7 Times WWE Sold Out Its Fans

1. Muhammad Hassan

Oh, dear, Lord. Where to even begin with this one? The early 2000s were a turbulent time for the entire world. Post 9/11, the very face of geopolitics had changed with the rising threat of extremism creating panic and discord.

One of the most unfortunate consequences of it, one which still reverberates in the modern day, was the rise of fearmongering and animosity towards Muslims in general. Something bad people on both sides of the breach took advantage of to further their own agendas, while continuing to hurt the innocent.

At times like this, you need your pop culture entities and your icons to stand up and promote unity. Or if you're WWE, simply do the opposite to see if you can make a profit.

The Muhammad Hassan gimmick was so abhorrently terrible, it still draws amazement as to how a multinational billion dollar company could approve it. To begin with, Hassan’s character focused on calling out the audience for hating Muslims, which was a legitimate issue at the time and still is, and he was presented as the bad guy.

The following segments were no better and it all culminated in a moment which remains the absolute antithesis of what a good entertainment product should be. Hassan prayed to summon a bunch of goons dressed in terrorist like gear, who carried off The Undertaker. The character got binned off immediately after this, although even this only happened because of the London bombings happening immediately around that time.

For the WWE’s Muslim fan base, you had just seen the show that you love and admire, openly mock the sufferings of your people and paint someone talking about it as both bad, and having the power to magically create terrorists. Thanks Vince, thanks.