Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Show name	WWE Raw
Creator	Vince McMahon
Executive producer	Kevin Dunn
Producer	Arn AndersonGerald Brisco
Format	Sports entertainmentProfessional wrestling
Picture format	480i (SDTV),1080i (HDTV)
Camera	Multicamera setup
Runtime	Approximately 2 hours 5 minutes per episode(1 hour 35 minutes and commercials)
Company	WWE
Starring	Raw Brand
Country	United States
Network	USA Network (1993–2000, 2005 – present),TNN/Spike TV (2000–2005)
First aired
Num seasons	18
Num episodes	952 (as of August 29, 2011)
Opentheme	"Burn It to the Ground" by Nickelback
Related	''WWE SmackDown''''WWE Superstars''''WWE NXT''
Website	http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw }}

''WWE Raw'' (sometimes stylized as ''Monday Night RAW'') is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States. The show's name is also used to refer to the Raw brand, in which WWE employees are assigned to work and perform on that program, the other program and brand currently being SmackDown. It is the only television broadcast for the Raw brand. The show originally debuted in the United States on the USA Network on January 11, 1993. It remained there until 2000, when ''Raw'' was moved to TNN, later known as Spike TV. In 2005, the show was moved back to the USA Network. Since its launch in 1993, ''Raw'' continues to air on Monday nights. ''Raw'' is generally seen as the company's flagship program due to its prolific history, high ratings, weekly live format, and emphasis on pay-per-views.

Since its first episode, ''Raw'' has now been broadcast live, or recorded from, 197 different arenas in 165 cities and towns in seven different nations: including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom twice a year, Afghanistan for a special Tribute to the Troops, Germany in 1997, Japan in 2005 and Italy in 2007. The show will be recorded in Mexico for the first time in October 2011.

Show history

1993–2002

Original format

Beginning as ''WWF Monday Night Raw'', the program first aired on January 11, 1993. It screened on the USA Network for one hour. Of the wrestlers featured on that occasion, only The Undertaker is currently under contract with WWE. The original ''Raw'' broke new ground in televised professional wrestling. Traditionally, wrestling shows were taped on sound stages with small audiences or at large arena shows. The ''Raw'' formula was very different than that of its predecessor, ''Prime Time Wrestling''. Instead of taped matches, with studio voice overs and taped chat, ''Raw'' was a show shot to a live audience, with angles as they happened. The first episode featured Yokozuna defeating Koko B. Ware, The Steiner Brothers defeating The Executioners, WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels defeating Max Moon and The Undertaker defeating Damien Demento. The show also featured an interview with Razor Ramon.

''Raw'' originated from the Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center Studios, a small New York City theater, and aired live each week. The combination of an intimate venue and live action proved highly successful. However, the weekly live schedule proved to be a financial drain on the WWF, and taped shows began airing every other week. From early 1994 to September 1999, ''Raw'' was shown live on one Monday and then the next day (Tuesday) next Monday's ''Raw'' was taped. This meant that ''Raw'' was live one week and taped the next.

The storylines and characters during the early years of ''Raw'' still had a healthy dose of the old Federation "gimmick-heavy" style. For instance, events occurred such as Irwin R. Schyster tearing up Tatanka's headdress, the various "Undertaker sightings" in mid-1994 and characters like Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, Doink the Clown, or Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly.

''Raw'', uniquely in its day, covered the unexpected, exciting moments, a prelude to "the Attitude Era", in which it coined ''Raw'' as "Uncut, Uncensored, Uncooked." Some of those moments include Razor Ramon losing a match unexpectedly to The Kid or Marty Jannetty beating Shawn Michaels to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. ''Raw'' also was the first WWF television program of any kind to show footage of Lex Luger bodyslamming Yokozuna at the ''USS Intrepid''.

Vince McMahon, Rob Bartlett and "Macho Man" Randy Savage served as the original hosts of ''Raw''. Sean Mooney conducted the interviews and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan also helped contribute. On April 19, 1993, Rob Bartlett made his final appearance on the program. He was dropped from the broadcasting team and was replaced by Bobby Heenan the following week, who remained until December 6, 1993, when Gorilla Monsoon kicked him out of the WWF. In reality, this was a storyline between Monsoon and his close friend Heenan, who decided to leave the World Wrestling Federation in order to lighten his travel schedule and because he didn't want to take a 50% paycut. ''Raw'' also originally featured the ''Raw Girls''; ladies who would parade signs around the ring in between matches that often used the term "Raw" in a pun (as in "Open Wide and Say Raw", among others). After about a year, ''Raw'' moved out of the Manhattan Center and traveled to various regular Federation venues in the United States. In mid-1995, ''Raw'' briefly showcased "Dok Hendrix and the ''Raw'' Band"; a musical performance in-between segments on the show.

The Monday Night Wars and Raw is War

In 1995, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) began airing its new wrestling show, ''WCW Monday Nitro'', live each week on TNT. ''Raw'' and ''Nitro'' went head-to-head for the first time on September 11, 1995. Due to ''Raw'''s taping schedule on several occasions, WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff, who also worked as an on-air personality, would frequently give away the results of WWF's taped ''Raw'' shows on the live WCW show. Some fans also looked at ''Raw'' taping results on the steadily growing Internet; this caused the ratings of the taped ''Raw'' episodes to decrease.

Until September 1999 ''WWF Raw'' broadcast live every other week to save costs, but ratings and pay-per-view buy-rate increased, allowing them to justify doing a weekly live show.

At the start of the ratings war in 1995 through to mid-1996, ''Raw'' and ''Nitro'' exchanged victories over each other in a closely contested rivalry. Beginning in mid-1996, however, thanks primarily to the nWo angle, ''Monday Nitro'' started a ratings win-streak that lasted for 84 continuous weeks, ending on April 13, 1998.

On February 3, 1997, ''Monday Night Raw'' went to a two-hour format, as the Attitude Era was starting to come in full stream in the WWF. In an attempt to break the momentum of what had turned into ratings domination by WCW's competing ''Monday Nitro'', Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was brought in as Jerry Lawler challenged ECW on February 17, 1997.

In an episode where ''Raw'' returned to the Manhattan Center, the challenge answered on the following week's show with Taz, Mikey Whipwreck, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, D-Von Dudley, and The Sandman. ECW owner Paul Heyman did a call-in interview on ''Raw'' the week after that.

Throughout 1997, further controversial elements emerged with ''Raw'' and WWF programming. Memorable moments included Bret Hart cursing profanely at the crowd after losing a Steel Cage match, with commentators apologizing for his foul behavior, before he proceeds in major brawls with Sid, The Undertaker, Steve Austin, and briefly Shawn Michaels. Some of the most notable moments cites the profusely intense feud with The Hart Foundation against Michaels and Austin, which saw Raw develop a memorable episode in which Michaels and Austin beat The British Bulldog and Owen Hart for the WWF Tag Team Championship, and during their post-match attack on Michaels, Austin physically charged a disabled Bret Hart to ward them off. Other events saw the new black street gang Nation of Domination formed, and Michaels D-Generation X "racial graffiti" storyline designed to "implicate Bret Hart's 'The Hart Foundation'", and the "XXX Files" series.

On March 10, 1997, ''Monday Night Raw'' became a 2 hour show, the first hour was still known as "Raw", the second "The War Zone", the 2 hour block together was named "Raw Is War". The March 17, 1997 episode featured a heated Bret Hart/Vince McMahon ringside altercation (that unknowingly foreshadowed the Montreal Screwjob) with profanity normally not heard on television. Brian Pillman did a series of "XXX Files" segments with Terri Runnels, which further "pushed the envelope". These segments ended prematurely with the September 29, 1997 episode of ''Raw'', after the death of Pillman on October 5, 1997 due to hereditary heart problems.

After WrestleMania XIV in March 1998, which featured Mike Tyson as a ring enforcer, and Shawn Michaels final match up until 2002, the WWF regained the lead in the Monday Night Wars with its new "WWF Attitude" brand, led in particular by rising stars Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H and Mankind. The classic feud between the villainous WWF Chairman Vince McMahon (who was re-imagined and re-branded from the color commentator into the evil corporal chairman character Mr. McMahon after the real-life Montreal Screwjob incident) and fan favorite Steve Austin caught the imaginations of fans. The April 13, 1998 episode of ''Raw'', headlined by a match between Austin and McMahon, marked the first time that WCW had lost the head-to-head Monday night ratings battle in the 84 weeks since 1996.

While ''Raw'' was taking a new approach to programming, ''Nitro'' began producing lackluster programming with repetitive storylines. Older stars such as Hogan and Nash frequently occupied the main events, while younger talent such as Rey Mysterio, Jr., Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, Jr, Lance Storm and Shane Helms were not given opportunities to advance, and the only newcomers elevated to main-event status at this time were Bill Goldberg and Diamond Dallas Page.

Meanwhile, on ''Raw'', fans were immersed in the feud between WWF owner Vince McMahon and Steve Austin. New talent such as Triple H being the new leader of the D-Generation X (DX) faction, Mankind and The Rock were elevated to main event status on the WWF's program. Superstars such as Kane, Kurt Angle, Val Venis, Goldust and the like were coming through the ranks and exposing the WWF as territory where new talent can ascend unlike the WCW counterpart. Matters were so heated between the two programs that, when both shows were in the Hampton Roads area on the same night (''Raw'' in Hampton, Virginia, ''Nitro'' in Norfolk, Virginia), DX was sent to film a "war" segment at the Norfolk Scope where they berated WCW and interviewed fans on camera who stated that they received their ''Nitro'' tickets for free (presumably in an attempt by WCW to pack the arena to capacity due to low ticket sales).

On January 4, 1999, Mick Foley, who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s as Cactus Jack, won the WWF Title as Mankind on ''Raw''. On orders from Bischoff, ''Nitro'' announcer Tony Schiavone gave away this previously taped result on a live ''Nitro'', and then sarcastically added ''"that'll sure put some butts in the seats"'' consequently resulting in over 600,000 viewers switching channels to watch ''Raw''. This was also the night that ''Nitro'' aired a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match in which Kevin Nash blatantly laid down for Hulk Hogan after Hogan poked him in the chest. The next week, and for months after, many fans in the ''Raw'' audience brought signs which read, ''"Mick Foley put my ass in this seat!"'' On September 27, 1999, Mick Foley helped WWF Raw achieve some of its highest ratings ever with a segment featuring himself (as Mankind) and The Rock. The segment called "This is Your Life" included Mankind bringing out people from The Rock's past, such as a home economics teacher, gym teacher and old high school girlfriend. The "This is Your Life" segment remains one of the highest rated segments in Raw viewership history, with an 8.4 rating.

The end of the Wars

A new television contract with Viacom led to changes in WWF broadcasting. On September 25, 2000, ''Raw'' moved from the USA Network to TNN (which later became Spike TV).

WCW's sharp decline in revenue and ratings led to Time Warner's sale of the company to the WWF in 2001. The final edition of ''Nitro'' aired on March 26, 2001. The show began with Vince McMahon making a short statement about his recent purchase of WCW and ended with a simulcast ''Raw'' on TNN and ''Nitro'' on TNT with an appearance by Vince's son Shane McMahon . Shane interrupted his father's gloating over the WCW purchase to explain that Shane was the one who actually owned WCW, setting up what became the WWF's "Invasion" storyline.

The ''RAW IS WAR'' logo and name were retired in September 2001, following the September 11 attacks and sensitivity over the word ''war'', and because the Monday Night Wars were "over".

2002–present

Brand Extension

In early to mid-2002, WWF underwent a process they called the "Brand Extension". WWF divided itself into two "de facto" wrestling promotions with separate rosters, storylines and authority figures. Raw and SmackDown! would host each division, give its name to the division and essentially compete against each other. The split was a result of WWF purchasing their two biggest competitors, WCW and ECW. The brand extension was publicly announced during a telecast of ''WWF Raw'' on March 25, 2002, and became official the next day. The March 25th episode of RAW was the final RAW to use the Attitude era depiction and the last to use the theme song Thorn In Your Eye.

Wrestlers now would become show-exclusive, wrestling for their specific show only. At the time this excluded the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship, as those WWE titles would be defended on both shows. In August 2002, WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar refused to defend the title on ''Raw'', in effect causing his title to become exclusive to ''SmackDown!'' The following week on Raw, General Manager Eric Bischoff awarded a newly instated World Heavyweight Championship to Raw's designated number one contender, Triple H. Because the WWE Undisputed Championship was now SmackDown! exclusive it was no longer seen as "undisputed". Following this, the WWE Women's Championship soon became Raw-exclusive as well. As a result of the Brand Extension, an annual "draft lottery" was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

''WWE Raw'' claimed to have earned the distinction of having the most original episodes of any fictional weekly program on August 2, 2005 when it broadcasted the 636th episode. It was said to have taken the place of ''Gunsmoke'', which held that distinction.

Return to USA Network

On March 10, 2005, Viacom and WWE decided not to go on with the agreement with Spike TV, making it so ''Raw'' and other WWE programs on the network would cease when their deal expired in September 2005. On April 4, 2005, WWE announced a 3-year deal with NBC Universal to bring ''Raw'' back to its former home, the USA Network, with 2 yearly specials on NBC and a Spanish ''Raw'' on Telemundo. On the same week as ''Raw'''s return to the USA Network, Spike TV scheduled Ultimate Fighting Championship's live ''Ultimate Fight Night'' in ''Raw'''s old timeslot in an attempt to go head-to-head with ''Raw''.

The show's first night back on USA was billed as the "WWE Homecoming" and featured the return of former WWE Champions such as Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, Triple H and Vince McMahon along with cameos from legends such as Roddy Piper, Jimmy Hart, Jimmy Snuka and Harley Race. Also, it featured a 30 minutes Iron Match between Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle. WWE Homecoming was three hours long — the second longest an episode of ''Raw'' has ever run in its 12-year history. USA also showed ''Raw Exposed'', an hour of the best moments of ''Raw'' during its previous run on USA. WWE announced that ''Raw'' received its highest ratings in three years, gaining close to six million viewers.

The following week, Vince McMahon fired Jim Ross for not helping after Steve Austin gave him and his entire family the Stone Cold Stunner. Jonathan Coachman, the second analyst at the table, took over Ross's duties as play-by-play for two weeks until former ECW announcer Joey Styles was hired.

On the May 1, 2006 edition of ''Raw'', Joey Styles announced he was quitting (kayfabe). His vacating of the announcer position set the stage for Jim Ross to return to Raw's commentary booth, thus ending the storyline where Ross got fired by Linda McMahon. This freed Styles to become a commentator for the ECW brand when it launched in June.

