Muhammad Hassan Was Too Controversial For WWE

Muhammad Hassan might be the only person to ever be fired for being too good of a heel #wwe #wrestling #muhammadhassan

[@marvjr_07]

From WWE to becoming a principal what a career ngl

[@MiguelLopez-yc2rh]

I wonder what kind of jokes his students must play at him

[@MiguelLopez-yc2rh]

@@incendiq Its the internet era. Its basically impossible to hide such thing from kids and parents

[@TomCat-zo5ig]

Impressive dude for sure.

[@BaltimoreBaby93]

Kane is the mayor of Knox County

[@SLICK8116]

@@marvjr_07 so he makes 30k😅🤣wat a life

[@KingGeorgieIII]

This guy isn’t even Arab He’s Italian! He played the character so well

[@RobertoHernandez-cx4yt]

He is arab. What are you talking about?

[@GoReachPastElevation]

@@RobertoHernandez-cx4ytgoogle his real name, Marc Julian Copani, unless I’m missing a joke here

[@fowloffreedom476]

@@RobertoHernandez-cx4yt he’s Italian. His character was Arabic

[@RobertoHernandez-cx4yt]

@fowloffreedom476 Just by looking at him he might be the mix of italian & arab. Because he also have a arab decent on him

[@bzilla-d4i]

​@@RobertoHernandez-cx4ythe's 100% southern Italian

[@shadowitz1789]

Muhammad Hassan's character was too intelligent for the crowd, he was heel who told the 100% truth

[@Soldmysoulforablurayplayer]

He was like an early CM Punk.

[@zoroarkking18]

Shit before he had a bunch of masked guys attack Taker, he wasn't even much of a heel on paper. They only booed him bc they were ignorant

[@gk2370]

He was spitting facts on the mic, and the fans just chant "USA! USA!" Like a bunch of ignorant sheep.

[@JJ-bp1ju]

Like most heels they are usually right

[@maverickhunter24]

Especially when they are an minority. ​@@JJ-bp1ju

[@aceofpittsburgh]

"that character would never fly today" 😮 Dang bro, great choice of words haha Edit: this comment really blew up!

[@IAmToDd6691]

Yeah I caught that too lol. Pretty smooth.

[@aceofpittsburgh]

@@IAmToDd6691 that had me dying hahaha

[@StephWes]

Still playing that heel persona

[@alecjordan6100]

💀

[@yumeplaystudios]

@@user-ve6dw2xx8nkayfabe wise he is, ur right though

[@sonicheroxd5767]

I remember reading the original plan was for Hassan to beat Undertaker at Great American Bash and then go on to actually beat Batista and win the world title at SummerSlam that year Imagine if WWE went through with that and had Hassan win the title in WASHINGTON DC. The nation's capital.

[@retributionalhazard8626]

That would have been insane but fans are crazy he'd probably shot at or stabbed at some point cause not everyone understands it's a character

[@joshuaottley7902]

The interesting thing is, he wasn't Arab. Definitely looked the part. But if I remember, hes Italian.

[@ForeverDegenerate]

Sicilian, yep.

[@timtorn8591]

From Canada, no less

[@Hollow9444]

You used Google not remembered but yes, correct

[@ibrohiem]

The most insulting thing was he was confronted by Chris Benoit for disrespecting America and got beat up, even though Chris was Canadian and Hassan's character was American citizen. The crowd got conditioned to cheer for the white guy.

[@1stclasscheshire25]

​@Hollow9444 How dare his brain possibly remember something like it's supposed to? No brains remember anything!

[@JMB1017]

His theme song still slaps after all these years

[@sangredeindio3103]

Haha for real its says "an alien an alien an alien" 👽😂

[@2Good2BeTrue45]

His theme song was both cool as hell and funny, it was amazing how his theme song just triggered the fuck out of everyone😂

[@mehshutup3041]

Alayeya alayeya

[@cest_ghetto0581]

Fo sho 😂😂

[@mr.jglokta191]

Hassan vs Dominik might be the only way people would stop booing Dominik at this point hahaha

[@MoeCamera]

Yeah because America is islamaphobic. Just look at how they’re supporting what isreal is doing

[@TheUnknownDanish]

Nah, the way Americans hate their own country nowadays, they would probably cheer that character.

[@whyphy2213]

As a Muslim, I liked his character. I thought it was cool to see a Muslim in WWE at the time. I didn’t know until years later he wasn’t muslim/arab but it was cool to see someone like him

[@Ezoogie]

Now you have terrorist sympathisers like Rami Sebei on WWE so, you know...

