Eli Cottonwood

Kipp Christianson (September 30, 1974) is a part-time American professional wrestler and former basketball player. He is best known for his time in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) where he wrestled under the ring name Eli Cottonwood.
==Basketball career==
Christianson attended River Falls High School and later St. John's University in Minnesota. 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. During his basketball career, Christian played in several countries, including Lithuania and China. He played in the International Basketball Association asnd Continental Basketball Association, for both Quad City Thunder and Sioux Falls Skyforce. He attended a camp for the Milwaukee Bucks in 1998, and played for the Dallas Mavericks team in the NBA Summer League. On March 16, 2004, he signed a contract with the Charleston Lowgators.
==Professional wrestling career==
===World Wrestling Entertainment===
Kipp Christianson began competing in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in 2008 under his real name. In August 2009, his name was tweaked to Eli Cottonwood, and he utilized a gimmick of being recently reintroduced to society from the Kelloggs Sanitarium. 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.
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. He debuted on the June 8 episode of NXT, teaming with Morrison to defeat Titus O'Neil and Zack Ryder. Christianson's performance in the "Talk the Talk" challenge on the July 6 edition of NXT earned him a clip on the following episode of E! Television's episode of The Soup in the "What your Boyfriend is Watching" segment.
==Personal life==
Christianson graduated from St. John's University with a bachelor's degree in psychology. He is married to Tabatha, and they have a daughter Clover. He has a step son name Anthony from his wife Tabatha's previous relationship before marriage.
==In wrestling==
*Finishing moves
**Reverse chokeslam facebuster
*Managers
**John Morrison
**Aksana (FCW)
==External links==
* Profile
Category:American wrestlers
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment alumni
Category:WWE NXT alumni
Category:Florida Championship Wrestling alumni
Category:2008 debuts
Category:1974 births
Category:NXT season 2
Category:Wisconsin wrestlers
Category:2012 retirements
Category:Former basketball players
Category:Living people
Category:Male wrestlers