10 Biggest Wrestling Scandals Of The 2000s
2. Muhammad Hassan
It seems like every time WWE try to incorporate the news into its programming, things go very, very wrong. Case in point, the rapid rise and even faster fall of Muhammad Hassan.
Marc Copani, an American wrestler of Italian heritage, debuted on WWE TV in December 2004. Portraying an Arab-American man fed up with the treatment of "his people" in the wake of 9/11, Hassan was designed to prey on the Islamophobia that was rife throughout America at the time. Hassan was generating so much heat that there were plans to make him World Heavyweight Champion at SummerSlam 2005. Those were scrapped after the July 7th episode of SmackDown: the moment the character was doomed forever.
As part of his feud with The Undertaker, Hassan summoned a group of masked men via prayer to lay out The Deadman with clubs and piano wire. In a stunning stroke of bad luck, this pre-taped show aired on the same day that London was rocked by the 7/7 terrorist attacks. In a stunning display of awfulness, WWE aired the segment in the U.S. regardless.
Following pressure from media outlets and their network, WWE got rid of Hassan at The Great American Bash. He was powerbombed through the stage by The Undertaker, and never seen again.