Paid Members tom Posted January 23, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 23, 2011 Was Hassan a big missed opportunity for WWE? Great look, good promo and wasn't too bad in the ring either. And then we come to the gimmick..... Â I actually think that the gimmick was initially very good and looked like it would be thought-provoking even given their history of quickly turning to bad taste. The vignettes were really good and give him a great base to debut upon. He had that glorious attribute of being the sort of heel who has been fucked over and is actually in the right, and it seemed like there were endless possibilities. But then WWE seemingly got cold feet and decided to turn a relatively clever gimmick, which might I add was getting over very well, into a quite offensive and extremely base publicity stunt. Â So on the outside you have an American citizen who has been discriminated against simply because of the actions of others, and has been tarred with the same brush as terrorists, but if you look beneath the surface then he isn't a terro.......no, WAIT, he's a fucking terrorist, I knew it, that fucking no good Muslim, he even has his own fucking splinter cell, clearly I can never trust another Arab ever again. And the rest is history, with chicken wire attacks on Undertaker days after the London bombings forcing WWE to drop the gimmick at the behest of UPN via a Last Ride through the stage which clearly sent Hassan to paradise. Â If they had kept to the original gimmick then I really think he could have been a very big thing in WWE land. They could have even turned him face further down the road, with him slowly recovering his love for America. Â Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smegma Cake Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 This thread happened not too long ago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra1000 Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 I agree, I really liked the gimmick. I can't really remember any great matches he had, but Davari and him had great chemistry as wrestler and manager. They got great heat. If wikipedia is to be believe he was supposed to be getting a shot at Batista at The Great American Bash but then the "incident" happened. Â I always thought it was a bit shit that they released him. Its not his fault he was part of it. They could have sent him back to developmental and brought him back at some stage as a different character, or even Hassan a year or two later. Â But I guess if they released him, they didn't see anything of worth beyond the terrorist gimmick. Â What on earth has the man done after wrestling? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tom Posted January 23, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 23, 2011 Fuck, sorry. I'll search it down and throw in my 2p's worth. Â EDIT : Can't find any specific threads about Hassan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members CleetusVanDamme Posted January 23, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 23, 2011 This myth that he was a genius character, or that he was "in the right" keeps getting blown up more and more every year. In his vignettes before he debuted he was already getting on at the fans, and moaning about being judged. On his actual debut he interrupted a tribute to the troops style music video, and hurled abuse at the fans in attendance while Daivari screamed at them in another language. Â Â There was nothing clever about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted January 23, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 23, 2011 Must admit I liked the fact that Daivari came back for revenge on Undertaker for his fallen charge, Whippleman style. With Khali playing the part of Giant Gonzalez, obviously. Â Hassan's gimmick was pure xenophobic cobblers, nothing more. Has it been long enough to have a Muslim heel yet? Fuck it, why not. Nothing's changed, from Commie heels of the 80s to Iraqi-bashing to the backstage treatment of Kite Cabana, anyone that isnt pure Christian American stock deserves everything they get, whether its hideous sterotyping or just flat out burial. Â Apart from Canada and Mexico, they're suburbs of America, so they don't count. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm29195 Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Hassan was an awful worker, just another cookie cutter OVW guy, not particularly athletic and never had one decent match, he even managed to have a stinker with Benoit on RAW, screwing up the finish... Â The character was typical jingoistic America 'love it or leave it' thing really, not really the sort of escapism I go for when watching wrestling... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tom Posted January 23, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 23, 2011 This myth that he was a genius character, or that he was "in the right" keeps getting blown up more and more every year. In his vignettes before he debuted he was already getting on at the fans, and moaning about being judged. On his actual debut he interrupted a tribute to the troops style music video, and hurled abuse at the fans in attendance while Daivari screamed at them in another language.  There was nothing clever about it. Maybe there's a certain element of rose-tinted glasses on my behalf but I seem to remember him being met with some quite hot heat before he even opened his mouth. Granted there wasn't much progression once he actually debuted but again I seem to remember the vignettes had an element of progression of his turning against America. I do think that it would have been even better if he came in as a face, with WWE knowing he was likely to get roundly booed, and then gradually turned heel based upon his reactions. They hot-shotted that with the vignettes though, so maybe, I concede, the possibilities are where the concept of it being clever has come from.  I didn't really mean, by the way, that he was ever positive to the fans but the concept of him suddenly getting discriminated through no fault of his own did give make him partially right; and after months of abuse and change he finally snapped and turned on America, but he didn't fire the first shot. Damn, just imagining all this happening over a six-month period, as opposed to simply being alluded to, sounds awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted January 23, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 23, 2011 I don't think he was just another lazy anti-American character initially. Indeed, if you watch his pre-debut promos, I actually found myself nodding and agreeing with a lot of what he said. OMG TERRIST. Â He was well spoken and articulate, and that is where the character had a chance to be different. But as soon as he debuted, it was apparent that he was utter crap in the ring and that they had no intention of allowing his articulacy to continue to be a part of his character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Rob Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 I do remember loving the beatdown he and Daivari did on JR and Lawler to build up to the weird match with no commentary at New Years Revolution. Very old school, like something out of the Mid South territory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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