After ten episodes, Dark Side of the Ring‘s sixth season has come to an end. Wrestling fans have learned more about big names such as Tony Atlas, to lesser-known wrestlers like Billy Jack Haynes. Most of these episodes deal with the worst tragedies imaginable, but the season finale of Dark Side of the Ring is different. During the Ruthless Aggression era, WWE created a heel character named Muhammad Hassan. He was made to be anti-American during the height of the so-called War on Terror after 9/11, which pushed boundaries. But then, after another terrorist attack, Hassan, and the man who played him, Mark Copani, disappeared from WWE forever. Here are four things you need to know about “Becoming Muhammad Hassan.”
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1
Marc Copani Was Trained In OVW By Jim Cornette
WWE Wanted To Turn The Italian Wrestler Into An Arab Character
The future Muhammad Hussan was already an athlete when he decided to become a professional wrestler. In OVW, then WWE’s developmental system, he was a smug heel named Mark Magnus. He rose up the ranks to become the OVW Champion thanks to Jim Cornette’s booking. Cornette said of his rise:
“In two years, he’d gone from the lowest guy on the totem pole to a main event wrestler in OVW. And all of a sudden I get a call from the WWE office saying they wanted to make him an Arab. I said, ‘But he’s Italian. He’s from Syracuse. How is this gonna work?'”
Marc Copani was unsure, but he was all in because it was a big opportunity.
2
Muhammad Hassan Was Created Due To Anti-Arab Fears
Shawn Daivari Became His Farsi Speaking Manager
Copani spoke about how much seeing wrestling going on immediately after 9/11 meant to him. WWE became very patriotic, so it was only a matter of time before it became part of storylines. In the aftermath of the attack, there was a lot of discrimination against Arabs in the United States, so Muhammad Hassan was born in OVW, now with a manager named Shawn Daivari, who spoke Farsi. The idea came straight from Vince McMahon, with Hassan and Daivari being cartoony like the Iron Sheik in the beginning, before being introduced to WWE fans through more serious vignettes.
Hassan became an American character who had been hurt by racism from those who hated him over 9/11. He was the opposite of the heel stereotype. Before his Raw debut, Todd Grisham and Ivory joked on Sunday Night Heat that they would be driving and not flying to the show. Muhammad Hassan debuted on December 14, 2004 in a segment with Mick Foley. He interrupted Foley giving a promo about supporting the troops, coming out to call the troops gutless. The gimmick immediately got him a lot of heat with fans, which is exactly what WWE wanted. Gene Snitzky said:
“People didn’t just hate him. They wanted to kill him.”
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3
Muhammad Hassan Stayed In Character At All Times
He Got In Trouble With Eddie Guerrero Over The Camel Clutch
In 2004, WWE was in the middle of two wars and putting on shows in Iraq. Muhammad Hassan exposed hypocrisy and prejudice, but American fans didn’t want to hear that. Hassan cheated to win like a heel, but he saw himself as the outspoken hero. WWE wanted the gimmick to work so much that Marc Copani was told to stay in character at all times. The gimmick was effective to the point that people would get scared if they saw Copani on an airplane with him. He also got to see the prejudice that Daivari experienced. Copani said:
“It made it easy to feel the injustice because these people didn’t even know us, and the way they looked at us and judged us, when we got into the ring, that’s how everyone in America looked at us.”
Copani ran into actual Muslims who were offended by his character. It gave him second thoughts because Muhammad Hassan was getting too real. On top of it, other wrestlers hated his quick success. Copani told the story about how Kurt Angle told him he should tell Eddie Guerrero to stop using his Camel Clutch finisher. Marc did just that, only for Eddie to tell him that his father invented it. That brought him nuclear heat backstage. Copani was so humiliated that he wanted to quit, and he was forced to go to wrestler’s court. He was ordered to buy a thousand dollars worth of drinks for the boys, but Eddie hugged Marc Copani and quickly forgave him.
4
The London Terror Attacks Caused The End Of Marc Copani’s Career
Muhammad Hassan’s Last Match Was Against The Undertaker
Muhammad Hassan got an in-ring moment with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 21. But the character was getting stale, so they made Hassan darker and more radicalized, as if he was an actual terrorist. Marc Copani said:
“I feel like that character became insensitive, and it was a complete departure from what we set out to do.”
Hassan now had a bunch of masked henchmen with him. Copani expressed his displeasure with Stephanie McMahon, who basically told him to shut up and go with it. The character became intentionally distasteful, including him making a beheading gesture during a match with Shawn Michaels. Jim Cornette recalled that the plan was to make Muhammad Hassan a world champion, which began with a feud with the Undertaker. But then came the London terrorist bombings on July 7, 2005. SmackDown was to air a taped episode with Hassan the next day, which went on as planned, but now with a crawl on the bottom of the screen containing a viewer discretion warning. The segment ended with his henchmen attacking Undertaker and Muhammad yelling “Praise Allah.” Daivari was then carried away like a martyr.
The angle crossed the line for many. UPN, sponsors, and Arab groups had had enough. UPN pressured WWE to kill off the character, which resulted in Hassan being given one last match. He faced the Undertaker at the Great American Bash, with the Deadman giving Muhammad a last ride through the stage. Muhammad Hassan was never seen again. Marc Copani was heartbroken that his dream was over. He said that he was lost for a few years, but then he went to college, which ended with him first becoming a school teacher, then a principal. Today Copani doesn’t hold a grudge and is proud that he made his wrestling dreams come true, even if only for a moment.
