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1. Day 611 - Dissecting The Wrestling Revolution Roster (Week 2)

2. Day 612 - Maybe it's time for the Bellas to stop tweeting

Day 611

Last week, I looked at the first five members of the new Wrestling Revolution Project. Here we are, a week later, and it's time to look at the second batch of five (like last week, I'll be referring to them by their "popular" names, just to make things easier on myself and all of you reading), and I don't want to waste any more time, so, uh.. shall I proceed? (Yes, indeed.) Less dew eet!!

To get everyone caught up, let's look at last week's five again..

- Scott Colton, better known to the wrestling world as Colt Cabana
- Len Olson, better known to the wrestling world as Dr. Luther
- Ken Doane, better known to the wrestling world as Kenny Dykstra/Spirit Squad Kenny
- Alex Zikos, better known to the wrestling world as Alex Reynolds
- Tyson Smith, better known to the wrestling world as Kenny Omega

Now, for this week's five..

- Hassan Assad aka Montel Vontavious Porter
- Sam Johnston aka Sami Callihan
- Dara Daivari aka Shawn Daivari/Khosrow Daivari/Sheik Abdul Bashir
- Emil Sitoci
- Drew Hankinson aka Luke Gallows

Before I say anything else, let me just say that, at ten names deep, the WRP roster is already amazing, and we're only about halfway done, so there's plenty of time for that amazingness to grow. Adding MVP to the roster adds a certain level of credibility and "name value". He's a man that many feel WWE dropped the ball on. Those people will say that MVP could've/should've been a World/WWE Champion, especially as a heel. He's definitely not a young talent anymore (he'll be 38 by the time WRP begins airing), but he provides a lot of veteran leadership to a young overall roster. While he isn't a former World Champion, he's still someone that I'm sure a lot of these guys looked up to and were major fans of while he was working for WWE, so I'm sure they're thrilled to get a chance to work with him. Just a solid, solid addition to the roster, in my opinion.

Sami Callihan.. while I know my boy Mizzou is pissed beyond belief to see his name on the WRP roster, I don't really mind it. I'm still not the biggest fan of Sami's work, necessarily, but he helps to bring some more indy buzz to the promotion, and he certainly brings his own style to it, as well. His history with violent matches immediately indicates, to me, that he'll have to cross paths with Dr. Luther eventually. While perhaps not in a deathmatch setting, those two could put on a very entertaining, physical brawl, which would set them apart from the rest of the roster from the very beginning. That's incredibly important when it comes to any type of indy promotion, as the stereotype is all indy wrestlers look and wrestle alike, so if you have something.. anything.. to make yourself stand out, it should be taken advantage of.

I don't think I can properly express how happy I am to see Daivari's name on the WRP roster. If you ask me (and technically, by clicking the link to read my column, you did), I think Daivari is one of the most underrated workers of the last several years. While with WWE, he was basically nothing more than a manager, and with TNA, he was hurt by TNA's fear of the gimmick they gave him, as it seemed like they wanted to push him as the "evil foreigner" that pro wrestling has seen so many times, but they didn't want to attract too much negativity like WWE got with Daivari and Muhammad Hassan. WRP founder Jeff Katz has been vocal about his dislike for the racial stereotype gimmicks that wrestling has seen, so now Daivari will get a chance to actually work instead of just being some sort of quasi-terrorist, which is great for everyone involved.

Emil Sitoci.. hmm.. for the first time since WRP began naming members of the roster, I'm completely stumped. Not only have I never seen an Emil Sitoci match, I'd never even heard of the guy before this week. From what I've gathered, however, he's a young talent that has seen a lot of success in Europe. Two of his trainers are Mike Quackenbush and Chris Hero, though, so that grabs my attention right away. I've heard Sitoci described as "Chris Hero, if Hero were a Southern-style pretty-boy babyface", which not only makes me laugh, but also piques my interest. Best believe that, by the time WRP gets going, I will have watched my fair share of Sitoci's work, but for now, he's mostly a question mark.

We end the second week with Luke Gallows, and I think it's yet another wonderful addition to the WRP roster. Gallows is one of the best "big man" free agents out there. He's a solid worker, and someone who is also very underrated because most of the attention went to the characters he portrayed (and to the people he was stablemates with) instead of what he could do in the ring. At 6'7" and nearly 300 pounds, he's considerably larger than anyone else on the WRP roster to this point, which goes back to the importance of standing out. He's definitely going to stand out here. Without having to play some sort of "special needs" character, and without having to deal with being alongside CM Punk (as well as Serena's large breasticles), Gallows should be able to succeed of his own accord, which is nice.

As I mentioned, I think the WRP roster looks great already, with a variety of in-ring styles and a nice mix of "names" and new talent. With every passing day, I get more and more excited for what could be, and I'm definitely rooting for them. Wrestling fans continue to want something different, and WRP looks to be set to give us just that.. something different. Should be fun.

