7 Major WWE SummerSlam matches that almost happened

#6 Batista vs. Muhammad Hassan (WWE SummerSlam 2005)

Muhammad Hassan was put into a prominent position in WWE quickly after his debut in 2004. He portrayed an Arab-American and spoke about the prejudice shown towards Arabs in the early 2000s, quickly becoming a top villain on SmackDown. And if it wasn't for massive editing failure on WWE's part, he would have become the World Heavyweight Champion at SummerSlam 2005.

Hassan entered into a feud with The Undertaker, a feud he was earmarked to win en route to challenging Batista for the world title at SummerSlam. However, plans were drastically changed following an ill-advised segment on SmackDown, featuring five masked men attacking the Undertaker.

Unfortunately for Hassan, the show aired on the same day as the London bombings and WWE did not edit the segment off the broadcast. The company was then pressured to remove the Muhammad Hassan character from TV, which they did via a beatdown from the Deadman at the Great American Bash.

The real-life Marc Copani, who portrayed Hassan, confirmed that he had heard of plans for a World Title win during a question and answer session as part of Sportskeeda's UnSKripted series. Batista ended up facing JBL at SummerSlam, in a rematch from the previous pay-per-view.