[@afrodesiac8064]

They had us all living lies. Like how Yokozuna was really Samoan 😆

[@YaBish1]

Yes and he spoke some the truth the people didn't want to hear

[@spdutahraptor777]

​@@afrodesiac8064and taker wasn't really dead

[@daviddalda6856]

​@@spdutahraptor777what?? Seriously?? I Believe he was dead ,he didnt die in the buried alive match vs kane ?? wtf 😮😅

[@kevinh5780]

He was so amazing at this role, it sucked what happened to him. Much respect for giving the character everything he did to make it work.

[@SamsungA-nz5ol]

He is underrated

[@zacharyfurlong3363]

He was my vice principal in high school

[@jasonbliss4424]

Fulton NY?

[@zacharyfurlong3363]

Yeah fulton

[@erinpilla]

NGL, he was VERY CONVINCING 😂

[@Natedogg406]

He was supposed to get a massive push and become WORLD heavyweight champion

[@GNS-QuickSplit]

That character definitely wouldn’t FLY today🤣🤣🤣

[@farledj3461]

"Obviously more things than that". Every middle eastern person felt that.

[@Nite-wl6wg]

He's Italian but got middle eastern blood

[@kravethedream]

He was the Yokozuna of his era. If you know, you know

[@juanorozco1971]

Or Nicolai Volkoff

[@rockarola55]

I bloody well hate that expression. Are you suggesting that you have insider knowledge or are you just too lazy to write *one* more sentence?

[@kravethedream]

@@rockarola55 I bloody well hate when people who are so called wrestling fans are not smart enough to comprehend statements. Are you just too lazy to use your brain?

[@spacecase7504]

​@@rockarola55 to elaborate, I believe this guy is actually Italian

[@admcomet8193]

​@@rockarola55And Yoko was samoan

[@mattmorgan2534]

My OVW brother

[@wesmyone9562]

Losing your job, for being too good at it...That's crazy🤦🏿‍♂️...

[@MiguelLopez-yc2rh]

That alone should give him a place in the hall of fame

[@wesmyone9562]

@@MiguelLopez-yc2rh Hmm, that's an idea, then again, they kinda tarnished the hall of fame by putting people in that shouldn't be, if you ask me

[@owleighteen2944]

I agree. They should have never fired him. Instead, they should have gave him a different gimmick to play.

[@wesmyone9562]

@@owleighteen2944 Simply as that👍🏿

[@polsdofer]

​@owleighteen2944 to not give the guy another chance to do something else is bullshit. In any other profession that's probably wrongful firing. You know Vince gave him that gimmick but probably got pissed at him that his own gimmick failed.

[@darklyripley6138]

“That character would never fly today” Apparently he couldn’t fly back then either. Which is probably why he kept getting checked!

[@lovefist86]

He was hated for telling the truth. Those crowds were too ignorant and too self-centered and hateful to realize that.

[@WWRNC]

He was booked in tasteless fashion there at the end with the London bombings, so it was bad booking more than it was him being too good of a heel. They should’ve scrapped the angle and never aired it. The character could’ve continued and perhaps toned the stuff down, but completely abandoning it was such a bad call.

[@thecodester6669]

It was not on wwe's call. It was upn's call. They probably would had just apologized(which they did) and tone him down. But upn pretty much said: get rid of him or you lose smackdown on our station

[@WWRNC]

@@thecodester6669 Right, which I’m saying that they should’ve never aired it in the first place. Why nobody thought it was a bad idea at the time, I’ll never understand.

[@thecodester6669]

@@WWRNC and smackdown was taped, so they could, but the evil mental "genius" of vince said let the ball roll. And muhammad was only their for like 6 months

[@imaratspal]

@@WWRNC Because Vince is racist, he took a gimmick that was working as a lens on America but then decided to make it into a terrorist gimmick by bringing people with ski-masks to attack the Undertaker and carry out Daivari like he's a martyr. Vince is thinking, "oho, the people will eat it up! The terrorist stuff will get so much heat." It's Vince's inability to read the room.

