Arab-American Pro Wrestling Character KO'd

July 29, 2005 — -- Arab-American professional wrestler Muhammad Hassan, played by Italian-American Mark Copani for World Wrestling Entertainment, has seen his last day in the ring, according to a WWE spokesman.

The smackdown of Hassan during last weekend's "Great American Bash," an annual pay-per-view event, came after UPN and World Wrestling Entertainment received several letters and protests complaining that the character was an offensive stereotype of Arab-Americans and Muslims.

Hassan, whose storyline is that he's Arab-American born and raised in Detroit, rants and raves about being profiled and discriminated against, especially since Sept. 11, and is usually accompanied by other angry Arab-American men. An episode featuring Hassan that aired on July 7, the day of the terror attacks in London, turned out to be Hassan's ultimate undoing.

The sketch, which included five men dressed in ski masks and carrying Hassan's manager, Khosrow Daivari, over their heads in what appeared to be a funeral for a suicide bomber, convinced WWE to finally have Hassan, played by wrestler Copani of New York, taken out of the game permanently by wrestler Mark Callaway, aka the Undertaker.

"He was defeated by the Undertaker and will not return," said Gary Davis, a spokesman for WWE. "Under the circumstances it was a respectful way to tie up the storylines. We have done this with other characters as well.

"There's no question in our minds it was the unfortunate timing of that segment being on July 7 that was the ultimate issue with it," Davis said.

The segment was pulled from UK broadcasts. UPN spokeswoman Joanna Massey told The Associated Press, "We asked them to remove it because we thought that was the right thing to do."

There was no time for UPN to edit the program before it aired in the United States so it opted to put up an advisory to parents because of the bombings, said Davis.

"The whole point of the storyline and this character was to point out the injustices Arab-Americans have suffered since 9/11," Davis said.