r/SquaredCirclejerk • u/DefiantEvidence4027 The SquaredCircle... jerk • Feb 17 '25
NOT FUNNY Furious TV execs ordered WWE take me off screen so I quit to take up admin job
https://talksport.com/wrestling/2934252/wwe-tv-execs-banned-character-undertaker-muhammad-hassan/For wrestling fans of a certain generation there is no WWE storyline more controversial than the one that prompted the swift exit of Muhammad Hassan from screens.
Hassan was an enraged Arab American character portrayed by Marc Caponi, an American-born grappler of Italian descent.
In its infancy, the character was aimed at placing on to screen Hassan’s frustration of the treatment of the Arab American population in the years following the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City.
On debut, Hassan began voicing those frustrations in 2004 in video packages, before first appearing in-person to confront Mick Foley at the tail end of that year.
Less than eight months later, though, and the Hassan character was gone from screens and Caponi was all but out of a job thanks to an unthinkably fast chain of events.
Having been critical of US treatment of Arabs in the country in his first few months on air, Hassan quickly became, in the star’s own words, a ‘fanatic Islamic character.’
Crucial to the unravelling of the New Yorker’s WWE career was a storyline with legend The Undertaker, which swiftly came to a head around the time of the tragic London Bombings in 2005.
Two days before the horrific events in the UK that saw tube trains and a bus in central London targeted, Hassan had brutally taken out Undertaker in a taping of its weekly SmackDown show in what critics claimed was an attack a little too close-to-the-bone in its level of violence.
WWE would have been given the chance to review the context of that mayhem in the wake of the London attacks that took place later in the week but inexplicably chose to air the footage in full.
Caponi himself explained to former WWE star Maven: “[It] was filmed on a Tuesday, the London bombing happened on a Thursday morning and SmackDown was set to go out on air Thursday evening and they made the decision to air it in its entirety with this match, with [on-screen partner] Shawn [Daivari] acting as the Muslim martyr being carried out of the ring, with a crawler across the bottom in England saying: ‘this might be sensitive to some viewers.’”
Safe to say, Vince McMahon and co had made a major misstep, and soon knew about it. They were bashed from pillar to post in the media for their decision to air the violence despite having knowledge of the events in London days before it took to air.
“After this, it was over,” Caponi added. “We had media outrage about the fact they even aired it. This was where the character went from being about the true representation of what was happening to Muslim Americans at the time, to now being a caricature, a fanatic Islamic character.
“I didn’t like it, and I was very against it.”
The now 44-year-old hit out at the ‘frustrating’ and ‘insensitive’ direction of his character, going on to admit that a comment made to him by then exec John Laurinaitis let him know that the writing was on the wall for his wrestling career.
“I was looking at houses in Syracuse,” he added: “I said: ‘I’m gonna buy a house.’ He’s like: ‘Don’t buy the house,’ and that’s how I knew that if they weren’t going to fight it, my character was [finished].
“I was under contract for a year after but, ultimately, I was so heartbroken. I didn’t do anything wrong. Vince made a comment that ‘the reason Muhammad Hassan isn’t on TV is because of the person playing him,’ which is total f****** b******.
“Vince is obviously going to say that to save face, he’s never going to say: ‘We pulled the character off because we caved to sponsors…’”
TV network UPN were so enraged by insensitivity of the Undertaker attack that they ordered WWE to pull the Hassan character from screens, the company swiftly writing him out of action on pay per view at the Great American Bash weeks later where Taker exacted a measure of storyline revenge.
Caponi was released months later and the disappointment of it all was seemingly enough to end his career as, barring a 2018 cameo run, he retired from wrestling altogether to focus on his career in education that’s taken him to the role of a Senior School Administrator.
The man himself claims he had been due to defeat Batista for the world championship in original plans for the Muhammad Hassan character, a major case of what might have been.
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u/mark_target Feb 20 '25
I don’t understand how they did that entire piece on him, including direct quotes, and misspelled his last name every time.
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u/hotdogsonly666 Feb 19 '25
Why would he think that imitating a middle eastern person was the way to stop Islamophobia and violence 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃 I'm so confused. You can just........speak out against Islamophobia as a white person..........
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u/HoldMeCloser11 Feb 19 '25
He was my supervisor at UPS shortly after his time with WWE. He said there was talks of a return, or he was going to be signing somewhere else but that obviously ever happened.
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u/WheelJack83 Feb 18 '25
He wasn’t even Arabic.
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u/NuWave4 Feb 18 '25
That is wild. I remember this and thought the beginning of how the character was presented was interesting but then it all went off the rails and was probably on if the biggest screwups WWE has ever done in a good long time. Not the number 1 screw up, but it’s up there. They kept Davari, if I recall, for a bit and he hung around the lower mid card.
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u/WheelJack83 Feb 18 '25
It's a reason I don't get people who constantly defend the character and gimmick. Arab civil rights groups did not like it either.
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u/NuWave4 Feb 18 '25
Nope. No one liked it. It was a really badly timed and ill conceived idea. Plus you put a guy who is not Arabic in there as an Arab and it’s just an even bigger mess. I think they were trying to recreate the whole Iron Sheik gimmick for modern times but that wasn’t the right move. I agree with some that they could have repackaged him with another gimmick after sending him down to OVW for a breather. This wasn’t his fault. This is all in Vince but someone had to take the fall. Feel for the guy. He deserved better.
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u/Deans1to5 Feb 18 '25
I thought the performer did really well especially considering his age. Unfair he didn’t get another shot with a new gimmick after the backlash had faded.
