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Hey, everybody, it is John Pollock, and we've got a special interview coming your way with

Muhammad Hassan, real name Mark Kopani. You knew him as one of the top heels in the WWE 20 years ago

in 2005. Today, he is the director of human resources for the Fulton City School District.

And he's been a bit of a reclusive figure in the industry

over these decades since he left the WWE shortly after the exceptionally controversial angle

involving the undertaker that coincided the same week as the London bombings on July

the 7th of 2005. Over the last number of years, he has been starting to take interview

opportunities, and it kind of culminates with this episode of Dark Side of the Ring that is

premiering next Tuesday. It's the season finale of season six, and looking into the very short rise

and very quick fall of Muhammad Hassan in WWE in 2005.

For those that were not watching at the time,

Mark Koppani was performing in Ohio Valley Wrestling as Mark Magnus,

and we'll get into that in the interview in terms of how he came to OVW

and earned himself a developmental deal.

He became OVW heavyweight champion.

And then, as was pretty routine at the

time, when he got the call up to the WWE, it was not to play Mark Magnus, but it was to play a

completely different character as an Arab heel living in a post-9-11 world. Copani is not of

Arab descent, something that would probably be greatly scrutinized today, but at the time, it was thought to be a character that, while you look in hindsight at a lot of the problems with the character and mainly focus on that final angle, here was the ability to at least have a bit of a nuanced character, certainly by WWE standards in late

...