This is not the first article column I’ve ever written. I have written these before on my old website and probably my best was one on Paul London entitled “London Calling” where I accessed his chances of making it big in WWE. Since then I have ranted about Japanese wrestling, back when I didn’t like it (GASP), and Muhammad Hassan. As you all know Muhammad Hassan, real name Marc Copani, was taken off WWE TV in summer 2005 after a shockingly bad angle that would have been in bad taste enough if it hadn’t have been on the same day as a tragedy
On the 7th of June 2005 terrorists attacked London setting of bombs in underground tube stations as well as blowing up a bus causing death and injuries. The perpetrators were members of a Muslim Religious Group. A couple of days earlier WWE had shot a tasteless angle in which Muhammad Hassan sent Daivari in to battle the Undertaker and given him a pep talk before hand that was something that a suicide bomber would receive. Hassan gave a speech about how Daivari would have to make a “supreme sacrifice” and how his beating would be for “the greater good”. Not surprisingly Taker annihilated Daivari with ease and that should have been all but then WWE sent a bunch of “terrorists” down to the ring where they choked Taker down with piano wire as Hassan dropped to his knees on the outside praying. After the beat down Hassan had the men carry Daivari out in a way with religious overtones.
Obviously, the terrible and viciously repulsive segment had been filmed before the attacks had been committed on London but it was all in the can now so UPN’s lame way of making up for it was to put a small disclaimer at the bottom apologising. To say people were offended and annoyed would be an understatement. Both wrestling fans and non fans alike found it disgusting and it simply made WWE look bad. The attack was edited out of the UK showing the next night and the show instead finished 15 minutes early. This had, in effect, given WWE a way out of the situation.
In a more personal note I was in London on the day of those horrid attacks. I actually live near Manchester but I was on a trip to London, and was actually staying around the corner from Russell Square, one of the stations that were attacked. In one of those “what if?” moments I actually could have got on that station and then got off later but I decided to kill time and take an extra 5 minute walk to another station down the road to avoid having to switch trains too many times. As they say if you have to do more than 3 switches then you really aren’t utilising the Underground to its fullest potential. Whether the bomb on that train would have affected me I thankfully never had to find out. It was 15 minutes or so after I left my accommodation when the bomb on the Russell Square line went off. I can’t remember what station I was in at the time but I was on the way to Greenwich. I do recall having to get off my current train because there was a “short circuit” of something. In actuality they were shutting the whole line down because of the bomb a few stations down.
Anyway before I got off point from my article here I was explaining all of this to show that even though I was very offended by the segment if WWE was willing to place an apology and never try something like that again then I would have been satisfied and would have moved on. I was a particular fan of the Hassan character and felt that WWE were just simply going out of their way to make him as cliché as possible. When the character had debuted it had the possibility to be so fresh and different.
Here was a guy who was an American and because of 9/11 he felt like a prisoner in his own country. Now there’s a character with some angst and a desire to f*ck with guys like Kurt Angle and JBL. Here’s a heel that actually has a right to be pissed off. This had “money” written all over it. Imagine how much they could have played up that he was just an American and have him tease the fans by wearing red, white and blue. He could have been HUGE in the foreign market if he’d been promoted well enough. He could have pointed out that countries in Europe were more liberal minded and tolerant of him and that it was only in the US where he felt persecuted. And to back up his looks he had great mic skills and was miles ahead of the stupid muscle heads in the ring. He had WWE main event style down almost from the start of his debut and he was ready to go at the minute of his debut. Not to mention the marketability he would have abroad and lucrative feuds he could have had with guys like a turned Angle or JBL. Him Vs. Batista would have been another potentially good feud considering Batista’s overness and increased competence in the ring.
However, WWE decided to go a different route and that was the generic “Evil Foreigner” gimmick that somehow HADN’T been worn into the ground by Ludwig Borga, Yokozuna, Iron Sheik and others. Indeed WWE seemed to WANT to make this guy into a mid card joke from the off. Sure he beat mainstays like Jericho and Benoit but to be honest who hasn’t beaten them? I think 95% of the roster has a win over Benoit to his name at some point. No disrespect to Benoit, but seeing Hassan do what jobbers like A-Train had been able to do wasn’t going to get him over. He needed to be beating big name talent or at least bigger named talent than who he was fighting. He failed to get a clean win over Shawn Michaels, needed oodles of cheating to get by Val Venis and need I mention how much of a jobber Hulk Hogan made him out to be?
One thing that came to my attention in the Venis match though was that Hassan had that quality to generate heat not just for himself but for his opponent. Val Venis was lower mid card jobber elite, and even the marks knew that, but for some odd reason the fans were going nuts for Val and when he got the advantage they were starting to believe he had a shot. This could have been down to many things. Daivari was being an absolute arse at ringside by yelling, spitting and doing everything else imaginable to get heat and fans were begging for him to shut up. It was a stark contrast to the almost placid way he patrols ringside today. Added to that was Hassan’s ability to sell and make Venis look like a general threat to him, all the necessary characteristics a heel must show. Fans will hate a heel even more if they think they have a shot to take him out in their inebriated state. Fans would watch Owen Hart and think “Damn I could take him if I got the chance, look at him taking a beating from Bart Gunn” , and that would make them hate Owen even more which is a credit to his skills as a heel.
