10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2005
2. WWE Airs Muhammad Hassan’s Attack
UPN pointed the finger of blame squarely at WWE for this incident, but the company would be forgiven for asking some questions themselves. After all, their SmackDown show had already been taped days earlier and shipped off to the station for airing on 7 July. Bruce Prichard later claimed that nothing could be done to edit the footage back then due to technological limitations, but surely someone should've screened the episode and realised: 'Yeah, we can't air this right now'.
A terror attack in London, England took place on 7 July. Later that same day, UPN showed the latest SmackDown, and it included a controversial (to say the least) segment involving Muhammad Hassan and The Undertaker. During it, Hassan led a group of hooded men in a violent attack on 'Taker, then they carried his unconscious body out in ceremonial fashion.
It was in poor taste and was definitely edgy to begin with, but the real-life misery people were going through made things even worse. This was a PR disaster, both for WWE and UPN, and the TV network weren't happy about it. They felt like they'd been hung out to dry by the promotion. In reality, nobody had any way of predicting what'd happen in the real world.
The timing was atrocious. To people worldwide, it looked like WWE were glorifying what had just happened in London and were not-so-subtly trying to turn that fear into a wrestling storyline. It was difficult to look at Hassan's brutal ambush of Undertaker any other way, to be honest.
It wasn't long until the Muhammad Hassan character was pulled from shows.