In Canada, after an 11 year run on TSN, ''Raw'' moved to rival sports broadcaster The Score after it was announced that TSN would be carrying ''Monday Night Football'' for the 2006 season. The Score claimed that unlike TSN they would never preempt Raw, however that promise only lasted a few months. Then in 2007, The Score started airing the show with a 15 minute tape delay. The first 15 minutes of the hour contains a countdown pre-show recapping the previous week's events.

During the September 25, 2006 episode of ''Raw'' in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the opening of ''Raw'' suffered a blackout. Spotlights were the only lights running in the house, thus the opening match (between Lita and Candice Michelle) was contested in the dark. Power in the presentation was later restored. Another similar moment happened back on May 26, 1996 in Florence, South Carolina for WWF In Your House 8: Beware of Dog, when a major thunderstorm hit the Florence Civic Center causing major chaos for the PPV. That Tuesday, Beware of Dog, returned to North Charleston, South Carolina to finish out three matches that were not shown because of the lost power feed.

That October, ''Raw'' held a three-hour season premiere called the "Raw Family Reunion", where the Raw brand debuted a new logo and theme song, Papa Roach's "''...To Be Loved''". The episode also featured talent from the SmackDown! and ECW brands. Later that month, on October 23 ''Raw'' aired its 700th episode, according to the WWE making it the longest running weekly entertainment show, without a hiatus, in television history.

On June 25, 2007, ''Raw'' was scheduled in Corpus Christi, Texas to be a three-hour special memorial show for the storyline death of the Mr. McMahon character. Two weeks earlier, the show had broadcast an angle in which Mr. McMahon was murdered by a bomb planted within his limousine. The 'Mr. McMahon' tribute was cancelled on the day it was due to air after the real life death of current superstar Chris Benoit and his family. The show then became a three-hour tribute to Benoit. What made this tribute different from others (e.g. Eddie Guerrero and Owen Hart) was that the show had no original matches and no live audience. Instead, the three-hour show aired highlights from the WWE DVD 'Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story', and a selection of Benoit's most famous matches. Several wrestlers paid tribute in the form of real interviews about him, and Vince McMahon broke character to address the viewers about what had happened. However, when the facts of Benoit's death came to light, WWE pulled this episode from international markets which aired ''Raw'' on a tape delay basis. Several channels announced the episode was being withheld for legal reasons. A substitute ''Raw'', hosted by Todd Grisham from WWE Studios, was created featuring recaps of John Cena's WWE Championship victories, mainly the ones that had occurred over the past year. The episode started with a message from Vince McMahon which originally aired on the June 26 edition of ''ECW''. Some countries that received WWE programing up to three weeks late had all Chris Benoit matches edited out. The WWE even removed all Chris Benoit matches and interviews from the WWE 24/7 service.

In December, ''Raw'' celebrated its 15th anniversary in a three-hour spectacular on the USA Network with the returns of Steve Austin, Rob Van Dam, The Godfather, Steve Blackman, Howard Finkel, Ted DiBiase, Eric Bischoff, Marty Jannetty, Gangrel, Trish Stratus, Lita, Sunny, Molly Holly, Hulk Hogan and Mick Foley (as Mankind) among others. Along with several reunions of former tag teams and also included a 15-man "15 Years of Raw" battle royal. The Raw 15th Anniversary DVD was also released which featured some of the most memorable moments in Raw history.

WWE began their 2008 year with a new HD set, which consists of more than 1,000,000 LEDs. The introduction of this new set retired the old set, which was used from April 2002 to January 2008. Raw's first show in HD was held in the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. That June, the World Heavyweight Championship returned to Raw after CM Punk used his Money In the Bank contract for an impromptu title match, defeating SmackDown's Edge.

On September 8, 2008, Raw announced that a "talent exchange" was started between ''ECW'' and ''Raw'', allowing their respective talent to appear and compete on either brand. This is similar to an earlier "talent exchange" between SmackDown and ECW. On November 3, 2008, ''Raw'' celebrated its 800th episode with a three-hour episode. The actual 800th episode aired on September 22, 2008.

In 2009, at No Way Out that February 15, Edge won the World Heavyweight Championship in ''Raw'''s Elimination Chamber match, thus making it a SmackDown exclusive title and giving SmackDown two top tier championships. As a result of the 2009 WWE Draft in April, WWE Champion Triple H was drafted to the Raw brand, while the World Heavyweight Championship moved to the Raw brand after Edge lost the title to John Cena at WrestleMania XXV. SmackDown would regain the World Heavyweight Championship at Backlash (2009) when Edge defeated John Cena to win the championship. In addition, SmackDown and Raw would exchange both women-exclusive championships with Raw gaining the WWE Divas Championship and SmackDown gaining the WWE Women's Championship. Also, SmackDown and Raw exchanged the WWE Intercontinental Championship which is now exclusive to SmackDown and the WWE United States Championship which is exclusive to Raw Brand, for the first time ever.

On June 15, 2009, McMahon announced on a special three-hour edition of ''Raw'' that he had "sold" the WWE Raw franchise to Donald Trump, who appeared on-screen to confirm it and declared he would be at the following commercial-free episode in person. WWE issued a press release on the scripted sale while the USA Network later issued a statement confirming the "sale" as part of a storyline. The statement was issued in response to multiple news sources having mistakenly reported the event as legitimate. Due to the mistake, on the day following the announcement, WWE's stock on the New York Stock Exchange notably fell. Despite USA Network's acknowledgment that the sale was fictional, Randy Katz, a securities lawyer with Baker & Hostetler, commented on the Fox Business Network that a probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against WWE and USA Network owner General Electric "certainly is a possibility." The next week, Vince McMahon repurchased ''Raw'' from Donald Trump and announced that a "Guest star" initiative originally introduced by Trump in response to the position of General Manager being vacant would go in effect on June 29. Each weekly guest host is usually either a WWE Hall of Famer, a former or returning talent, or other celebrity. The guest host or hostess assumes the role of a brand General Manager, serving as Raw's authority figure for the day. The following year, it was announced that with Vickie Guerrero (and subsequently Bret Hart) becoming the new full time GM, the guest stars (while continuing to appear) would no longer have booking power.

In 2010, ''TNA Impact!'', which normally airs on Thursdays, went head to head with ''Raw'' in a three-hour live broadcast. This would be the first time since March 2001 that two major wrestling promotions would go head-to-head in a Monday night ratings competition. TNA promoted the debut of Hulk Hogan leading to the broadcast. WWE countered by announcing the return of Bret Hart, who hadn’t appeared with the company since the Montreal Screwjob in 1997. The ratings showed that, much like the first Monday Night War, ''Raw'' came out on top, averaging 5.6 million viewers while ''iMPACT!'' was watched by 3 million viewers for the Hulk Hogan segment, though towards the end of the show the viewership declined to 2.2 million viewers.

On March 8, 2010, ''Impact!'' permanently moved to Monday nights to compete head-to-head with ''Raw''. After declining ratings, Spike executives announced that starting April 5, ''Impact!'' would air an hour earlier than ''Raw''. However ''Impact!'' was moved back to Thursdays as the 'New Monday Night Wars' resulted in Raw getting better ratings and audience of TNA getting reduced. Since then on April 19, 2010, many of the WWE Raw superstars were stranded in Belfast due to the ash cloud from Eyjafjallajökull (a volcano in Iceland) hovering over most of Europe and causing many flights to be put on hold. Former ring announcer Lilian Garcia announced that night while the SmackDown roster took part in production of the ''Raw'' episode. The following month on May 17, 2010, ''Raw'' aired its second overall commercial free episode from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

That summer on August 30, 2010, ''Raw'' aired its 900th episode, ''SmackDown'' superstars and ''NXT'' rookies also appeared on this milestone episode. It featured the Undertaker and Bret Hart were scheduled to wrestle for the first time in almost 14 years, but, before that could take place, the Undertaker was taken out by the Nexus and Kane. That November, ''Raw'' went "Old School" for one night with the old ring and titantron designs. This episode featured WWE Legends "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Mae Young, The Million Dollar Man, Ron Simmons, The Iron Sheik and many more. Mark Henry briefly returned to his "Sexual Chocolate" gimmick in honor of ''Raw'' going "Old School".

Production

Currently, the theme song for the Raw brand is "Burn It to the Ground" by Nickelback, which has been used for the brand since November 16, 2009. Prior to this, the theme song for the Raw brand was "...To Be Loved" by Papa Roach, which had been used since October 9, 2006 and "Across The Nation" by The Union Underground which was used from April 1, 2002 to October 2, 2006. The rap outro of "Thorn In Your Eye" featuring Scott Ian of Anthrax was the theme song from 1998 to March 25, 2002.

Since March 10, 1997, broadcasts of ''Raw'' were split into two hours and given hourly names for television ratings purposes, with the first hour being referred to as ''Raw is War'' and the second as ''War Zone'' by the show's on-screen graphics. However, as of October 1, 2001, the first hour has been referred to as ''Raw'' and the second as ''Raw Zone'' by the show's on-screen graphics. However, both hours are known as just "Raw" on-air.

On January 7, 2008, WWE announced that all brands (Raw, SmackDown and formerly, ECW) would be broadcast in HD, codenamed "WWE HD" starting with Raw on January 21. WWE invested an estimated $20 million on new recording and broadcasting equipment to prepare for the move, as well as new pyrotechnics and lighting. The move replaced the Raw, SmackDown and ECW sets with a new state of the art set shared by all brands. The stage has been altered since 2008, but most of the stage stays the same.

Special episodes

!Episode

|	Date	Rating	Notes
''Raw''	January 11, 1993	2.5
''Raw'' Bowl	January 1, 1996	2.6
''Raw'' Championship Friday	September 6, 1996	3.4
	February 3, 1997	2.6
Thursday ''Raw'' Thursday	February 13, 1997	3.3
	May 24, 1999	7.2
'Raw is War'	March 26, 2001	4.7
	March 25, 2002	5.4
2002 ''Raw Roulette''	October 7, 2002	3.8
''Raw'' X Anniversary	January 13, 2003	5.0
2003 ''Raw Roulette''	November 24, 2003	3.6
The 2004 WWE Draft Lottery	March 22, 2004	4.5
''Raw'' Homecoming	October 3, 2005	5.3
	November 14, 2005	4.9
	December 19, 2005	4.2
''Raw'' Family Reunion	October 9, 2006	5.0
	December 25, 2006	4.1
2007 WWE Draft	June 11, 2007	4.3
Chris Benoit Memorial	June 25, 2007	3.8
''Raw'' 15th Anniversary	December 10, 2007	4.4
	December 24, 2007	4.0
2008 ''Raw Roulette''	January 7, 2008	3.2
King of the Ring (2008)	April 21, 2008	3.0
2008 WWE Draft	June 23, 2008		3.4
''Raw's'' 800th Episode	November 3, 2008	3.0
	December 8, 2008	3.2
2009 WWE Draft	April 13, 2009	3.7
The 3-For-All	June 15, 2009	3.6
	June 22, 2009	4.5
A ''Raw'' Thanksgiving	November 23, 2009	3.3
	December 14, 2009	3.3
''Raw's'' WrestleMania Rewind	March 15, 2010	3.7
	April 19, 2010	3.1
2010 WWE Draft	April 26, 2010	3.1
Commercial-Free ''Raw''	May 17, 2010	3.4
3-Hour Viewer's Choice ''Raw''	June 7, 2010	3.1
''Raw's'' 900th Episode Celebration	August 30, 2010	3.5
2010 ''Raw Roulette''	September 13, 2010	3.0
WWE Old School	November 15, 2010	3.3
King of the Ring (2010)	November 29, 2010	3.1
	December 13, 2010	3.1
2011 WWE Draft	April 25, 2011	3.7
''The Rock's Birthday Bash''	May 2, 2011	3.5
''WWE All Star Night''	June 13, 2011	3.5
''Power to the People''	June 20, 2011	3.6
2011 ''Raw Roulette''	June 27, 2011	3.1

On-air personalities

Champions

!Championship

|	Current champion(s)	Date won	Date Aired	Event	Previous champion(s)
	Alberto Del Rio	August 14, 2011	August 14, 2011		CM Punk
WWE United States Championship	Dolph Ziggler	June 19, 2011	June 19, 2011		Kofi Kingston
WWE Tag Team Championship	Air Boom	August 22, 2011	August 22, 2011	''Raw''	David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty
WWE Divas Championship	Kelly Kelly	June 20, 2011	June 20, 2011	''Power to the People''

Note: The Tag Team and Divas Championships can be defended on both ''Raw'' and ''SmackDown''.