The HiPE Playlist: "Grind" by Jadakiss.. "Can't Get Enough" by J. Cole & Trey Songz.. "Lost Ones" by Soul Khan.. "I Stand Alone" by Theophilus London.. "Mama Knows" by Termanology.. "Emergency" by Mavado & Ace Hood.. "Pay Day Part 2" by JD Era & Raekwon.. "Lovely" by John West & Pusha T.. "Krooked Montana" by Skeme.. "Tupac Gone" by Skeme

Not so fast, my friend!

Hustle
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-Team Sleep--------------------------Day 612

Bit of a quick column tonight. I have very important things on my calendar for the day (read: multiple Fantasy Football drafts), so I need to get this moving.

If you've been following the latest Twitter "controversy", you'd know that a few of the WWE Divas, and many of the WWE fans, have some very strong opinions of an article that was posted on WWE.com, of all places, where the author (Katie Raymond) basically ripped the current Divas division apart, wondering if the division needs to be saved by Beth Phoenix and Natalya. The article talks about Kelly Kelly and The Bella Twins mostly, and talks about them as "models" and "pretty faces", but doesn't have a whole lot of praise for their in-ring work. Sure, they put their bodies on the line in matches, and sure, Kelly Kelly is one of the more popular Divas, but.. well, that's about it, really.

Well, of course, Kelly and the Bellas weren't going to keep quiet after the article was posted, and now, with Bella family members also becoming involved, it has turned into the "Topic Of The Day" for many wrestling fans on Twitter. Let's look at some things that Nikki Bella tweeted..

"First off.... Um you want me to slap you with all of my awards and championships I have won? I was a #1 athlete... Which other Diva was?

Secondly, Bri & @RealKellyKelly have been the only entertainment that has happened 2 the Diva's Division & have worked harder than anyone!

Thirdly, I've seen 2 girls the past few weeks try as hard as they can to be "models" while us "models" have busted our butts.....

Oh and good luck with the up and coming Divas.... Sure you'll make a lot of money with them.... Um actually NOT!

Lastly, @RealKellyKelly & Us are better than anyone in the past so Katie Raymond check your self and come read this article to my face! NB"

Doesn't that just make you want to die a little inside? There's no way, in her right mind, that Nikki honestly feels that she, along with her sister and Kelly Kelly, have been the "only entertainment that has happened 2 the Diva's division". There's no way, in her right mind, that Nikki honestly feels that she, along with her sister and Kelly Kelly, have "worked harder than anyone". There's just no way.

If Kelly and the Bellas have "worked harder than anyone", what does it say that none of them know how to perform even the most proper of moves correctly? How bad do you need to be to start off when you work your fucking ass off and still aren't coming close to being even an average worker? They don't know how to run the ropes correctly, which is one of the absolute first things you learn how to do when you start training to become a wrestler, so again, if they've worked harder than anyone else, and have only reached the level they're currently at, how piss-poor were they when they began training? That just makes them sound like they had the ability of a corpse when they started.

It's also pretty funny that Nikki, in her infinite wisdom, gets mad at someone for speaking negatively about the Divas division, so her response is to.. speak negatively about every Divas division since the beginning of time? Brilliant. The "only entertainment that has happened 2 the Diva's division".. wow.. women can be douchebags, too, right? I'm legitimately asking. It's weird, because "douche" is obviously something that women use, but "douchebag" is almost exclusively used as a term towards males. No matter what, this is a scenario where I think "douchebag" is the proper term for someone like Nikki Bella. Does nobody think anymore?!?

I know a lot of people are making a big deal that Brie and Nikki's mother and brother have both tweeted in support of the girls, but I don't see why. It's their family members. They're supposed to support them. Sure, maybe you'd like to see some honesty from Mommy Dearest, where she can tell her girls that she loves them and supports them in their careers, but that they aren't quite on the level that they seem to think they are, but that's not something to realistically expect from someone who pushed these two out of her snizz. Other folks can focus on the family members' tweets, but I won't.

Lastly, let's say that Nikki's comments were more "in-character work" than any type of "shoot". Is it going to lead to anything, other than the occasional column and Twitter discussion? Are Trish Stratus and Lita going to return to slap the taste out of Nikkie and Brie's mouths? Does anyone really think this is the type of thing that is going to be mentioned a lot and turned into an on-air storyline? Are we going to hear from this Katie Raymond character on an episode of Raw, followed by a response from Mama Bella and Brother Bella? No, probably not. It probably won't be mentioned, and things will carry on as usual.

Bottom line is that maybe.. just maybe.. Nikki Bella should take the advice of legendary philosopher, Brian Fantana..

"Take it easy, Champ. Why don't you sit this next one out, stop talking for a while."

The HiPE Playlist: Nothing today.

Baxter! Bark twice if you're in Milwaukee!

Source: lordsofpain.net