacking Taker, and together they fight off the masked men. This would have taught the lesson that even people the news and society tell you to fear can have good people amongst them.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Even w/o the London bombings the Muhammed Hassan character jumped the shark once he had people dressed as terrorists attack The Undertaker.

It was totally out of character since his character is supposed to be an Arab-American upset at America for the prejudice he is facing and not someone that is endorsing terrorism or anything that represents it.

I always felt Hassan could have been a baby face down the line him reconciling with America and but fighting a Xenophobic heels (similar to Swagger / Zeb Coulter ) and would have sent a positive social message about standing up against Racism and Xenophobia. It was an opportunity lost.

On a side note:

I've always heard that Hassan got a lot of heat in the locker room because of the main event push he was getting despite being in the main roster for a short while. I've also heard stories where people got heat in the locker room because of their pushes and how much money they were earning (i.e. Hardcore Holly's book about guys like Puder).

I have a question. Doesn't Mr. McMahon make those decisions? It's his company. If people in the locker room are going to be upset with people getting early huge pushes (like Hassan) shouldn't they be mad at Mr. McMahon and not Hassan?

 

[neildittmar]

Muhammad Hassan... now that's a name I haven't heard referenced in awhile.

If anyone is at fault for the Hassan/Undertaker "terrorist" controversy that ultimately saw him leaving the company, it's Vince as he retains total control over the product... especially in '05. Disclaimer notwithstanding, Vince/WWE chose to air that segment in light of the London bombings. Instead of the company taking the heat for that decision, Hassan did and not in a good "heel" way either.

It frustrates me greatly when talent takes what creative gives them, hits homeruns with it, then gets punished because they did too good of a job.

If the controversy never happened, the success or failure of the character/angle would've ultimately depended on the story creative was trying to tell, and how receptive the fans would be to it. Was Hassan oppressed and mischaracterized as advertised and would slowly win over the audience, turning babyface in the process? Alternatively, did Hassan play up these stereotypes to garner understanding/sympathy, all the while creating/maintaining a "sleeper cell" of sorts within WWE? I would've been equally interested at how either of these scenarios played out of the course of several months, if not a year or so. I think it could've been a major storyline.

Vince/WWE deciding to go forward with airing the angle they did at probably one of the worst times to do so effectively killed any creativity Hassan could've had going forward and ultimately, the character's (and performer's) WWE career itself.