10 WWE Wrestlers Released In The Middle Of A Push

1. Muhammad Hassan

Aleister Black Tales
WWE.com

Few wrestlers in history can claim to have truly left the legendary Undertaker down and out, but that image right there shows Muhammad Hassan decimating the famed Phenom.

Debuting on WWE television in December 2004, Hassan soon found himself butting heads with some of the biggest names in the business. From Steve Austin, to Hulk Hogan, to Shawn Michaels, to Mick Foley, to John Cena, to Batista and more, this white-hot villain was mixing it up physically and verbally with a slew of A-listers.

By July 2005, Muhammad found himself thrown into a rivalry with the Undertaker, with Hassan manhandling the Deadman in ways never before seen.

For the real-life Marc Copani, his wrestling career was thrown up in the air by the atrocities of the 7 July 2005 London bombings. In a segment taped three days earlier but aired that very same night, Muhammad Hassan and five masked attackers brutalised the Undertaker in extremely uncomfortable fashion.

A major backlash followed due to a) this segment happening, period, and b) WWE airing this segment fully aware of the acts that had taken place in London hours prior.

Hassan was kept off TV for a couple of weeks before being squashed by Undertaker at The Great American Bash. From there, the character was removed from all WWE programming, while Copani would be released in September and announce his retirement.

In terms of his push, it was revealed in subsequent years how Muhammad Hassan was due to beat the Undertaker before dethroning Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship at that year's SummerSlam - which would've made him the youngest ever World Champ at just 23 years of age.

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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 dayjob, 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, Jamie Hayer, 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.