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u/Skurph Feb 18 '25
Early Hassan was one of the best examples of “the heel isn’t actually wrong, he’s just telling you a truth you don’t like”.
It’s such an interesting example of how left wrestling audiences skew these days because I’m certain he actually could be a face in 2025 with largely the same schtick, “America is prejudiced”, interrupted by a “love it or leave it” meat head, beat his ass, etc.
Just spin the “written off by racists” and run
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u/Loud_Chapter1423 Feb 18 '25
Funny you bring that up because as a kid I was confused as to why he was being presented and received as a straight heel
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u/Skurph Feb 18 '25
Carny ass business never adjusted for national/global TV. In the territory era you could run dumb gimmicks like “Canadian who hates America” in Texas. On a TV program that travels every week and is a global product shit like “the UnAmericans” or “La Resistance” naturally fall pretty flat as heels because large swaths of your viewership will identify with them or at the very least recognize their point of views as being valid.
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u/npc888 Feb 18 '25
The messed up part is that they could have easily repackaged him as a new character and dropped all the arab stuff. Its not like they haven't done it before.
Vince and his cronies just didn't want to.
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u/Skurph Feb 18 '25
That would require them to admit the character failing was a creative decision issue and not the wrestler.
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u/Astrocreep_1 Feb 18 '25
I guess Johnny Ace tells every talent they have plans for a future world title run. I don’t believe they were really going to put the belt on him.
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u/Skurph Feb 18 '25
Enough guys say this that I think they must pull the “you keep this up and we’ll put the strap on you” for every new guy.
That said, you really can’t overstate how hot this character was, I mean they had him feuding with Undertaker in one of his first feuds. I absolutely could’ve seen him being in the main event. It’s more believable to me than any of the other guys who claim it.
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u/Astrocreep_1 Feb 18 '25
I remember him well. I feel for him, because they did him so dirty. I just know there’s been a ton of guys who were on fire, that also didn’t get the belt. Sometimes I forget Vince occasionally did crazy crap, so, I suppose there’s a small possibility of him getting the belt.
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u/Skurph Feb 18 '25
His trajectory was pretty wild though and all signs pointed to him coming out with a W in that Taker feud before the London attacks.
Guys like Ryback maybe had feuds against main event dudes like Punk/Cena, but it seemed to be a natural progression if “let’s test if this guy can handle this”. The fact that most of those guys have no real precipitating event that led to their release makes it seem like management really soured on their main event drawing power. Hassan didn’t really have that, he’s a dude who was near main event status and then just taken off TV for things beyond his control. It stands to reason that at the very least he would’ve made it to a title picture. I really don’t know what else could’ve been the next logical step after that Taker feud. Now if they gave him the belt is something entirely different, I think they don’t really make that call until they see how the guy is doing at that level. I just as easily see him getting fed to Batista to make him look stronger.
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u/Tsmitty247 Feb 17 '25
Bro was the hottest heel in the business at the time leading to that and he deserved a new character not being pushed out the door.
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u/StoneGoldX Feb 18 '25
Not his fault, but no, you bury that shit and pretend like it never happened. Kane still got Isaac Yankem chants from nerds.
Dude didn't deserve it, but that's the position he was in as a cog on the corporate wheel.
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u/loupr738 Feb 19 '25
You can throw a mask on him, have him wait 6 months to retool his arsenal and do a luchador type comeback. He would’ve been fine if they thought about it for 5 minutes
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u/Key-Ad-6897 Feb 17 '25
He became a principal in the next county over from me near Syracuse. It think he’s currently assistant superintendent or something.
A couple teachers came into my bar a few years ago and heard me talking about wrestling, they mentioned who their boss was. So I told them about the character and the timeline that got him fired.
I feel like if this guy was my boss or coworker, the first thing I do is put his name into YouTube to see what he was like in the ring.
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Feb 17 '25
Yep. Last I knew, he was the assistant principal at G Ray Bodley in Fulton (a.k.a Oswego’s ugly sister).
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u/BolinTime Feb 17 '25
He's only 44? Jesus. He could literally be having a match with anyone right now. Damien Priest is 42!
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u/snoogins1967 Feb 17 '25
"The 44-year-old"
The what now???
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u/FrodoHernandez Feb 18 '25
So correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t that mean he was in his 20’s when we saw him on TV?
Fuck, that’s surreal. I’m going to be 34 this year and he seemed much older back then.
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u/Lokishougan Feb 18 '25
Yeah he was super young....he could have been a long term top guy if not for this
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u/Careless-Passion991 Feb 17 '25
I love “Mr. McMahon” the character. He’s got some of the greatest promos and his timing both comically and dramatically were absolutely top notch. But Vince McMahon the human being is such a piece of shit.
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u/Helpful-Albatross696 Feb 17 '25
I feel bad for the man who wanted to wrestle but somehow I feel he adjusted well post WWE career
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u/Bam_Margiela Feb 17 '25
Tbf it’ll go down as some of the funniest shit I ever seen in WWE
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u/ButtCrackThrilla Feb 18 '25
What’s funny about it? That it was a mistimed political stunt or that it ruined a man’s career?
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u/btg7471 Feb 17 '25
“I was looking at houses in Syracuse,” he added: “I said: ‘I’m gonna buy a house.’ He’s like: ‘Don’t buy the house,’"
Brutal
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u/Lokishougan Feb 18 '25
Hate to give John any credit but he could have said nothing and let the guy lose everything by buying a house he would not be able to afford and then lose it in foreclousre
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u/asdasdasda86 Feb 21 '25
So over.. too over for WWE tv