Muhammad Hassan says his character helped him as a teacher.
Following his departure from WWE, Hassan, real name Marc Copani, made the decision to return to college to pursue a teaching career.
After spending multiple years in the classroom as a history teacher, Hassan went on to climb the administrative ranks in the school system before being named the Director of Human Resources for the Fulton City School District.
In a new interview with Fightful, Hassan stated that his wrestling character helped him as a teacher, as it allowed him to understand that history is based on perspective.
"That's what I love about the Dark Side of the Ring episode is they did such a nice job of tying what was happening in wrestling to real world events, whether it predated or it was contemporary with my run, but it absolutely helped me as a social studies teacher ‘cause it made me understand that history is a matter of perspective. What we view as history in the United States of America is very different than what history may be in Europe or in Africa or in South America. So when I taught history, I always tried to bring multiple perspectives about a topic to the classroom and let them decide for themselves. Being a good social studies teacher is not telling someone your opinion, it's providing them with the opportunity and the ability to think critically and that's what I loved about teaching. I would do everything I can to examine multiple perspectives on the same issue. It wasn't necessarily, ‘Tell me what this is about.’ It was tell me, ‘Why it was written this way. What's the influence? What are they trying to do? What emotions?’ It's kind of what I would expect and what I would like teachers to teach about modern media today, because modern media is just living history and you look at the different news outlets and you look at some of the different stories that we see, and it's not so much as what is happening, as it is why is it happening? Why are we seeing it in this way? So being in my experience, it certainly helped me be a better teacher and having the life experience that I gained through the ups and then the ultimate failure as a 25 year old. Which I would say as a 25 year old, I experienced more failure than most people should, but I did. It definitely made me a more steady person. Not perfect, definitely flawed, but it definitely gave me a lot more tools as I matured and grew up that I was able to use to help kids realize their potential and what they need to be."
Hassan continued on and talked about how being in education changed his life.
"It is. For me, it's the fact that I experienced so much so quick and lost it so quick and spent so many years searching for something, that at the point in my life where I felt the most lost, I feel like I had the most support and the most insight as to why I needed to turn it around. Teaching and being in the field of education, as stressful as it is, because it is very stressful. It's a much different field than I entered even 12 years ago, has brought a lot of rewards and has brought a lot of stability and really perspective to my life and most importantly, my family. That quote that you mentioned is still true. You look at the traits in others and you despise them in yourself. I think the best, best example of that is when you have children and I hear my son whining that his head hurts and I'm like, ‘Stop whining.’ I'm like, ‘You whine all the time.’ But everything that I went through and everything that I still go through, because I, again I'm still a work in progress and I'm still working hard to be a better person. It’s all built upon the experiences that I've had in the past. So nothing can change it. No amount of wishing or what if could change it. Nothing can change the time that's passed. I can't go back. I certainly can't speed it up. I can't slow it down, but I think the important thing is that you learn that you make the most out of the time that you have and that you help others do the same. So I hope in some small way that I've been able to do that, uh, based on the experiences that I've had."
Elsewhere in the interview, Hassan detailed the progress of a screenplay that he wrote with Shad Gaspard before his passing. Fans can learn more about the project by clicking here.
Fans can check out Fightful's full interview with Muhammad Hassan in the video linked at the top of this interview.
