5 most controversial moments in WWE history

#4 The Muhammad Hassan Incident

Muhammad Hassan's character is symbolic of the flaws that pervade professional wrestling

The use of the Muhammad Hassan character on WWE television during the mid-2000s was always going to be risky business. A Middle Eastern Superstar complaining that American fans didn't like him because they were xenophobic.

Then WWE took it to the next level. On an edition of SmackDown, Hassan had men in ski masks rush the ring and beat up his rival, The Undertaker. What makes it so much worse is that the airing of the episode coincided with the terrorist attacks in London on July 7th, 2005.

WWE cut the segment from the European version of the show but kept it in when it was shown in the US. The company received a lot of backlash from the media, some of which WWE published on their own site in an attempt to show recognition of what they had done.