15 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: Muhammad Hassan
14. How Copani’s Family Reacted To The Change
Understandably, Marc himself was a bit taken aback when Cornette told him all about WWE's plan. He immediately went to his family to break the news, and they were "trepidatious" about the whole thing. Some of them rightly pointed out that tensions were still running high post-9/11, so they wanted Copani to be careful he didn't get into a whole heap of trouble away from the ring.
That was a reasonable response considering safety was a real issue.
Copani made one thing crystal clear to his concerned family though - there was zero chance of him saying no to WWE and knocking back the chance to appear on top programming like Raw or SmackDown. He'd worked too hard to reach this moment, and now things were about to pay off. Marc admitted to VICE that he didn't really stop to properly think about what he might be getting himself into with the Muhammad Hassan character.
He was just far too excited about finally going up a few rungs on the pro wrestling ladder. Ex-WWE peer Maven told the doc's producers that everyone could see that Copani had talent. However, there were a few sideways looks once the locker room learned what kind of gimmick he'd be playing.
Even that was up in the air, because WWE hadn't totally fleshed out what Hassan was supposed to represent. In retrospect, that sounds daft, but Copani himself viewed the persona differently to McMahon. He'd lose that battle eventually, but the aspiring star did think he could pull off something a little more intelligent than wrestling characters typically were.