Muhammad Hassan became one of the most controversial figures in WWE television history thanks to a storyline that lined up with a tragic real world event.
On July 4, 2005, WWE taped an angle that saw Muhammad Hassan pray on the ramp as masked men attacked and choked The Undertaker with piano wire. The men then carried away Hassan's associate Shawn Daivari.
The segment aired on the July 7th episode of WWE SmackDown, the same day as the London bombings. The controversial angle was covered by major media outlets.
Hassan's story will be explored in season six of Dark Side of The Ring.
"So this has been one that we've been hearing nonstop from the fans on social media wanting this story and truth be told, just fully transparent, it was a story that I wasn't actually sure could—I often say this and I'm always proven wrong—is that it could like sustain the full hour of the show. I wasn't sure if it would be something for a full episode of Dark Side. Boy, was I wrong and I'm always wrong about that. It's an incredible story. It's absolutely fascinating, as you were saying, for many reasons," Dark Side of the Ring creator Evan Husney told Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp.
Before he became Muhammad Hassan, Marc Capani wrestled as Mark Magnus in OVW.
"But the one thing that I think about Marc Capani's arc in the business that's so interesting is that it is sort of this like Faustian bargain, I feel like that he entered in. Where he's a very gifted young man coming into like coming into OVW—great worker, great personality, wants to live out his dream of becoming a wrestler and really is making a name for himself down there. WWE calls—they have this once in a lifetime opportunity for him to essentially fast track from developmental to the top of the card, and to get into the main event picture pretty fast, with vignettes and packages and promotion, strapping the proverbial rocket to him, if you will. But you have to play this incredibly insensitive, heat-seeking terrorist, for lack of better term, even though it was never explicitly said.
"It actually is an interesting character. In the beginning, the concept of course, was in the wake of 9-11, many Muslim Americans were feeling the Islamophobia that was sort of very pervasive in that time period. He was sort of supposed to be a mouthpiece for that. Like, ‘Me and my people,’ although he's really Italian, but the character that he's playing is experiencing all of this and, ‘We're still Americans and the fuck?’ So anyway, he gets this opportunity, but of course, the WWE is positioning him still as a heel. You're still supposed to be booing this character, which is what makes it little awkward by today's standards.
"Of course, actually the most disturbing part of the whole story without getting too deep into it, to me is the audience reaction. Because the audience is just villainizing this guy no matter anything they're doing. If you go back and see the signs people are holding. It's extremely cringe and very alarming in terms of the racist stuff and the crazy stuff people are saying. So it's stoking on the fears of the audience."
After the angle aired, WWE filmed a promo from Hassan where he explained that he is an Arab-American and that the American people automatically and unfairly assume that he is a terrorist. The promo aired on WWE's website and Hassan was kept off television due "unfair treatment by Americans."
Hassan was effectively written off television for good at WWE Great American Bash when he was defeated by The Undertaker.
"Wrestling's been doing that for so long. But he basically played this character to such an effect that it created an unprecedented level of controversy to the point where networks were being concerned, like, ‘Should this character be on the air? Do we want to carry this product?’ Because it was going off the rails and especially as things in the real world in the Middle East were heating up and other terrorist activity was happening. It was like, ‘Is this the best look for us to have this character on screen at the same time things in the headlines are happening?’
"So to me, it's just a very fascinating episode looking at Marc's journey through wrestling, him sort of reckoning with this in terms of the character that he portrayed and that there was insensitivities there. But as you said, it's crazy him having to take this gimmick outside of the ring and sort of live the gimmick; wear a headdress and wear these things out in public and experiencing real racism at the time is just completely fascinating and bizarre. But then also his journey to now where he's a school teacher and he says he wouldn't change a thing. That failure of that gimmick led him to where he is now helping people. So you can't hate that, it's great."
Copani got into education after his wrestling career and in 2024 was named Director of Human Resources for the Fulton City School District.
Fans can watch the full interview with Husney in the video above.
