Muhammad Hassan is, arguably, the epitome of wasted potential in WWE. Real name Mark Copani, he garnered immediate hate with the fans when he appeared on Monday Night RAW alongside Shawn Daivari.
The duo ran down the United States as a country filled with hate and ignorance. He played the part of an Arab-American just trying to prove himself but felt neglected and vilified just for being who he was. It was a pretty tough storyline, but one that caught the attention of the WWE Universe right away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gljF9R653uo
So much so that it’s believed that he was supposed to win the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam in 2005. Sadly, that would not be the case. On July 4th, 2005, Muhammad Hassan led a masked group of men to attack The Undertaker after “praying” on the ramp. The men beat The Deadman and choked him with piano wire, and Daivari was carried away as if he had been a sacrificial lamb.
A few days later, the London Bombings took place. When WWE aired the segment unedited, there was quite a bit of outrage, eventually forcing them to write off the character permanently. Copani was later released, much to the dismay of the fans.
Muhammad Hassan and Shawn Daivari experienced prejudice off TV
In an interview set to be released in full on July 23rd, Chris Van Vliet spoke to Hassan about what he went through during his time with the company.
One time we were on the plane, Shawn and I. We were sitting towards the front and somebody, it might’ve been Shelton, somebody came up and told us that towards the back of the plane, people were calling their families to tell them that they loved them. So there were some times where people were really frightened.”
He said that, due to other instances like that, including several times where Daivari was “randomly searched” at multiple airports, it was easy to get into the character of Muhammad Hassan.
You can check out that clip above, and be sure to check Chris Van Vliet’s YouTube channel for the full episode dropping tomorrow.
