Muhammad Hassan reveals his reaction on seeing John Cena's prototype gimmick [Exclusive]

Muhammad Hassan was a mainstay on WWE RAW back in the first half of 2005 and quickly became one of the most hated heels in the company. During his stint on the Red brand, Hassan had a short program with WWE Champion John Cena, which culminated in a match on an episode of RAW. Cena won the match in question, soon after which Hassan made his way to WWE SmackDown.

In a Q&A with Sportskeeda's Chris Featherstone, Hassan recalled watching Cena when he was using the prototype gimmick, even before he made his way to OVW and revealed his initial thoughts on the WWE legend.

When I first decided I wanted to be a professional wrestler, long time ago, John Cena was on some show. I can't remember what it was, but he was on a show where he was kinda doing the prototype gimmick that he eventually brought to OVW.

I remember seeing this guy and thinking, "this guy is entertaining and he is gonna be a wrestler, I wanna wrestle him someday."

Muhammad Hassan answers your questions:

John Cena was nothing short of impressive while working in OVW

Hassan further stated that John Cena would knock it out of the park every time he was given an opportunity to cut promos in OVW and it wasn't much of a surprise to him when he saw Cena making a jump to Hollywood.

Hassan was released from WWE on September 21, 2005, in the aftermath of his controversial angle with The Undertaker on SmackDown. He was a promising young talent who was being groomed to become the youngest World Champion in WWE history, but unfortunately, things didn't turn out as planned in the end.