Showing promise on the mic and in ring Hassan was looking a credible challenger for upper card titles. In fact how he didn’t win the US Championship and have it stapled to his waist was beyond me. However, things took a turn for the better when Hassan was traded to Smackdown in the draft lottery. Being moved to a show with so little genuine star power gave Hassan the opportunity to wrestle nearer the top of the card and that’s what led to the Undertaker feud. Say what you want but the #1 contenders match with Taker was definitely a nod in the right direction from management. They may have done a sub par effort in booking Hassan but they had been satisfied in his skills and were prepared to let him be in contention for the second highest belt in the company.
However, it was then that WWE decided Hassan needed to get some heat on Taker and because Undertaker is the phenom and all it had to be something special. Unfortunately that, in the eyes of whoever wrote this crap, was garrotte gate (pretty nifty huh?). Why oh why they decided to do this was beyond me. I mean out of all the ways you can build up heat for a match this was one of the lamest and most offensive. I mean what the hell happened to Undertaker that he needed all this crap to show him as vulnerable? I mean sure whenever guys found his weakness in the past it somehow led to the urn. You know the drill, heel #236 has a match with Undertaker coming up so he goes for Taker’s natural weakness and steals the urn with some sort of ashes in it. Taker becomes weaker, grabs the urn back and then does nasty things. I mean I will give WWE the benefit of the doubt. After God knows how many years of this you can understand why they felt they needed to freshen the character up a bit but this was ridiculous. What ever happened to good old fashioned heel heat getting methods? All you have to do is look at this scenario. Wrestler A has upcoming match with Wrestler B so in the effort to weaken Wrestler B he destroys his knee with the ring steps and forces Wrestler B to wrestle the match with one bad wheel.
What was stopping Hassan mashing Taker’s leg to shreds with a chair and then locking in a leg submission move? Have the match and then have him work the leg continuously but have Taker gallantly fight back. Just as Taker is about to make the comeback have Randy Orton run in and clip the knee. Then have Hassan put Taker in a submission and have Taker pass out from the pain. In one match you have Hassan as #1 contender and a much stronger heel character, Randy Orton has in effect become the top heel of Smackdown and Taker has lost but in a way which upholds his dignity as he never tapped out and can blame the loss on Orton. See that? No piano wire, no terrorist’s, just good old fashioned wrestling psychology that draws fans into the story and makes them root for Taker. Hassan doesn’t need to win clean, simply making Taker pass out will do wonders for his image and then in the ensuing title challenge with Batista he actually has some legitimacy.
Instead let’s take a look at how the match played out in reality shall we? I have no access to a GAB 2005 tape so Scott Keith graciously let me borrow his review which I’m very grateful to him for.
#1 Contender match: Undertaker v. Muhammad Hassan. It’s funny that for all the time and effort they’ve taken trying to make Hassan into the Arab-American terror of wrestling, Big Brother did 1000 times better with Kaysar, making him into the most wonderfully evil Arab-American on TV in just three weeks. Through the magic of fast-forward (Praise be to Allah for it!) I zip through Hassan’s opening match whining and we cut to the chase. Hassan is of course seconded by a terrorist cell, which is a sentence that you don’t type every day. Of course, since they’re martyring themselves for the cause by standing at ringside for a fixed wrestling match, they’re not the most EFFECTIVE terrorists ever. Hassan dodges Undertaker to start and tries slugging him down in the corner, but loses that battle. Big boot gets two. The ROPEWALK OF DOOM follows, and he gets a downward spiral for two. Of course, that’s also Hassan’s move, which they conveniently forget about. Taker batters him in the corner, but misses a charge and the terrorists get some cheapshots in. The referee warns one of them, which is a pretty strange image in itself if you think about it. I mean, they don’t fear death or legal repercussions, but the guy who gets knocked out by a clothesline makes them stand down? In the ring, Hassan gets a DDT for two. Hassan hits the chinlock, but Taker just stops selling and makes the comeback, slugging him down and then dealing with the terrorists. Sadly, he pulls a Carlo Rizzi and underestimates the guy with the piano wire, and that allows Hassan to get a camel clutch. I have no patience for this bullshit. I hope UPN keeps a tape of this and kicks the WWE off when their contract expires. Taker again casually escapes and beats the crap out of the terrorists, then drops an elbow on Hassan for two. Undertaker should have brought his Druids out of retirement to counteract them. Chokeslam finishes this mess at 8:03 to make Undertaker the #1 contender. Yup. Good thing the WWE would never advertise something and then not deliver, as I look forward to Batista v. Undertaker at Summerslam. 1/2* Taker destroys all the terrorists in a very extended sequence and then powerbombs Hassan through a hole in the stage to get rid of the character once and for all. 911 hot pokers for all this nonsense
And that was the sad end of the Hassan character. Yes he was thrown off the stage and “killed” off once and for all never to return. In all honesty after THAT little showcase I’m pretty certain every shred of dignity the character had had been washed away anyway. Quite frankly WWE had dropped the ball on this one. Although to be honest it was done more down to UPN and foreign TV markets than anything else. Most worldwide broadcasters, including Sky Sports here in the UK, refused to show Hassan anymore due to the piano wire incident. So to be honest the character had been killed already and GAB 2005 was just his formal public killing. Copani has now decided to go into movies and WWE, in their infinite class and sophistication, have placed the blame of the character solely on his shoulders. No they wouldn’t take responsibility for booking him incorrectly. I guess we’re supposed to believe that he came up with the whole idea for Garrotte Gate as well. I wouldn’t put it past them. WWE has messed sure fire things up before and unfortunately Hassan became another statistic.