Authority figures

Position

Authority	|	Date started	Date finished	Notes
Ric Flair	Owner	November 9, 2001	June 10, 2002
Vince McMahon	Owner	June 10, 2002	June 15, 2009
Eric Bischoff	General Manager	July 15, 2002	December 5, 2005
Jonathan Coachman	General Manager	June 11, 2007	August 6, 2007
William Regal	General Manager	August 6, 2007	May 19, 2008
Mike Adamle	General Manager	July 28, 2008	November 3, 2008
Shane McMahonStephanie McMahon	General Manager	November 3, 2008	November 24, 2008
Stephanie McMahon	General Manager	November 24, 2008	April 6, 2009
Vickie Guerrero	General Manager	April 6, 2009	June 8, 2009
Donald Trump	Owner	June 15, 2009	June 22, 2009
Vince McMahon	Owner	June 22, 2009	Present
	Guest host	June 29, 2009	June 27, 2011
Vickie Guerrero	General Manager	May 10, 2010	May 10, 2010
Bret Hart	General Manager	May 24, 2010	June 21, 2010
Anonymous	General Manager	June 21, 2010	Present
Triple H	Chief Operating Officer	July 18, 2011	Present

Commentators

Commentators	Dates
Vince McMahon, Randy Savage and Rob Bartlett	January 11, 1993–April 19, 1993
Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan and Randy Savage	April 26, 1993–October 18, 1993
Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan	October 25, 1993–December 6, 1993
Vince McMahon and Various Guest Commentators	December 13, 1993–February 28, 1994 November 7, 1994–November 28, 1994
Gorilla Monsoon and Randy Savage	June 20, 1994–July 4, 1994
Jim Ross and Randy Savage	July 11, 1994–July 25, 1994
Vince McMahon and Randy Savage	March 7, 1994–June 13, 1994August 1, 1994–October 31, 1994
Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels	December 5, 1994–February 6, 1995
Vince McMahon and Jim Cornette	February 20, 1995–April 3, 1995
Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler	April 10, 1995–July 29, 1996
	August 5, 1996–October 14, 1996
Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler	October 21, 1996–November 1997
Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler	November 1997–November 1998April 1999–February 2001November 2001–June 2005May 8, 2006–June 23, 2008
Jim Ross, Michael Cole and Kevin Kelly**	December 1997–February 1998
Jim Ross and Michael Cole**	March 1998–June 1998
Jim Ross and Paul Heyman	February 2001–November 2001
Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler and Jonathan Coachman	June 26, 2005–October 10, 2005
Jonathan Coachman and Jerry Lawler	October 17, 2005–October 31, 2005
Joey Styles, Jerry Lawler and Jonathan Coachman	November 7, 2005–April 16, 2006
Joey Styles and Jerry Lawler	April 23, 2006–May 1, 2006
Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and CM Punk	November 22, 2010–December 20, 2010
Michael Cole, Josh Mathews, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler*	April 4, 2011 – May 2, 2011
Michael Cole, Josh Mathews, and Jerry Lawler*	December 27, 2010–March 28, 2011May 9, 2011 – May 23, 2011
Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler	November 1998–April 1999June 30, 2008–November 15, 2010May 30, 2011 – July 18, 2011
Michael Cole, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler	July 25, 2011 – present

(*)–Mathews became the alternate color commentator on ''Raw'' beginning December 27, 2010 due to Lawler's increased in-ring schedule (Lawler would continue as commentator when he wasn't wrestling). On March 14, 2011, ''Raw'' began using a full time three man team with Cole announcing from his own separate table ("The Cole Mine"). Ross has also returned to the broadcast table since making his broadcast return at WrestleMania XXVII and the four announcers worked in rotating three man shifts. This ended on the May 23, 2011 edition of ''Raw'' when Michael Cole returned to the normal announce table.

(**)–From November 1997 until July 1998 Jim Ross served as play by play commentator for both hours of Raw, with the Michael Cole/Kevin Kelly tandem (later just Cole) as color commentator for the first hour (Raw is War), with Jerry Lawler taking over for the second hour (The War Zone).

Ring announcers

Ring Announcer	Dates
Howard Finkel	January 1993–August 2002	Occasionally appears on ''Raw'' as a guest ring announcer
Tony Chimel	April 1997–August 1999		Made a one night return on May 30, 2011
Lilian Garcia	August 1999–September 21, 2009
Justin Roberts	March 2007–June 2007September 27, 2009 – present

Recurring segments

Host

Segment	|	Years	Notes
The King's Court	Jerry Lawler	1993–1995
The Heartbreak Hotel	Shawn Michaels	1994	}}
The Brother Love Show		1995–1996
The Pillman XXX Files	Brian Pillman	1997
The Love Shack		1998
Highlight Reel	Chris Jericho	2003–20052008,2010
White Boy Challenge	Rodney Begnaud	2003
[[WWE Diva Search	Jonathan CoachmanThe MizTodd Grisham	2004–2007	}}
Masterlock Challenge	Chris Masters	2005–20072010
Kurt Angle Invitational	Kurt Angle	2005
Carlito's Cabana		20052007–2008
Piper's Pit	Roddy Piper	2005, 2010–Present
The Cutting Edge		2005–20072010
V.I.P. Lounge	Montel Vontavious Porter	2009–2010
Khali Kiss Cam	The Great Khali	2011

A.M. Raw

Show name	WWE A.M. Raw
Format	Professional wrestling
Picture format	480i (SDTV)1080i (HDTV)
Creator	Vince McMahon
Starring	Raw brand
Opentheme	"Burn It to the Ground" by Nickelback
Closetheme	"Burn It to the Ground" by Nickelback
Country	United States
Network	USA Network
Runtime	1 hour
First aired
Last aired	present
Num episodes	277(as of August 14, 2011)
Status	Opened
Website	http://www.wwe.com/shows/amraw }}

''WWE A.M. Raw'', a Saturday night/Sunday morning show, airs on the USA Network at 2 a.m. ET. It features segments from the latest episode of ''WWE Raw''. A.M. Raw also features news updates from all across the WWE. The show mostly airs the main event matches and promos that aired on Raw (some of which are abridged for timing purposes), and shows the event schedule for the upcoming weeks.

International broadcasters

The show currently airs live on the USA Network (and on tape delay Wednesdays on mun2, Saturdays on Universal HD, and Sundays on mun2 in Spanish (Morning broadcast) and in the original English (5:30pm Eastern broadcast) in the United States. Occasionally, ''Raw'' is aired on same-day tape delay when WWE is on an overseas tour. Raw is also shown live on Sky Sports 3 in the UK and Ireland and on Sky Sport 2 in Italy. Sky Deutschland in Germany began airing Raw live and in HD on February 14, 2011.

!Country

|	Network	Ref
Arab World(Live broadcast)
Arab World	MBC Action
Argentina	''(none)''
Australia	Fox8
Bangladesh	TEN Sports
Belgium	AB3
Bhutan	TEN Sports
Bulgaria	bTV Comedy
Bolivia	Red PAT
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Canada	The Score Television Network
[[Chile	UCV TV
People's Republic of China	VBS
Costa Rica
Czech Republic
Ecuador	Teleamazonas
El Salvador
France
Finland	MTV3 MAX
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein(Live broadcast)	Sky Deutschland
Greece
Honduras
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka , Nepal and Indonesia	TEN Sports
Israel	Sport 1
Italy(Live broadcast)
Malaysia
Mexico
New Zealand
Norway	TV 2 Zebra
Panama	RPC Canal 4
Peru
Philippines	Jack TV
Poland	Extreme Sports Channel
Portugal	Sport TV
Romania	Sport.ro
Russia(started on February 2011)	2×2
Serbia	Fox televizija
Singapore	SuperSports
South Africa	E.tv
Spain
Sweden	TV10
Turkey
Thailand	TrueVisions
Ukraine
	[[Sky Sports#Other Sky Sports Channels

See also

WWE roster (Raw Brand)

WWE NXT

WWE Superstars

WWE SmackDown

References

External links

''WWE Raw'' at USANetwork.com

Category:1993 American television series debuts Category:1990s American television series Category:2000s American television series Category:2010s American television series Category:Spike TV network shows Category:USA Network shows Raw

ar:دبليو دبليو إي رو bar:RAW bg:Първична сила ca:WWE Raw da:RAW de:WWE Raw es:WWE Raw fr:WWE Raw ko:러 hy:WWE Raw id:WWE RAW it:WWE RAW he:RAW! lt:RAW hu:WWE RAW nl:WWE Raw ja:WWE・ロウ no:WWE Raw pl:WWE RAW pt:WWE Raw ro:WWE Raw ru:WWE RAW sm:WWE Raw simple:WWE Raw fi:WWE Raw sv:RAW (TV-program) th:ดับเบิลยูดับเบิลยูอี รอว์ tr:WWE Raw uk:WWE Raw vi:WWE RAW

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Brodus Clay
Names	Brodus ClayG-RillaGeorge Murdoch
Height
Weight
Birth date	February 21, 1980
Billed	Pasadena, CaliforniaThe Concrete Jungle
Trainer	Deep South WrestlingFlorida Championship Wrestling
Debut	2006
Retired	}}

George Murdoch (born February 21, 1980) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Brodus Clay. He is signed to WWE, where he wrestles on its SmackDown brand and its developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling. He was the runner-up on the fourth season of ''NXT''.

Early life

Murdoch grew up in foster care, along with his brother. Prior to becoming a professional wrestler, Murdoch worked as a bodyguard for Snoop Dogg.

World Wrestling Entertainment (2006–2008)

Deep South Wrestling (2006–2007)

After signing a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Murdoch was assigned to Deep South Wrestling (DSW), a WWE developmental territory. He debuted in September 2006, and began using the ring name G-Rilla along with adopting the gimmick of a gangsta thug. In his first match for the promotion, he defeated Big Bully Douglas in a dark match on September 7. The following month, he became the enforcer for Urban Assault, a tag team composed of Eric Pérez and Sonny Siaki. On December 14, Urban Assault was joined by Afa Jr., and the following week, Perez, Siaki, and Afa Jr. attacked Murdoch, throwing him out of the group. The same month, Murdoch wrestled in two dark matches against Scotty 2 Hotty at SmackDown! house shows while using his real name, winning the first but losing the second. In early January 2007, G-Rilla feuded with Urban Assault, attacking the members during matches. He then formed a tag team with the Freakin' Deacon, with the pair defeating Urban Assault in their first match together. They went on to defeat teams including Frankie Coverdale and Bob Hoskins, the Samoan Fight Club of Siaki and Afa Jr., Shawn Osborne and Jon Bolen, and Robert Anthony and Johnny Curtis. In March, they faced and defeated the DSW Tag Team Champions, Team Elite (Mike Knox and Derrick Neikirk) in two successive non-title matches.

Florida Championship Wrestling (2007–2008)

In June 2007, Murdoch was moved to the Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) develiopmental territory. He made his debut at FCW's inaugural show on June 26, using the name G-Rilla and defeating Shawn Osborne. Three months later, on September 15, G-Rilla won a battle royal to become the number one contender to the FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship by last eliminating Teddy Hart. He challenged Harry Smith for the championship on September 25, but lost via disqualification which meant that Smith retained the championship. The following month, G-Rilla continued to feud with Smith and Hart, who had formed The Hart Dynasty with TJ Wilson and Ted DiBiase, Jr., allying himself with Osborne, Jake Hager and Afa, Jr. G-Rilla briefly formed a tag team with Robert Anthony in December 2007, but on February 4, 2008, Murdoch was released from his contract with WWE.

Return to WWE (2010–present)

In January 2010, Murdoch re-signed with WWE and was assigned to FCW. In March, Murdoch, once again using the name G-Rilla, formed an alliance with The Uso Brothers, Tamina, and Donny Marlow. He went on to defeat both Jacob Novak and Rudy Parker, before changing his ring name to Brodus Clay, a play on Snoop Dogg's real name (Calvin Cordozar Broadus), in May 2010. in May 2010. On June 16, Clay and Marlow challenged Los Aviadores (Hunico and Epico) for the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful. That same month, Clay and Marlow began referring to themselves as The Colossal Connection. The Colossal Connection challenged Los Aviadores for the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship again on July 1, and won by disqualification when The Usos interfered, allowing Los Aviadores to retain the championship. Later that same night, The Colossal Connection defeated The Usos by disqualification to become the number one contenders to the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship after Los Aviadores interfered. On August 6, The Colossal Connection competed in a four-way elimination match for the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship, but Los Aviadores won to retain their title. At the television tapings on August 12, Johnny Curtis and Derrick Bateman won a three-way tag team match over The Colossal Connection and Los Aviadores to win the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. Clay and Marlow unsuccessfully challenged Curtis and Bateman for the championship throughout August and September. In October, Clay appeared at a WWE house show, where he lost to JTG.

''NXT'' (2010–2011)

During the finale of season three of ''NXT'', it was announced that Clay would be part of the fourth season, with Ted DiBiase and Maryse, as his mentors. He made his in-ring debut on ''NXT'' on the December 14, 2010, episode, teaming with DiBiase to defeat Byron Saxton and his mentor Chris Masters. He suffered his first loss the following week, when he, DiBiase, and Maryse were defeated by Saxton, Masters, and Natalya in a six-person mixed tag team match. Clay won a four-way elimination match on the January 25 episode of ''NXT'', earning the right to choose a new Pro. He picked Alberto Del Rio as his new pro, and then attacked DiBiase. The following week, Clay defeated DiBiase in a singles match. On the February 8 episode of ''NXT'', Clay won both a match and a challenge to earn three immunity points, his first of the season. Both he and Johnny Curtis were tied on immunity points at the end of the show, and an audience vote determined that Curtis was immune from elimination. Clay survived when Byron Saxton was eliminated. In the season finale on March 1, Clay ended the competition in second place, losing out to Curtis.

SmackDown (2011)

On the March 7 episode of ''Raw'', Clay debuted as Del Rio's new bodyguard and replaced him in his match against Christian in a losing effort. As Del Rio was feuding with Edge and Christian, Clay faced off with single matches against them and also teamed with Del Rio to face Edge and Christian. Clay accompanied Del Rio to the ring at WrestleMania XXVII. On the April 25 edition of ''Raw'', Del Rio was drafted to Raw, while Clay remained on SmackDown. Clay's final appearance with Del Rio occurred on May 1 at Extreme Rules, when he interfered on Del Rio's behalf as Del Rio faced Christian in a ladder match for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. Despite this, Del Rio was unsuccessful in winning the match.

Clay returned after a three month absence due to the filming of ''No One Lives'' on the August 4 episode of ''Superstars'', where he beat a jobber named Pat Silva. During the next few weeks, Clay would continue to squash various jobbers on ''Superstars''.

Other media

In 2011, Murdoch was cast in an upcoming WWE Studios horror movie titled ''No One Lives''.

In wrestling

Finishing moves

''Fall of Humanity'' (Running crossbody) – 2011–present

''G-Grip'' (FCW) / Tongan death grip into a chokeslam (WWE)

''ICU'' (FCW) / Running splash (WWE)

Signature moves

Backbreaker

Clothesline

Corner body avalanche

Corner hip attack

Elbow drop

Falling powerslam

Front powerslam

Running headbutt to an opponent's chest

*Multiple suplex variations

*Exploder

*Head and arm

*Overhead belly to belly

*Snap

Nerve hold

Scoop slam

Seated senton

Spinebuster

Nicknames

"The Mastodon of Mayhem"

"The Super Sexy Suplex Machine"

"The World's Biggest Suplex Machine"

Championships and accomplishments

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI ranked him #185 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2011

References

External links

WWE profile

Online World of Wrestling profile

Category:1980 births Category:American professional wrestlers Category:Living people Category:People from Pasadena, California

de:Brodus Clay es:George Murdoch (luchador) fa:برادوس کلی fr:George Murdoch it:George Murdoch nl:Brodus Clay ja:ブローダス・クレイ pl:Brodus Clay pt:Brodus Clay th:โบรดัส เคลย์

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Curt Hawkins
Names	Brian MajorBrian MajorsBrian MyersCurt Hawkins
Height
Weight
Birth date	April 20, 1985
Birth place	Glen Cove, New York
Billed	Queens, New York
Trainer	Mikey Whipwreck
Debut	2004 }}

Brian Myers (born April 20, 1985) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Curt Hawkins. He is currently signed to WWE working on its Raw brand. For the majority of his career, Hawkins teamed with Zack Ryder, and they won several tag team championships together, including the WWE Tag Team Championship.

