Should They have been Bigger?

[Cena's Jeans Shorts]

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.

The question there is whether is was really the guy playing Hassan as much as creative being in love with the character and coming up with a lot of material at the time. I wouldn't call him gold on the mic. He wasn't as bad as Lex Luger was at murdering promos. But he had some fairly stiff live in ring promos. I thought the one he did at Wrestlemania with Eugene and Hogan was pretty lame.

As far as whether it's just some rare guy on the internet hating on Hassan, Deezy is hardly alone. Lance Storm answered questions from fans who thought Hassan was great and has never been complimentary about the guy. Most of his answers usually referred to him as being a poor performer, bad worker, with a bad attitude. The guy trained him in OVW. I think there were interviews out there where he referred to the guy as having a bad attitude during training drills back then.

He might have had the potential to be a decent performer, but it sounds like he was given a high profile gimmick well before he was ready to handle any of it.

Some links to some of the stuff I could find him saying when assessing the character and performer. Not in great detail, mind you:

StormWrestling.com - Commentary - September 18, 2006

StormWrestling.com - Commentary - September 18, 2006

 

[Chris]

Yeah, I never got all the IWC love for Hassan at all. Heat-drawing gimmick and good look was all he had. Didn't even think he was good on the mic.

 

[NotReallyaGoodUN]

Yeah, I never got all the IWC love for Hassan at all. Heat-drawing gimmick and good look was all he had. Didn't even think he was good on the mic.

Probably due to the sociopolitical significance/controversy that the gimmick carried. Come on, it's so obvious. You know that.

Disagree that he was bad on the mic bit, but again as I said, doesn't make a difference either way now. I checked on the internet, and the guy is not even involved in the wrestling/combat sport business now, he's apparently teaching history or something, lol....

 

[Embrace Thou Maryse]

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.

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

...not sure if serious...Goldberg was just muscles and a spear, and RVD has the personality of a potato, not to mention he hasn't evolved as a worker one bit in about 15 years.

 

[The Cork]

Goldberg had 'the look'. If you were a promoter and you could sculpt your own perfect wrestler, he would be it. If he'd joined WWE at the height of their Invasion angle he could of been one of the biggest stars ever.

RVD was mega over during the Invasion stuff too, how can you say he wasn't charismatic? He was the most over guy on the whole roster.

 

[Franco]

It's hard to have bigger careers than RVD and esp. Goldberg. Bill was the Man (or one of the Men) in WCW and had a huge impact when he came first into WWE. Possibly he could've done better but he already did great. Same with RVD, that DUI or whatever when they stripped the title off him was the turning point in his career.

 

[We Are Legion]

I don't see how Goldberg could have possibly been any bigger than he was. He was easily the biggest draw in WCW in 1998 and a match between he and Austin in 1999 would have reached Andre/Hogan levels of awe. And it's his own fault he didn't have a better career in WWE. God forbid WWE actually had more than him to build their programs around and couldn't let him bury the entire roster like he did in WCW. But in terms of his total success, I'd say he pretty much nailed it. 99.9% of all the wrestlers that ever lived would die to have just one night in the boots Goldberg laced every night and to be that popular.

 

[The Cork]

I don't see how Goldberg could have possibly been any bigger than he was. He was easily the biggest draw in WCW in 1998 and a match between he and Austin in 1999 would have reached Andre/Hogan levels of awe. And it's his own fault he didn't have a better career in WWE. God forbid WWE actually had more than him to build their programs around and couldn't let him bury the entire roster like he did in WCW. But in terms of his total success, I'd say he pretty much nailed it. 99.9% of all the wrestlers that ever lived would die to have just one night in the boots Goldberg laced every night and to be that popular.

Sure he had a great career, but he should of been on the top tier with Austin, Hogan and Rock, IMO.

The whole mess with Scott Hall and the tazer, and putting the Hogan match on Nitro instead of Starrcade put paid to that though. His WWE 'career' was pretty underwhelming too, just one long ass boring feud w/ Triple H.

 

[Embrace Thou Maryse]

I never got the hate for his WWE run. They gave him the title, he got to squash all of Eveolution himself everyweek, went over The Rock, Jericho, HHH, Steiner, etc. Was always Main Eventing, squashed all the midcarders, he just didnt get to squash the top guys because WWE didnt cater to his ego and give him only 30 second matches to protect his lack of talent.

I never got the hate for his WWE run. They gave him the title, he got to squash all of Eveolution himself everyweek, went over The Rock, Jericho, HHH, Steiner, etc. Was always Main Eventing, squashed all the midcarders, he just didnt get to squash the top guys because WWE didnt cater to his ego and give him only 30 second matches to protect his lack of talent.

 

[We Are Legion]

Sure he had a great career, but he should of been on the top tier with Austin, Hogan and Rock, IMO.

He was. Even if it was for a relatively short time.

There's very few wrestlers that ever surpassed the level he reached.

He was a lot like Ultimate Warrior in that regard.

 

[Mick Donalds]

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.

Mm hmm. Sure.

How do you explain the IWC manlove for Damien Sandow who happens to be a Lebanese Arab then? tunga:

 

[The Cork]

I'd take a guess that nobody had a fucking clue he's a Lebanese Arab until your post.

 

[Deezy]

Mm hmm. Sure.

How do you explain the IWC manlove for Damien Sandow who happens to be a Lebanese Arab then? tunga:

LMFAO!!!

Quite the reach thar.

 

[Mick Donalds]

LMFAO!!!

Quite the reach thar.

I was poking at the argument with a sharp stick, so it's probably not likely to hold up. :shrugs: