DokDoyle

x-posted for the most part on my blog One of the main things that I've been discussing has been the way that Hassan has been portrayed, the main knock against it being that there was no reason for his Arab heritage to be brought up, with the example of TNA's Sonjay Dutt being used to show that an Arab looking person can be used in wrestling without it becoming an issue. I think that is a case of apple's and oranges Sonjay is a wrestler who is a member of the TNA X devision, who comes out and does some flips, Don West calls him the “playa from the Himalaya's” then he usually loses to a mid-card heel Muhammad Hassan is a character who was born and raised in Detroit, who had a fairly normal life up until 9/11. After 9/11, he began to see that he was being treated differently, due to his looks and heritage. This pushed him deeper into his heritage, hence the wearing of the headdress and robes, along with his entrance music. He feels that he has been discriminated against due to people's fears of Arab's , when he was as victimized by 9/11 as much as they were. See, there is no reason for TNA to bring up Sonjay's heritage, as it's not central to the character, such as it is, that he plays. As a matter of fact, I would be more offended if TNA out of nowhere, said “This is Sonjay Dutt, a great X division wrestler, oh and by the way, he's an Arab.” I love the character that Hassan plays. I liked it when it came in as it was different from what a lot of people were playing. A character with convictions like he has, there are really good story lines that could last years, if written correctly. The best part of it is that he looks like he really believes what he says.

That says it better then I ever could. Nicely written

Wrestling fans have been conditioned to hate "the muzzie look" since the Iron Sheik pissed everyone off 20 years ago with it. They knew what they were doing, and they knew Hassan was gonna get booed the minute they slapped a sheet on his head. Sabu, on the other hand, well, I'd be scared to confront him about his religious beliefs... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sabu is the one that goes against your point. If wrestling fans were conditioned as you say, would he not have felt the backlash as well? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sabu never came out and said "hey I'm a Muslim". His claim to fame was being "related" to the original Sheik, hence the headgear. Totally different case that I included for levity. Good try, though. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You may have been trying to be funny, I'm not You say wrestling fans have been conditioned to dislike anyone who wears a arab headdress. I think that Sabu proves that a character can be seen as more then an arab while still staying to the heart of a character. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Dude, Sabu's been a heel for the longest. The only reason he was ever even considered a possible face was the ECW crowd respected him for putting his body on the line all his life like he did. Now, if you put Hassan's gimmick in ECW it would have been laughed out of the house because everyone there would have known it was too retarded to go on. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I fully agree that he was a heel, I don't think it was for as long as you say. The real heat of a heel run may have been the Team WWF, but that being said, I don't think that he was ever a heel for the "Arab" part of it. He was a general heel

Wrestling fans have been conditioned to hate "the muzzie look" since the Iron Sheik pissed everyone off 20 years ago with it. They knew what they were doing, and they knew Hassan was gonna get booed the minute they slapped a sheet on his head. Sabu, on the other hand, well, I'd be scared to confront him about his religious beliefs... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sabu is the one that goes against your point. If wrestling fans were conditioned as you say, would he not have felt the backlash as well? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sabu never came out and said "hey I'm a Muslim". His claim to fame was being "related" to the original Sheik, hence the headgear. Totally different case that I included for levity. Good try, though. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You may have been trying to be funny, I'm not You say wrestling fans have been conditioned to dislike anyone who wears a arab headdress. I think that Sabu proves that a character can be seen as more then an arab while still staying to the heart of a character.

Wrestling fans have been conditioned to hate "the muzzie look" since the Iron Sheik pissed everyone off 20 years ago with it. They knew what they were doing, and they knew Hassan was gonna get booed the minute they slapped a sheet on his head. Sabu, on the other hand, well, I'd be scared to confront him about his religious beliefs... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sabu is the one that goes against your point. If wrestling fans were conditioned as you say, would he not have felt the backlash as well?

