The Ice Chronicles 31: The Greatest Heel There Never Was..

[Glacier]

Welcome to the 31st Edition of The Ice Chronicles. I am your host of all things frosty and frozen, Glacier. I hope you all enjoyed your holiday. We finally got snow last night and today here in northeastern Ohio. Makes me pretty happy, because now i can bring out the snowmobile and go riding later on today. Today in the Igloo, Jim going to talk about a person who had one of my favorite gimmicks, and could have been the greatest heel ever, but was sadly cut loose way soon.

Random Thoughts/Observations:

For Christmas this year, My girlfriend got me a few of the "WWE Tagged Classics" The ones she got me were from the late 90's, most of which were the old In Your House ones. After watching a few of them, and refreshing my memory, It is staggering how different the storylines were, and what a difference the PG rating makes on the WWE Product.

The Royal Rumble will soon be upon us. With the news that John Morrison will be taking on Drew McIntyre at the Rumble, that takes away my pick to win the Rumble. I am now changing my pick to CM Punk.

Am I the only one hoping that HBK and Triple H lose the tag titles soon so they can start feuding? I hope they do though, because their feud from 02-04 was one of the best feuds of the decade.

What happened to the Ted DiBiase face turn? There was so much talk that he would be turning face in time for his DVD. His DVD comes out tomorrow. Hopefully they'll do it for Wrestlemania, as I am very interested to see how he does as a face.


The Greatest Heel There Never Was..

The man I am going to write about only had about an 8 months stint in the WWE. He had a great gimmick, was a great talker, knew how to draw heat from the crowd, and had unlimited potential. Hell, there was talk about making him The World Heavyweight Champion before he got released. The man I am writing about is Mark Copani. Mark Copani, better known to the fans as Muhammad Hassan, Is an Italian American who debuted in OVW in September of 2004. He then debuted on Raw in December of 2004, after only 2 months in developmentals. He debuted with the Arab-American heel gimmick, along with his manager, Khosrow Daivari. You can view his debut promo here. His promo was passionate, and drew a lot of heat from the crowd, which a lot of the anti-American gimmicks do. Think back to Bret Hart of 97. He was HATED on american soil because he turned his back on them for Canada. The same was with Hassan, he was a promo machine. Every week he would come out and hate on the American fans, because he felt prejudiced in his own country. He talked about how he was once an american supporter, but after 9/11 was treated like a prisoner and an outcast.

His in-ring work was good as well. He wasn't a technical masterpiece, nor was he a huge brawler. When he was in the ring, he reminded me of Christian. He did what he had to do to make the match good, and he knew how to play off the crowd during his matches. He had a 4 month undefeated streak, defeating guys like Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Hurricane Helms, but then he started his first big feud in April of 2005 against Shawn Michaels. He attacked HBK an episode of Raw, leading to Shawn asking for a handicapped match at Backlash against Hassan and Daivari. His match would be granted, provided he could find a tag team partner. He found one in Hulk Hogan, who Hassan had an altercation with at Wrestlemania 21, seen here.. In Hassan's first main event match of his career, he and Daivari were unsuccessful in their quest to beat Hogan and Michaels. This would take them into may of 2005, where Hassan went back to squashing lower tier talent until he was drafted to Smackdown in the 2005 Draft. In his first few weeks, he got himself into a 6 way elimination match for the Smackdown Championship. He would be unsuccessful there, but would start the feud that ended his run in the WWE, His feud with the Undertaker.

The feud with Taker began as a number one contender feud, but it became so much more. It's the feud that immortalized Hassan as the greatest heel ever. One week on Smackdown, Undertaker faced off against Daivari. Here is the infamous attack on Undertaker by Hassan's army. This attack happened on the same day as the London Bombings, and while it was edited out in some areas of the world, a lot of us still saw it unedited. Smackdown aired it unedited, but had warnings throughout the show due to its graphicness. UPN immediately talked to WWE and pressured them to take Hassan off TV, as it made their station look bad that they allowed this to air and still kept the character on TV. UPN threatened to pull Smackdown off of their lineup if Hassan was not removed. So the next week, They aired a statement from Hassan's lawyer stating that Hassan would not show up on TV until the Great American Bash due to him being prejudiced by WWE. Hassan would not appear until The Great American Bash, where he was defeated by Taker, in a match that he was originally booked to win. But what transpired after the match, seen here, is what ended the greatest heel of all time. After this, Hassan was sent back to the developmentals to try on a new gimmick, but it failed, and Hassan was released from the WWE in September of 2005.

What I don't understand is why they didn't send him back to Raw. There were plenty of edgy gimmicks on Raw at the time. Hell, on Raw in August of 05, you had a storyline about Lita cheating on Matt Hardy with Edge. And you had that whole fiasco. So what was so wrong about having Hassan on the show. It isn't like the attackers were wearing turbans and praising Allah or anything like that. Hassan was a victim of circumstance. Wrong place, wrong time. If that would have happened a 4 or 5 months before, nobody would have thought anything about it. Hassan HAD ALL of the tools he needed to be the best heel the WWE has ever seen. He had all the tools to be a big time main eventer and future WWE Legend and Hall of Famer. But the London Bombings and the time that the segment aired on TV really screwed him. There are so many feuds i would have loved to see him in. A face Kurt Angle in 2006.Imagine The draft in 2006, and Hassan is the World Champion coming out and talking about how even though he is a World Champion, he is still being prejudiced by Americans. And have Kurt Angle be a draftee to Smackdown and turn face. It would be EPIC. A better feud with Taker and HBK. Chris Jericho, among many others would have done wonders for his career.

