Eli Cottonwood

Kipp Christianson
Ring name(s) Eli Cottonwood[1]
Kip Christianson[1]
Kipp Christianson[1]
Billed height 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)[2]
Billed weight 313 lb (142 kg)[2]
Born September 30, 1974 (1974-09-30) (age 37)[1]
River Falls, Wisconsin[1]
Billed from River Falls, Wisconsin[2]
Trained by FCW Staff[1]
Debut 2008[1]

Kipp Christianson[3] (born September 30, 1974)[1] is an American professional wrestler and former basketball player. He is currently signed to WWE, where he works in their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) and was part of the second season of NXT under his ring name Eli Cottonwood. The Soup awarded him for the "Best Description of a Mustache By Somebody Who Really, Really Wants To Be a WWE Superstar" award in 2011 which he accepted in-person.[4]

Contents

Basketball career

Christianson attended River Falls High School and later St. John's University in Minnesota.[3] While attending St. John's, he averaged 20 points and eight rebounds, and in his junior season there, he led the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in field goal percentage.[3] During his basketball career, Christianson played in several countries, including Lithuania and China.[3] He played in the International Basketball Association and Continental Basketball Association, for both Quad City Thunder, Yakama Sun Kings, and Sioux Falls Skyforce.[3] He attended a camp for the Milwaukee Bucks in 1998, and played for the Dallas Mavericks team in the NBA Summer League.[3] On March 16, 2004, he signed a contract with the Charleston Lowgators.[3]

Professional wrestling career

World Wrestling Entertainment

Florida Championship Wrestling (2008-present)

Kipp Christianson began competing in WWE's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in 2008 under his real name. In August 2009, his name was changed to Eli Cottonwood, and he utilized a gimmick of being recently reintroduced to society from the Kelloggs Sanitarium.[1] He spent most of his time defeating opponents such as DJ Gabriel, Tyler Reks, and Max McGuirk. He soon aligned with Aksana and turned face.

NXT (2010)

On June 1, 2010, it was announced that Cottonwood would be part of the second season of WWE NXT, with John Morrison as his storyline mentor.[5][6] He debuted on the June 8 episode of NXT, teaming with Morrison to defeat Titus O'Neil and Zack Ryder.[7] In the first poll three weeks later, Cottonwood was ranked sixth out of the eight rookies.[8] Cottonwood's performance in the "Talk the Talk" challenge on the July 6 episode of NXT, in which he had to talk about mustaches, earned him a clip on the following episode of E! Television's episode of The Soup in the "What your Boyfriend is Watching" segment.[9] On the July 27 episode of NXT Cottonwood and Morrison both wore shirts that said "Mustache". On the same episode, he was eliminated after being ranked seventh out of the remaining seven rookies, and attacked both Husky Harris and Lucky Cannon as a result.[10][11] Cottonwood returned on August 31 for the season finale, where he and the other eliminated rookies attacked Kaval, who had won the competition.[12]

Personal life

Christianson graduated from St. John’s University with a bachelor's degree in psychology.[2][13]

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Eli Cottonwood". Online World of Wrestling. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/e/eli-cottonwood.html. Retrieved 2010-06-04. 
  2. ^ a b c d "Eli Cottonwood bio". World Wrestling Entertainment. http://www.wwe.com/superstars/wwenxt/elicottonwood/bio/. Retrieved 2010-06-12. 
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Kipp Christianson". National Basketball Association. http://www.nba.com/dleague/players/kipp_christianson.html. Retrieved 2010-06-04. 
  4. ^ "Former WWE NXT Rookie Wins Award on "The Soup" Tonight". Wrestle Zone. http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/article/former-wwe-nxt-rookie-wins-award-on-the-soup-tonight-127745. Retrieved 2011-06-16. 
  5. ^ Bishop, Matt (2010-06-01). "WWE NXT: Barrett wins show's first season". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2010/06/01/14222371.html. Retrieved 2010-06-02. 
  6. ^ Caldwell, James (2010-06-01). "WWE News: NXT Results - Season Two announced, Pro & Rookie pairings revealed". Pro Wrestling Torch. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_41691.shtml. Retrieved 2010-06-01. 
  7. ^ Bishop, Matt (2010-06-08). "WWE NXT: New rookies pay as Season 2 opens". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2010/06/08/14315791.html. Retrieved 2010-06-12. 
  8. ^ Bishop, Matt (2010-06-29). "WWE NXT: Surprise! First elimination on tap". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2010/06/29/14561776.html. Retrieved 2010-06-30. 
  9. ^ Caldwell, James (2010-07-07). "WWE News: WWE actually receives mainstream coverage for the "moustache" promo on NXT last night". Pro Wrestling Torch. http://www.pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_42391.shtml. Retrieved 2010-07-11. 
  10. ^ Bishop, Matt (2010-07-27). "WWE NXT: Second rookie goes home; New No. 1". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2010/07/27/14848096.html. Retrieved 2010-07-28. 
  11. ^ Caldwell, James (2010-07-27). "Caldwell's WWE NXT results 7/27: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of NXT Season 2, Week 8". Pro Wrestling Torch. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/wwenxtreport/article_42743.shtml. Retrieved 2010-07-28. 
  12. ^ Bishop, Matt (2010-08-31). "WWE NXT: Kaval wins show's 2nd season, gets beat down". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2010/08/31/15205276.html. Retrieved 2010-09-12. 
  13. ^ Martin, Adam (2010-06-05). "Bonus editorial: NXT 1 review, season 2 preview". WrestleView. http://www.wrestleview.com/viewnews.php?id=1275784553. Retrieved 2010-06-07. 
  14. ^ Pohas, Darryl (2010-06-22). "WWE News: NXT spoilers - Complete coverage of tonight's NXT episode & 6/24 Superstars". Pro Wrestling Torch. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_42130.shtml. Retrieved 2010-06-24. 
  15. ^ ""PWI 500": 301–400". Pro Wrestling Illustrated. 2011-08-04. http://prowrestlingillustrated.blogspot.com/2011/08/pwi-500-301-400.html. Retrieved 2011-08-04. 

External links