7 Wrestling Characters I Read Way Too Much Into

Muhammad Hassan was an unfortunate victim of modern society's insatiable desire not only to judge a book by its cover, but to also take only the most cursory of glances at the cover before making the judgement. The world was still dealing with the fallout from what happened on 11 September 2001, and it obviously wasn't ready for this particular social experiment.

Muhammad Hassan wasn't an Arab American you see. His name was Mark Copani, an Italian American, and when he arrived on RAW in 2004 he was just 23 years old. In a brave social experiment, Copani became Muhammad Hassan to see just how much perception clouded reality when it came to Americans and the Arab world.

Hassan's mission statement was clear; as an Arab American he wanted reconciliation in the post-9/11 world. Despite frequently stating this, Copani's new identity received only distrust and negativity. His theory, that this prejudice was inherent, was being proved correct. Encouraged by these results, Copani started to ramp up the Arab aspects of his character, and was delighted by the clear correlation between these increases and increased hostility from the crowd.

Problems began to truly arise for Copani when he started to single out announcers Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. His experiment was proving a success, but Copani was in too deep. Mark Copani was swallowed up by Muhammad Hassan, as the Italian turned Arab American revelled in the spotlight. His work done, Copani hatched a plan to reveal the prejudices of the audiences in their fullest.

Without saying a word, Hassan and a group of masked cohorts attacked the Undertaker. The audience, both in the arena and at home, screamed foul play and faux terrorism. Mark Copani had ceased to exist, and he had become the man he thought the crowds would assume he was from the get-go.

Either that or WWE just wanted to capitalise on world affairs at the time.