Hassan's release caused a huge fan backlash, as he was one of the most hated villians in history, and all of the fans appreciated his work. His departure left a lot of questions unanswered:

What would his run with the World Title have been like IF he would have gotten the belt at Summerslam?
I think he would have gotten a run like CM Punk got in the summer of 08. Just a tryout run to see how he could do with the title and how he dealt with the pressure of being champion. Then he would have lost his title back to Batista or Taker or someone else and then he wove been a top midcarder to get more experience before getting a lengthy title reign in 06 when Batista went down with his injury. Had he won the World Title at Summerslam, he would have been the youngest world champion, being only 23 at the time. There is no doubt that he would be a multi time world champion by now had he not gotten released.

How would his gimmick be with the PG rating of today?
There is nothing about his gimmick that would be affected by the PG rating. His gimmick is that of an Arab American who feels prejudiced by Americans. He might have to tone down his promos a bit, but i think his gimmick would still be going strong and still work in full effect during the PG rating era.

Would he ever turn face?
No. No. No. No. The WWE have ruined too many good heels by turning them face. Vader in 96-97 was ruined by a face turn. Sid was ruined by turning him face. Brock Lesnar was ruined by turning him face. So many man who were great heels, whether they be monster heels, talker heels, or any other kind of heels, were ruined by face turns. Although the WWE would probably have him do some stupid speech like Slaughter's back in 91 where he proclaims that he "wants his country back" and then give him an American hero gimmick. And it would ruin his greatness.

Would a stable be a good idea for him?
It could be, but it would have to be something like the World Elite in TNA. Because they don't have a lot of good Arab American wrestlers banging down the door to the WWE. A Stable with Hassan, Regal, Kozlov, and The Hart Dynasty would make a good stable for Hassan. Him and Regal can share the mic work, Hassan would be the main eventer, Regal the midcarder, Kozlov the monster enforcer, and The Hart Dynasty the tag team of the group. Have them dominate Smackdown and you've got yourself a show.

But alas, all we have are the memories of his run, and the thoughts and dreams of what could have been.

The Freeze moment will make its return next week, as i didn't catch any wrestling last week due to the holidays.

I need your help for my next edition. I am looking to make my next edition a mailbag sort of edition, with questions from fellow forums members, or any of the people of the universe who read my column. So if any of you who read this have any questions about Wrestling, or any other topic that you may desire, shoot me some mail with your question. If you are a member of the forums, just leave it in my feedback, or PM it to me. For those of you who aren't members of the forums, you can e-mail me at Glacier689@gmail.com.

Well, that does it for this edition of The Ice Chronicles. As always, i am Glacier. Join me next time for another edition of The Ice Chronicles. And bring a coat next time, you look cold.

[Uncle Joe]

This was nicely written for the most part, but fuck, HAssan sucked. HArd. Ddues hating wrestling with him, and just fuck that nigga.

[Jason Boy]

I thought Hassan would be the next big thing and I really enjoyed your column. Dibiase is trying to turn face and they are teasing it. This was a good column.

[XanMan]

Originally Posted by Uncle Joe

This was nicely written for the most part, but fuck, HAssan sucked. HArd. Ddues hating wrestling with him, and just fuck that nigga.

They did? I didn't know that. I thought Hassan was very good; and so was this column.

[Dr. CMV1]

AH, Hassan...the WWE screwed him with that "piano wire" incident. If they'd have stuck to him being the Arab American with issues instead of the leader of a terrorist cell, he might've won the World title from Batista at Summerslam that year, as he was supposed to at least wrestle for it prior to the aforementioned incident.

'Tis a shame...he quit wrestling after that...

[pringle100]

I also agree with you that Hassan was an excellent heel and he may well have been one of the best but I suppose we'll never know.

Great read.

[FreekyDeeky]

I didn't know too much about Hassan's character as that was one of my hiatuses from wrestling so this column was very much appreciated and it makes me feel like I missed out on someone that could have been huge.

Good stuff Glace

[McFly937]

I Loved Hassan an really thought he could be a star, but he got the ole bamboozle(whatever that means) Great Read!

[Glacier]

Originally Posted by Uncle Joe

This was nicely written for the most part, but fuck, HAssan sucked. HArd. Ddues hating wrestling with him, and just fuck that nigga.

What?

Originally Posted by Jason Boy

I thought Hassan would be the next big thing and I really enjoyed your column. Dibiase is trying to turn face and they are teasing it. This was a good column.

I thought he would be too. Thanks for reading.

Originally Posted by XanMan

They did? I didn't know that. I thought Hassan was very good; and so was this column.

Thanks for the feedback.

Originally Posted by Dr. CMV1

AH, Hassan...the WWE screwed him with that "piano wire" incident. If they'd have stuck to him being the Arab American with issues instead of the leader of a terrorist cell, he might've won the World title from Batista at Summerslam that year, as he was supposed to at least wrestle for it prior to the aforementioned incident.

'Tis a shame...he quit wrestling after that...

I know. Its a real shame.

Originally Posted by pringle100

I also agree with you that Hassan was an excellent heel and he may well have been one of the best but I suppose we'll never know.

Great read.

Thanks for reading dude.

Originally Posted by FreekyDeeky

I didn't know too much about Hassan's character as that was one of my hiatuses from wrestling so this column was very much appreciated and it makes me feel like I missed out on someone that could have been huge.

Good stuff Glace

How could you take a hiatus during this guy. He was fantastic.

Originally Posted by McFly937

I Loved Hassan an really thought he could be a star, but he got the ole bamboozle(whatever that means) Great Read!

Thanks for the feeback.