There's only one Timothy Mcveigh, there's more then one Arab-american and yes, piano wire does cut throats...did anyone say it was piano wire....I don't think I heard cole or Tazz say it was...the only place I saw that was spoilers

I think we agree more then we disagree. Hassan could be a face, but to do so goes right to the heart of the character. He was being "himself" (Character wise), a proud Arab-american, with his dress and his music. Why should he change his ways to be liked? Are you saying that if he kept the character, but saved Sgt. Slaughter or another superface, he'd automatically be a face. Not at all, it would get crapped all over. As long as he is shown as a Arab, he'll be looked at as a heel

Once Again, I have to disagree At the very least, The first promo asked fans to judge him on what he did in the ring, not for who he was. This was booed, when he did nothing that could be considered heelish, trying to show himself as a underdog babyface, in my opinion. If I remember this correctly, the second one in the store, he did nothing heelish, talking about "His", that being the characters experiences. Once again, not heelish, but it was booed. As for Sonjay Dutt, If he was featured with any kind of personality, anywhere close to the amount that Hassan was, I believe you'd see the same thing.

Totally unnecessary on the part of the WWE to make a "victim of racism" into a heel. What's the point? He makes Arab-Americans look like whiny bitches. Oh, wait, that *is* the point...I GET IT NOW! Arab-Americans are whiny bitches! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I disagree, I don't think the WWE had any choice but to make him a heel. He had his promo's booed before anyone knew anymore about his character other then the fact he was Arab-american

I agree, all this does is just make "Muhammad" (I use quotes as it is a character) correct. Everyone thinks he's a terrorist, because of who he is, not what he has done. and I do think the "replace a with b" does hold water, simply put, a heel and his gang beat up a face to get heat for a PPV match. Happens at least once a month, stop looking for things to get upset about

They're obviously not going to come right out and refer to Hassan and Daivari as terrorists. But if you can't see the connections in what they did, then you're really stupid. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think that's the point he is making. You assume it's Terrorist activities because of who did it. Let's take Muhummad and Davari out of it. If JBL and the cabinet did the EXACT same thing to the Undertaker, would it be getting all this attention? of course not, as it's a just a wrestling angle. That's all this was, a wrestling angle that's had a lot more thrown on it then it deserves. I wasn't offended by the angle, I actually don't mind the Muhummad and Davari characters. People just need to sit back and relax a little bit. Not everything is a controversy wating to be looked at

I loved this show...I bought it, I'm going to download it and will be getting the DVD. Anyone who didn't like it expected too much or were just going to piss all over it no matter what happened.

Apparently the CD Plus's released the Road Warriors DVD early as well, sending it with last weeks new releases. I know the guy that works at my local one, but he wouden't let me buy one till tuesday, the "Real" release date in canada. Does anyone else who has the WM21 DVD notice that the Hall of Fame disc seems to have a really poor audio mix, the music is loud but speaking in some of the packages is low?

Arn't they both getting cancelled in the next few weeks anyway?

This sounds like fun...but No canadians allowed...Boo, I say Boo

"What..This ain't the Source Awards?"

He was talking how this town is like a great big pussy waiting to be fucked. Well, at least I wish that's what he was talking about 7 second delay needs a work out

Vin Diesel wins bad hair award

What was Pachino talking about..I kind of nodded off?

Yeah....that would be him. Thanks

I just got the Survivor Series DVD, and wonder if anyone can tell me who the agent with Fit Finley is when they are helping Maven after the Snitsky attack? He looks like someone I should know, but I can't put a name to him Thanks

ok..I'm in the chat room..where's everyone else?

She'll be brought in with Harry Smith and Teddy Hart

I've been using Mozilla/Firefox at home for a little over a year and will only use IE for sites that won't open in Mozilla (Launchcast being one real good example). I have to use IE at work and find it wanting. Really, How hard would it have been to add Tabbed Browsing to SP2?

People talk about the Dog Show, as if there's only one. The One USA shows in September (and still has a 5 Year deal with if I remember correctly) is Westminister from MSG. NBC shows the Philadelphia Show on thanksgiving Day. (The Show actually takes place a coupe of weeks before thanksgiving) That I know has a co-branding agreement with Purina for 5 years.