Posted on 07/23/2005 7:41:34 PM PDT by Piledriver
D.C. Watson: WWE’s Hassan character too accurately portrayed to succeed
It appears to be a done deal. Mark Copani, who, for World Wrestling Entertainment plays the disgruntled Arab-American wrestler Muhammad Hassan, has tentatively been released by the WWE, and will be reporting to Ohio Valley Wrestling for “repackaging.”
So, let’s see if we have this straight. A wrestling character, “Muhammad Hassan”, a Muslim character judging by the name, who during interviews, insults the United States, while also spending time interrupting interviews being conducted with other wrestlers, demanding the “special time that he deserves”, relying on his manager’s constant interference to win his matches, attacking people from behind, and complaining to an audience of millions that he isn’t being treated with the respect that he deserves.
Is this not an accurate portrayal of the attitude many in the Muslim community demonstrate?
In the wake of cowardly Muslim terrorist attacks on the innocent, decent people of London, the script for WWE’s July 7th, 2005 edition of "Smackdown" couldn’t have been more poorly timed. The WWE tapes this particular show on Tuesdays, and had already filmed "Smackdown" two days before the Muslims attacked London.
They are only guilty of not pre-empting the segment involving Hassan and the Undertaker, which they probably should've done. However, since Islamic terrorists and their bootlickers never take a day off, there was no way for the WWE to know when they were filming on Tuesday that London would be attacked by these cretins two days later.
Nevertheless, the pressure to drop the Hassan character appears to be coming from the mainstream press, because the character is “insensitive” to a certain ethnic group, and because the character “clashes with real world events.”
You know, real world events, like Muslim terrorist killers imbedded in Western societies. And insensitive, like blowing innocent people to bits on buses, shooting a pregnant Jewish woman and her children for being too near a Palestinian neighborhood, or sawing off the heads of live, bound, and outnumbered innocent civilians on video.
What several of these mainstream press simps fail to realize is that they are what the wrestling world describes as “kafabes”, or “marks.” Kafabes and marks can be best defined with the scenario of the little old lady sitting in the front row at a wrestling event, pissed at the “heel” for using dirty tactics to hurt her baby faced hero, and then jabbing the “heel’ in the ass with a knitting needle when he inadvertently gets to close to her sometime during the match.
Copani and his sidekick, Shawn “Khosrow” Daivari, (who is actually an American of Iranian descent), thanks to the media kafabes, will likely be split up, and this gimmick will likely be flushed down the political correctness toilet.
Do the members of the media who are doing the complaining about all of this understand that when Daivari speaks on the “mike”, it’s not jibberish coming out of his mouth, but a Persian language known as Farci? If Shawn Daivari, an Iranian, doesn't have a problem with his own character, why should anyone else in the Muslim community or the mainstream media?
True wrestling fans who understand the business can easily travel back in time to the days of wrestling’s foreign “bad guys.”
Remember Baron Von Raschke, from Nuremberg, Germany? The big German who would do a stiff-legged Nazi march around the ring, and then crush his opponents with the infamous, unbreakable “claw”? Remember him?
This “evil Nazi” was played by James Donald Raschke, who was originally from Omaha, Nebraska. Didn’t see the media or the German-American population up in arms over this character, did we?
Or how about Nikolai Volkoff, the Russian heel who sang the abbreviated Russian national anthem before each match. He couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, but for an extremely large human being, he sure as hell could work that ring. Oh, and by the way, Volkoff was played by a guy by the name of Joe Peruzovic, who was born in Croatia, and lives in Uniontown, PA.
Another ‘evil’ Russian worker was the “Russian Bear” Ivan Koloff, who was portrayed by Jim Perras, a native of Chrysler, Ontario.
Any bitching from the media or from Russian-Americans over the antics of these two hell raisers? Not hardly.
A true wrestling legend was the (original) Sheik, who was billed as being from Syria. His true name was Edward Farhat, and he was born in Lansing, Michigan. A World War II veteran, Farhat, who never spoke in interviews, was managed by a Jewish gentleman by the name of Eddy Creechman. Millions of wrestling fans are also familiar with Farhat’s nephew, the “homicidal, suicidal, genocidal” Sabu (Terry Brunk).
Abdullah the Butcher, from Sudan? How about Larry Shreve from Windsor, Ontario Canada. This evil “Muslim” retired earlier this year, and owns a rib joint in Atlanta, GA. Hope there’s no fatwa in his future for selling pork.
Has there been any whining from the mainstream press about any of these men? It is quite apparent that the media had no trouble years ago when characters in the professional wrestling industry portrayed evil enemies from foreign lands that were at that time unfriendly to the United States.
Now, the WWE has workers who bill themselves as Frenchmen, and they are “heels“. They have a character billed as Carlito, who is the son of Caribbean wrestling legend Carlos Colon. Carlito also plays the heel, and plays it well. The audience loves to hate him.
