Should They have been Bigger?

[Mick Donalds]

What do you guys think of Andrew Martin? (Test)

Guy did die way too young, but he wasn't bad at all iirc.

The guy was given chance after chance after chance after chance. He had 6 or 7 moves total and he went over like a fart in church every push.

Muhammad Hassan should have been on here for sure.

 

[NotReallyaGoodUN]

Muhammad Hassan would have been a 5 time world champion minimum by now if he hadn't been released.

Dead serious.

 

[We Are Legion]

Yeah I was never a big fan of Test. I liked his gutwrench powerbomb finisher, but he was never a guy I was ever particularly thrilled to see him wrestle.

Poor man's Kevin Nash imo

 

[NotReallyaGoodUN]

Believe Test used the Big Boot as his finisher during his final days in WWE on the ECW brand as well. :

 

[Dale]

Never minded him myself. Agile for a big guy, not a fumbling idiot like many of the big guys you see these days. Thought his Big Boot was legit too.

 

[NotReallyaGoodUN]

^I thought his ECW monster heel gimmick was all right.

 

[Troy]

From that list Mike Awesome and James Mitchell stand out. Mike Awesome should have been huge, had all the momentum from ECW when he signed with WCW yet they screwed him by giving him terrible gimmicks. Should have been a multiple world champion with WCW especially around the time Jarrett and Booker were winning them. In WWE it was unlucky that he was one of those that the backstage guys didn't like, pity that there was so much disdain for the WCW guys and that almost all were buried. Would have been a handy guy in WWE in the upper midcard.

I am a huge fan of managers so I definitely think that the Sinister Minister should have been used better. Hell I think they should sign him now and use him, bring him back to manage the returning Kevin Thorn. Managers have been underused by WWE for a long time now, they are so useful at covering a wrestlers weakness and they can do so much to help a wrestler. They work again and again yet WWE are hesitant to use them for whatever reason.

I 100% agree that Muhammad Hassan should be on that list. That guy was fantastic and it is a shame that his career was basically ruined because of that one silly segment and bad timing. He had it all to go to the top of Smackdown at the time.

 

[Deezy]

I don't get why people look back fondly at Muhammed Haasan. He was a terrrible worker, who was given a great angle and anchored by a better worker in Daivari. Not to mention the fact that he was a heat magnet who didn't have a firend in the dressing room, this guy was so stupid he had the audacity to bitch at Eddie Guererro for using the Camel Clutch in a match and not having any idea that the move was invented by the mans father.

Good riddance to him,

 

[The Cork]

Hassan is one of those horrible guys IWC like to ironically root for and pretend he was future greatness ie; Zack Ryder, Shelton Benjamin, Lance Storm. Only got heat because of xenophobe Americans hating anyhing arabic.

Loved Haku late in his career, the hardcore matches in WCW and tag team with Rikishi was fun, should he have been bigger no, but he was fun.

RVD and Goldberg had great careers but considering the charisma and talent both had they should of been bigger names.

 

[Big Red Jericho Punk]

Hassan wasn't great in the ring, but he was gold on the mic. He was barley on the main roster for a year, so you can't really rate him in the ring. He was just starting to get upper mid card momentum before leaving the company. Another year or so and he could have been really special. I've never really heard anyone criticize Hassan, but there is always someone on the site.

 

[Kiffy Lube]

I could be a white-supremacist and get the same kind of reactions Hassan did. It's not hard to be racist and on top of that it's not hard to be heel. It's like Hassan's best attributes fall into something anybody could do.

 

[Troy]

Hasan didn't even start off as racist, it was a character that was pointing out how racist America was that every Muslim was looked at as a terrorist post 9/11. It was a good concept, that Rhyno actually came up with and would have worked well if they stuck with that. Then WWE did take it in the wrong direction by having masked people with piano wire attack Undertaker and make him into a terrorist. He could cut a good promo and whilst his inring skills weren't amazing he was still early in his career and he had plenty of time to improve. It also got Daivari onto television so that was another plus for his character.

 

[Deezy]

2004 was when Haasans first vignette debuted, it was a couple of months into the Iraq war and he was talking about how America is riddled with racial prejudice to people like him, hardly a promo that is going to get him cheers. America was waving flags and looking for Saddam at this point, he was never going to be a face.

He stayed on Raw for little over a year and gained massive amounts of heat, and was put on Smackdown. London bombings happened and UPN bitched about the character. so WWe killed two birds with one stone and made this guy go all out on Taker and killed the character for good. And they fired his ass.

Not going to say whose call that was.

 

[NotReallyaGoodUN]

I wouldn't be so sure of the "He was never going to be a babyface" bit.

Truth is, doesn't make a difference either way. The world will never know.

Shame, because as Troy stated it was an excellent concept and not to mention a relevant one. Contrary to what "Xenophobic Americans" believe as Cork said, not all Muslims are terrorists.

 

[monkeystyle]

I wouldn't be so sure of the "He was never going to be a babyface" bit.

I always thought that Hassan would have made for a big face under the right circumstances.

Dude was American, which is why he was so angry about his treatment, right? After a while of fighting the forces of xenophobia and oppression he could start talking about what traditional American values are but in a very condescending way. Like, how he has them but others don't kind of thing.

Anyway, Hogan was around at the time, I think, so he would have been perfect for this. Have Hogan promo on Hassan talking about being an example of American values as opposed to fighting against them or whatever. A week or so later have Hogan being attacked by somebody two on one and have Hassan make the save, showing that he took the Hulkster's words to heart and bam, instant babyface. It's unavoidable. Pairing him with Hogan gets him over huge as a face and then being a scary, foreign looking man who has gotten over his hatred and accepted America as the greatest country in the world just cements it.

Shit, a tag team like Hogan and Hassan could have been the kind of thing that ends religious tensions and brings about world peace.