Update on Hassan (Insider Spoilers, Info)

[Stephen Joseph 0]

If this is used for any so-called insider report, just credit TSM. Thanks

 

"Hassan" left the PPV immediately after his match. He was told by WWE that he is their #1 priority and that they're going to do everything to repackage his character. However, it was a "don't call us, we'll call you" type of thing.

 

At this moment, "Hassan" has no idea what's going to happen. He is currently spending time with his family.

 

Also, Davairi has been told the same thing.

 

EDIT: Before being banned from UPN tv, "Hassan" was scripted to win @ GAB.

 

--TSM

 

/Obviously, I won't reveal my source, but suffice it to say that he's close enough to "Hassan". I suggested this situation be combined with the Matt Hardy shoot angle to my source, who thought the idea might work and will filter it to "Hassan"

 

Needless to say, its pretty shitty that the WWE won't take care of its own after they botched things up. You gotta have sympathy for em.

Edited July 25, 2005 by Stephen Joseph

[cabbageboy 0]

I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for Hassan. The guy is a 3rd rate wrestler doing a cheap heat gimmick...and they were going to put the TITLE on this idiot?

 

Face it, Mark Magnus' career is fucked. There's really no good way to repackage the guy because at the end of the day it'll be revealed that he's Hassan and no one will care. The basis of him getting over with another gimmick relies on him being able to wrestle well enough to overcome a gimmick that doesn't rely on cheap heel heat.

[Stephen Joseph 0]

I have a ton. Because WWE creative dropped the ball on his character, they turned it into a cheap heat gimmick. They brought him in when he was still green in the ring, but he can cut it on the mic.

 

What I'm saying is that his career is fucked, and it speaks to the character of the WWE that they won't own up to their mistake and even attempt to make it right. The man just bought a home...

[Guest Brian]

Poppick has sources?

[dubq 0]

It's not like they're not paying him anymore.

[Eclipse 0]

Truly sucks for Magnus. That gimmick was at least the only reason he was getting over.

 

Heh, if they do repackage him, I have a feeling it's gonna be a MUCH worse gimmick..

[Black Lushus 0]

they have no choice (if they don't cut him) but to have him come out and do shoot style bits such as "they tried to make me an arab-american because they didn't believe I could get over on my own" blah blah blah type stuff...it's lame, but what else can they do?

[Guest Fishyswa]

^Have him say he went too far to make a point and paid for it. Let him finally verbalize the entire point of the character and end the promo in a take it or leave it way. Have him do nothing but wrestle his ass off in some fun midcard SD matches until he's over.

[Dandy 0]

^Have him say he went too far to make a point and paid for it. Let him finally verbalize the entire point of the character and end the promo in a take it or leave it way. Have him do nothing but wrestle his ass off in some fun midcard SD matches until he's over.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Best idea I have seen for him, but he would have to do it on Raw due to the ban.

[Black Lushus 0]

well the CHARACTER is banned, I'm pretty sure they could keep the GUY on Smackdown...

[Dangerous A 0]

^Have him say he went too far to make a point and paid for it. Let him finally verbalize the entire point of the character and end the promo in a take it or leave it way. Have him do nothing but wrestle his ass off in some fun midcard SD matches until he's over.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The intention is nice, but the problem is Hassan CAN'T wrestle his ass off. I'm not sure if you've caught, oh, ANY his matches, but he sucks in the ring and he definitely won't get over with his in ring work. He was called up about 2-3 years too early from OVW. Dude needs to go back to OVW and change his look by either bulking up on juice or growing his hair back long. Anything to get him away from the Hassan character.

[Black Lushus 0]

irregardless of repackaging, I think there's actually enough "smarks" out there amongst the "marks" that they almost HAVE to address the fact that this new guy (whatever his name ends up being) was once known as Arab-American Muhamed Hassan...