Professional wrestling career

New York Wrestling Connection (2004–2006)

After being trained by Mikey Whipwreck, Myers made his debut in 2004, using his real name. He wrestled for the New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC) promotion, and on June 4, 2005, he teamed with Bret Matthews to win the NYWC Tag Team Championship when they defeated Dickie Rodz and Mason Raige. They held the championship until August 27, when they were defeated The Dead Presidents (Boogalou and Low – Ryda). Myers and Matthews regained the championship on January 25, 2006, by defeating Team Tremendous (Dan Barry and Ken Scampi), and held the championship for two months before losing it to The B.S. Xpress (Tony Burma and Mike Spinelli) on March 26.

World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE (2006–present)

Developmental territories (2006–2009)

On February 24, 2006, Brian Myers signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment. He was given the ring name Brian Majors and teamed up with his former tag team partner Bret Matthews, who was renamed Brett Majors, to form the tag team the Majors Brothers. Together they won the Deep South Wrestling DSW Tag Team Championship on two occasions. They later won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship once.

ECW and SmackDown

The team was moved from the developmental league to the main roster, changing their last names from "Majors" to "Major". The team worked on WWE's ECW brand. The team won their debut match, but failed to win any consecutive matches in either singles or tag team competition following their debut on the brand. They moved from ECW to SmackDown! on June 17, 2007, as the eighth pick in the 2007 Supplemental Draft. On SmackDown the team had only slightly more success than on the ECW brand, defeating the team of Chavo Guerrero and Jamie Noble. On November 9, 2007, they received a tag title match after winning a number one contender's battle royal, but could not defeat the champions, Montel Vontavious Porter and Matt Hardy.

At Armageddon, the duo dressed up like Edge and interfered in the World Heavyweight Championship match, replacing Edge at several points along the match to help him win the title and thus turning heel for the first time in their WWE career. On December 21, 2007, the Major Brothers were revealed as acquaintances to Edge and his lover, SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero. The Major Brothers were repackaged and renamed as Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, with Brian Major becoming "Curt Hawkins" and Brett Major now "Zack Ryder". Hawkins and Ryder were also, occasionally referred as "The Rated-R Entourage" by commentators Michael Cole and John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL). Occasionally, the pair teamed with their mentor Edge and/or their "La Familia" associate Chavo Guerrero on ''SmackDown'' on several occasions.

At The Great American Bash on July 20, 2008, Hawkins and Ryder won the WWE Tag Team Championship from John Morrison and The Miz in a fatal four-way match which also featured Jesse and Festus and Finlay and Hornswoggle after Hawkins pinned Jesse. Their victory meant that they were the youngest tag team champions in WWE history. At SummerSlam, La Familia seemed to have ended when a returning Undertaker sent Edge to Hell and then refused to forgive Vickie – prompting all the members to abandon Vickie, who would later align with Big Show. On the September 26, 2008 airing of ''SmackDown'', Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder lost the titles to Carlito and Primo Colón in their first televised title defense.

On April 15, 2009, Ryder was drafted back to the ECW brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft, separating the team.

Florida Championship Wrestling (2009–2010)

Following the draft, Hawkins would spend months on hiatus from television before voluntarily leaving the main roster and going to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) for more training. He made his debut losing to Dawson Alexander. In the following weeks, Hawkins would go on to win an 8-man battle royal to become the number one contender for Justin Angel's FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship but subsequently lost the championship match. He would later join a stable called "The Dude Busters" alongside Caylen Croft and Trent Barreta on November 1, 2009. In late November, Hawkins and Croft won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. While they were champions, Croft and Hawkins would defend the title with Barreta via the Freebird Rule. On January 14, 2010 at an FCW television taping, The Dude Busters lost the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship to The Fortunate Sons (Brett DiBiase and Joe Hennig).

Return to SmackDown (2010–2011)

Hawkins returned to the SmackDown roster in May 4, 2010, forming a tag team with Vance Archer defeating Chasyn Rance and JT Talent in a dark match. They made their television debut as a team on the May 13 edition of ''WWE Superstars'', defeating two local competitors. After the match, Hawkins stated that he and Archer had been given a 30-day contract to "make an impact". The team made its ''SmackDown'' debut on the May 21 episode, winning another squash match. In an attempt to make an impact, the duo attacked Montel Vontavious Porter and Christian on consecutive episodes of ''SmackDown'' on June 4 and June 11, which they followed up on by defeating both in a tag team match on June 18. The next week the duo was officially named "The Gatecrashers". The pair also competed in a battle royal on the June 4 episode of ''SmackDown'' to replace The Undertaker in the World Heavyweight Championship fatal four-way match at Fatal 4-Way. Hawkins was one of the four final participants in the match, but was eliminated by the eventual winner, Rey Mysterio. After their 30-day contract expired, they were signed to new long-term contracts in storyline. The team came to an end on the October 7 airing of ''Superstars'' after a match between Archer and Chris Masters. Archer accidentally struck Hawkins outside the ring after which the two argued and a distracted Archer lost the match. Afterwards, Hawkins assaulted Archer.

Hawkins moved to singles competition the following week, defeating Trent Barreta. A rivalry then began between the two shortly after, with Barreta getting the win on the November 18 edition of ''Superstars''. In a rematch the next week, Hawkins defeated Barreta, claiming Barreta's win the week before was a fluke. On March 8, Hawkins lost to Shelton Benjamin in a dark match prior to the Smackdown tapings.

Raw (2011)

On April 26, Hawkins was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2011 Supplemental Draft.

In other media

Hawkins appeared on the 22nd episode of ''Z! True Long Island Story'', claiming that he was responsible for stealing Zack Ryder's camera, and on the 23rd episode as a special referee in a match between The Ultimate Broski (which in reality is Hawkins' best friend, Zack Ryder) and The Ultimate Warrior.

In wrestling

Finishing moves

''Heat-Seeking Elbow'' (Diving elbow drop) – 2010–present

''Laugh Riot'' (Lifting DDT) – 2009–early 2010

''Taste of Pain'' (Hangman's facebuster) – 2008, 2010–present

Signature moves

Spinning spinebuster

Twisting flipping leg hook belly to back suplex – 2010–Present

''Upside Down Frown'' (Twisting delayed scoop slam) – adopted from Norman Smiley - 2010–Present

Entrance themes

"What I Want" by Daughtry (DSW / OVW)

"In the Middle of it Now" by Disciple (WWE)

Championships and accomplishments

Deep South Wrestling

DSW Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Brett Majors

Florida Championship Wrestling

FCW Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time)¹ – with Caylen Croft and Trent Barreta

New York Wrestling Connection

NYWC Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Bret Matthews

Ohio Valley Wrestling

OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Brett Majors

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI ranked Hawkins #141 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2008

World Wrestling Entertainment

WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Zack Ryder

¹During this reign, any two of Hawkins, Croft, and Barreta could defend the title under the Freebird Rule.

References

External links

WWE profile

Category:1985 births Category:American professional wrestlers Category:Living people Category:People from New York

ca:Curt Hawkins de:Curt Hawkins es:Brian Myers fa:کورت هاوکینز fr:Brian Myers ko:커트 호킨스 it:Brian Myers nl:Curt Hawkins pt:Brian Myers th:เคิร์ท ฮอว์กินส์

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Chris Jericho
Names	Chris JerichoLast SurvivorCorazón de LeónSuper LigerLeón de OroLion DoMoongoose McQueen
Height
Weight
Genres	Heavy Metal
Birth date	November 09, 1970
Birth place	Manhasset, New York
Billed	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Resides	Tampa, Florida
Trainer	Ed LangleyKatsuji AdachiKeith HartStu Hart
Debut	October 2, 1990
Website	ChrisJericho.com }}

Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970), better known by his ring name Chris Jericho, is a Canadian-American professional wrestler, musician, songwriter, radio personality, television host, actor, author, and dancer. He is best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E), as well as in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and internationally in Canadian, Mexican and Japanese promotions. He is also the host of the ABC game show ''Downfall'' and the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Fozzy.

Jericho has won 30 championships between WWF/WWE (where he won 24 titles), WCW, and ECW. He is credited as being the first-ever Undisputed Champion within the WWF, having unified the WWF Championship and the World Championship in 2001.

In WWF/E, Jericho was a one–time Undisputed WWF Champion, a three–time World Heavyweight Champion, a two–time WCW/World Champion, a record nine–time Intercontinental Champion, a one–time European Champion, a one–time Hardcore Champion, a five–time World Tag Team Champion and a two–time Tag Team Champion. In WCW, he was a four–time Cruiserweight Champion and a one–time Television Champion. In ECW, he was a one–time Television Champion.

Jericho is overall recognized as a six-time world heavyweight champion in reference to his one WWF Championship, three World Heavyweight Championship and two WCW/World Championship reigns. He is the ninth Triple Crown Champion and the fourth Grand Slam Champion of WWE.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1990–1996)

At age 19, Irvine entered the Hart Brothers School of Wrestling where, on his first day, he met Lance Storm. Two months later, he was ready to start wrestling on independent shows, making his debut on October 2, 1990, in a draw against Storm. The pair then worked as a tag team, initially called "Sudden Impact". Meanwhile, he took the name "Jericho" from the Helloween album, ''Walls of Jericho''. Jericho and Storm worked for Tony Condello in the tours of Northern Manitoba with Adam Copeland (Edge), Jason Reso (Christian), and Terry Gerin (Rhino). The pair also wrestled in Calgary's Canadian National Wrestling Alliance (CNWA) and Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling (CRMW). In 1991, Jericho and Storm started touring in Japan for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, where he would befriend Ricky Fuji, who also trained under Stu Hart.

In the winter of 1992, he traveled to Mexico and competed under the name Leon D'Oro, and later Corazón de León, where he wrestled for several small wrestling companies, as well as the largest in the country, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). In CMLL, Jericho took on Silver King, Negro Casas, and Último Dragón en route to an 11 month reign as the NWA Middleweight Champion that began in December 1993. After leaving Mexico, Jericho would wrestle in Hamburg, Germany for six weeks as part of a tournament run by Rene Lasarteese. His burgeoning wrestling skills also took him to Japan in 1994 where he competed for Genichiro Tenryu's Wrestling and Romance (later known as Wrestle Association "R") (WAR) promotion, facing the likes of Gedo and Último Dragón, to whom he lost the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship. He would also become a member of the heel stable Fuyuki-Gun (also known as Team No Respect) with Gedo, Jado, and Hiromichi Fuyuki under the name Lion Do, and would go on to team with Gedo to become the first WAR International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.

1994 also saw Jericho reunited with his former teammate from CRMW, Storm, as the Thrillseekers in Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion, where they feuded with the likes of Well Dunn, The Rock 'n' Roll Express, and The Heavenly Bodies. In December 1995, Jericho competed in the second Super J Cup Tournament, hosted by WAR, losing to Wild Pegasus.

Extreme Championship Wrestling (1996)

In 1996, thanks in part to recommendations by Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn, to promoter Paul Heyman, and after Mick Foley saw Jericho's match against Último Dragón for the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship in July 1995 and gave a tape of the match to Heyman, Jericho began wrestling for the Philadelphia-based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion, winning the ECW World Television Championship from Pitbull #2 in June 1996. While in ECW, Jericho wrestled Taz, Sabu, Rob Van Dam, Cactus Jack, Shane Douglas, and 2 Cold Scorpio. It was during this time that he drew the attention of World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

World Championship Wrestling

Cruiserweight Champion (1996–1998)

On August 26, 1996 Jericho made his first appearance with WCW, and on September 15, he appeared at his first pay-per-view show in a match against Chris Benoit at Fall Brawl. In January 1997, Jericho made his debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling, who had a working agreement with WCW, as Super Liger, the masked arch nemesis of Jushin "Thunder" Liger. Super Liger's first match against Koji Kanemoto at Wrestling World 1997 was so poorly received that the gimmick was dropped instantly. The following six months, Jericho worked for New Japan unmasked, before being called back by WCW. On June 28, 1997, Jericho defeated Syxx in Los Angeles, California to win the Cruiserweight Championship for the first time. He won the title again on August 12, 1997, by defeating Alex Wright.

Jericho began his WCW heel run when he won the title a third time by defeating Rey Mysterio, Jr. at Souled Out by forcing him to submit to the Liontamer. After the match, Jericho assaulted Mysterio's knee with a toolbox. In the storyline, Mysterio needed six months of recovery before he could return to the ring. Jericho then had a short feud with Juventud Guerrera in which Guerrera repeatedly requested a shot at Jericho's Cruiserweight Championship, but Jericho constantly rebuffed him. The feud culminated in a Title vs. Mask match at SuperBrawl VIII. Guerrera lost the match and was forced to remove his mask. Following this match, Jericho began his ongoing gimmick of collecting and wearing to the ring trophy items from his defeated opponents, such as Guerrera's mask, Prince Iaukea's Hawaiian dress, and a headband from Disco Inferno.

Jericho then began a long feud with Dean Malenko in which Jericho repeatedly claimed he was a better wrestler than Malenko, but refused to wrestle him. Because of his mastery of technical wrestling, Malenko was known as "The Man of 1000 Holds," so Jericho claimed to be "The Man of 1004 Holds." During the March 30, 1998 episode of ''WCW Monday Nitro'', after defeating Marty Jannetty, Jericho pulled out a long pile of paper that listed each of the 1004 holds he knew and recited them to the audience. Many of the "holds" were fictional, and every other hold was an armbar. On the March 12, 1998 episode of ''WCW Thunder'', Malenko defeated a wrestler wearing Juventud Guerrera's mask who appeared to be Jericho. However, the masked wrestler was actually Lenny Lane, who Jericho bribed to appear in the match. This started a minor feud between Lane and Jericho after Jericho refused to pay Lane. At Uncensored Jericho finally wrestled Malenko and defeated him, after which Malenko took a leave of absence from wrestling. Jericho then proceeded to bring with him to the ring a portrait of Malenko that he insulted and demeaned. Just prior to Slamboree, J.J. Dillon (referred to by Jericho as "Jo Jo") scheduled a cruiserweight Battle Royal in which the wrestler who won would immediately have a shot at Jericho's Cruiserweight Championship. Jericho accepted on the grounds that whoever had to face him would not have nearly enough energy to wrestle two matches in a row. At Slamboree, Jericho came out to announce the competitors in an insulting fashion before the match started and then went backstage for coffee. An individual who appeared to be Ciclope won the battle royal after Juventud Guerrera shook his hand then eliminated himself. However, the winner was not Ciclope, but instead a returning Malenko in disguise. Malenko proceeded to defeat Jericho for the championship. Jericho claiming he was the victim of a carefully planned conspiracy to get the belt off of him. He at first blamed the WCW locker room, then added Dillon, Ted Turner, and finally in a vignette, he walked around Washington, D.C. with the sign "conspiracy victim" and accused President Bill Clinton of being one of the conspirators after being rejected from a meeting. Eventually, Malenko vacated the title. Jericho ended up defeating Malenko at The Great American Bash to win the vacant title after Malenko was disqualified after hitting Jericho with a chair. The next night, Malenko was suspended for his actions.

