I was thinking the other day about how great Abdul Bashir was in TNA. Positioned primarily as the generic Arab heel, his promos and in-ring ability were completely underrated. His promos made for uncorfortable and confrontational viewing, in which Bashir tried to challenge some of the fans' learnt assumptions... only to be drowned out by jingoistic chants of "USA USA USA". What made Bashir so interesting was by the fact that he did not profess to hate America, but hate the way in which Muslims were portrayed since 9/11. Arguably, he trod a fine line where one could argue that though he was raising some interesting points relating to the perception of Muslims with in the US, the ambivalent nature of Bashir's character only served to confound the issues.
At points he comes across as articulate and politically aware, but a moment later will resemble a rambling extremist. But I was drawn to this character primarily because of the ambivilence and inconsistancy.
I loved it when he'd go up against someone likfe Consequences Creed (with his Stars and Stripes trunks and cape) and perform moves like his 'Weapon of Mass Destruction'. Anyway, enjoy:
Oh, Mike...
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