[Guest JMA]

Besides putting him under a mask, I don't see any way to repackage the character without him doing a "shoot" promo. Even if they send him to OVW for a few years and bring him back up as Mark Magnus, there will be just enough marks who remember Hassan not to buy it.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Well, regardless of his ability in the ring, "Hassan" did everything WWE told him to do, and was good on the mic. He got heat (even if it was cheap heat). I think he made a very good heel, and he and Daivari make a good combo. It sucks WWE had to cave in to UPN like that, and have Undertaker just bury the guy completely.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

He was thrown off a stage at the Great American Bash. Have him wake up and suffer amnesia. He'll turn into a flag waving American and help Hulk Hogan at SS.

[Dandy 0]

well the CHARACTER is banned, I'm pretty sure they could keep the GUY on Smackdown...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I was thinking he was going for keeping the Muhammed Hassan gimmick, and having the character of Hassan apologize for going too far and agreeing that he shouldn't have taken it that far.

 

I didn't mean to imply that I thought the man playing the character wasn't allowed on SD at all. That made me look like a 12 year old fanboy, huh?

[TheFranchise 0]

He was thrown off a stage at the Great American Bash. Have him wake up and suffer amnesia. He'll turn into a flag waving American and help Hulk Hogan at SS.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

And defeat Orlando Jordan to become the new US Champion...

[notJames 0]

Just "disappear" him to OVW until he can learn to wrestle.

 

As for all the smarks that will remember him as Hassan, who the fuck cares? Guys have been repackaged since the beginning of wrestling history, regardless of who they were before. Case in point: Simon Dean. Sure, ECW fans knew he was Nova, but obviously WW_ didn't care. In fact, they care so little that they have Mike Bucci wrestle as both characters! So why should repackaging Magnus be any different?

[cabbageboy 0]

Last night Hassan didn't get shit in terms of crowd response so I think the whole news of his removal had gotten out, thus no one thought he had a chance in hell.

 

There's really not much they can do with him at this point, I already suggested putting on a mask but he'll inevitably be revealed as Hassan at some point. He could just come out and say he was never an Arab and that he's really Mark Magnus...and no one would care because he'd still suck in the ring.

[nl5xsk1 0]

Besides putting him under a mask, I don't see any way to repackage the character without him doing a "shoot" promo. Even if they send him to OVW for a few years and bring him back up as Mark Magnus, there will be just enough marks who remember Hassan not to buy it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That's why intelligence is fucking up wrestling ... look at Krusher "Smash" Kruschev ... who didn't realize that the guy (regardless of his face paint and change in outfits) wasn't a former Soviet-sympathizer? But we didn't care, he had a new gimmick and thus knowing what his old gimmick was didn't make a fuck-all of difference. But now people would be rushing to show how 'smart' they are, and thus pointing out something that doesn't make a bit of difference.

 

Just one person's opinion.

[frisco 0]

All I can say is this is bullshit. Hassan generated some very real heat. All the stuff about "he can't wrestle" and stuff is hog wash.

I think the guy is a upcoming star caught in a backlash against his character. I always paid attention to him and DAvari on Raw and I really hope they bring him back...gimmic and all.

For all the people so traumatized at his gimmic they shuold realize this is pro wrestling and it has ALWAYS done similar gimmics...whether it be the Iron shiek of the 80's or Dominic DeNucci of the early 70's.

I still think he has a very nice career ahead of him.

[Guest MikeSC]

Also, he actually DID the character really well. While I still don't think the attack on UT was that offensive, up to that point, the character was portrayed exceptionally well. An Arab who's pissed because the country treats him poorly due to his ethnicity.

 

Mark did it perfectly. Blame the writers for screwing up the storyline. He did nothing to warrant this.

[King Cucaracha 0]

All I can say is this is bullshit. Hassan generated some very real heat. All the stuff about "he can't wrestle" and stuff is hog wash.

 

Name one GOOD match he had.

 

I can't name one.

[Guest MikeSC]

His house show match with Shelton here was pretty good and they'd have had a solid program if the WWE decided to go that route. It would've aided both guys immensely.

[cabbageboy 0]

I didn't see that match obviously but I can't imagine it being much different than the tedious house show match between Shelton and Carlito I saw recently.

 

OVW is BAD people, believe me I know...I live in Louisville. It's like taking guys from the friggin USWA and pushing them on WWF TV.

