Muhammad Hassan was set to receive a huge push within the WWE before his release, with plans for him to win the World Heavyweight Championship from Batista.
The match was set to take place at Summerslam 2005, before it was cancelled due to Hassan being unceremoniously thrown off TV for some controversial angles.
Instead, Batista defended his World Heavyweight Championship against JBL. If he had faced Muhammad Hassan and lost, the WWE landscape would have been so different, and a new top heel would have been born.
Muhammad Hassan vs Batista
As it turns out Muhammad Hassan was being primed for a World Heavyweight Championship push by Vince McMahon.
From his debut in 2004 he was seen as a big star, and was set to wrestle against Batista at Summerslam 2005.
Hassan wrestled against The Undertaker at The Great American Bash 2005, in a number one contender’s match for the coveted world title.
Sources state that Muhammad Hassan would have become the top heel in the whole country with this win. He was set to make Batista tap out to his Camel Clutch, in The Animal’s hometown of Washington, D.C.
However, due to the controversial “terrorist attack” on the Undertaker on the eve of the 7/7 bombings in London, he was removed from TV and his push was canned.
Mohammad Hassan lost the number one contender’s match against The Undertaker, and was removed from TV and promptly released from the company.
The former WWE superstar responded to rumours about his potential World Title run in 2005, confirming he was set to defeat Batista in his hometown at the pinnacle of his main event heel run.
Mohammad Hassan confirmed in the interview that he was told that he was to become World Champion, although he admits that plans could have changed in the months following up to Summerslam 2005.
He also noted that if he had won the belt at Summerslam, he would have become the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in WWE history.
He revealed this in an interview with Chris Van Vliet, which you can read about below.
“It was but I don’t know if it was told to me after or at the time. My memory on it’s a little fuzzy, but it had to have been because I remember it was kind of supposed to be the big f*** you to the country that the Arab defeats the hometown boy in the nation’s capital, um, because Batista is from there.
But as in anything in wrestling, that could have changed. I mean, that could have been the plan, and that could have changed within that month or whatever span it was to get to SummerSlam, so who knows? So you could have possibly won the WWE Championship without ever winning the Intercontinental or the U.S. title or any of the other mid-card titles.
I think I actually won the Intercontinental title for like 15 seconds, and it was reversed. Benjamin, right? Yes, I think that counts. I think that should count in the books. I’m not sure how it goes down, but I think I might actually have the briefest Intercontinental title reign in the history of the WWE, so I’m in the record book somewhere.
My apologies, yes, your 15-second champion, but you would have been in the record books as the youngest WWE champion. Yeah, by 15 days, I think, younger than Randy. That would have been great what-ifs and what-ifs, but you know that that is not the way life works. You don’t make plans like that.”
Mohammad Hassan would have become the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in WWE history, had he defeated Batista at Summerslam 2005.
Hassan was 15 days younger than Randy Orton, when The Legend Killer had defeated Chris Benoit for the same title just one year prior.
Do you think Muhammad Hassan should have beaten Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship? Tell us your thoughts down in the comments section below.
