[h3][/h3]
On the episode of
SmackDown! taped on July 4, General Manager
Theodore Long put Muhammad Hassan in a match against The Undertaker at
The Great American Bash and placed Daivari in a match that night against the Undertaker. Daivari was defeated easily, but Hassan began to "pray" on the ramp, summoning five masked men, dressed in black shirts, ski-masks, and camo pants. Armed with clubs and a
piano wire, they beat and choked the Undertaker out, and Hassan put him in the Camel Clutch. Afterward, the masked men lifted Daivari above their heads and carried him away (
See segment here). Three days later, hours before the episode was scheduled to air, the
London bombings took place.[sup]
[21][/sup] Without sufficient time to properly edit the segment out of the show,
UPN showed the footage unedited in the United States and on
The Score in
Canada with an advisory warning shown several times during the broadcast. It was removed from the
Australian and
European (including in the
UK) broadcasts.[sup]
[22][/sup]
The
angle elicited national attention in the
New York Post,
TV Guide,
Variety, and other major media outlets. In response to the criticism, UPN decided that it would monitor the storyline closely and that it did not want the Hassan character on its network that week.[sup]
[23][/sup] Hassan later delivered a promo to the live crowd for the July 14 airing of
SmackDown!, but when UPN announced that the segment would be edited, WWE decided to host the video of the segment on its official website. In the segment, Hassan, reiterates that he is an Arab-
American and that the American people automatically and unfairly assume that he is a
terrorist. Despite being in character, he referred to the real-world media coverage of the storyline, singling out the
New York Post's Don Kaplan by name, and denouncing his description of the events on SmackDown!, such as Kaplan's comment of the masked men being "Arabs in ski masks" (
See segment here). On the July 14 episode of
SmackDown!, Hassan's absence was explained by a statement delivered by his
lawyer, which said that Hassan refused to appear on the show until that month's
Great American Bash due to the way he had been treated by the media and WWE fans.[sup]
[24][/sup]
It was revealed in late July 2005 that
UPN had pressured WWE to keep Hassan off of their network, effectively removing him from
SmackDown!. Copani was released from his WWE contract on September 21, 2005.
I hope Michelle McCool doesn't come back. She can deny it all she wants but her relationship with Undertaker is the only reason she hasn't been released.