[@jasoninflagstaff]

​@imaratspal had nothing to do with racism. Vince McMahon, like the territories before him,knew there was bread to be buttered by playing with current events. He had Sgt slaughter pay a Saddam sympathizer. The iron shiek became a thing bc of the Iran hostage thing. Soviet dudes during the cold War. Japanese heels for half a century after pearl harbor...etc,etc,& et al. Calling him "racist" is lazy. The Muhammad hussan thing might have been too far for the censors,but it worked to get heat for a reason,& everyone in the comments with "he was telling the truth about America!" are missing the point,as usual. Everyone knew it was the truth,but nobody wanted to hear that sh*t from terrorists and/or sympathizers defending the bottom of the barrel of humanity. Exactly why bin laden's "letter to America" only got popular 20 years after the fact,mostly because of 20 year old kids on tiktok who couldn't fill a thimble with what they know about just how lucky they are to have been born in the US,and buy hook-line-sinker the perpetually online nonsense about this nation being "evil".

[@risin2thatop]

It be cool to see Undertaker interview him on his podcast

[@pleaseshutup7053]

Real shame we never got hassan vs JBL

[@codesm96]

It's ironic that both of them were heels

[@Nick-up5wv]

Cena fighting him for America could've been great too! For modern time imagine if Cody fought him at the Great American Bash PPV. FANTASTIC tv!😊

[@cappy2282]

His character was a good guy

[@kevinmora8551]

Nobody ever realizes

[@dkres82]

Until he started getting terrorists to help him you could probably make that argument.

[@codesm96]

@@dkres82 Come on, if they were really Kayfabe terrorists, they would have plot to destroy the arena and let off some pyro which damaged the ring or something. It wasn't that blatant, it was an ambush on Taker, ambushes happen all the time in wrestling.

[@Madallen2002]

Which is funny saying it wouldn't fly today when it wasn't even able to fly in 2005 once it got too real.

[@Guagex]

Meanwhile.....The unAmericans

[@TheGreatSerpentor]

He seems like a pretty cool dude.

[@joeboggio4002]

Wow, I was never expecting to see him interview

[@czw321]

I was pretty new to wrestling at the time and remember thinking Muhammad Hassan was gonna be a good guy when I saw the vignettes

[@StopCapN]

The crowd were the heels

[@JoseCamposSegovia]

He has the best promo and titantron. Still listen to this day

[@justinwhu5918]

Muhammed Hassan was my favorite heel next to JBL

[@williamheath8827]

NGL, he was one of my favorite wrestlers when i still watched wrestling. I thought one day he could have turned face but, during the times was better as a heel

[@afrodesiac8064]

Hassan was a great heel. I used to love hos segments. This was an interesting time for WWE newcomers. Characters like Hassan or Chris Masters got a massive push then were immediately sent to the Upside-down.

[@coreymallard6650]

Imagine doing what you’re told to do by your boss, and then getting fired for it. I really felt for him man. WWE promoted the ideology of taking every opportunity you’re offered, no matter what. So glad things are different now

[@shobinedvin5175]

I Still Remember His Promos. That's It, He Made It.

[@WhiteShadowForce]

"That character would never fly today" 😂😂😂

[@mattayoubi9829]

One of the greatest heels ever. Was world championship material and probably could have been one of the greats.

[@rezaganjizadeh4263]

I think they were trying to do an Iron Shiekh gimmick with him

[@Nick-up5wv]

That was my take.

[@rajamicitrenti1374]

I still remember I was starting to get on board with Hassan's message and thought he might shift into a tweener. And then that promo happened.

[@jeyrascall2062]

We loved this guy. 🇨🇦

[@rendigica1566]

This guy had so much charisma, the man behind the gimmick could've been a world champion! His promo work was amazing, really wish his career took off

[@codesm96]

A lot of the boys were jealous of him having this gimmick and doing it so well, they knew he was going to make big money if it kept going as he started getting heat but sadly they released him for being too real

[@spacecase7504]

This is the interview I'm very interested in. Chris always pulls in great interviews

[@quichap]

They went too far with the head bagging in ring terrorists angle. That crossed a line. Really unfortunate because he was such a great heel.

[@kamenrideromega9183]

Watched him live in Australia and he was so damn good! He is one of my favourites just hiw he could get such a reaction!!

[@dr.daredvil612]

This guy had such a great heat. There's no good heel in WWE nowadays except for Dominick and maybe Drew.

