Marc Copani Says Shawn Daivari Helped Him Make the Muhammad Hassan Character Work

In a recent interview with The False Finish, Marc Copani (fka WWE’s Muhammad Hassan) shared some details on how having Shawn Daivari alongside as the heel character’s manager made the gimmick work (per Wrestling Inc). Copani explained that Daivari’s presence was vital, given that Copani himself was an Italian trying to portray a Middle Eastern character. You can find a few highlights from the interview below.

On Daivari’s contributions to the gimmick: “Shawn was an Arab himself. Shawn is a Persian, he’s from Iran and he spoke Farsi, not Arabic. And I’m not trying to insult anybody, but 20 years ago no one really knew the difference in the United States that was watching wrestling… Having Shawn with me really made the character. I don’t know if Muhammad Hassan would have been Muhammad Hassan without Shawn Daivari with him.”

On witnessing the effects of anti-Arab sentiment during their collaboration: “When we would try to travel from town to town, city to city, and we would fly through any airport, and Shawn got lagged because his last name’s Daivari, and we’re spending a half hour almost missing our flight while they ‘randomly’ searched Shawn… It must have been awful to be him and to be randomly searched at every other airport we ever flew out of.”