CymruX2
Mid-Carder
Joined on: Sept 5, 2020 9:35:33 GMT -5
Posts: 312
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Post by CymruX2 on Jul 27, 2021 10:57:13 GMT -5
I was thinking back to guys who could have been big time stars, and one that always crops up in my mind is Muhammed Hassan, the guy was okay in the ring, great mic work and a gimmick that took very little to get heat as a heel.
It was the masked insurgents attacking Undertaker right after the London bombings that cancelled his career in WWE. It was simply bad timing, that no one seemed to picked up on. Which I find odd as matches especially in WWE have to go through so much to get approved.
I really think Hassan vs Cena could have been the Hogan vs Sheik of modern times.
So, what if Hassan didn't get fired what would have been next for him?
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nibs92
Main Eventer
Joined on: May 29, 2008 5:47:21 GMT -5
Posts: 2,240
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Post by nibs92 on Jul 27, 2021 11:16:43 GMT -5
To be honest, the whole angle and gimmick was in poor taste. Was only a matter of time before it was cancelled.
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Ohtimate Wahriah
Main Eventer
WF 10 Year Member
Joined on: Jul 1, 2008 12:35:07 GMT -5
Posts: 2,527
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Post by Ohtimate Wahriah on Jul 27, 2021 11:27:51 GMT -5
Does anybody remember his first few vignettes where he was a baby face? And then all of a sudden they just turned him into a traditional Iron Sheik like heel.
I personally didn’t mind the gimmick, WWE has a history of middle eastern heels. Perhaps times have changed now and everybody from the Middle East doesn’t need to be looked at as a villain right haha, but I always looked at it like how in the action movies, the Russians are always the villains. It’s a predominantly American company putting an American spin on its programming. It was what it was, like I said, times have changed.
I think he had great heat though but how much of that was due to the nature of the gimmick? I like Hassan though, I liked his spin on the gimmick, basically calling out the prejudice of the American fans, it was a good character. He’s a great guy too, I felt bad he got shafted like that. Funny enough, he was an Italian guy so that’s pretty funny too haha
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Post by hbkbigdaddycool on Jul 27, 2021 13:03:06 GMT -5
You could see Cancel Culture starting around that time, so of course Hassan wasn't gonna work in WWE.
The 80s or early 90s?? Definitely! It has been proven so. But in 2005 and beyond?? No way.
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Deleted
Joined on: Apr 25, 2024 20:13:48 GMT -5
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2021 13:43:06 GMT -5
If the London bombings never happened, he was going to be the World Heavyweight Champion and possibly the biggest heel champion there has ever been.
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Post by The Brain on Jul 27, 2021 13:46:14 GMT -5
Man imagine the HEAT if he wouldve won Big Gold in DC at SSlam that year.
I didnt mind em as I thought he played the role to a T.
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Deleted
Joined on: Apr 25, 2024 20:13:48 GMT -5
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2021 13:47:28 GMT -5
Man imagine the HEAT if he wouldve won Big Gold in DC at SSlam that year. I didnt mind em as I thought he played the role to a T. That would have been the perfect place for him to have won it. |
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Post by MKSavage on Jul 27, 2021 19:21:20 GMT -5
Wasn't really watching wrestling at this time. The only thing I remember about him was Hogan got one hell of an ovation when he came out and beat Hassan and his manager up.
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Ohtimate Wahriah
Main Eventer
WF 10 Year Member
Joined on: Jul 1, 2008 12:35:07 GMT -5
Posts: 2,527
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Post by Ohtimate Wahriah on Jul 27, 2021 20:47:03 GMT -5
Man imagine the HEAT if he wouldve won Big Gold in DC at SSlam that year. I didnt mind em as I thought he played the role to a T. He was definitely on his way. He wasn’t a great heel because he was doing the Middle East gimmick, it was great because everything he said was pretty true haha. Cancel culture has always been a thing, people think this is new. Anybody that lived through Mortal Kombat on Sega Genesis knows this Karen BS has always been a thing. People just didn’t feed them as much back then as much as the internet empowers them now. |
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Post by MKSavage on Jul 28, 2021 10:19:11 GMT -5
Man imagine the HEAT if he wouldve won Big Gold in DC at SSlam that year. I didnt mind em as I thought he played the role to a T. He was definitely on his way. He wasn’t a great heel because he was doing the Middle East gimmick, it was great because everything he said was pretty true haha. Cancel culture has always been a thing, people think this is new. Anybody that lived through Mortal Kombat on Sega Genesis knows this Karen BS has always been a thing. People just didn’t feed them as much back then as much as the internet empowers them now. That is very true. It seems now we coddle and give in to people more now than we used to. In the past, we let them complain about something but didn't give in, to the point where they gave up and went on to complain about something else. Need to go back to that. |
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Ohtimate Wahriah
Main Eventer
WF 10 Year Member
Joined on: Jul 1, 2008 12:35:07 GMT -5
Posts: 2,527
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Post by Ohtimate Wahriah on Jul 28, 2021 10:45:12 GMT -5
He was definitely on his way. He wasn’t a great heel because he was doing the Middle East gimmick, it was great because everything he said was pretty true haha. Cancel culture has always been a thing, people think this is new. Anybody that lived through Mortal Kombat on Sega Genesis knows this Karen BS has always been a thing. People just didn’t feed them as much back then as much as the internet empowers them now. That is very true. It seems now we coddle and give in to people more now than we used to. In the past, we let them complain about something but didn't give in, to the point where they gave up and went on to complain about something else. Need to go back to that. Absolutely. I have a theory that all of it is done purposefully. All of these companies probably feel they can make more money catering to these organizations than they can catering to fans. That’s an entire other conversation haha, but the point is, they’ve always been around. |
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Post by Evil Abed on Jul 28, 2021 10:50:42 GMT -5
Idk I found Hassan boring. It was hard for me to not look right through a cheap WWE attempt to generate heat for a guy who was quite bland otherwise.