At Bash at the Beach, the recently returned Rey Mysterio, Jr. (who had recovered from his knee injury) defeated Jericho in a No Disqualification match after the still-suspended Malenko interfered. Jericho regained the Cruiserweight Championship from Mysterio the next night after he interrupted J.J. Dillon while Dillon was giving the championship to Mysterio. Jericho was again awarded the championship. Eventually, Jericho decisively lost the title to Juventud Guerrera in a match at Road Wild with Malenko as special referee.

World Television Champion (1998–1999)

On August 10, Jericho defeated Stevie Ray to win the World Television Championship (Stevie Ray substituting for the champion Booker T). Soon afterward, Jericho repeatedly called out World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg, in an attempt to begin a feud with him, but never actually wrestled him. Jericho cites Eric Bischoff, Goldberg, and Hulk Hogan's reluctance to book Jericho in a pay-per-view squash match loss against Goldberg, which Jericho felt would be a big draw, as a major reason for his deciding to leave the company.

On November 30, 1998 Jericho lost the Television Championship to Konnan. In early 1999, Jericho began a feud with Perry Saturn. The feud saw Jericho and Saturn instigating bizarre stipulation matches, such as at Souled Out, where Jericho defeated Saturn in a "loser must wear a dress" match. At SuperBrawl IX Jericho and Saturn wrestled in a "dress" match in which Jericho once again defeated Saturn. Saturn finally defeated Jericho at Uncensored in a Dog Collar match. Jericho's final WCW match came on July 21, where he and Eddie Guerrero lost a tag team match to Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio, Jr..

World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment

The Y2J problem (1999–2000)

Jericho alternated between WCW and a number of Japanese tours before he signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on June 30. In the weeks before Jericho's debut, a clock labeled "countdown to the new millennium" appeared on WWF programming. On the home video, ''Break Down the Walls'', Jericho states he was inspired to do this as his entrance when he saw a similar clock in a post office. Vince McMahon gave him the green light to use it as his intro to the WWF. The clock finally ran down on August 9, 1999 in Chicago, Illinois while The Rock was in the ring doing a promo. Jericho entered the arena and proclaimed himself "Y2J" (a play on the Y2K bug). The Rock proceeded to verbally mock him for his interruption. Later that month, Jericho made his in-ring debut on August 26, 1999 losing by disqualification in a match against Road Dogg on the inaugural edition of ''SmackDown!'' after powerbombing Road Dogg through a table.

Jericho's first long-term feud was with Chyna, for the Intercontinental Championship. After losing to Chyna at the Survivor Series, Jericho won his first Intercontinental title at Armageddon. This feud included a controversial decision during a rematch in which two separate referees declared each one of them the winner of a match for the title. As a result, they became co-owners of the title until Jericho attained sole ownership at the Royal Rumble. Jericho's subsequent alliance with Chyna, coupled with growing enthusiasm for his ring work and mic skills, effectively turned him into a face. Shortly thereafter, he began a feud with Kurt Angle, and lost the title to Angle at No Way Out.

On April 2, Jericho competed in a Triple Threat match against Chris Benoit and Angle at WrestleMania 2000 where he won the WWF European Championship. Jericho lost the title the next day to Eddie Guerrero on ''Raw'' after Chyna, claiming she could not resist Guerrero's Latino Heat, turned heel to side with him. On the April 17 edition of ''Raw'', Jericho upset Triple H in a WWF Championship match. Referee Earl Hebner made a fast count when Jericho pinned Triple H, causing Jericho to win the title. Hebner later reversed the decision due to pressure from Triple H, and WWE does not recognize Jericho's reign as champion. On the May 4 edition of ''SmackDown!'', Jericho defeated Benoit to become Intercontinental Champion for the third time, but lost the title to Benoit four days later on ''Raw''. Meanwhile, Jericho's feud with Triple H climaxed at Fully Loaded, when they competed in a Last Man Standing match. Jericho lost the match to Triple H only by one second, despite the repeated assistance Triple H's wife Stephanie provided him in the match.

Undisputed Champion (2001–2002)

At the 2001 Royal Rumble, Jericho defeated Chris Benoit in a Ladder match to win the Intercontinental Championship for the fourth time. At WrestleMania X-Seven, he successfully defended his title in a match against William Regal, only to lose it four days later to Triple H.

At Judgment Day, Jericho and Benoit won a "Tag Team Turmoil" match and earned a shot at Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H for their WWF Tag Team Championship on ''Raw'' the next night. Benoit and Jericho won the match, in which Triple H legitimately tore his quadriceps and spent the rest of the year injured, and Jericho became WWF Tag Team Champion for the first time. The team defended their title in the first Fatal Four-Way Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match where Benoit sustained a year-long injury doing a diving headbutt through a table. Though Benoit was carried out on a stretcher, he returned to the match to climb the ladder and retain the championship. The duo lost the title one month later to the Dudley Boyz on June 19, 2001.

In the following months, Jericho became a major force in The Invasion storyline in which WCW and ECW joined forces to overtake the WWF. Jericho remained on the side of the WWF despite previously competing in WCW and ECW. However, Jericho began to show jealousy toward fellow WWF member The Rock. They faced each other in a match at No Mercy for the WCW Championship after Jericho defeated Rob Van Dam in a number one contenders match. Jericho won the WCW Championship when he pinned The Rock after debuting a new finisher, the Breakdown. One night later, the two put their differences aside and won the WWF Tag Team title from the Dudley Boyz. After they lost the title to Test and Booker T, they continued their feud. On the November 5 edition of ''Raw,'' The Rock defeated Jericho to regain the WCW Championship. Following the match, Jericho attacked The Rock with a steel chair. At the Survivor Series, Jericho almost cost The Rock, and the WWF, victory in their elimination matchup by attacking The Rock again. On December 9, at Vengeance, Jericho defeated both The Rock for the WCW Championship (unbranded and only referred to as the World Championship following Survivor Series) and Stone Cold Steve Austin for his WWF Championship on the same night to become the first wrestler to hold both championships at the same time, which made him the first Undisputed WWF Champion. He fought both of the men he defeated at Vengeance on separate occasions and retained his title at the next two pay-per-views, Royal Rumble (vs. The Rock) and No Way Out (vs. Stone Cold). Jericho later lost the title to Triple H in the main event of WrestleMania X8. After his title loss, Jericho became a member of the ''SmackDown!'' roster and continued his feud with Triple H. The rivalry culminated at Judgment Day when Triple H defeated Jericho in a Hell in a Cell match.

Teaming and feuding with Christian (2002–2004)

Jericho was later drafted to Raw, where he won the Intercontinental Championship from Rob Van Dam (RVD). He then later formed a tag team with Christian, with whom he won the World Tag Team Championship, then renamed WWE Tag Team Championship, on October 14, 2002. Christian and Jericho lost the title in a fatal four-way elimination match, involving the teams of The Dudley Boyz, Booker T and Goldust, and William Regal and Lance Storm, on December 15, 2002 at Armageddon.

On January 13, 2003, Jericho won an over-the-top-rope challenge against Kane, RVD, and Batista to select his entry number for the Royal Rumble match. He chose number two in order to start the match with Shawn Michaels, who had challenged Jericho to prove his claims that he was better than Michaels. After Michaels' entrance, Jericho entered as the second participant. Christian, in Jericho's attire, appeared while the real Jericho attacked Shawn from behind. He eliminated Michaels shortly afterward, but Michaels got his revenge later in the match by causing Test to eliminate Jericho. Jericho spent the most time of any other wrestler in that same Royal Rumble. Jericho simultaneously feuded with Test, Michaels, and Jeff Hardy. Jericho and Michaels fought again at WrestleMania XIX. In the end, Michaels scored the victory. Jericho, however, hit Michaels with a low blow after the match following an embrace.

After this match, Jericho entered a rivalry with Goldberg, which was fueled by Goldberg's refusal to fight Jericho in WCW. During Jericho's first edition of the ''Highlight Reel'', an interview show, where Goldberg was the guest, he complained that no one wanted Goldberg in WWE and continued to insult him in the following weeks. On May 12 on ''Raw'', a mystery assailant attempted to run over Goldberg with a limousine. A week later, Co-Raw General Manager, Stone Cold Steve Austin, interrogated several Raw superstars to find out who was driving the car. One of the interrogates was Lance Storm, who admitted that he was the assailant. Austin forced Storm into a match with Goldberg, who defeated Storm. After the match, Goldberg forced Storm to admit that Jericho was the superstar who conspired Storm into running him over. On May 26, Goldberg was once again a guest on the ''Highlight Reel''. Jericho expressed jealousy towards Goldberg's success in WCW and felt that since joining WWE, he had achieved everything he had ever wanted in his career and all that was left was to defeat Goldberg and challenged him to a match. At Bad Blood, Goldberg settled the score with Jericho and defeated him.

Later in 2003, Jericho began a romance with Trish Stratus while his tag team partner Christian began one with Lita. This, however, turned out to be a bet over who could sleep with their respective paramour first, with a Canadian Dollar at stake. Stratus overheard this and ended her relationship with Jericho, who seemingly felt bad for using Stratus. After he saved her from an attack by Kane, Stratus agreed that the two of them could just be "friends". After Christian put Stratus in the Walls of Jericho while competing against her in a match, Jericho sought revenge on Christian, which led to a match at WrestleMania XX. Christian defeated Jericho after Stratus ran down and "inadvertently" struck Jericho (thinking it was Christian) and Christian got the roll-up. After the match, Stratus turned on Jericho and revealed that she and Christian were a couple. This revelation led to a handicap match at Backlash that Jericho won, thus turning him into a fan favorite in the process. Jericho won his seventh Intercontinental Championship at that year's Unforgiven in a ladder match against Christian. Jericho's seventh reign was short lived, as he lost it at Taboo Tuesday to Shelton Benjamin.

Championship pursuits and departure (2004–2005)

Jericho teamed up with Randy Orton, Chris Benoit, and Maven to take on Triple H, Batista, Edge, and Snitsky at Survivor Series. The match's stipulation stated that each member of the winning team would become the General Manager of Raw throughout the next four weeks. Jericho's team was victorious, so they took turns as General Manager. During Jericho's turn as General Manager, he stripped Triple H of his World Heavyweight Championship because a Triple Threat match for the title a week earlier ended in a draw. At New Year's Revolution, Jericho competed in the Elimination Chamber against Triple H, Chris Benoit, Batista, Randy Orton, and Edge for the vacated World Heavyweight Championship. Jericho began the match with Benoit but Batista ultimately eliminated Jericho.

Later that June, Jericho turned on WWE Champion John Cena. Jericho lost a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship at Vengeance which also involved Christian and Cena. The feud continued throughout the summer and Jericho lost to Cena in a championship match at SummerSlam. The next night on ''Raw'', Jericho faced Cena in a rematch, this time in a "You're fired" match. Cena won again, and Jericho was fired by Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff, Jericho then turned on Bischoff. Jericho was carried out of the arena by security. WWE announced that Jericho's WWE contract had expired on August 25, 2005.

Return to WWE

The Second Coming (2007–2008)

WWE promoted Jericho's return since September 24, 2007 with a viral marketing campaign using a series of 15-second cryptic binary code videos, similar to the matrix digital rain featured in The Matrix series. The videos contained hidden messages and biblical links related to Jericho. Jericho made his return to WWE television as a face on the November 19, 2007 edition of ''Raw'' when he interrupted Randy Orton during Orton's orchestrated "passing of the torch" ceremony. Jericho revealed his intentions to reclaim the WWE Championship in order to "save" WWE fans from Orton. On the November 26 edition of ''Raw,'' Jericho defeated Santino Marella and debuted a new finishing maneuver called the Codebreaker. At Armageddon, he competed in a WWE title match against Orton, defeating him by disqualification when SmackDown's color commentator John "Bradshaw" Layfield interfered in the match, but Orton retained the title. He began a feud with JBL and met him at the Royal Rumble. Jericho was disqualified after hitting JBL with a steel chair.

Championship reigns and second departure (2008–2010)

On the March 10 episode of ''Raw'', Jericho captured the Intercontinental Championship for a record eighth time when he defeated Jeff Hardy. In June, Jericho became a villainous character by attacking Shawn Michaels during his talk show segment ''The Highlight Reel''. Feeling the fans were cheering Michaels despite doing wrong and not caring for Jericho, he put Michaels through ''The Highlight Reel'''s "Jeritron 5000" which caused severe damage to his eye. This began what would be ranked by both Pro Wrestling Illustrated and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter as the feud of the year. At Night of Champions, he lost the Intercontinental Title to Kofi Kingston after a distraction by Michaels.

Afterward, he developed a suit-wearing "self-righteous honest man" gimmick inspired by Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) from the film ''No Country for Old Men''. In doing so, Jericho purposely shed many of the trademarks associated with the "Y2J" character, taking "every characteristic that made him popular, and strip[ping] those traits away from himself." Jericho and Michaels met at The Great American Bash, which Jericho won after attacking the cut on Michaels's eye. Michaels later announced that his eye damage would force him to retire, Jericho then went to attack him but punched Rebecca, his wife, instead. As a result, they met in an Unsanctioned match at Unforgiven which Jericho lost. In the main event, Jericho entered the Championship Scramble as a replacement for the defending champion CM Punk and subsequently won the World Heavyweight Championship. Jericho then successfully defended his title against Michaels at No Mercy in a ladder match. At Cyber Sunday, Jericho lost the title to Batista in a match. Eight days later, Jericho defeated Batista to win back the title in a steel cage match. This reign would last until the 2008 Survivor Series, where Jericho lost to the returning John Cena.