[@ferncruz4250]

Goated character I really wanted him as a world champion back then

[@HORNETSTV1881]

Never understood why they didn't just give him a whole new character

[@JSteeleTheReal]

Loved his character it was something new and controversial like they said the anger was top notch everytime he showed up he meant serious business lol from the crowd stand point of reactions and loud boos everytime he speaks he was Dom before Dom

[@MrPilgrim]

He looks like the guy in John Wick 4 lol

[@user-jx1nd2vu3s]

When big men wear 3 piece suits ,the suit always looks baggy always ,like the giants are wrapped in clothing

[@Schmidtactular]

I think the character would totally work today. He's angry about being discriminated against and he makes the crowd angry because he feels that every slight and setback is apart of the discrimination he faces. He's angry and he's blaming everyone. That right there is something that would definitely get over. It would get the younger audience riled up because kids loathe heels that complain, and it would push the right buttons with a sizeable portion of the older audience who get angry when they feel fingers are being pointed at them.

[@SnipingIsFun]

Depends on how you do it though because it could easily come off as pandering and virtue signaling.

[@igweugo]

I think the character would work great today, simply off of the strength of , up until they jumped the shark, where everything he said and stood for was the truth. Outside of talking bad on the folks who disrespected him, he never really did anything hellish. With time, folks would've eventually started to listen... and then it'd be on what WWE was looking to do. No idea if Vince would've gone for the nuance, but "The Patriot" could've been a great arc to extend things with

[@callmebob2466]

How many missed opportunity from WWE that time. They had the best midcard ever, but burnt every single star in few years.

[@cleon24769]

I always felt bad for the guy who played that character, but I'm glad he looks back on it with . . . not pride or gratitude, but he sees the bright side of it. Very respectable.

[@ufcfan890]

i never understood why he wasnt just moved back to raw since upn didn't want him on the network anymore,kind of messed up that he was punished just for doing his job,the wwe didn't even take care of him after he was let go even though this whole thing was their fault

[@AnthonyJohnson-jp3ht]

Was even more crazy is Vince gave him that character... Setting him up for failure.

[@Abominable_Intelligences]

He was the heir to Iron Sheik, he did it so well

[@donelllige670]

Mohammed Hassan was a character great sometimes you have to play on the era the generation and current times it was going on

[@stampederealty]

Muhammad Hassan was a great character that I agreed with. We needed that mirror held up to us, but I also get that WWE should have cut that segment. That's on the company but unfortunately the wrestler took the bad end of the stick

[@Butiguessilovememore]

We need the mirror today with all the fake social justice we have to endure

[@BobbyG716]

His character was believable to the point people actually thought and still think Muhammad Hassan is Arab American. When in real life he's actually Italian

[@williammoore1980]

Vince profiting off of tragedy? No, how can that be?

[@joegalante2325]

Great heel, great talent.

[@colin6603]

He wasn’t too good of a heel, he was fired due to outside circumstances which deemed the character he was playing too unsavory for WWE.

[@Garibaldi1]

I have no idea why but I loved this guy. Seen him at a raw in calgary I believe

[@azfar188]

GIVE ME SOME OF THOSE PEAS

[@derekcwly]

GIMME SUMMA DEM PEAZ! I HAD PEAZ BEFOAR!

[@Mr.HootieHooRDK]

He should have been a baby face. I hated the stereotypes in the WWE. We had no right to hate him just because he looks different or because certain people of his race did something wrong. Should of had the top baby faces team up or have them help each other out. Yes he was a great heel but a lot of WWE fans don't know the difference and needed this life lesson i felt we needed to learn.😊

[@Mr.HootieHooRDK]

About respecting others and not judging people based on their looks and religion but the judge them on their personality

[@ardianpratama5143]

There was a serious talk to give him World Heavyweight champion, too bad we couldnt see that!!

[@yousefalshammari7990]

Even though majority of what he said in WWE was right they booed him it’s tells you how terrible to be Arab in America post 9/11 as Arab my self

[@Piqueblinders11]

Because your people did it…. You blame white people all the time for things they have nothing to do with…so take your accountability when it’s your people. Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it….

[@Piqueblinders11]

To this day Muslims commit genocide in west Papua… to this day 300 million Christian’s are currently persecuted in Muslim countries….take accountability and look at your own for once and see why it is

[@gaganbhullar6137]

Really cool that he said he felt anger when Shawn would get stopped at airports. It was a messed up time back then but thankfully it’s gotten better now

[@Butiguessilovememore]

Now it's white people who get discriminated against so it's fine

[@jerrylopez2249]

He is super underrated. He was on the path to the main event scene .

[@BofaMahnuts]

He was soo underrated. The writers screwed him. He could've went far

[@josephlascola6592]

He could play an older Ezio in live action assassins creed

[@ForTheMoneyCash]

He was a great heel I hated him 😂

[@garrymclaughlan6433]

Hassan was in his own class, could go, was hated.

