Hassan's Departure: WWE's fault or The Media?

Slimdust

yeah i know it would kinda suck in a way. But back when nitro was around it sucked too. You had to flip back and fourth to what u want to watch more. And seeing the GM's of both shows compete, and maybe do run ins everynow and then. I would love it. I would TVO atleast one so i could catch all of it lol

Dakstang

WC's Resident Redneck

Yea I see your point it could be cool at times. I don't have TVO so I couldn't do that. Back in WCW days I was not that interested in their product so I would just check it out when WWE was on a commercial.

Slimdust

yeah, i was more of a WWE guy. but wcw had its moments.

Lynch

I didn't see the angle myself, but of course read a ton about it. Taking into account I completely agree about the media being 99% a pile of crap. In fact on a side note, my friends kid hadda write a paper about what they think the biggest problem in America is, he didn't finish the sentence when I said, "organized religion or the media" Anyhoo, this won't really answer the threads question directly, I apologize for that. But heres my 2 cents on it.

Obviously the WWE has no idea that a bombing would happen the same day they air that angle, thats just bad luck, but as they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity. The warning before the show was fine, wrestling is known worldwide as entertainment and not real life, and as someone said, the little things they do such as no R rated movies is an insult to intelligent ppl. Had the premiere of 24 been on that day, with a terrorist act in it, do you think FX would have postponed it? Hell no, thats millions of $ lost. Could they have had it editted by airing? Of course, a local cable intern can do that. Should they have? 9/10s of me says no.

WWE above all is a business, and though still successful by most standards is still hurting a bit. Now what's that rule? Contreversy breeds interest. Vince may be a lot of things, but one he's not is afraid to fuck with the media and take big chances. They aren't stupid in Hartford. They knew they'd catch shit for this, maybe not as much as they did, but they knew it was coming. So when his guys asked if they should edit it out, he thought and said nope, just give em a warning, and let the sparks fly.

Hassan is one of the few truly over characters the WWE has right now and should be pushing him as their top or 2nd top heel. Other than Taker, HHH and Cena, no one else is as solidified in their spot. The guy is over, and over ppl = $$$. I guess you have no choice if UPN says, don't use this guy or we won't air your show, Ok, guess he's off to RAW. You can't buy that kind of heat. They have a plan and he will be back, I'd put a few peso's on that.

Was it tasteless? Duh. No ever accuses pro wrestling of tastefulness. Was it tasteless before London? Yup. Did it advance the Hassan character? Yup. Did it get Hassan and WWE's name in papers and websites that normally wont' touch wrestling with 10 foot pole? Sure did. It also causes some former fans to see these articles and say "They have a terrorist character? How do they pull that off? MAYBE I"LL WATCH AND CHECK IT OUT." WWE is in the entertainment business, both key words, and you need ppl to watch it to make money, fate has stepped in on this particular case, where it goes from here is all up to how VKM can manipulate the media sheep. Because Muhammed Hassan will be wearing the WWE world belt sometime in 2006.

"What the hell is an aluminum falcon??!!"

Steveo

Actually he won't becuase they killed him. Spike is owned by Viacom as well so we will have no chance of seeing him until they move to USA and they probably will be wary of bringing him back under the same gimmick becuse of the heat they would recieve.

Get yourself an old wrestling tape. Watch Flair in his prime, Terry Funk, The Road Warriors, Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, The Andersons, Pat Patterson, The Briscoes, and I dare you,... I dare you to try to tell me that WWE is even a remotely good product. Wrestling happened before 1998 and just because you didn't see it does not mean it did not exist. Broaden your horizons people!!!

Lynch

They actually killed him off? What'd they do?

"What the hell is an aluminum falcon??!!"

Blitzkrieg

You see...we agree on everything but right here. I'm not claiming these masked men were terrorists or were not terrorists, but everyone else jumped at it including TV Guide and CNN like they knew exactly what was going on..Lets be real, these people don't know anything about WWE and didn't know about this only until the London attacks occured. The columns that were written by these people in the media were biased and unfair and that is why Hassan is off of tv now.

How can I blame WWE for bringing masked guys out? They wanted to give Hassan a stable to fight against The Undertaker..

And even if these guys were supposed to be terrorists, maybe they were, but tell me how that's different than everything else that's on tv? How can I blame WWE writers for putting things on their program that have been on TV for years and nothing done about it?

Steveo

Because of the fact that terrorism is "THE" big thing in the world today. 24/7 its all you hear about. Anything resembling it is construed as terrorist related, even if that was not the intention. The fact that these guys had black masks and camo which is what they wear in the beheading videos, was enough to make people get te wrong impression. Plus they were associated with the Arab character, which does not help. I think had they just been unmasked, or had been wearing masks and lets say, dress suits, or black robes none of this would have happened. The problem lies in the fact that they were obviously patterned after the guys in the hostage videos. If you have seen footage of one you know that they look exactly alike.

Get yourself an old wrestling tape. Watch Flair in his prime, Terry Funk, The Road Warriors, Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, The Andersons, Pat Patterson, The Briscoes, and I dare you,... I dare you to try to tell me that WWE is even a remotely good product. Wrestling happened before 1998 and just because you didn't see it does not mean it did not exist. Broaden your horizons people!!!

Steveo

Taker killed him at the Great American Bash on Sunday.

Get yourself an old wrestling tape. Watch Flair in his prime, Terry Funk, The Road Warriors, Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, The Andersons, Pat Patterson, The Briscoes, and I dare you,... I dare you to try to tell me that WWE is even a remotely good product. Wrestling happened before 1998 and just because you didn't see it does not mean it did not exist. Broaden your horizons people!!!

Blitzkrieg

Well..to my understanding WWE has said that he's "seriously injured" and they don't know if he'll EVER return..which means he probably won't return even when they go to USA. I think WWE has had enough of all the crap the media has been saying and aren't going to go there again.

I would like to see Mark come back though, maybe in a different character like Ida and others have sugggested and do battle with the Undertaker. Maybe he can hold a grudge against people for leaving him for dead..but totally foget about the Arab part of his deal..that's gotta be over.

As far as what Steveo has said, I agree they did look like the terrorists from some videos I've seen and people did take it that way, but even if that's the case, it still pisses me off that shows like 24 and The Shield can do what they want but the WWE writers can't...it's bullshit.