10 Most Expensive Wrestling Moves Ever

3. WWE Creative Costs Muhammad Hassan

The Undertaker Muhammad Hassan 2005
WWE.com

For Marc Copani, he lost out on potentially years of WWE main event pay - all largely though no fault of his own.

When Copani was called up to Raw in 2004 at the age of 23, he was given the gimmick of Muhammad Hassan. Depicted as a Jordanian-Palestinian who was angry at the stereotypes held by some following the 9/11 tragedy, Hassan became one of the hottest heels in the industry and was soon moved to SmackDown, where he was lined up to become the youngest World Champion in company history.

By all accounts, this rookie was pencilled in to take the World Heavyweight Title from Batista at SummerSlam 2005. Before that, though, Hassan would tangle with the Undertaker. And it was here, where the career of Marc Copani came to a halt.

For some stupid reason, WWE creative decided to have Hassan and a group of ski-masked-adorned assailants attack 'Taker, laying the Phenom out and choking him with piano wire. The attack on its own could be taken as being a little too raw, but the bigger problem was WWE bafflingly decided to run this pre-taped segment on the 7 July 2005 episode of SmackDown... despite the atrocious 7/7 London terrorist bombings having happened earlier that day.

Following the airing of that piano wire attack, Hassan was quickly dropped from WWE television and Copani would be released barely a month later

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.