On the January 12, 2009 episode of ''Raw'', WWE Executive Vice President Stephanie McMahon fired Jericho, but he was rehired the following week after making a forced apology. Jericho then had an onscreen feud with ''The Wrestler'' film star Mickey Rourke and with four WWE Hall of Famers. He challenged and attacked Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, and Ricky Steamboat on varioos episodes of ''Raw'' leading to WrestleMania XXV. At the event he won an elimination match against Snuka, Steamboat and Piper. After this, Jericho challenged Rourke who was at ringside for the event. As part of the storyline, Rourke knocked Jericho out after a left hook to the jaw.

On the April 13 episode of ''Raw'', Jericho was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 WWE Draft. Ricky Steamboat interrupted Jericho's Raw farewell address, which led to the two facing off at Backlash where Jericho came out victorious. In his SmackDown return, Jericho participated in a fatal-four-way elimination match against Kane, Jeff Hardy, and Rey Mysterio. Mysterio executed a 619 on Jericho and then attempted to pin him with a seated senton. Jericho retaliated by throwing a chair at Mysterio and was disqualified. This sparked a feud between the two. Mysterio pinned Jericho after a 619 at Judgment Day to retain the Intercontinental Championship. Jericho defeated Mysterio in a No Holds Barred Match at Extreme Rules to win his ninth Intercontinental Championship, breaking his own record again. At The Bash Jericho lost the Intercontinental title to Mysterio. Later in the same pay-per-view, Jericho and his partner Edge won the Unified Tag Team Championship as surprise entrants in a tag team match. Shortly thereafter Edge suffered an injury and Jericho announced that he had a clause in his contract to allow Edge to be replaced and Jericho's reign to continue uninterrupted. At Night of Champions, Jericho revealed The Big Show as his new tag team partner and they defeated Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase to retain the championship. The 140 day reign of Jeri-Show as Unified Tag Team Champions came to an end at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view at the hands of D-Generation X (DX). As a member of the SmackDown roster, Jericho could only appear on ''Raw'' as a champion and so DX intentionally disqualified themselves in a rematch to force Jericho off the show. Eventually the teams has a match with a definitive finish, though DX still won.

At the 2010 Royal Rumble Jericho was eliminated by the returning Edge, his former tag team partner, who went on to win the match. At Elimination Chamber, Jericho won the World Heavyweight Championship in an Elimination Chamber match, defeating The Undertaker following interference from Shawn Michaels. The next night on ''Raw'', Edge announced that he would be using his Royal Rumble win to challenge Jericho at WrestleMania XXVI for the World Heavyweight Championship. Jericho defeated Edge at WrestleMania but during the April 2 episode of ''SmackDown!'', Jack Swagger cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and pinned Jericho for the championship after he had been speared by Edge. Swagger retained the championship in a match against Jericho and Edge soon after.

Jericho was drafted back to Raw in May's 2010 WWE Draft. He formed a brief tag team with The Miz and unsuccesfully challenged The Hart Dynasty for the Unified Tag Team Championship at Over the Limit A month later, Jericho lost to Evan Bourne at WWE Fatal 4-Way, and the following night won a rematch where he put his career on the line. On the July 19 episode of ''Raw'', after being assaulted by The Nexus, Jericho teamed with rivals Edge, John Morrison, R-Truth, The Great Khali and Bret Hart in a team led by John Cena to face The Nexus at SummerSlam. Jericho and Cena bickered over leadership of the team, which led to him and Edge attacking Cena during the SummerSlam match that they won.

Jericho was punished for not showing solidarity against Nexus, when he was removed from a Six-Pack Challenge for Sheamus' WWE Championship at WWE Night of Champions. Although he re-earned his place in the match he was the first man eliminated. On the September 27 episode of ''Raw'' Jericho faced Randy Orton, who punted him in the head after to give a storyline reason for Jericho's departure from the company.

In interviews since leaving, Jericho has maintained he will return to WWE but has no immediate plans.

Other media

Music

In the mid 1990s, Jericho wrote a monthly column for ''Metal Edge'' magazine focused on the heavy metal scene. The column only ran for about a year.

Jericho is the lead singer for the heavy metal band Fozzy. Since their debut album in 1999, Fozzy has released four studio albums: ''Fozzy'', ''Happenstance'', ''All That Remains'', and the 2010 album ''Chasing the Grail'', and one live album, ''Remains Alive''.

In 2005, Jericho performed vocals on a cover of "The Evil That Men Do" on the Iron Maiden tribute album, ''Numbers from the Beast.'' He made a guest appearance on Dream Theater's album, ''Systematic Chaos'' on the song "Repentance", as one of several musical guests recorded apologizing to important people in their lives for wrongdoings in the past.

He also started his own weekly XM Satellite Radio show in March 2005 called ''Rock of Jericho'', which aired Sunday nights on XM 41 The Boneyard.

Film, theatre, comedy and writing

In 2000, a VHS tape documenting Jericho's career titled ''Break Down the Walls'' was released.

On June 24, 2006 Jericho premiered in his first Sci-Fi Channel movie ''Android Apocalypse'' alongside Scott Bairstow and Joey Lawrence.

Jericho debuted as a stage actor in a comedy play ''Opening Night'', which premiered at the Toronto Centre for the Arts during July 20–22, 2006 in Toronto. During his stay in Toronto, Jericho hosted the sketch comedy show ''Sunday Night Live'' with sketch troupe The Sketchersons at The Brunswick House.

Jericho was also the first wrestler attached and interviewed for the wrestling documentary, ''Bloodstained Memoirs''. The interview was recorded in the UK during a Fozzy tour in 2006.

Jericho wrote a ''New York Times'' bestselling autobiography ''A Lion's Tale'' which was released in 2007. Jericho's second autobiography ''Undisputed'', the sequel to ''A Lion's Tale'', was released in February 2011. Jericho has announced via his twitter account that a third book has been agreed to with Penguin publishing, and should be available in 2013.

Jericho appeared in the 2009 film ''Albino Farm''.

In the film ''MacGruber'', released May 21, 2010, he briefly appeared as Frank Korver, a former military teammate of the eponymous Green Beret, Navy Seal, and Army Ranger.

Television

Jericho is a contributor to the VH1 pop culture shows ''Best Week Ever'', ''I Love the '80s'', and VH1's top 100 artists.

On July 12, 2006, he made an appearance on G4's ''Attack of the Show!''; he made a second appearance on August 21, 2009. In May 2006, Jericho appeared on VH1's ''40 Greatest Metal Songs'' and ''Heavy: The Story of Metal'' as a commentator.

He was one of eight celebrities in the 2006 Fox Television singing reality show ''Celebrity Duets'', executive-produced by Simon Cowell, and was the first contestant eliminated.

A video shown on TMZ.com featured Jericho working at a McDonald's to show off his skills while prepping for the show.

Jericho also appeared on ''Larry King Live'' on July 9, 2007 to discuss the double murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and his family. Jericho later reappeared on ''Larry King Live'' to further a storyline feud with actor Mickey Rourke.

Jericho hosted his own reality show in 2008 titled ''Redemption Song'', in which 11 women tried their hand at getting into the music scene. It was shown on Fuse TV.

He guest starred as Billy "The Body Bag" Cobb in ''Xero Control'', an episode of the Disney XD 2009 original series ''Aaron Stone''.

He hosted VH1's ''100 Most Shocking Music Moments'', which began airing in December 2009.

In June 2010, Jericho was named the host of the ABC prime-time game show ''Downfall''.

On March 1, 2011, Chris Jericho was named one of the contestants on the 2011 lineup of ''Dancing with the Stars''. This lead to a wave of publicity, such as being interviewed by Jay Leno. On April 26, Jericho was the fifth contestant eliminated on the show.

On May 5, Jericho made his third appearance as featured guest on Attack of the Show! where he depicted Thor to promote the recent Thor film. He promoted Undisputed and announced he would be hosting the Golden Gods awards May 28 on VH1 Classic.

CM Punk mentioned Jericho on an episode of WWE Raw

Publications

''A Lion's Tale: Around The World In Spandex'' (2007)

''Undisputed'' (2011)

Personal life

His father Ted Irvine is a former National Hockey League (NHL) player. Though he was born in the prominent Long Island neighborhood of Manhasset, New York, Irvine was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Vince McMahon felt that by introducing him as "born in Manhasset, New York", American fans would be more likely to get behind him.

Irvine and his wife Jessica have three children-a son named Ash Edward Irvine, who was born on September 24, 2003 and twin daughters.

Irvine has two tattoos on his left hand. The first is his wedding band while the second is the letter 'F' on the back of his hand, representing Fozzy, a band he has been lead vocalist for since 1999.

On July 5, 2004, Irvine was awarded The Order of the Buffalo Hunt in a ceremony held in Manitoba for his achievements in wrestling and his commitment to working with underprivileged children. The award has previously been given to Pope John Paul II, Chicago mayor Richard Daley, Desmond Tutu, and Mother Teresa.

On February 7, 2009, Irvine appeared to have punched a fan after she spat at him with fans outside Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, British Columbia after a WWE live event. Video footage, however, clearly showed he did not make contact with the woman. As a result of the incident, police detained them, but released them without charge. Police later announced that they would not press charges against anyone in the brawl as it was "hard to determine who provoked who".

On January 27, 2010, Irvine and fellow WWE wrestler Gregory Helms were arrested in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky after leaving a bar. A police report stated that Helms punched Jericho and the other passengers in the cab.

Dancing with the stars

rowspan="2"	Week #
	1		Cha-Cha-Cha/"Should I Stay or Should I Go"		7		6		6		No Elimination
	2		Quickstep/"I Got Rhythm"		8		7		8		Safe
	3		Rumba/"Let It Be"		7		7		7		Last To Be Called Safe
	4		Paso Doble/"In the Hall of the Mountain King"		8		7		8		Safe
	5		Viennese Waltz/"America The Beautiful"		9		8		9		Last To Be Called Safe
	6		Tango/"Don't Stop Believin"		7		8		7

In wrestling

Finishing moves

''Breakdown'' (Full nelson facebuster) – 2001–2002

''Codebreaker'' (Double knee facebreaker, sometimes while springboarding) – 2007–present

''Lionsault'' (Springboard moonsault)

''Liontamer'' (Boston crab with a knee pressed into the opponent's back or neck)

''Walls of Jericho'' (Elevated Boston crab)

Signature moves

Armbar

Backbreaker submission

Backhand chop

Double underhook transitioned into either a backbreaker or a powerbomb

Diving European uppercut

''Flashback'' (Sleeper slam, sometimes to an oncoming opponent)

Flying forearm smash

''Jericho Spike'' (Hurricanrana)

Missile dropkick

Multiple powerbombs

Northern Lights suplex

One-handed bulldog

Running back elbow, sometimes while performing a corkscrew

Spinning wheel kick

Springboard dropkick to an opponent on the ring apron

Springboard plancha

Standing, leg-feed, or running enzuigiri

Stepping on the opponent's chest with one foot in a pinning attempt, with theatrics

Tiger suplex

Managers

Ralphus (part of "Jericho Personal Security")

The Jerichoholic Ninja (part of "Jericho Personal Security")

Viva Los Jericho (part of "Jericho Personal Security")

Curtis Hughes

Chyna

Nicknames

"Y2J"

"The Ayatollah of Rock 'n' Rolla"

"Lionheart"

"The King of the World"

"The First Undisputed Champion"

"The Man of 1004 Holds"

"Paragon of Virtue"

"The Mental Mastermind"

"The Manitoban Jet"

"The King of Bling-Bling

"One Bad Mamma Jamma"

*"Sexy Beast"

Entrance themes

*Extreme Championship Wrestling

**"Soul-Crusher" by White Zombie (1996)

**"Electric Head, Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy)" by White Zombie (1996)

*World Championship Wrestling

**"All the Days (Instrumental)" by Mammoth

*"One Crazed Anarchist" by Grunge City from the Aircraft Music Library

*World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

*"Break the Walls Down" by Adam Morenoff (August 9 1999–August 22 2005, November 19 2007–September 27 2010)

**"King of My World" by Saliva (2002)

**"Don't You Wish You Were Me" by Fozzy (2004)

*"Crank the Walls Down" by Maylene & The Sons of Disaster (used while partnering with Big Show, July 31 2009–January 2010)

Championships and accomplishments

Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling

CRMW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

CRMW North American Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Lance Storm

Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre

NWA World Middleweight Championship (1 time)

Extreme Championship Wrestling

ECW World Television Championship (1 time)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI Comeback of the Year (2008)

PWI Feud of the Year (2008) vs. Shawn Michaels

PWI Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (2002, 2008)

PWI ranked him #2 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2009

PWI ranked him #109 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003

World Championship Wrestling

WCW Cruiserweight Championship (4 times)

WCW World Television Championship (1 time)

World Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment

Undisputed WWF Championship (1 time)

World Heavyweight Championship (3 times)

WCW/World Championship (2 times)

WWF/E Intercontinental Championship (9 times)

WWF/E World Tag Team Championship (5 times) – with Chris Benoit (1), The Rock (1), Christian (1), Edge (1), and The Big Show (1)

WWE Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Edge (1) and The Big Show (1)

WWF European Championship (1 time)

WWF Hardcore Championship (1 time)

*Ninth Triple Crown Champion

*Fourth Grand Slam Champion

Slammy Award for Superstar of the Year (2008)

*Slammy Award for Tag Team of the Year (2009) – with The Big Show

Wrestle Association "R"

WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

WAR International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Gedo

World Wrestling Association

WWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with El Dandy

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

*Best on Interviews (2003, 2008, 2009)

Best on Interviews of the Decade (2000–2009)

*Feud of the Year (2008) vs. Shawn Michaels

*Match of the Year (2008) vs. Shawn Michaels in a Ladder match at No Mercy

*Most Underrated Wrestler (1999, 2000)

*Readers' Favorite Wrestler (1999)

*Wrestler of the Year (2008, 2009)

*Best Pro Wrestling DVD (2010) for ''Breaking the Code: Behind the Walls of Chris Jericho''

*Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)

1 Despite still using the NWA initials, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre is no longer a member of the National Wrestling Alliance. As a result, the NWA doesn't recognize or sanction this championship. 2 Both reigns were won during and right after The Invasion with the second reign being the unification with the WWF Championship and becoming the first ever WWF Undisputed Champion. 3 Jericho held the title jointly with Chyna during his second reign. 4 After Edge suffered an injury, Jericho chose The Big Show as a replacement without interrupting the championship reign. 5 Jericho's reign occurred after unifying the WWF Championship and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, making him the first ever Undisputed WWF Champion.

