Should the WWE and/or UPN not aired the "Terrorist" angle on "SmackDown!"?

[NozeNuggets]

As you know, on the 7/7 "WWE SmackDown!" show on UPN, there was an angle where Muhammad Hassan sent out five "terrorists" to beat down The Undertaker after Taker's match against Davari, and one day after the tragic events in London, England. The poll is asking if you thought that this should have aired or not.

[langden alger]

well...between the mexicools, kerwin white and muhamed hassan's gimmick altogether plus whatever other russo-esqe devices the genius creative team has lined up in the future (maybe they'll make booker t start carrying fried chicken buckets to the ring and have him hit people with watermelons) i think the wwe is going to be stepping on alot of toes by the end of the summer so they might as well air everything on tv.

[Enrique]

I personally didn't mind it but what annoyed me was that they kept showing that scrolling warning at the bottom of the screen. I kept thinking, if they're gonna make a such a big deal over 'viewer discretion is advised' (or whatever the message was), then they shouldn't have done it at all. It's like saying "We don't care if we piss off some people... but if we do, please don't get mad at us".

[SirLemming]

I... guess this is the thread to use for this topic?

I think it's a stupid angle, regardless of the unfortunate timing of the UPN airing. Not only is it fairly tasteless due to even the 9/11 attack and its repercussions, but it's just stupid. Why are Hussain and Davari affiliated with terrorists now? Wasn't the whole idea that they were Muslims who were innocent of any of that kind of stuff (but guilty of whining about discrimination)? Now it's like, "See? They were terrorists after all!" What point are they trying to make? It's even worse than when Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo finally revealed that they actually weren't gay. That was more of a harmless little twist, but this time around it's a lot less harmless.

Another reason it's stupid is because Islamic terrorism is a very real thing, so whenever an incident happens in real life, they'll have to do a bunch of back-pedaling. This time it was just a disclaimer, but we'll see what happens next week...

[Sigma]

To be honest with you guys I kind of enjoyed the angle. Hassan is a heel and IMO that angle has elevated his heel status and it's just a wrestling angle so if people are offended by it then they can simply change the channel. Same goes for the Mexicools sure it's a little racist, but it's entertaing and you gotta love the Juan Deers.

[Matt Hazuda]

The warning was just stupid, but this whole angle is a return to the Russo "Crash TV" days at WWE. Pandering to the lowest common denominator seems to be the easy way out in this case. Hassan is a good talent being hindered by a lame gimmick "OMG he's a bad muslim! Let's boo him because he talks how he hates America"

Come on, haven't we gotten past the 80s yet?

[bigddan11]

Yes, the WWE should have aired it since they filmed it, but it was a tasteless plot in the first place that they should have never written in. Now they get to live with the consquences of their own writers' stupidity.

[Fone Bone]

I like to think that people who are looking for good taste in professional wrestling are watching the wrong program.:shrug:

[James Bester]

Like everyone else is saying, this angle should have never been used, but I'm fine with the segment if Undertaker ends up beating the crap out of Hassan, Daivari, and his "terrorists".

[PaQ]

I had no problem with the angle and was glad to see the show aired as it was intended. The angle might be controversial, but this is the WWE and they don't take things serious and are known to have unusual ways of doing stories. Kane getting it on with a corpse, or Big Bossman hijacking Big Show's dads coffin come to mind.

I didn't think of the group of guys that came out to help Hassan as nothing more than followers of his. I doubt they could get many arabic looking wrestlers on short hand so it was definitely easier just to use masks and no one would be the wiser.

[VCXZX]

I'll just C+P my thoughts from the other thread.

Yeah, they should've edited the post-match assault off. I knew that they were going to show it after the disclaimer, and Hassan's backstage segment. They probably didn't have any back-up plan. Still they shouldn't showed it at all.

There was another oversight as Tazz noted that William Regal was happy that his homeland of England got the 2012 Olympics. I guess they "forgot" to edit that off.

The big question is what will this do to Smackdown In Iraq this Xmas??

Interestingly, one of the masked wrestlers was Val Venis. Weird.

And as for Hassan, this actually goes beyond his original gimmick. He wanted the audience to sympathize with him in those teaser promos of his. Now he's resorting to terrorism and sacrifice. :shrug:

[TnAdct1]

And as for Hassan, this actually goes beyond his original gimmick. He wanted the audience to sympathize with him in those teaser promos of his. Now he's resorting to terrorism and sacrifice. :shrug: Well, what do you expect when you have a feud with the Undertaker? :shrug:

As for my opinion, I'm neutral to this terrorist thing. Yeah, some people do feel its bad taste. However, on the other side, it does bring some life to a character that I consider to be annoying. Also, keep in mind two things:

1. The incidents at London never crossed my mind when I was watching the incident on Thursday (of course, I missed the disclaimer due to me napping or watching Big Brother 6).
2. While it may be offensive, at least the "terrorist" angle is way better than the Hispanic gimmicks that WWE currently has on Raw and Smackdown.

[Sailor Chibi Otaku]

I am MUCH more enthusiastic that I gave up on wrestling in 2001.

They're going much more downhill and should be shamed of themselves. Oh well. Whatever. It's done and over with for me.

[Sigma]

I like to think that people who are looking for good taste in professional wrestling are watching the wrong program.:shrug: Exactly what I think.

[VCXZX]

For those of you wondering, on Velocity they actually aired the entire angle, even showing Davari being carried out. And there was no warning at all. :eek:

[Zyzzybalubah]

I... guess this is the thread to use for this topic?

I think it's a stupid angle, regardless of the unfortunate timing of the UPN airing. Not only is it fairly tasteless due to even the 9/11 attack and its repercussions, but it's just stupid. Why are Hussain and Davari affiliated with terrorists now? Wasn't the whole idea that they were Muslims who were innocent of any of that kind of stuff (but guilty of whining about discrimination)? Now it's like, "See? They were terrorists after all!" What point are they trying to make? It's even worse than when Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo finally revealed that they actually weren't gay. That was more of a harmless little twist, but this time around it's a lot less harmless.

Another reason it's stupid is because Islamic terrorism is a very real thing, so whenever an incident happens in real life, they'll have to do a bunch of back-pedaling. This time it was just a disclaimer, but we'll see what happens next week...
I highly agree. Why does Vince and the creative team always have to make some angle that has to stir up controversy in response to issues of the world?

As for UPN, as the news stories say, they couldn't edit the tape on time, but to the WWE, it's just stupid to put in this angle in the first place.

[NozeNuggets]

Tucker Carlson and Max Kellerman (THERE'S BEEN A MAX KELLERMAN SIGHTING!) on the former's MSNBC show had made comments last night (7/12) about this angle. The transcript can be found at the Pro Wrestling Torch website:

http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/article_13963.shtml

Also today (7/13), WWE.com had a video with Hassan tearing to shreads a copy of the New York Post article that criticized the angle.