Daivari Says Stephanie McMahon Wanted Him To Be An American Patriot Babyface Named George W. Bush
At only 31-years old, Shawn Daivari has been everywhere. Runs in WWE, TNA, Lucha Underground, Ring Ka King and ROH have put him in about every major televised promotion in wrestling. Throughout most of those shows, he's played the same character.
Daivairi is often typecast into playing a stereotypical middle eastern character, something that stopped with his recent Lucha Underground run. However, if it were up to Stephanie McMahon, things would have been a lot different, a lot earlier.
Daivairi told Sports Illustrated Extra Mustard that Stephanie McMahon approached him with a gimmick idea to be an American Patriot named George W. Bush. After being taken off TV following a controversial Muhammad Hassan segment, this was WWE's attempt to repackage him.
"Stephanie came up to me and was like, 'We've got an idea for you for like next week. We want you to debut as a character named George W. Bush, and we want you to wear Red, White, and Blue trunks, and be like a super American patriot.'" Daivari said that he responded with, "I would love to kind of do my own thing, but that is a terrible idea. I don't know who came up with it, or whose idea was it to come up with the name George W. Bush, and take me from the hottest heel to wearing red, white, and blue, and what the purpose is or the explanation for it. But, I really, really, feel strongly against it."
Daivairi ended up sitting at home for three months after shooting down the angle, before being brought back to the WWE to work a program managing Kurt Angle.
You can check out Daivairi's full interview with Sports Illustrated at this link.
Source: Extra Mustard