Luchas de Apuestas record

Wager	Winner	Loser	Location	Date	Notes
Hair	Corazón de León	Cro-Magnon		May 30, 1993
Mask	Chris Jericho	Juventud Guerrera	Daly City, California
Hair	Chris Jericho	Kevin Nash	Grand Rapids, Michigan	August 18, 2003
Title		Chris Jericho	Sacramento, California	June 28, 2009

Notes

References

External links

Official Fozzy website

WWE Alumni profile

Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:People from Long Island Category:Sportspeople in Manitoba Category:American film actors Category:American game show hosts Category:American professional wrestlers Category:American rock singers Category:American television actors Category:American radio personalities Category:Participants in American reality television series

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Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	John Cena
Names	John CenaThe Prototype
Height
Weight
Birth date	April 23, 1977
Birth place	West Newbury, Massachusetts
Resides	Tampa, Florida
Billed	Classified (UPW)West Newbury, Massachusetts (WWE)
Trainer	Ultimate Pro WrestlingOhio Valley Wrestling
Debut	2001 }}

John Felix Anthony Cena (; born April 23, 1977) is an American actor, professional wrestler and rapper. He is currently signed to WWE as a member of its WWE Raw brand.

In WWE, Cena has won 19 championships in total, including 12 World Titles (having won the WWE Championship a record 10 times and the World Heavyweight Championship twice). In addition, Cena has also won the WWE United States Championship three times, and is a four-time Tag Team Champion, having held the World Tag Team Championship twice (once each with Shawn Michaels and Batista), and the WWE Tag Team Championship twice (once each with David Otunga and The Miz). Cena also won the 2008 Royal Rumble match, and is a two-time Superstar of the Year Slammy Award winner (2009 and 2010). He also has the fourth highest number of combined days as WWE Champion behind Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan & Bruno Sammartino.

Cena started his professional wrestling career in 2000, wrestling for Ultimate Pro Wrestling, where he held the UPW Heavyweight Championship. In 2001, Cena signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) where he held the OVW Heavyweight Championship and the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (with Rico Constantino).

Outside of wrestling, Cena has released the rap album ''You Can't See Me'', which debuted at No.15 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, and starred in the feature films ''The Marine'' (2006), ''12 Rounds'' (2009), and ''Legendary'' (2010). Cena has also made appearances on television shows including ''Manhunt'', ''Deal or No Deal'', ''MADtv'', ''Saturday Night Live'', ''Punk'd'', and ''Psych''. Cena was also a contestant on ''Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race'', where he made it to the final round before being eliminated, placing third in the overall competition.

Early life

Cena, who is of part Italian descent was born April 23, 1977, in West Newbury, Massachusetts, the son of Carol and John Cena, Sr. He is the second eldest of five brothers – Dan, Matt, Steve, and Sean. After graduating from Cushing Academy, Cena attended Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. In college he was a Division III All-American center on the college football team, wearing the number 54, which is still used on some of his WWE merchandise. He graduated from Springfield in 1998 with a degree in exercise physiology, after which he pursued a career in bodybuilding, and also worked as a chauffeur for a limousine company.

Professional wrestling career

Training (2000–2001)

UPW

Cena started training to become a professional wrestler in 2000 at the California-based "Ultimate University" operated by Ultimate Pro Wrestling. Once he was placed into an in-ring role, Cena began using a semi-robotic character known as The Prototype. Some of this period of his career was documented in the Discovery Channel program ''Inside Pro Wrestling School''. While in UPW, Cena held the UPW Heavyweight Championship for just shy of a month in April 2000.

OVW

In 2001, he signed a developmental contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and was assigned to its developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). During his time there, Cena wrestled as both The Prototype and Mr. P, and held the OVW Heavyweight Championship for three months and the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (with Rico Constantino) for two months.

World Wrestling Entertainment (2002–present)

Debut (2002–2004)

Cena made his television debut answering an open challenge by Kurt Angle on June 27, 2002. Inspired by a speech given by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to the rising stars of the company, exhorting them to show "ruthless aggression" to earn a place among the legends, Cena took advantage of the opportunity and almost beat Angle kicking out of his finishing move, the Angle Slam and enduring the ankle lock submission hold. Cena ultimately lost to a hard amateur wrestling-style pin. Following the near-win, Cena became a fan favorite and started feuding with Chris Jericho. In October, Cena and Billy Kidman took part in a tag team tournament to crown the first WWE Tag Team Champions of the SmackDown! brand, losing in the first round. The next week, Cena turned on and attacked Kidman, blaming him for their loss, becoming a villain.

Shortly after the Kidman attack, on a Halloween themed episode of ''SmackDown'', Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice performing a freestyle rap. The next week, Cena received a new character: a rapper who cut promos while rhyming. As the gimmick grew, Cena began adopting a variant of the 1980s WWF logo – dropping the "F" – as his "signature symbol", along with the slogan "Word Life". Moreover, he was joined by an enforcer, Bull Buchanan, who was rechristened B-2 (also written B² and pronounced "B-Squared"). Buchanan was later replaced by Red Dogg, until he was sent to the Raw brand in February.

For the first half of 2003, Cena sought the WWE Championship and chased the reigning champion, Brock Lesnar, performing weekly "freestyles" challenging him to matches. During the feud, Cena unveiled a new finishing maneuver: the FU, a Fireman's carry powerslam, named to mock Lesnar's F-5. Cena won a number one contenders tournament against Lesnar at Backlash. However, Cena was defeated by Lesnar. At Vengeance Cena lost a singles match against The Undertaker. At the end of the year, Cena became a fan favorite again when he joined Kurt Angle as a member of his team at Survivor Series.

United States and WWE Champion (2004–2005)

In early 2004, Cena participated in the Royal Rumble match at the 2004 Royal Rumble, making it to the final six before being eliminated by Big Show and the Match being won by Chris Benoit. The Royal Rumble elimination led to a feud with Big Show, which Cena won the United States Championship from Big Show at WrestleMania XX. During his reign, Cena came into contention with SmackDown General Manager Kurt Angle over issues arising with René Duprée and Torrie Wilson. The reign ended almost four months later, when he was stripped of the belt on July 8 by Angle after he accidentally knocked him over, thus attacking an official. Cena won the championship back defeating Booker T in a best of five series that culminated at No Mercy, only to lose it to the debuting Carlito Caribbean Cool the next week. After the loss to Carlito, the duo began a feud, which Cena was stabbed in the kidney while at a Boston-area nightclub by Carlito's bodyguard, Jesús. This worked injury was used to keep Cena out of action for a month, while Cena was filming ''The Marine''. Immediately on his return in November, Cena won the United States Championship back from Carlito debuting a "custom made" spinner-style championship belt.

Cena took part in the 2005 Royal Rumble match, making it to the final two. Cena and Raw brand wrestler Batista went over the top rope at the same time, ostensibly ending the match. Vince McMahon, however, appeared on stage and re-started the match in sudden death rules, with Batista eventually eliminating Cena. The next month, Cena defeated Kurt Angle to earn a spot in the SmackDown brand's WrestleMania 21 main event match, beginning a feud with WWE Champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) and his Cabinet in the process. In the early stages of the feud, Cena lost his US belt to Cabinet member Orlando Jordan, who proceeded to "blow up" the spinner championship with JBL and returning a more traditional style belt. Cena defeated JBL at WrestleMania winning the WWE Championship, giving Cena his first world championship. Cena then had a spinner WWE Championship belt made, while JBL took the original belt and claimed to still be WWE Champion,

Cena was drafted to the Raw brand on the June 6, 2005, becoming the first wrestler selected by General Manager Eric Bischoff in the annual draft lottery. Cena immediately entered a feud with Bischoff, after refusing to participate in the "war" against the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) roster at One Night Stand. With Bischoff vowing to make Cena's stint on Raw difficult, he hand picked Jericho to take Cena's championship from him. During their feud, even though Cena was portrayed as the fan favorite and Jericho as the villain, a vocal section of live crowds, nonetheless, were booing Cena during their matches. More crowds followed suit during Cena's next feud with Kurt Angle, who took over as Bischoff's hand-picked number-one contender after Cena defeated Jericho in a You're Fired match on the August 22 ''Raw''. As the feud continued and the dissenters grew more vocal, sometimes seeming to outnumber fans by wide margins, the announce team was forced to acknowledge the booing on television and began calling Cena a "controversial champion", claiming some people disliking him on account of his "in-ring style" and his chosen fashion. Despite the mixed and negative reactions, Cena held on to his championship through his feud with Angle, losing to him by disqualification – which titles do not change hands in WWE – at Unforgiven and pinning him at Survivor Series. The feud with Angle also saw Cena add a secondary, submission based, finishing maneuver – the STFU (a Stepover Toehold Sleeper, though named for a Stepover Toehold Facelock) – when he was put into a Triple Threat Submissions Only match on the November 28 ''Raw''.

WWE Championship feuds and injury (2006–2007)

Cena lost the WWE Championship at New Year's Revolution, but not in the Elimination Chamber match that he had been advertised to participate in beforehand. Instead, immediately after winning the Elimination Chamber, he was forced into a match against Edge, who cashed in his Money in the Bank contract – a "guaranteed title match for the WWE Champion at a time and place of the owners choosing." After two quick spears pinned Cena, winning the championship. Three weeks later, Cena won the championship back at the Royal Rumble. After winning the championship, Cena began feuding with Triple H, which the crowd began booing Cena and cheering the intended villain, Triple H. Cena beat Triple H at Wrestlemania 22 to retain his WWE Title. The negative reaction towards Cena intensified when facing Rob Van Dam at One Night Stand. Taking place in front of a crowd of mostly "old school" ECW fans at the Hammerstein Ballroom, Cena was met with raucous jeering and chants of "Fuck you, Cena", "You can't wrestle", and "Same old shit". When he began performing different moves into the match, the fans began chanting "You still suck". Cena lost the WWE Championship at One Night Stand, with Van Dam pinning Cena after interference from Edge.

In July, after Edge won the championship from Van Dam in a Triple Threat match that also involved Cena, re-ignited the feud between him and Cena from earlier in the year. After Edge went about retaining the title by dubious means – getting himself disqualified (for which Championships do not change hands) and using brass knuckles – he introduced his own version of Cena's "custom" belt, this one with his logo placed on the spinner. Cena eventually won the championship back in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at Unforgiven. The match had an added stipulation that had Cena lost he would leave the Raw brand and go to SmackDown. Cena returned his version of the spinner belt on the next night's ''Raw''.

On the heels of his feud with Edge, Cena was placed in an inter-brand angle to determine the "Champion of Champions" – or which was the most dominant champion in WWE's three brands. Cena, the World Heavyweight Champion King Booker, and the ECW World Champion The Big Show engaged in a mini-feud leading to a Triple Threat match at Cyber Sunday, with the viewers voting on which of the three championships would be placed on the line. At the same time, Cena became involved in a storyline with non-wrestler Kevin Federline, when he began appearing on Raw with Johnny Nitro and Melina. After getting into a worked physical altercation with Federline on ''Raw'', Federline appeared at Cyber Sunday to hit Cena with the World Heavyweight Championship during the match, helping King Booker retain his championship. 2006 ended with Cena beginning a feud with the undefeated Umaga over the WWE Championship, while 2007 began with the end of his storyline with Kevin Federline. On the first ''Raw'' of the new year, Cena was pinned by Federline with an assist from Umaga, although later in the night he was able to get his hands on Federline performing an FU on him.

One night after the Royal Rumble, an impromptu team of Cena and Shawn Michaels defeated Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton) for the World Tag Team Championship, making Cena a double champion. On the April 2 episode of ''Raw'', after losing a WWE Championship match to Cena at WrestleMania 23, Michaels turned on Cena, costing them the championship in the second of two 10 team battles royals, by throwing Cena over the top rope and eliminating the team. The Hardys (Matt and Jeff) eventually won the match and the championship. For the rest of the month, Cena feuded with Michaels, Orton, and Edge until The Great Khali declared his intentions to challenge for Cena's championship attacking and "laying out" all three of the top contenders before assaulting Cena himself and stealing the physical belt. For the next two months, Cena feuded with Khali over the championship, eventually becoming the first person in WWE to defeat him by submission at Judgment Day and then by pinfall at One Night Stand. Later that summer, Randy Orton was named the number one contender for the WWE championship, starting a feud between the two. Leading up to SummerSlam, Orton delivered a number of sneak-attacks, performing three RKOs to Cena, but in the actual match, Cena retained the championship. A rematch between the two occurred at Unforgiven, with Orton winning by disqualification after Cena ignored the referee's instructions and continued to beat on him in the corner.

During a match with Mr. Kennedy on the October 1, 2007 episode of ''Raw'', Cena suffered a legitimate torn pectoral muscle while executing a hip toss. Though finishing the match and taking part in the scripted attack by Randy Orton after the match, surgery the following day found that his pectoralis major muscle was torn completely from the bone, estimating at the time to require seven months to a year of rehabilitation. As a result, Cena was stripped of the title in an announcement by Vince McMahon on the next night's episode of ''ECW'', ending what was the longest WWE Championship reign in over 19 years. Cena's surgery was performed by orthopedic surgeon James Andrews at St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. Two weeks later, in a video update on WWE.com, Dr. Andrews and Cena's physical trainer both said that he was several weeks ahead of where he was expected to be in his rehabilitation at that time. Despite his injury, Cena attended the annual WWE Tribute to the Troops show filmed at Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq on December 7, and aired on December 24.

Return and various feuds (2008–2010)

Cena made an unannounced return as the final participant of the Royal Rumble match, winning the match, and the traditional WrestleMania title shot, by last eliminating Triple H. Instead of waiting until WrestleMania, the title shot was cashed in against WWE Champion Randy Orton at February's No Way Out pay-per-view in a match where Cena won by disqualification, resulting in him not getting the championship. The night after No Way Out, Cena was placed back into WrestleMania XXIV's WWE Championship match, making it a Triple Threat match also involving Triple H, during which he was pinned by Orton. At Backlash, Cena failed to regain the title in a Fatal Four-Way elimination match, in which he was pinned by Orton. Triple H won the title during that match. During the match, Cena eliminated JBL, renewing their feud from 2005. Cena defeated JBL at Judgment Day and then at One Night Stand in a First Blood match. JBL, however, defeated him in a New York City Parking Lot Brawl at The Great American Bash in July.

