Shawn Daivari has been involved with some of the most controversial characters in WWE history and offered his thoughts on a certain WWE Champion of Indian descent.
Daivari appeared on Fightful's "The List & Ya Boy" podcast to talk about his friend Muhammad Hassan, real name Marc Julian Copani, and how he could have fared if he had been placed in Jinder Mahal's position. Daivari said that while Hassan was a victim of bad luck and bad circumstances and that he could have done well if he was booked right, Mahal is the best person to play the role that he currently has as the WWE Champion on SmackDown.
"I think Marc was just a circumstance of bad luck. Vince and Johnny knew he was the guy but no one else knew so that painted a bullseye on Marc from everyone, like, 'If he can make it, then I can't make it or if he becomes world champion, then I can't become word champion.' It was a shitty time and circumstance for him. I haven't seen any of Jinder's new shit, but the little that I have seen, there's no better guy suited for the role and be a heel champion on SmackDown [than Jinder]," Daivari said.
Hassan has always been a controversial topic in WWE due to an angle in 2005 that saw Hassan send five masked men to attack the Undertaker during a taped episode of SmackDown. The episode aired in the United States on the same day as the London bombings. The Muhammad Hassan character, which was an Arab-American character, and the angle coinciding with the bombings have left many thinking that Hassan was a terrorist character and was promptly removed from WWE and Copani left wrestling altogether at that point.
Fightful managing editor Sean Ross Sapp caught up with Hassan a while back and wrote about the infamous angle and what Hassan has been doing with his life. That article can be read at this link. Since then, Hassan has made sporadic appearances in wrestling events and conventions, but is now currently busy with a job as a high school principal.
During the brief time Hassan was on WWE television, Daivari served as Hassan's manager. But after the controversial angle aired and Hassan was taken out of television, Daivari remained on the roster for a few more years, eventually serving as The Great Khali's manager. The Khali-Mahal Indian connection went full circle when Khali helped Mahal retain his WWE title at a Punjabi Prison Match at the Battleground pay-per-view earlier this year.
“The List & Ya Boy,” hosted by Fightful owner Jimmy Van and managing editor Sean Ross Sapp can be seen live every Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET on Fightful.com and on YouTube. The show features some of the biggest names in wrestling as guests, including Matt Riddle, Diamond Dallas Page, Deonna Purazzo, J.J. Dillon and more. Daivari's comments can be viewed in the latest episode of "The List & Ya Boy" which can be viewed in the video above.
