| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Marc Julian Copani (1980-04-16)April 16, 1980 (age 45)[5] Syracuse, New York, U.S.[6] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Mark Magnus[1] Muhammad Hassan[1] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (188 cm)[2] |
| Billed weight | 245 lb (111 kg)[2] |
| Billed from | Detroit, Michigan |
| Trained by | Nick Dinsmore[3] Nightmare Danny Davis[1] |
| Debut | 2002[3] |
| Retired | 2018[4] |
Marc Julian Copani (born April 16, 1980) is an American retiredprofessional wrestler and educator. He is best known for his appearances inWorld Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 2004 to 2005, where he portrayed anArab American under thering nameMuhammad Hassan. His career came to an abrupt end when a controversialterrorist angle coincided with theLondon bombings of July 7, 2005, leading thetelevision networkUPN to pressure WWE to remove Copani's character from television.[6] Following his departure from WWE, he stopped wrestling, instead working as an educator. Copani returned to wrestling in 2018 at The Dynasty event King of Thrones.[7]
Copani was born inSyracuse, New York, to a family ofItalian descent.[6] He graduated fromCicero – North Syracuse High School in 1998. He enrolled in theState University of New York at Buffalo, studying for adegree inhistory. In 2002, he left college to pursue a career inprofessional wrestling.[6]
Copani joined theLouisville, Kentucky-basedpromotionOhio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in 2002. He debuted in the same year under thering name Mark Magnus.[6]
On August 13, 2003, Copani defeatedJohnny Jeter to win theOVW Heavyweight Championship. The title was vacated on December 10, 2003, when Copani waspinned by both Jeter andNick Dinsmore in atriple threat match.
In 2004, the promotionWorld Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) approached OVW seeking a wrestler to portray anArab American character. Copani was offered the opportunity by OVWbookerJim Cornette.[6]
Copani made his WWE television debut as aheel onRaw as Muhammad Hassan on December 13, 2004, in an in-ring segment withMick Foley[8] after wrestlingdark matches andhouse shows for about two months. His introductory video andgimmick featured him and hismanager, Iranian-AmericanKhosrow Daivari, introducing themselves as Arab Americans. He described himself as a wrestler of Jordanian-Palestinian descent wanting relief from the increasedprejudice andstereotypes created by the9/11 attacks, as he entered professional wrestling. He then concluded with a controversial extension of hands and praise toAllah. He stopped praising Allah vocally due to complaints byMuslim-Americans, but still extended his hands during his ring entrance. His speech followed by aPersian translation of his speech by Daivari, mistakenly referred to asArabic by Hassan and the commentary team. Hassan's gimmick also involved him interruptingpromos by other wrestlers with his theme music and approaching the ring to cut promos of his own, typically complaining about being held back due to anti-Arab prejudice.
Making his entrance into the WWE, he berated the way the media have characterized Arab-Americans after September 11. As an example, he focused his anger onRaw announcersJerry "The King" Lawler andJim Ross. He and Daivari faced the two announcers in an in-ring debate on the January 3, 2005 episode ofRaw.[9] He then defeated Lawler in his debut match at theNew Year's Revolutionpay-per-view event on January 9.[10] In the course of his undefeated streak, Hassan defeated wrestlers such asThe Hurricane,[11]Sgt. Slaughter,[12]Chris Benoit[13] andChris Jericho.[14] Hassan had attracted muchheat as avillain, a fact which was evident at theRoyal Rumble on January 30 in theRoyal Rumble match itself. When Hassan entered at number 13, everyone who was in the ring at the time (Booker T, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho,Edge,Eddie Guerrero,Luther Reigns,Rey Mysterio andShelton Benjamin) immediately ganged up on Hassan and eliminated him.[15] Notably, Edge and Reigns were also heels at the time.
AtWrestleMania 21 on April 3, Hassan and Daivari were featured in a segment withHulk Hogan that saw Hogan coming to the rescue of wrestlerEugene, who was being attacked by Hassan and Daivari.[15] The next night onRaw, Hassan and Daivari came out to confront and assaultfaceShawn Michaels.[16] The following week onRaw, Michaels approached Raw General ManagerEric Bischoff demanding ahandicap match with Hassan and Daivari. Bischoff refused, but he did tell Michaels to find a partner and he would grant a match. Michaels then made a plea for Hogan to come back and team with him.[17] On the April 18 episode ofRaw, Hassan again led an attack on Michaels until Hogan appeared to save Michaels and accept his offer.[18]
AtBacklash on May 1, Hassan and Daivari lost to Hogan and Michaels, with Daivari being pinned.[19] Hassan would blame and attack Daivari for the loss the next night onRaw.[20] On the May 30 episode ofRaw, Hassan faced thenWorld Heavyweight ChampionBatista and won bydisqualification. However, he and Daivari were beaten by Batista after the match.[21] The next week onRaw, Hassan was granted a two-on-one handicap match with Daivari for theIntercontinental Championship against Shelton Benjamin after threatening Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff with alawsuit for Batista's actions. After Hassan initially appeared to pin Benjamin and won the title, thereferee realized Benjamin was on the ropes and reversed his decision. Benjamin eventually pinned Daivari to retain the Intercontinental Championship.[22] On the June 13 episode ofRaw,Stone Cold Steve Austin appeared as a special guest enforcer on the request of Bischoff to listen to Hassan's complaints. After making fun of Hassan and Daivari calling themsand people, Austin claimed to agree with them and ordered a match between Hassan and Benjamin for the Intercontinental Championship that night, stating that Hassan was "screwed by the system". As Hassan was about to win the match with the help of Daivari, Austin entered the ring and delivered aStone Cold Stunner to both Hassan and Daivari, making Hassan the winner by disqualification and allowing Benjamin to retain the title as it cannot change hands by a disqualification unless stipulated.[23]