Last but not least, WWE also employs wrestlers of Mexican descent, some of whom play the bad guy. One of them, Chavo Guererro, is playing out a storyline that has him renouncing his Mexican heritage, and “legally” changing his name to “Kermit White.” Any complaints from the Mexican-Americans or the media about them? Nope.
So, why is the Muhammad Hassan character being assassinated? Judging by WWE’s television ratings and their pay per view buy rates, the character hasn’t hurt the promotion whatsoever. Usually, when a gimmick goes south, it’s killed off. This gimmick hasn’t produced anything but big results, because Copani and Daivari do a great job, which can be verified by the reaction of the arena crowd when they make their way toward the ring.
Is there a possibility that these two talented performers are being singled out because although they aren’t the first pro wrestlers to portray Muslims in a negative light, they are the first to portray Muslims in a negative light in a society that includes politically correct, multicultural society dreamers in the mainstream media who, with their partners, certain Islamic organizations in America, attack freedom of speech and expression whenever it is negative of Muslims or Islam.
If the Hassan character had been cast as a pro-American wrestling hero, would the mainstream press still be attacking it? Pro Wrestling is simply a form of entertainment, enjoyed by tens of millions around the world every week.
With that being said, if the hypersensitives, so concerned with hurting the fragile feelings of Muslims can’t stomach it, they can turn the damn channel to Al-Jazeera.
Or, who knows, maybe this is all just another “work” that the wrestling industry is so famous for. Man, wouldn’t that be nice?
The uproar started when on the night of the first London bombing they aired a clip where five men in black masks, basically dressed as AQ terrorists per the videos we've seen out of Iraq, came out to aid Hassan and dragged away his opponent (the undertaker), presumably to "behead" him.
It was WAY over the line, even for "rassling".
Actually, they carried off Daivari, not the Undertaker, they left him in the ring.
I'm sitting here absolutley stunned.
Baron Von Raschke is not from Germany ?
I dont see how thats way over the line
1) Typically WWE's Smackdown is taped on Tues in one city, aired on Thurs. WWE's RAW is typically shown live on Mon from another city. This show was different as it was a 'supershow', meaning both shows were in the same building on the same night, RAW was shown live first and Smackdown was taped immediately thereafter.
2) Sky News, who handles the WWE programming in the UK, completely cut out the segment in question. We here in the States saw the segment in full and a disclaimer was run about 4-5 times during the show.
3) The morning after Smackdown was showed, there was a video clip of the incident on WWE.com but it was pulled within a few hours.
There's a LOT of debate going around amongst wrestling fans about this segment. Personally I thought it was stupid to do. Why? Not that I was offended (I've seen worse WWE storylines) but Hassan was getting great heat (IOW getting the crowd riled up) and didn't need something this over the top, and second the guy he had beat up is my personal favorite, the Undertaker. *yesIknowit'sfakeleavemealone* Now the character of Hassan is being done away with COMPLETELY and Copani's being sent back to OWV, WWE's developmental camp in Louisville, KY. With the recent number of releases from the WWE talent roster, I'm REALLY hoping creative can find something good for Copani.
Fact is, it is an accurate portrayal of how Muslims behave, and how the media is still falling for this "religion of peace" crap.
Remember, Stone Cold Steve Austin was crucified by the Undertaker a few years back, and his gimmick is still growing strong. No media outrage poured out on that one either. Probably because it didn't offend Muslims.
The article said that the segment should've been pre-empted, and I agree that it should've. And it's OK to have favorites, even if you know it's fake.
Maybe they should get rid of the Dead Man, because, you know, some real dead people might be offended by 'Taker.
Now that is hilarious.......Man that's great.
Go watch the stinkin sitcom that happens to be everywhere on network T.V.
and keep your whinin to yourselves!!!!
Amen to that.
This D.C. Watson guy is a hard hitter. I've read alot of his stuff about Muslims. He knows a bit about em, and how ignorant they act. I also found that he knows some about wrestling. Check this out
http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$30405
"If these clowns don'tget into wrestling and a little "Rednck Soap Oprea", Go watch the stinkin sitcom that happens to be everywhere on network T.V. and keep your whinin to yourselves!!!!"
I have never seen more than 5 minutes of wrestling on tV and have no interest....BUT...Well Said Cheapskate. Hey, it's just entertainment.
To really get these hyper-sensitive bellyachers hopping mad, WWE should send Mohammad Hassan's opponent into the ring dragging along with a cute little piglet on a leash. Mohhammad should react just like Dracula facing a cross. What a scene!
I think there could be so much done with Copari. They guy's 24 and can work an interview with the best of them. I think Daivari is 24 too. They both have a great future in the business of wrestling barring any serious injuries. It's a shame that this entire character has to be done away with and I hope Vinne Mac changes his mind.
He isn't one for being told what to do. The piglet thing is a great idea for a spot, and Copari and Daivari could certainly pull it off. The bellyachers complain about this but we don't hear them complaining about the crap Muslims pull for real, do we?
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