10 Times WWE Went Too Far
3. Muhammad Hassan: Terrorist
The right writing team could have done something big with Muhammad Hassan. A disgruntled Arab American fed-up with societal prejudices had potential in the mid-2000's climate, as, like many of the best wrestling angles, it tied in with what was going in the world around him, and played on the audience's paranoia. But it needed a smart, careful approach to avoid descending into offensiveness, and WWE creative wasn't up to the task.
The Hassan situation was an insensitive mess by the end, and reached its nadir when WWE ran an angle that saw a gang of black-clad pseudo-terrorists jumped The Undertaker on an episode of SmackDown. They battered him with clubs, before garroting the legend with piano wire, the move seemingly done to simulate a beheading. Bad, bad, bad, and made even worse by real-life events.
52 people perished in the London bombings three days afterwards. Outlets like the New York Post, TV Guide, and Variety all slated the company, and SmackDown's network (UPN) put WWE under immense pressure to remove Hassan from television. They did just that, and Muhammad was never seen again after being Powerbombed through the stage to the floor below.