[justcoz 0]

I'm in agreement that it was WWE's creative that f'd up this character and I do sympathize with the man because he took a huge risk in even agreeing to work as the character. He pretty much put his career into the company's hands, this isn't him being a red rooster or a brooklyn brawler, this is someone in the middle of a war and terrorism, coming out to arab music, wearing a turban and berating the United States. This could have been a really unique character and it could have got them press for the right reasons. He could have just been angry about post 9/11's prejudice and judgement towards arab americans and they could have downplayed the cheap "evil foreign wrestler" and left it up to the audience to determine if there was truth to his words. He didn't have to be anti-U.S. - just pissed - and there wouldn't have been a need to resort to comments about the war or suggest that he and Davari were terrorists.

 

But this writing team sucks.... they suck bad... they suck so bad that I can't for the life of me see how Vince McMahon doesn't understand that he's lost good talent, legendary talent, great wrestling minds and viewers because these guys suck so bad!!!!

 

So instead they went the unimaginative route with the characterization and had it not been for Hassan's very convincing mic work, his playing up to the he is an Arab and and American and he's a victim angle, they would have run into trouble a lot earlier. It was almost to the point where if someone complained about the character, they could just thumb noses and point out the fact that anyone with a brain can see that there is logic to his words and labelling him a terrorist because he's an arab wrestler is exactly what his character is pissed about. They tried to go that route with his internet interview but there was one problem.... one week earlier, the genius that is WWE creative, decided to dress guys up as terrorist, attack a man with piano wire, give the impression that davari served as a sacrifice for the cause, while having 'the arab american' pray.

 

I'm curious as to how much they allowed Hassan to improvise during his mic work - if they did - I sympathize for him all the more because he tried to take the character one route while creative did a 180 and took him in a different direction. Those interviews seemed too intelligent to come from any of the writers.

 

The very least they can do is give him an intelligent exit interview on Raw. Blame the company for advising him to use his arab american bloodline so they can profit on the existing racism towards his race (the dumbest thing is for him to deny being arab american and confess that he's italian). Say that he was advised by "creative services" in the WWE to find some friends to dress up as a terrorists to out psych the Undertaker and sell the PPV on Taker's revenge, to rally the troops with their free PPV showing to the armed forces. And now dropping him and Davari from television because of the bad press their so called creativity spawned. Have him say something like he has friends and family, fighting for the United States of America and he's had to look them in the eye, throughout this whole angle, not to mention his arab friends, and tell them how he can justify portraying WWE's character.

 

He and Davari announce that they will be at some indie shows as WWE producers cut them off, possibly setting up their involvement in the Matt Hardy 'realism' storyline.

[Stephen Joseph 0]

Poppick has sources?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Amazing isn't it?

[Guest Fishyswa]

"The intention is nice, but the problem is Hassan CAN'T wrestle his ass off. I'm not sure if you've caught, oh, ANY his matches, but he sucks in the ring and he definitely won't get over with his in ring work. He was called up about 2-3 years too early from OVW. Dude needs to go back to OVW and change his look by either bulking up on juice or growing his hair back long. Anything to get him away from the Hassan character."

 

He's too recognizable to completely abandon it. Even if he couldn't work for shit, which I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with, he could still get over with the audience by being a "wrestler", just look at RVD.

[Stephen Joseph 0]

and yeah, justcoz, that's pretty much what me and the source were chatting about. I've heard alot of stories through my friend about Hassan and Davairi, and they're good people who got screwed by Creative... and rather than say "Hey, we fucked up, we'll keep you on the payroll per our agreement, try to figure out something, but if we can't, at least you've got an income for awhile and we'll see if we can use you in corporate somewhere..."

 

No, they couldn't even give him that.

[Stephen Joseph 0]

And partially, I'm hoping to get this circulated, because all of the stories about Hassan in the real media have been negative of him and WWE, and no one is focusing on the fact that a man's career has been ruined by the short-sighted actions of the WWE creative staff, who deserve the bulk of this blame.

 

My girlfriend doesn't watch wrestling, but I was telling her about what happened with the Hassan character. She asked "But, shouldn't UPN, if they found it so disgusting, ban everyone who was involved and not just one guy?"

 

Good point from a non-wrestling fan, eh?