WWE: 10 Real Controversies We Want The WWE Network To Cover

3. Muhammad Hassan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZGC6b4eP8Q Vince and the WWE have never been shy to make the most out of real life tragedies. In a post 9/11 America, paranoia and tensions were at an all time high but so too was American patriotism. Cashing in on all of these feelings, WWE came up with one of their most controversial ideas to date, creating an Arab American character to play the heel on their show. Ohio Valley Wrestling star Mark Copani was chosen to play the new character, Muhammad Hassan, despite being 100% Italian by heritage. The storyline was that as an Arab American, Hassan was sick of the stereotyping and suspicion cast upon him because of the events of 9/11. Each of his speeches would be followed by a Persian translation by his manager Daivari and he even vocally praised Allah on TV until pressure from Muslim groups forced him to stop that part of his act. Over the first few months of his WWE run, Hassan was one of the hottest things going on TV. After beating Jerry Lawler in his in-ring debut, Hassan went on an impressive undefeated streak beating wrestlers like Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit in the process. He was then rewarded with a massively high profile feud with Hulk Hogan in 2005 including a big segment at WrestleMania 21 and a match against Hogan and Shawn Michaels at Backlash a month later. Over the next few months, Hassan and Daivari rubbed shoulders with WWE Champion Batista and even John Cena. Soon after, the two were drafted to Smackdown where the most controversial part of their careers was about to happen. On July 4th 2005, Smackdown General Manager Teddy Long put Muhammad Hassan in a match against the Undertaker at the Great American Bash. That night on Smackdown, Daivari was ordered into a match against the Deadman to further punish the Arab team. The Undertaker destroyed Daivari easily but after the bell, Muhammad began to pray on the rampway, bringing out five masked men dressed in traditional terrorist attire of ski masks and camo. The men beat Undertaker down with clubs, choked him out with a piano wire and helped Hassan put him in the Camel Clutch. It wasn't the most controversial thing WWE had ever done in itself, but three days later just hours before it was due to air on TV, the London Bombings happened. UPN claimed no time to edit the footage and it was shown in its entirety on US TV but cut from UK transmissions. National and Worldwide media went bananas, saying the angle was ultra insensitive to the events that happened in London. UPN responded to the anger by insisting that the Muhammad Hassan character be removed from Smackdown for good. WWE tried to execute damage control by having Hassan appear on WWE.com videos saying that his actions weren't that of a terrorist, he just happens to be Arab American. Unfortunately the damage control didn't work. He was written off WWE TV by an Undertaker Last Ride at the Bash and never appeared on WWE TV again. He was released in September of that year and subsequently retired from wrestling apart from one or two novelty appearances at Indie Events. The WWE has since never really commented on the Muhammad Hassan storyline so there are numerous questions that have gone unanswered. Why was Daivari allowed to continue as a star, but Hassan wasn't? The outrage was all towards Hassan as a character, not Mark Copani the person so why wasn't he able to come back to TV as another character? Why was Hassan punished so severely for a decision that was in fairness out of his control? What did Undertaker think of the whole thing? While they obviously regret the segment ever happening and probably want to keep their distance from the subject, there's no reason they can't take an honest look at one of their biggest mistakes. The WWE Network has the power to get all of the people involved back together to finally discuss everything that took place surrounding Muhammad Hassan in 2005.