Muhammad Hassan

On April 28, 2018, Hassan returned to professional wrestling for the first time in thirteen years, appearing at The Dynasty event Dynasty King of Thrones, defeating Papadon. Hassan defeated Bin Hamin for the Dynasty Heavyweight Championship on June 6, but then immediately vacated the belt, due to inability to make shows consistently, out of respect to the fans and the company. He returned to the promotion on September 29, defeating Sean Carr. In 2019 he would state in an interview that he would never wrestle again due to his other career as a principal.

In July 2016, Copani was named part of a class action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred traumatic brain injuries during their tenure and that the company concealed the risks of injury. The suit was litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE. US District Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant dismissed the lawsuit in September 2018.

Copani was born in Syracuse, New York to a family of Italian descent. He graduated from Cicero – North Syracuse High School in 1998. He enrolled in the State University of New York at Buffalo, studying for a degree in history. In 2002, he left university to pursue a career in professional wrestling.

In 2011 and 2012, Copani's graphic novel he wrote with Shad Gaspard of Cryme Tyme, Assassin & Son, won several awards for best original independent graphic novel. Gaspard came up with the original concept/premise and wrote the screenplay along with Copani. The series is said to be a modern version of Kazuo Koike's Lone Wolf and Cub.

Hassan appears as a playable character in the video games WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 and WWE Day of Reckoning 2.

Marc Julian Copani (born April 16, 1980) is an American school principal and retired professional wrestler. As a wrestler he is best known for his appearances in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 2004 to 2005, where he portrayed an Arab American under the ring name Muhammad Hassan. His career came to an abrupt end when a controversial terrorist angle coincided with the 7 July 2005 London bombings, leading the television network UPN to pressure WWE to remove Copani's character from television. Following leaving WWE, he stopped wrestling, instead working as an educator. Copani returned to wrestling in 2018 at The Dynasty event King of Thrones. He is currently the principal of Fulton Junior High School in Fulton, New York.

Making his entrance into the WWE, he berated the way the media have characterized Arab-Americans after September 11. As an example, he focused his anger on Raw announcers Jerry "The King" Lawler and Jim Ross. He and Daivari faced the two announcers in an in-ring debate on the January 3, 2005 episode of Raw. He then defeated Lawler in his debut match at the New Year's Revolution pay-per-view event. In the course of his undefeated streak, Hassan defeated wrestlers such as The Hurricane, Sgt. Slaughter, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. Hassan had attracted much heat as a villain, a fact which was evident at the Royal Rumble in the Royal Rumble match itself. When Hassan entered at number 13, everyone who was in the ring at the time (Booker T, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Edge, Eddie Guerrero, Luther Reigns, Rey Mysterio and Shelton Benjamin) immediately ganged up on Hassan and eliminated him. Notably, Edge and Reigns were also villains at the time.

On the June 23 episode of SmackDown!, it was revealed both Hassan and Daivari were drafted to SmackDown in the 2005 draft lottery. Hassan won his first SmackDown! match by defeating Big Show with help from Big Show's rival Matt Morgan. The following week on June 30, Hassan was involved in a confrontation with The Undertaker.

In one of the most controversial moments in WWE history, on the episode of SmackDown! taped on July 4, 2005, the SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long put Hassan in a match against The Undertaker at The Great American Bash and placed Daivari in a match that night against The Undertaker. Daivari was defeated, but Hassan began to "pray" on the ramp, summoning five masked men, dressed in black shirts, ski-masks, and camo pants. Armed with clubs and a piano wire, they beat and choked The Undertaker out, and Hassan put him in the camel clutch. Afterward, the masked men lifted Daivari above their heads and carried him away. Three days later, the London bombings took place. The footage aired unedited on UPN in the United States and on The Score in Canada with an advisory warning shown several times during the broadcast. It was removed from the Australian and European (including in the United Kingdom) broadcasts.

The angle elicited national attention in the New York Post, TV Guide, Variety, and other major media outlets. In response to the criticism, UPN decided that it would monitor the storyline closely and that it did not want the Hassan character on its network that week. Hassan later delivered a promo to the live crowd for the July 14, 2005 airing episode of SmackDown!, but when UPN announced that the segment would be edited, WWE decided to host the video of the segment on its official website. In the segment, Hassan reiterates that he is an Arab-American and that the American people automatically and unfairly assume that he is a terrorist. Despite being in character, he referred to the real-world media coverage of the storyline, singling out the New York Post's Don Kaplan by name, and denouncing his description of the events on SmackDown!, such as Kaplan's comment of the masked men being "Arabs in ski masks". On the July 14, 2005 episode of SmackDown!, Hassan's absence was explained by a statement delivered by his lawyer Thomas Whitney, which said that Hassan refused to appear at The Great American Bash due to the way he had been treated by the media and WWE fans.

It was revealed in late July 2005 that UPN had pressured WWE to keep Hassan off of their network, effectively deleting him from SmackDown!. Hassan lost the match to The Undertaker at The Great American Bash on July 24, 2005, and was written off with The Undertaker doing a Last Ride through an open stage ramp onto a concrete floor where it was reported that he sustained serious injuries and had to be rushed to a nearby medical facility, apparently a solution aimed to end the Hassan character. Several days later, WWE.com hosted a video of a kayfabe announcement from Theodore Long, where he reiterates the stipulation that Hassan would no longer appear on SmackDown!. Due to increasing public pressure, WWE was forced to later drop the character altogether, sending Copani and Daivari back to their developmental territories to alter their gimmicks. This resulted in huge fan backlash, mostly because Hassan was at the height of his notoriety. Copani was released from his WWE contract on September 21, 2005 and announced his retirement from professional wrestling. In subsequent years, it was revealed that Hassan had been planned to receive a major push, eventually winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Batista on August 21, 2005 at SummerSlam which would have made him the youngest world champion in WWE history, breaking Randy Orton's record.

In 2004, the promotion World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) approached OVW seeking a wrestler to portray an Arab American character. Despite being ethnically "100 per cent Italian", Copani was offered the opportunity by OVW booker Jim Cornette.

Copani made his WWE television debut on Raw as Muhammad Hassan on December 13, 2004 in an in-ring segment with Mick Foley after wrestling dark matches and house shows for about two months. His introductory video and gimmick featured him and his manager, Iranian-American Khosrow Daivari, introducing themselves. He described himself as an Arab-American wrestler wanting relief from the increased prejudice and stereotypes created by the 9/11 attacks, as he enters professional wrestling. He then concluded with a controversial extension of hands and praise to Allah. He stopped praising Allah vocally due to complaints by Muslim-Americans, but still extended his hands during his ring entrance. His speech followed by a Persian translation of his speech by Daivari. Hassan's gimmick also involved him interrupting promos by other wrestlers with his theme music and approaching the ring to cut promos of his own, typically complaining about being held back due to anti-Arab prejudice.

On August 13, 2003, Copani defeated Johnny Jeter to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship. The title was vacated on December 10, 2003 when Copani was pinned by both Jeter and Nick Dinsmore in a triple threat match.

Copani joined the Louisville, Kentucky-based promotion Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in 2002. He debuted in the same year under the ring name Mark Magnus.