Seven matches are scheduled in the World Wrestling Fanexperience (WWFX) Champion Showcase at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Feb. 4 with divas Melina and Jillian Hall expected to steal the thunder in the much-ballyhooed revival of their riotous 2009 title bout.
Melina, 32, and Jillian, 31, are both former WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Divas champions. In 2009, Jillian lost the WWE crown to Melina less than five minutes after winning it from Mickie James in an episode of “Raw.” The feuding grapplers were once linked together with Jillian acting as “fixer” for the MNM faction of Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro and Melina. After Jillian was fired from her role as “fixer,” she figured in a bitter rivalry with Melina.
In 2006, they battled on Judgment Day, a WWE pay-per-view event, in Phoenix with Jillian prevailing in a controversial ending. Melina was pinned off a sunset flip even as her hand was on the bottom rope. In 2007, Jillian and Melina reconciled to form a tag team but two years later, they were back on opposite sides. Jillian even paired with Beth Phoenix to beat Melina and Kelly Kelly but failed to defeat Melina in a singles face-off.
Both Melina and Jillian are no longer connected with the WWE, performing in the so-called independent circuit. They’ve branched out into other forms of entertainment with Melina appearing in movies (“Serial Buddies”) and TV shows and Jillian cutting a Christmas album “A Jingle With Jillian” that reached No. 20 in the UK Holidays Top 100.
A former cheerleader and gymnast, Jillian dropped out of college to start a career in professional wrestling in 1998. Melina, who is of Mexican descent, broke into professional wrestling as an independent in 2000 and joined the WWE four years later. She is a five-time world champion known for performing splits in the ring. Melina was briefly involved in a relationship with Filipino-American wrestling superstar Batista.
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Sheik Daivari, who’s coming to battle Hurricane Helms in a cruiserweight contest, said Melina and Jillian will surely bring the fans to their feet.
“They’re the very best in women’s wrestling today,” said Daivari in an exclusive e-mail to The STAR. “It’s no secret that WWE women’s wrestling has become awful. With the exception of Phoenix and Nattie Neidhart, all the girls are models who attempt to become wrestlers. And they’re all, at this point in their careers, terrible. Melina and Jillian aren’t like that. They’re cut from the same mold as Beth and Nattie. They’re the very best at what they do and they happen to be beautiful. They aren’t beautiful women whom a wrestling promoter recruited to teach them enough to get by three minutes on TV as wrestlers. These girls are both very good. The WWE even hired Jillian to train future Divas because she was that good. I’m glad she declined because now she’s coming to Manila to tear down the house with another world champion in Melina and potentially, put on the best women’s match of the year and we’ve just begun the year.”
Daivari is no slouch himself and will take on Helms in the WWFX bill. “I’m up against a former WWE cruiserweight champion so it’ll be interesting to find out who’s the best on the show under 225 pounds,” said Daivari, a 27-year-old grappler who has campaigned in both the WWE and TNA (Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling). He made his ring debut in 2000 and draws inspiration from his childhood heroes Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley and Bret Hart.
Helms, 37, is a veteran of both the WWE and WCW (World Championship Wrestling) where he was known as The Hurricane, Gregory Helms and Sugar Shane Helms. A survivor of a neck fusion surgery, the six-foot North Carolina native is a former WCW Hardcore and cruiserweight titlist. He’s in the record books as the longest reigning WWE cruiserweight champion.
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Others in the WWFX cast for the Big Dome show are Montel Vontavious Porter or MVP who once held the WWE tag team championship with Matt Hardy, 6-2, 270-pound Rhino who is a three-time WWF Hardcore titleholder, Carlito who is a 13-time World Wrestling Council universal heavyweight champion, 6-6, 305-pound Snisky who captured the World Xtreme Wrestling tag team crown with Robb Harper as the Twin Tackles, Chris (The Masterpiece) Master who has feuded with Carlito and MVP, Korean star Jimmy Yang who gained a reputation as an exciting high-flyer in the WWE, 6-7, 290-pound Luke Gallow who is popularly known as WWE star Kane’s impostor, 48-year-old Billy Gunn who won the WWF tag team belt with Bart Gunn as the Smoking Gunns, three-time WWE SmackDown Intercontinental champion John Morrison and Shelton Benjamin who once combined with Kurt Angle and Charlie Haas as the World’s Greatest Tag Team.
“This is the best group of champions ever assembled for a high-quality wrestling event,” said Daivari. “On a wrestling or boxing or mixed martial arts card, you have your main event then you have everything else. Usually your ‘everything else’ doesn’t matter as they just hope the main event has the strength to carry the ticket sales.
“But from top to bottom, this is the strongest card Manila is ever gonna see. And the most eclectic crew of wrestlers they’re ever gonna see. They’re gonna see a mix of past and present, TNA and WWE stars, men and women, and the bottom line is they’re all champions. That means you’re the best at what you do. To have a card full of champions means we have the very best the industry has to offer today.”