[@JalenPrice_252]

The fact that he didn’t even get an IC or US title run is beyond me. He was hated and he didn’t even have to try. He put in his headpiece, went out in front of the crowd and got heat beyond measure. And he wasn’t controversial. Now Goldust, Val Venis, Sable and HBK those are your controversial figures.

[@Big7Gaming313]

Imagine the type of heat he would’ve had if they put the championship on him

[@digitalmarketinghumans]

Never forget the time that the fans started chanting "USA, USA, USA" at Seth Rollins while he was a heel. LOL that's how intellectual U.S. wrestling fans are.

[@worldelite5016]

Way a head of his time. He was speaking facts and he should be a 5x world champion. If he went to NJPW, no doubt he would have a lot of opportunities and have a great dream match againts Kazuchika Okada.

[@gruss512]

The WWE shouldn't have been scared! They should have gone all in! Would have been the greatest heel of all time!

[@mikevicchiarelli2369]

Guy looks like my toughest looking math teacher in college

[@TheUndeniableUndesirable]

You damn right “that character would never fly today” 🤣✈️ MUHAMED HASSAN 💀 no fly list for you buddy lmaoo

[@akguzman]

Hes making a comeback.....sort of...in video game form in the video game called the wrestling code..

[@Iffeany260]

I love when he talked shit about American society in his segments. It was so pure because it was true and now fast forwards 2024 everything that was said was the damn truth

[@Butiguessilovememore]

Yes but now it's the left that is like what he dunked...which I'm sure you'd never admit

[@michaelcontreras3931]

RAW vs Smackdown 2006 uuuufff

[@theonetheonlyjoey]

"that character would never fly today" it didn’t fly at the time either 😂

[@jamesromualdez1405]

it happened in 2005, where wokeness doesn't exist

[@K_91]

He was so underrated I personally thought he was great

[@Whynotthem65]

I remember this and great heel. He got a raw deal

[@sirdzl7105]

He was never, ever "too good"... just wrong place wrong time

[@routineproofmusic454]

Tbf, I remember the first time round... It was incredibly offensive at the time ha ha.

[@UGOkilleth]

Imagine doing exactly what you're told for your job and then being fired for doing it too well - corporate murica.

[@ADG.Est.1988]

Thr character deserved a longer run.

[@sarmadhabibkhan3036]

"That character would not fly today" There's a joke to be made there but for the sake of civility, I'll avoid it.

[@edwardpalmer187]

I was there for this as a fan

[@gabeguzman9478]

Crazy how he was too controversial for wwe considering all the crazy shit they have done in the past

[@FirebrandAL]

Greatest missed opportunity in the last 20 years. Really did a great job of being an untraditional heel foreigner - then they chop shotted the shittiest terrorism angle in history and that was it. So much potential.

[@Superman_305]

1. That gimmick was just one of the many idiotic ideas ol vince ever came up with and 2. I don't give a damn if it's the snoozefest wwe nor how much he was being pay he should've never bowed down to vince and agree to use that gimmick especially after one of if not the worst times in united states history. It's not that hard to say no to something especially something idiotic.

[@gagejernigan5277]

I mean Jinders character works I don’t see why Hassan’s wouldn’t

[@aaviles1948]

Because Hassan was a Terrorist character, Jinder is just an Indian character.

[@gagejernigan5277]

@@aaviles1948 but I mean the Muslim undertones are obvious in both

[@EyanZ1997]

⁠@@gagejernigan5277no? Jinder is just an Indian character that does the typical patriotic for their country trope. Hassan was literally booked to have a terrorist as an Arab angle. It’s not just about having Muslim undertones. One of them was literally a Muslim character while the other…was just Indian not even Muslim. Secondly, the angle coincided with the London bombings so it’s just bad timing

[@ITSHIM1294]

Hassan’s character was about Arab Americans facing prejudices for 9/11 Definitely not the same

[@ibrohiem]

​@@aaviles1948 Hassan wasn't a terrorist character. WWE understood it's crowd for being stupid thinking Arab equals bad and white guys equal good. They conditioned people to cheer Hassan being beat up when he was telling the truth.

[@SomiariTobin]

I disagree that character wouldn’t fly today . The character COULD exist , but he could not be a heel and his valid discontentment with a country that does not love him or people who look like him being met with jingoism could be a powerful story to tell .