On the June 20 episode ofRaw, Hassan and Daivari interrupted a promo by thenWWE ChampionJohn Cena to complain about how Hassan was "screwed" out of the Intercontinental Championship. Bischoff took the opportunity to punish Cena bybooking him against Hassan in a WWE Championship match, in which Hassan's losing streak in title matches continued as Cena dominated him in a two-minutesquash match, pinning himcleanly and thus ending his "unpinned" streak.[24]
On the June 23 episode ofSmackDown!, it was revealed both Hassan and Daivari weredrafted to theSmackDown! brand in the 2005 draft lottery. Hassan won his firstSmackDown! match by defeatingBig Show with help from Big Show's rivalMatt Morgan.[25] The following week on the June 30 episode ofSmackDown!, Hassan was involved in a confrontation withThe Undertaker during a six-man elimination match.[26]
In one of the most controversial moments in WWE history, on the episode ofSmackDown! taped on July 4 (aired July 7), the SmackDown! General ManagerTheodore Long put Hassan in a No. 1 Contender's match against The Undertaker atThe Great American Bash on July 24 and placed Daivari in a match that night against The Undertaker. Daivari was defeated, but Hassan began to "pray" on the ramp, summoning five masked men, dressed in black shirts, ski-masks, and camo pants. Armed with clubs and apiano wire, they beat and choked The Undertaker out, and Hassan put him in thecamel clutch. Afterward, the masked men lifted Daivari above their heads and carried him away. Three days later, theLondon bombings took place.[27] The footage aired unedited onUPN in the United States and onThe Score in Canada with an advisory warning shown several times during the broadcast. It was removed from the Australian and European (including in the United Kingdom) broadcasts.[28]
Theangle elicited national attention in theNew York Post,TV Guide,Variety, and other major media outlets. In response to the criticism, UPN decided that it would monitor the storyline closely and that it did not want the Hassan character on its network that week.[29] Hassan later delivered a promo to the live crowd for the July 14 episode ofSmackDown!, but when UPN announced that the segment would be edited, WWE decided to host the video of the segment on its official website. In the segment, Hassan reiterated that he was an Arab-American and that the American people automatically and unfairly assumed that he was aterrorist. Despite being in character, he referred to the real-world media coverage of the storyline, singling out theNew York Post's Don Kaplan by name, and denouncing his description of the events onSmackDown!, such as Kaplan's comment of the masked men being "Arabs in ski masks". On the July 14 episode ofSmackDown!, Hassan's absence was explained by a statement delivered by hislawyerThomas Whitney, which said that Hassan refused to appear at The Great American Bash due to the way he had been treated by the media and WWE fans.[30]
It was revealed in late July that UPN had pressured WWE to keep Hassan off of their network, effectively deleting him fromSmackDown!.[31] Hassan lost the match to The Undertaker at The Great American Bash, and was written off with The Undertaker doing aLast Ride through an open stage ramp onto a concrete floor where it was reported that he sustained serious injuries and had to be rushed to a nearby medical facility, apparently a solution aimed to end the Hassan character.[32] Several days later, WWE.com hosted a video of akayfabe announcement from Theodore Long, where he reiterates the stipulation that Hassan would no longer appear onSmackDown!. Due to increasing public pressure, WWE was forced to later drop the character altogether, sending Copani and Daivari back to theirdevelopmental territories to alter their gimmicks. This resulted in huge fan backlash, mostly because Hassan was at the height of his notoriety. Copani was released from his WWE contract on September 21,[33] and announced his retirement from professional wrestling. In subsequent years, it was revealed that Hassan had been planned to receive a majorpush, eventually winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Batista on August 21 atSummerSlam.[34][35]
On April 28, 2018, Hassan returned to professional wrestling for the first time in thirteen years, appearing at The Dynasty event Dynasty King of Thrones, defeating Papadon.[7] Hassan defeated Bin Hamin for the Dynasty Heavyweight Championship on June 6, but then immediately vacated the belt.[36][unreliable source?] He returned to the promotion on September 29, defeating Sean Carr.[37] In 2019 he would state in an interview that he would never wrestle again due to his other career as a principal.[38]
After leaving WWE, Copani went back to college and became an educator. He became a world history teacher at Hannibal High School inHannibal, New York, before becoming assistant principal at G Ray Bodley High School in Fulton, New York. In 2019, he was principal of Fulton Junior High School.[39] As of 2024, Copani is the Director of Human Resources for the Fulton City School District.[40]
In July 2016, Copani was named part of aclass action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred traumatic brain injuries during their tenure and that the company concealed the risks of injury. The suit was litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE.[41] US District JudgeVanessa Lynne Bryant dismissed the lawsuit in September 2018.[42]
In 2011 and 2012, Copani's graphic novel he wrote withShad Gaspard of Cryme Tyme,Assassin & Son, won several awards for best original independent graphic novel. Gaspard came up with the original concept/premise and wrote the screenplay along with Copani. The series is said to be a modern version ofKazuo Koike'sLone Wolf and Cub.[citation needed]
In May 2025, Hassan appeared on aVice'sDark Side of the Ring episode titled "Becoming Muhammad Hassan".
Hassan appears as a playable character in the video gamesWWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 andWWE Day of Reckoning 2.
