Muhammad Hassan addressed rumors that he would go on to win the WWE World Championship from Batista at the 2005 WWE SummerSlam event.
Few wrestlers in history have the kind of push afforded to Muhammad Hassan in 2005. Hassan only wrestled on four pay-per-views in his entire WWE run, and outside of the Royal Rumble, his opponents at marquee events read like a legitimate who's who of wrestling. Jerry Lawler, Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan, and Undertaker all faced Hassan on pay-per-view, with the match against Undertaker at WWE Great American Bash 2005 being the final match in the character's history.
That match against the Undertaker was supposed to determine who would challenge Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship at WWE SummerSlam. The Undertaker ended up winning the match but did not go on to SummerSlam, and the consistent rumor at the time was that Hassan was supposed to win the match and then challenge Batista in Washington DC, not only in Batista's hometown but a perfect place for the Hassan character to generate heat as the character was an Arab American speaking out against the prejudices his people faced following the September 11 attacks.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on the Insight podcast, Hassan addresses rumors that he was supposed to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and says that he was definitely supposed to beat the Undertaker, but he's not sure what the end of the SummerSlam match would have been.
"I know I heard that and I don't know where it originally came from. But I was supposed to, as far as I know, beat the Undertaker, obviously with a lot of help and then wrestle Batista at [SummerSlam] in Washington, DC. Dave is from Washington, DC. So it was kind of like, the era of beats the hometown boy in the nation's capital was supposed to be the story."
Muhammad Hassan has only wrestled three matches since that night, and they were local matches in 2018.
He is slated to appear in the upcoming Virtual Basement wrestling video game, The Wrestling Code. Learn more here.
