UPN Bans Hassan Permanently

[Gary Floyd 0]

I wonder if WWE.com released that statement as sort of a selling point for the ppv?

 

"Come see the end of Hassan"

 

It appeals to both marks and smart fans.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Tempting...but I'm still not buying the PPV.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

That's why I temporarily thought that the WWE was working the internet again with the whole ban, but UPN would never go along with the work.

[Dangerous A 0]

Another interesting question to bring up in this whole Hassan/UPN situation. Was UPN tipped off or have any knowledge of the followup for the Hassan 7/4 angle? I remember WWE on their website saying they were wanting to follow up on the Taker beatdown/chokeout bit. Did they let UPN know where they wanted to go and UPN said "fuck that"? Or did UPN err on the side of caution (and WWE past history of controversial angles) and went with the ban despite what WWE had planned for a followup? Did UPN owe it to WWE to at least explain where they wanted to go with the Hassan character before handing out this punishment?

 

(oh yeah, DA bringing the meat to the convo)

[Lil' Bitch 0]

You play with fire and sooner or later you get BURNED!

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Another interesting question to bring up in this whole Hassan/UPN situation. Was UPN tipped off or have any knowledge of the followup for the Hassan 7/4 angle? I remember WWE on their website saying they were wanting to follow up on the Taker beatdown/chokeout bit. Did they let UPN know where they wanted to go and UPN said "fuck that"? Or did UPN err on the side of caution (and WWE past history of controversial angles) and went with the ban despite what WWE had planned for a followup? Did UPN owe it to WWE to at least explain where they wanted to go with the Hassan character before handing out this punishment?

 

(oh yeah, DA bringing the meat to the convo)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

They're likely caving in to the negative press and wanted the character to be pulled from the program before further damage could be done, because you JUST know it would get worse if Vince didn't have to pay the consequences for doing the things he does.

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

It was a stupid angle in the first place, but UPN isn't exactly known for it's good taste in programming..

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

It was a stupid angle in the first place, but UPN isn't exactly known for it's good taste in programming..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

But I'm sure none of their programming gets tons of negative mail/email over it.... well til Smackdown came along...

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

It was a stupid angle in the first place, but UPN isn't exactly known for it's good taste in programming..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

But I'm sure none of their programming gets tons of negative mail/email over it.... well til Smackdown came along...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

At least it means people are watching it..which is more than they can usually say.

[Guest Fook]

From Meltzer:

 

We've had confirmation that WWE is planning on dropping the Muhammad Hassan character due to all the negative publicity, so he won't be moving to Raw.

 

Nothing to my knowledge has been said about the Daivari character, who at least earlier today, they wanted to keep.

 

Looks like Hassan better start looking for a new job.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

It was a stupid angle in the first place, but UPN isn't exactly known for it's good taste in programming..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

But I'm sure none of their programming gets tons of negative mail/email over it.... well til Smackdown came along...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

At least it means people are watching it..which is more than they can usually say.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If an angle offends viewers, can you say they'd return to the program next week or from that point on? UPN doesn't think so, clearly.

[Guest Ransome]

2.) Obviously he's not gonna come out every week and say "I'm looked at differently because of 9/11", but the idea is still there. Because of the 9/11 attacks, he's faced prejudice, and each week he's been given more and more reason to feel that the prejudice is there. As far as people getting "sick" of it, I don't know about that, but I'm personally getting sick of watching the live crowd sit and do nothing but wait for a pause so they can chant "U-S-A!" because they're too fucking retarded to understand what's being said.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I really don't think the crowd can be blamed for their lack of understanding of the storyline, especially when *every* other storyline on the shows is spelled out for them (boiled down, pretty much every promo includes "I want your title" or "I'm gonna kick your ass"). I think it is possible to get the original idea for Hassan's character over with the crowd (that is, an Arab-American who is tired of the treatment he receives merely because he is of Arab descent, and simply wants a fair go) but it's all in the handling, and WWE has gone the wrong way about it. They can't be discreet about Hassan's storylines (in contrast with all the other blatantly thin and obvious characters they use) and then complain when fans don't understand his motivations.

