Muhammad Hassan: Regardless Of What Happened In July Of 2005 In London, I Think That Character Was On A Trajectory That Was Going To Get Him Pulled From TV

Muhammad Hassan says his WWE character was on a trajectory to get pulled from television regardless of what happened in London.

Following backlash after the July 2005 London Bombings, the Muhammad Hassan character was removed from WWE programming.

Speaking on Monte & The Pharaoh, Hassan reflected on the character and how it could’ve been handled differently.

“I think regardless of what happened in July of 2005 in London, I think that character was on a trajectory that was going to get him pulled from TV. The world was changing. Yeah, you’re right. I mean, I go out there and I say these things now, and the way the culture shifted that I’m getting cheered because what I was saying was absolutely true.

There was nothing wrong with what I was saying, maybe how I was saying it because I was doing it intentionally to get heat. The other ironic part of that is I was a heel. So I would go out there and do heel things. I wasn’t a hero by any means. So it really contradicted the unfairness that I preached on in the ring because then I was unfair in the way I dealt with my opponent.

But the world was changing in 2005, and cancel culture wasn’t yet a thing, but we were starting to become hypersensitive. The old ideas of being able to poke fun or push the envelope when it comes to ethnicity, when it comes to sexuality, that was still–I mean, I just think of stand-up comedians. I think of Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy. You can’t get away with that anymore. Neither could you get away with what we were doing with Muhammad Hassan.

Now, I think where that character, the turning point was when, just like the WWE is going to do, they up the ante and they try to generate more heat. We started pushing the envelope. But that character went from a very homegrown, almost the way I always looked at it was, it was like a sleeper cell. Muhammad Hassan could be part of the sleeper cell. He was born in America. We were very clear. He was raised in America He was educated in America. But at any moment that switch could be flipped and he’s going to blow some shit up. When we went from that character, that homegrown terrorist character to a character that was more reliant on fanatic Islam, I think that’s when we really started to shift and started to draw a lot of attention because now we’re no longer holding a mirror up to American society. But we’re bringing religion into it. Again, the world was changing into one that was a lot more sensitive to people based on ethnicity, gender, religion, race. So I don’t think that character would have lasted. If that didn’t happen, would we have the opportunity to slowly transform that character in one that was a lot more subtle, but still political in nature? Probably. But we didn’t get that opportunity. That shit happened quick. I woke up on Thursday, heard about the London bombing, traveled to TV on or traveled to a house show on Friday and that’s when we realized my god, this is a big deal.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Hassan talked about getting physical in the ring this year. Fans can read more about it here.

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