6 Ups And 2 Downs From WWE's Cruiserweight Classic (July 13)

5. Daivari Plays Perfect Heel

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Several years ago, Shawn Daivari was a heel manager in WWE who led superstars such as Muhammad Hassan, Great Khali and Kurt Angle to the ring. He was effective at getting heat on himself and his charges, yet he was released nearly a decade ago.

Fast-forward to Wednesday, as his younger brother Ariya Daivari entered the Cruiserweight Classic but lost a first-round match to HoHo Lun. Still, the younger Daivari looked pretty good, even in defeat. In addition to wrestling well, Daivari played an effective, yet understated heel really well during the match in a tournament where rule-breaking doesn’t seem to be a big part of it. He refused to shake Lun’s had before the match, and later took the opportunity to berate a downed Lun, yelling, “Do you know who I am?” as he slapped him.

Sure, it was only one appearance, but Daivari did well enough (IMO) to merit a longer look from WWE.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.