[Fökai 0]

Another interesting question to bring up in this whole Hassan/UPN situation. Was UPN tipped off or have any knowledge of the followup for the Hassan 7/4 angle? I remember WWE on their website saying they were wanting to follow up on the Taker beatdown/chokeout bit. Did they let UPN know where they wanted to go and UPN said "fuck that"? Or did UPN err on the side of caution (and WWE past history of controversial angles) and went with the ban despite what WWE had planned for a followup? Did UPN owe it to WWE to at least explain where they wanted to go with the Hassan character before handing out this punishment?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I believe it was Meltzer (or maybe just the WWE themselves) who stated that Hassan's original promo on 7/12 was going to address the angle the week before, explaining why he resorted to said attacks (more in a "going against things he believed in" sense), but the UPN ruling came down the next day and that was nixed.

[Dangerous A 0]

The real victim here is Mark Magnus.

 

From WWE calling him up WAY too early and then escalating his character to offending heights.

 

The best we can hope for Magnus is he goes back to OVW for a couple years, gets better in the ring, comes back as Mark Magnus-man who is angry as hell at management for screwing up his career!

[Guest]

Hassan is getting put in a casket at GAB, to somehow set up a casket match with Taker and Orton.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

How does one person being put in a casket set up a casket match with a different guy? The only way that could work is if Orton popped out of the casket and gave Taker a RKO, then they beat down Taker a short bit before he goes on his deadman comeback and buries Hassan for once and all.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

The real victim here is Mark Magnus.

 

From WWE calling him up WAY too early and then escalating his character to offending heights.

 

The best we can hope for Magnus is he goes back to OVW for a couple years, gets better in the ring, comes back as Mark Magnus-man who is angry as hell at management for screwing up his career!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's very unfortunate that Magnus will likely lose his job for doing everything that was asked of him and doing a good job of it at that. It's creative's fault, not his, that the angle went over the top and pissed everyone off.

 

I say just run an angle where he is "fired" over the controversy, cuts a worked shoot promo about how he couldn't get a break until management guaranteed him a spot only if he played an Arab character. He apologizes, says he loves his country and wants another chance no matter what it takes and boom, sympathetic babyface.

[Guest]

How does one person being put in a casket set up a casket match with a different guy? The only way that could work is if Orton popped out of the casket and gave Taker a RKO, then they beat down Taker a short bit before he goes on his deadman comeback and buries Hassan for once and all.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That was what I was getting at, perhaps I should have explained it better.

[Guest jumpingbombangel]

Someone above posted a joking post saying that they wanted cheesy foreign heel gimmicks like the evil Iranian, or evil Russian, evil Nazi, Jap, etc.  These were goofy gimmicks but they always worked and got the redneck crowds in a furor to see them get their asses kicked.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I wasn't joking even though it read more humorous than intended. That's truly the kind of heel he should've been.

[Fökai 0]

Well, the planned casket match was before this all broke out, so...

 

Scenario A:

Taker wins decisively at GAB

Batista v. Taker (World Title)

JBL v. Benoit (U.S. Title)

Nothing for Orton

 

Scenario B:

Taker draws with Hassan at GAB, "kills him", then moves on to Orton?

Batista v. JBL (re-match?)

Taker v. Orton (casket)

Benoit v. Regal/Christian (U.S. Title)

 

I prefer the latter.

[AndrewTS 0]

"I say just run an angle where he is 'fired' over the controversy, cuts a worked shoot promo about how he couldn't get a break until management guaranteed him a spot only if he played an Arab character. He apologizes, says he loves his country and wants another chance no matter what it takes and boom, sympathetic babyface. "

 

Worked shoot --> Dropping a bad gimmick in favor of "the real me" or another gimmick hasn't really had a good track record.

 

Beaver Cleavage - Chaz

Seven - Dustin Rhodes

Cap'n Mike - Michael Wallstreet

Hugh Morrus - Hugh G Rection (okay, that one didn't have a chance).

 

Mark Magnus, Guy Who is Pissed off at WWE Management doesn't scream $ to me either. What do you do with him then?

[Just John 0]

The real victim here is Mark Magnus.

 

From WWE calling him up WAY too early and then escalating his character to offending heights.

 

The best we can hope for Magnus is he goes back to OVW for a couple years, gets better in the ring, comes back as Mark Magnus-man who is angry as hell at management for screwing up his career!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Nah, I wouldn't wait that long. Maybe a couple months at the most. Establish some guy as corporate stooge for Magnus to feud with right away. Might as well capitalize on the worked-shoot craze now while it's still hot.

[cbacon 0]

We've had confirmation that WWE is planning on dropping the Muhammad Hassan character due to all the negative publicity, so he won't be moving to Raw.

