Mohammed Hassan ... hmmm

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I had hoped that we'd moved beyond relying on cultural stereotypes in order to draw heat (ah, who am I kidding, it's pro wrestling, of course we haven't moved beyond that and we probably never will).

Having said that, the vingnettes are working. The character isn't a one-dimensional America-hating whiner -- for instance, he's upset about being viewed as a sterotype, and can you blame him? He's proud about being American but wants to beat some sense into people that he feels are mistreating and misrepresenting Arabs (which is everybody, in his view).

None of that makes me comfortable with the cultural stereotyping, but at least it's not a one-dimensional "I hate Americans" Iron Sheik-esque stance. Is this progress?

Comments?

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 19 November 2004 19:33 (twenty years ago)

I haven't seen this yet but hearing of it is making me uneasy. Is he actually a heel or what? I mean, he's going to end up getting treated as one regardless, ennit? He said something about a 'revolution against America' at some point, I gather.

Like, that one time Nowinski and Steiner had a debate about the Iraq war, and Nowinski was all 'we need to be more subtle and make sure we don't create more terrorists by killing too many civilians and stuff!' and Steiner was all 'I'm gonna kick yr assss if you don't support our troops' (roughly speaking, obviously it was more guttural and incoherent than that), and everyone cheered.

― M1chael Ph1lip Ph1lip Ph1lip Ph1lip Ph1lip Ann0yman (Ferg), Friday, 19 November 2004 19:41 (twenty years ago)

The Steiner-Nowinski de~~bate~~bacle was in the back of my mind when I started the thread ... pro-wrestling doesn't do subtlety well -- the snob is ALWAYS the heel. If Hassan ends up running like a coward from the Hurricane, with the latter waving an American flag and leading "USA!!USA!!" chants then the subtlety of the Hassan character is lost and he becomes just another America-bashing evil-doer. This is what I fear will happen.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 19 November 2004 20:01 (twenty years ago)

Remember Bradshaw getting some nice face heat by referring to Tiger Ali Singh as a taxi-driver? Ah, those were the days.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 20 November 2004 09:56 (twenty years ago)

Shouldn't that make him a face, which is clearly not the case? I mean, I took a wait-and-see approach when Eugene was introduced, but the difference is, we knew that he'd be sympathetic character. No matter what he does, he will be a heel (no matter how sympathetic people *should* be to his views) unless he renounces Islam live on RAW and starts acting like a Muslim version of Kumar.

― alex in montreal, Monday, 22 November 2004 01:46 (twenty years ago)

I saw this week's Raw. Perfunctory attempt at making him seem a bit justified and thoughtful at the start, then he starts getting all apocalyptic and his manager jabbers angrily in Arabic for long enough to annoy the kind of people who're going to be annoyed by people speaking in forrin, and generally just 'uh-oh', really.

― M1chael Ph1lip Ph1lip Ph1lip Ph1lip Ph1lip Ann0yman (Ferg), Monday, 22 November 2004 02:48 (twenty years ago)

He reminds me of Chavo Jr in an odd sort of way.

― M1chael Ph1lip Ph1lip Ph1lip Ph1lip Ph1lip Ann0yman (Ferg), Monday, 22 November 2004 02:48 (twenty years ago)

No matter how much they develop his character, the WWE still wants the base reaction to be "Arab = evil foreigner = BOOOOOOO!!!!". In that sense, the gimmick is straight out of the 70's and 80's. His gimmick defines his face/heel stature, not his character -- or in other words, it's who he is, not how he acts.

then he starts getting all apocalyptic and his manager jabbers angrily in Arabic
Fun fact: the manager is actually speaking Farsi

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 22 November 2004 05:26 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

Muhammed Hassen is brought into the WWE for the same reson as the Iron Sheik was years ago. simply to stir up contravirsy. muhammed hassan is a great performer and with the united states and their Predigest against aribs and arib americans due to the current war in iraq it brings a great Character that people love to hate. so i same muhammed Hassan is here to stay.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 10 March 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

???

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Friday, 11 March 2005 05:07 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

This is great - now, it seems, before he does the camel clutch, he does a mock DECAPITATION gesture before the hold!! omg!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 7 April 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

Man, the guy needs some moves in his arsenal. That pre-WM match against Michaels was so boring, all kicking and punching.

― alex in montreal (alex in montreal), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

he does a mock DECAPITATION gesture

Benoit's been doing that for years! He's the real terrorist!

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

yeah but benoit does it on himself!!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 7 April 2005 16:09 (twenty years ago)

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