I always found Daivari to be the more talented of the two.
I feel eventually even if they did give him the World Title at Summerslam like was rumored he would have hit a wall sooner rather than later. A character like that has a shelf life before it gets stale and Vince gets bored. See any foreign heel or monster heel character WWE has produced over the last two decades or so and see how they started versus what they were doing just a few short months later. (Khali, Rusev, Kozlov, Zeke, Umaga, Heidenreich, Snitsky, Tensai, McIntyre (first run), etc…)
Sheamus was the only one off the top of my head that succeeded decently well but even he had quite the dip there in late 2010-2011 where it looked like he might not have recovered.
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Post by JC Motors on Aug 1, 2021 12:03:20 GMT -5
I'm really surprised they didn't try to at least repackage him in some way. Yeah the terrorist gimmick was in extremely poor taste. Sadly that's all he will be remembered for.
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Post by rkmo: 9 Month Warning on Aug 1, 2021 13:12:54 GMT -5
Nothing he spoke about was that far removed from the reality at the time. I remember really liking him, and was one of my characters of choice in SVR 2006. Consider him my first main foray into "smark" fandom, cheering for who I'm meant to boo.
But looking back he was very mediocre in the ring and once Creative would have moved away from the insta-heel foreign gimmick, his career would be limited after that.
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Post by Nivro™ on Aug 1, 2021 13:58:50 GMT -5
I always found it ironic that the same type of people that wanted him "cancelled" for being offended never actually listened to the message he was sending. People always looked at his character and said "oh the terrorist gimmick" when in reality he was portraying that very racist stereotype that Arab Americans were facing at the time. You literally have a character whose gimmick is driven by stereotypes & racism and why they're WRONG....and yet people wanted it cancelled because it could be seen as offensive to Arab Americans.
The ultimate downfall was obviously the taped segment that aired after the London bombings. I still dont understand how WWE/UPN didnt edit that out before airing it though.
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Post by Kill Em' All on Aug 1, 2021 16:45:52 GMT -5
To be honest the best mileage you could get is maybe him as a heel US Champion; maybe challenging for a world title and losing it. I don't think Hassan fit in as a main eventer. I think with Cena and Batista getting there legs under them and with guys like Edge and Orton about to filter into the main event and other staples in the main event. Didn't have a place.
I think Hassan played the character very well; and the character was very strong in the sense of it's 2005 and 9/11 and anti-arab/islamic sentiment was still very very strong. Hassan's promo's were cliche but got crowds pissed off. But; I think even if Hassan gained a World Title it would gain to much negative reception; and or would fizzle out as a angle.
The angle does come from the ignorance of Middle Eastern People groups being ''bad guys''.
And I mean Jinder Mahal was very replicant in gimmick to Hassan. Even though Hassan is portraying a Punjab Character. With Hassan playing if I am not mistaken A Saudi or Arab Nationalist? We have had Iron Sheik as A Persian; and tons of other characters with what you would think have diverse backrounds within various Middle Eastern groups play just a cliche foreign meanice.
And that angle would age even worse in today's time.
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jason1980s
Main Eventer
Joined on: Sept 30, 2009 14:58:56 GMT -5
Posts: 2,311
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Post by jason1980s on Aug 1, 2021 21:35:10 GMT -5
His gimmick waa about 20 years too late but even more than that he got on Eddie Guerrero's bad side because he was doing the camel cluch and didn't understand it was a move created by a Guerrero. He waan't a guy who spent a decade stuck in the indy's paying his so called "dues" so I can't see him lasting too long. There were way too many bitter jerks in WWE at the time to let him get ahead on the card.
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