 

Nothing to my knowledge has been said about the Daivari character, who at least earlier today, they wanted to keep.

 

What bullshit. What possible ramifactions would there be if Spike TV or UPN for that matter, carried on with Hassan's character? Unless the WWE continued with the pseudo-terrorism aspect, there is no rational reason for this.

[SuperJerk 0]

Scenario A:

Taker wins decisively at GAB

Batista v. Taker (World Title)

JBL v. Benoit (U.S. Title)

Nothing for Orton

 

Scenario B:

Taker draws with Hassan at GAB, "kills him", then moves on to Orton?

Batista v. JBL (re-match?)

Taker v. Orton (casket)

Benoit v. Regal/Christian (U.S. Title)

 

Here's another scenario that might be even better:

 

Have the Taker/Hassan match end in a no contest. With no #1 contender, Edge reminds Teddy long that EVEN THOUGH he's not a Smackdown, he did win a title shot against Batista, and he plans to use it at Summerslam, thus ruining all the momentum of Edge/Hardy.

 

That way, not 1, not 2, but 3 storylines have been fucked up beyond recovery.

 

Its so stupid, I think they might actually do it!

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

We've had confirmation that WWE is planning on dropping the Muhammad Hassan character due to all the negative publicity, so he won't be moving to Raw.

 

Nothing to my knowledge has been said about the Daivari character, who at least earlier today, they wanted to keep.

 

What bullshit. What possible ramifactions would there be if Spike TV or UPN for that matter, carried on with Hassan's character? Unless the WWE continued with the pseudo-terrorism aspect, there is no rational reason for this.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

They would edit his segments out and keep warning WWE. If WWE refuse to listen, they have full power to cancel the show, as far as the network is concerned. Don't be silly. There's MAJOR ramifications for not listening to the network.

[Dangerous A 0]

Exactly Porter. That also means WWE loses a stream of revenue because UPN pays them $700,000 an episode to show SD! If they breach contract and lose that money, sure they could go to Spike, but Spike isn't going to pony up that money because they know they don't need SD as much as WWE does.

 

$700,000 x 52 weeks= shitload of money

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I had this stupid idea..

 

Taker Tombstones Hassan at GAB and wins.

 

A couple weeks later, a clip is played of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin..

 

Another few weeks later, Mark Magnus, Heidenreich and Funaki come out together and announce the formation of the New Axis Powers (NAP).

 

It can all lead up to WWE dragging out the World War 3 PPV name from WCW...

[cbacon 0]

No, i'm asking what ramifications there would be if Spike or UPN aired the character if they didn't go overboard with the whole terrorist aspect.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

No, i'm asking what ramifications there would be if Spike or UPN aired the character if they didn't go overboard with the whole terrorist aspect.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It actually doesn't matter. Hassan could come out as a squeaky clean babyface and the networks would still want him off. RIGHT NOW AT THIS POINT, there's a big backlash towards Mark Magnus and WWE concerning the Hassan gimmick. The damage has been done. The best thing to do is kill him off and take him off TV for a bit and repackage him.

[Dangerous A 0]

If they didn't go overboard with the whole terrorist aspect, there wouldn't be 4 different threads on this whole subject and we'd all be talking about what a shitty match Taker/Hassan would be.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

"I say just run an angle where he is 'fired' over the controversy, cuts a worked shoot promo about how he couldn't get a break until management guaranteed him a spot only if he played an Arab character. He apologizes, says he loves his country and wants another chance no matter what it takes and boom, sympathetic babyface. "

 

Worked shoot --> Dropping a bad gimmick in favor of "the real me" or another gimmick hasn't really had a good track record.

 

Beaver Cleavage - Chaz

Seven - Dustin Rhodes

Cap'n Mike - Michael Wallstreet

Hugh Morrus - Hugh G Rection (okay, that one didn't have a chance).

 

Mark Magnus, Guy Who is Pissed off at WWE Management doesn't scream $ to me either.  What do you do with him then?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, I see your point... they haven't had much success in the past. It was just the first idea that came to mind. But, also take into consideration the guys you mentioned and where they were at the time of dropping their gimmicks. Hassan was several weeks from headlining the company's second biggest PPV of the year.

 

I was just thinking that I feel bad for the guy already. Why couldn't that be channeled into some sort of sympathetic character. I mean the guy was getting death threats (worked or not) and bashed in the NY Times. There has to be something they can play to keep the guy over and on tv without the original offensive gimmick.