Post by Eat Defeat. on Jul 6, 2010 19:55:42 GMT -5
Was the first step in a chain reaction which saw the demise of the character known as Muhammad Hassan. 
On the July 7 episode of SmackDown! taped on July 4, General Manager Theodore Long put Muhammad Hassan in a match against The Undertaker at The Great American Bash and placed Daivari in a match that night against the Undertaker. Daivari was defeated easily, but Hassan began to "pray" on the ramp, summoning five masked men, dressed in black shirts, ski-masks, and camo pants. Armed with clubs and a piano wire, they beat and choked the Undertaker out, and Hassan put him in the Camel Clutch. Afterward, the masked men lifted Daivari above their heads and carried him away. Three days later, hours before the episode was scheduled to air, the London bombings took place. Without sufficient time to properly edit the segment out of the show, UPN showed the footage unedited in the United States and on The Score in Canada with an advisory warning shown several times during the broadcast. It was removed from the Australian and European (including in the UK) broadcasts.
The angle elicited national attention in the New York Post, TV Guide, Variety, and other major media outlets. In response to the criticism, UPN decided that it would monitor the storyline closely and that it did not want the Hassan character on its network that week. Hassan later delivered a promo to the live crowd for the July 14 airing of SmackDown!, but when UPN announced that the segment would be edited, WWE decided to host the video of the segment on its official website. In the segment, Hassan, reiterates that he is an Arab-American and that the American people automatically and unfairly assume that he is a terrorist. Despite being in character, he referred to the real-world media coverage of the storyline, singling out the New York Post's Don Kaplan by name, and denouncing his description of the events on SmackDown!, such as Kaplan's comment of the masked men being "Arabs in ski masks".
On the July 14 episode of SmackDown!, Hassan's absence was explained by a statement delivered by his lawyer, which said that Hassan refused to appear on the show until that month's Great American Bash due to the way he had been treated by the media and WWE fans.
It was revealed in late July 2005 that UPN had pressured WWE to keep Hassan off of their network, effectively removing him from SmackDown! However, Hassan had been booked as the winner in his number one contender's match against the Undertaker at The Great American Bash, setting up a Batista-Hassan match for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam and winning the title. With no chance of having Hassan wrestle on SmackDown!, the Undertaker won the match instead. At the Great American Bash, after Hassan's loss, he was given the Last Ride through an open stage ramp onto a concrete floor where it was reported that he sustained serious injuries and had to be rushed to a nearby medical facility, apparently a solution aimed to end the Hassan character.
Several days later, WWE.com hosted a video of a kayfabe announcement from Theodore Long, where he reiterates the stipulation that Hassan would no longer appear on SmackDown!. He said to Hassan, "You can go to Raw, or you can go anywhere else in the world. But as far as I'm concerned, you can go to hell!!"
Due to increasing public pressure, the WWE was forced to later drop the character altogether, sending Copani and Daivari to their developmental territories to alter their gimmicks. This resulted in huge fan backlash, mostly because Hassan was at the height of popularity (or notoriety, as it would be, since the character was a villain). Copani was released from his WWE contract on September 21, 2005.
But at least before he went we got a video game character:
And action figure!
R.I.P Muhammad Hassan - 2004 - 2005.
We barely knew thee.
On the July 7 episode of SmackDown! taped on July 4, General Manager Theodore Long put Muhammad Hassan in a match against The Undertaker at The Great American Bash and placed Daivari in a match that night against the Undertaker. Daivari was defeated easily, but Hassan began to "pray" on the ramp, summoning five masked men, dressed in black shirts, ski-masks, and camo pants. Armed with clubs and a piano wire, they beat and choked the Undertaker out, and Hassan put him in the Camel Clutch. Afterward, the masked men lifted Daivari above their heads and carried him away. Three days later, hours before the episode was scheduled to air, the London bombings took place. Without sufficient time to properly edit the segment out of the show, UPN showed the footage unedited in the United States and on The Score in Canada with an advisory warning shown several times during the broadcast. It was removed from the Australian and European (including in the UK) broadcasts.
The angle elicited national attention in the New York Post, TV Guide, Variety, and other major media outlets. In response to the criticism, UPN decided that it would monitor the storyline closely and that it did not want the Hassan character on its network that week. Hassan later delivered a promo to the live crowd for the July 14 airing of SmackDown!, but when UPN announced that the segment would be edited, WWE decided to host the video of the segment on its official website. In the segment, Hassan, reiterates that he is an Arab-American and that the American people automatically and unfairly assume that he is a terrorist. Despite being in character, he referred to the real-world media coverage of the storyline, singling out the New York Post's Don Kaplan by name, and denouncing his description of the events on SmackDown!, such as Kaplan's comment of the masked men being "Arabs in ski masks".
On the July 14 episode of SmackDown!, Hassan's absence was explained by a statement delivered by his lawyer, which said that Hassan refused to appear on the show until that month's Great American Bash due to the way he had been treated by the media and WWE fans.
It was revealed in late July 2005 that UPN had pressured WWE to keep Hassan off of their network, effectively removing him from SmackDown! However, Hassan had been booked as the winner in his number one contender's match against the Undertaker at The Great American Bash, setting up a Batista-Hassan match for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam and winning the title. With no chance of having Hassan wrestle on SmackDown!, the Undertaker won the match instead. At the Great American Bash, after Hassan's loss, he was given the Last Ride through an open stage ramp onto a concrete floor where it was reported that he sustained serious injuries and had to be rushed to a nearby medical facility, apparently a solution aimed to end the Hassan character.
Several days later, WWE.com hosted a video of a kayfabe announcement from Theodore Long, where he reiterates the stipulation that Hassan would no longer appear on SmackDown!. He said to Hassan, "You can go to Raw, or you can go anywhere else in the world. But as far as I'm concerned, you can go to hell!!"
Due to increasing public pressure, the WWE was forced to later drop the character altogether, sending Copani and Daivari to their developmental territories to alter their gimmicks. This resulted in huge fan backlash, mostly because Hassan was at the height of popularity (or notoriety, as it would be, since the character was a villain). Copani was released from his WWE contract on September 21, 2005.
But at least before he went we got a video game character:
And action figure!
R.I.P Muhammad Hassan - 2004 - 2005.
We barely knew thee.
ed up thing is wasn't he supposed to actually beat Taker and win the Title at SummerSlam