On the August 4 episode of ''Raw'', Cena became a World Tag Team Champion for a second time, teaming with Batista to defeat Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, but failed to retain the titles the following week against the former champions. Batista defeated Cena at SummerSlam; shortly after, he was named one of four contenders for CM Punk's World Heavyweight Championship in the Championship scramble match at Unforgiven. He was replaced by Rey Mysterio, however, after announcing Cena had suffered a herniated disc in his neck, which would require surgery. Cena underwent successful surgery to repair the injury.

Cena made his in-ring return at the November pay-per-view event, Survivor Series, defeating Chris Jericho to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. The two continued their rivalry up to Armageddon, where Cena retained his championship. Cena lost the championship at No Way Out, to Edge after Kofi Kingston was attacked by Edge, who took his place in the Elimination Chamber match. Cena was given an opportunity to regain the title at WrestleMania XXV in a Triple Threat match also involving Big Show, which Cena won.

Cena lost the championship back to Edge in a Last Man Standing match at Backlash after interference from Big Show, who chokeslammed Cena through a big spotlight. This angle resulted in Cena beginning a feud with Big Show. Cena defeated Big Show at Judgment Day and at Extreme Rules in a Submission match by applying the STFU.

At the July pay-per-view, Night of Champions, he participated in a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship, which also involved Triple H and WWE Champion Randy Orton. Cena, however, did not win the match. Two months later, at Breaking Point, Cena defeated Randy Orton for the WWE Championship in an "I Quit" match to win his fourth WWE Championship. At Hell in a Cell, Cena dropped the title to Orton in a Hell in a Cell match. Three weeks later, at WWE Bragging Rights, Cena defeated Orton in a 60-minute Iron Man match.

Two months later, Cena would lose the title to Sheamus at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in a Tables match.

In February 2010, Cena regained the WWE title at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in an Elimination Chamber match after last eliminating Triple H. However, immediately after the match Mr. McMahon declared that he would immediately defend his title against Batista, who had been involved with Cena in Vince McMahon and Bret Hart's rivalry. Cena lost that match to Batista, and the WWE Championship and marking one of the shortest WWE Championship reigns in history. The following night after the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Cena asked for a rematch for the title at WrestleMania, which McMahon gave him the opportunity to as long as he defeated Batista that night. Later that night, Batista intentionally got himself disqualified by kicking Cena in the groin to set up their match at WrestleMania XXVI. At the event, Cena defeated Batista to win back the WWE title. At the April pay-per-view, Extreme Rules, Cena defeated Batista in a rematch for the WWE title in a Last Man Standing match. He faced Batista one more time in an I Quit match at Over the Limit which he successfully won.

Feuding and joining Nexus (2010–2011)

On the June 7, 2010 episode of ''Raw'', Cena was suddenly thrust into a new storyline when during his main event match against CM Punk, he was attacked by all eight former contestants of WWE NXT Season 1, with Wade Barrett as their leader. Punk, his follower Luke Gallows, and other personnel around the ring were attacked as well, but Cena took the worst of the attack and was carried out on a stretcher. This group would later refer to themselves as The Nexus.

At June's Fatal 4-Way event, Cena lost the WWE title to Sheamus in a fatal four-way match that also involved Edge and Randy Orton due to interference by Nexus. The following month, in a WWE title rematch against Sheamus in a steel cage match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, the group interfered, thus costing Cena the chance of regaining the championship. Cena later formed an alliance with Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth, The Great Khali and Bret Hart to face the Nexus at SummerSlam, where Cena's team defeated Nexus with the returning Daniel Bryan, a former member of Nexus, who replaced Khali after getting injured.

Nexus's actions, however, did not stop after SummerSlam. Hoping to end Nexus for good, Cena challenged Wade Barrett to a match at "Hell in a Cell" only to lose due to interference by two fans, later identified as Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty. Due to the stipulations in place, Cena was forced to join Nexus. Cena had originally planned to destroy Nexus from within as a member of the group, but the Raw general manager ordered him to follow orders from Barrett, or else he would be fired. At Bragging Rights, Cena and Nexus member David Otunga defeated "Dashing" Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre to win the Tag Team Championship.

Later in the show Cena was forced to help Barrett to win his WWE Championship match against Randy Orton. If Barrett didn't win the match Cena would be fired. Cena twisted his words around and attacked Barrett, giving Barrett the win via disqualification but not Orton's title. The following day, Cena and Otunga lost the Tag Team Championship to fellow Nexus members Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel, when Barrett ordered Otunga to lay down and lose the title. At Survivor Series, Cena officiated a match for the WWE Championship between Wade Barrett and Randy Orton. As a part of a pre-match stipulation, if Barrett didn't win the championship, Cena would be fired from the WWE.

Orton defeated Barrett to retain the title, thus ending Cena's career in the WWE. The following day on ''Raw'', Cena gave a farewell speech, before costing Wade Barrett the WWE Championship by interfering in his rematch with Randy Orton. A week later, Cena invaded ''Raw'', first as a spectator, but he then attacked members of Nexus, explaining that he would still take down Nexus one by one, despite not having a job in the WWE anymore. On the December 13 episode of ''Raw'', Cena was rehired by Barrett, in exchange that he would face him at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in a Chairs Match. Prior to TLC, Cena teamed up with Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio to defeat Wade Barrett, The Miz and Alberto Del Rio at The WWE Tribute to the Troops. On December 19 at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, John Cena was victorious against Wade Barrett in a Chairs match in the main event of the evening.

On the December 27 episode of ''Raw'', The Nexus, minus Wade Barrett, announced they were under new management and offered to bury the hatchet with John Cena, to which Cena refused. The Nexus attacked Cena, leaving a Nexus armband in the ring during the process. As the group retreated, CM Punk, who had attacked Cena with a steel chair twice the week before, came to the ring to, what looked like attack John Cena, but instead put on the armband left behind to symbolically announce his allegiance with The Nexus. The next week, Wade Barrett returned to ''Raw'' and confronted CM Punk over the issue of who the leader of The Nexus was and who was responsible for Cena's attack the week before. Barrett was placed into a Triple Threat Steel Cage Match that night that would determine the No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship. CM Punk added his own stipulation to the match saying if Barrett lost, he would be banished from the group, but if he won he would remain leader. Wade Barrett would lose the match after CM Punk interfered by ripping of Barrett's armband.

On the January 17 episode of ''Raw'', Cena returned and faced Punk in a match. During the match, a man, who would later be revealed to be Mason Ryan, attacked Cena. During the 2011 Royal Rumble match, Cena would eliminate most of the Nexus, ending his feud with them.

WWE Champion and various feuds (2011)

Cena competed in the 2011 Royal Rumble match at the pay-per-view, making it to the final five before being eliminated by The Miz, the current WWE Champion at the time, who wasn't an official participant in the match. On the January 31 episode of ''Raw'', Cena competed in a 7-man ''Raw Rumble'' match, where the winner would challenge The Miz for his WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber, but Cena was eliminated by Sheamus. As a result, Cena was entered into the Elimination Chamber match with the other five competitors who lost the match, to determine the number one contender for the title at WrestleMania XXVII. At the pay-per-view, Cena won the match, earning his title shot at WrestleMania against The Miz. On the February 21 episode of ''Raw'', Cena replied to The Rock's comments about him from the previous week, as The Rock returned as the announced guest host of WrestleMania, where he made a rap about Rock. That same night, Cena was placed into a WWE Tag Team Championship match, with him teaming with The Miz, where they defeated Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater to become WWE Tag Team Champions. After the match, Wade Barrett invoked Gabriel and Slater's rematch clause straight away, where they won their titles back, after Miz attacked Cena. After weeks of insults to each other, Cena met Rock face-to-face on the March 28 episode of ''Raw'', where Cena would hit his Attitude Adjustment finishing move on Rock. At WrestleMania, Cena and Miz would fight to a double count-out, but guest host Rock would restart the match, only for him to hit his Rock Bottom finishing move on Cena, allowing Miz to retain his title. The next night on ''Raw'', Cena and Rock agreed to face each other at WrestleMania XXVIII, making it the first match to be set up at WrestleMania one year in advance. At Extreme Rules, Cena would defeat Miz and Morrison to become WWE Champion. Cena would then defend his title successfully against Miz at Over the Limit in an "I Quit" match and against R-Truth at Capitol Punishment.

Cena was scheduled to defend his title against CM Punk at Money in the Bank, but Punk would deliver a shoot promo on-air on the June 27 episode of ''Raw'', concerning the way in which the company is run and owner Vince McMahon. This would then result in Punk being suspended from televised WWE events. Cena would petition against McMahon to reinstate Punk, to which McMahon would agree, adding that Cena would get fired if he were to lost the WWE Championship to Punk at the pay-per-view. At the pay-per-view, McMahon tried to recreate the Montreal Screwjob by sending John Laurinaitis down to ringside to end the match as Cena had Punk in the STF submission move. Cena would hit Laurinaitis before he could, only for Cena to lose the match as he re-entered the ring. The following night on ''Raw'', before McMahon announced Cena was fired, Triple H returned, announcing he is the new COO of the WWE, which would see him run the day-to-day operations of the company. Triple H then announced that McMahon was relived of his duties. On the July 25 episode of ''Raw'', Cena defeated Rey Mysterio to become WWE Champion for a record breaking ninth time. Following the match, CM Punk returned to the company, with the WWE Championship he won at Money in the Bank. The following week, Triple H would announce that Cena and Punk where both recognized as WWE Champion, which would lead to a title unification match at SummerSlam, with Triple H serving as special guest referee for the match, where the winner would become "undisputed" WWE Champion. At the pay-per-view, Punk defeated Cena to become "undisputed" WWE Champion. Punk would lose the championship following the match, after Kevin Nash returned and attacked him, with Alberto Del Rio then cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the title. On the August 22 episode of ''Raw'', Cena defeated Punk to become number one contender for the WWE Championship, where Cena would defeat Del Rio at Night of Champions to become WWE Champion. Cena would then lose the title back to Del Rio two weeks later at Hell in a Cell, in a Triple Threat Hell in a Cell match also involving Punk, after Ricardo Rodriguez and Del Rio locked Cena outside of the Cell. Cena would get a rematch with Del Rio at Vengeance in a Last Man Standing match, where Del Rio defeated Cena after The Miz and R-Truth would attack Cena during the match. After a few weeks of Miz and Truth attacking Cena and other employees, Cena was allowed to choose his partner to challenge Miz and Truth at Survivor Series. Cena would announce that he had chosen The Rock to be his partner. At the pay-per-view, after Cena and Rock defeated Miz and Truth, Rock gave Cena another Rock Bottom.

On the December 12 episode of ''Raw'', during his match with Mark Henry, Cena was attacked by the returning Kane. The following week on ''Raw'', Cena would call out Kane for his actions last week, but Henry would come out instead. Kane would then come out soon after, and once again attacked Cena. The following week, Kane would explain to Cena that the reason he had attacked him was in disgust of Cena's "Rise Above Hate" t-shirt slogan, stating that hate is a "natural impulse" and shouldn't be contained. He then lead the fans in attendance who were not fond of Cena into chanting "Cena Sucks!" as RAW went off the air.

Other media

Film

WWE Studios, a division of World Wrestling Entertainment which produces and finances motion pictures, produced Cena's first movie — ''The Marine'', which was distributed theatrically by 20th Century Fox America beginning on October 13, 2006. In its first week, the film made approximately US$7 million at the United States box office. After ten weeks in theaters, the film grossed $18.7 million. Once the film was released on DVD, it fared better, making $30 million in rentals in the first twelve weeks. His second film, also produced by WWE Studios, was ''12 Rounds''. Filming began on February 25, 2008 in New Orleans; the film was released on March 27, 2009.

Cena co-starred in his third film produced by WWE Studios, titled ''Legendary'', which was played in selected theaters starting on September 10, 2010, for a limited time, then it was released on DVD on September 28, 2010.

That same year, Cena starred in the children's film ''Fred: The Movie'', a film based on Lucas Cruikshank's YouTube videos of the same name, where he plays Fred's father. The movie was released on the Nickelodeon channel in September 2010.

Filmography

! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
2000	''Ready to Rumble''	Gym Trainer	Extra
2006	''The Marine''	John Triton	Lead role
2007	''Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race''	Himself	Reality TV series
2009		Danny Fisher	Los Angeles Film Festival Award for Best Actor
2010	''Psych''	Ewan O'Hara	"You Can't Handle This Episode" (season 4: episode 10)
2010	''True Jackson, VP''	Himself	"Pajama Party" (season 2: episode 12)
2010		Mike Chetley	Nominated—Nevada Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
2010	''Hannah Montana''	Himself	"Love That Let's Go" (season 4: episode 7)
2010	''Fred: The Movie''	Fred's (imaginary) Dad	TV film
2010	''Generator Rex''	Hunter Cain	Voice role"The Hunter" (season 1: episode 13)
2011		Sam Cleary
2011	''Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred	Fred's (imaginary) Dad	TV film

Guest appearances

Before his WWE debut, Cena made an appearance on the Internet stream show ''Go Sick'' as Bruebaker, an angry, cursing wrestler in 2001.

During his WWE career, Cena has appeared on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' three times. Cena has also appeared on morning radio shows; including the CBS and XM versions of Opie and Anthony as part of their "walkover" on October 10, 2006. Other appearances have included ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', Fuse's ''Celebrity Playlist'', Fox Sports Net's ''The Best Damn Sports Show Period'', ''MADtv'', ''G4's Training Camp'' (with Shelton Benjamin), and two appearances on MTV's ''Punk'd'' (August 2006 and May 2007), as the victim of a practical joke. He also served as a co-presenter, with Hulk Hogan, at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards, as a guest judge during the third week of the 2006 season of ''Nashville Star'', and appeared at the 2007 Nickelodeon UK Kids Choice Awards.

In January 2007, Cena, Batista, and Ashley Massaro appeared representing WWE on an episode of ''Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'', giving the children of the family whose house was being renovated WWE merchandise and eight tickets to WrestleMania 23. Two months later, he and Bobby Lashley appeared on the NBC game show ''Deal or No Deal'' as "moral support" to long time WWE fan and front row staple, Rick "Sign Guy" Achberger. Edge and Randy Orton also appeared, but as antagonists. On April 9, 2008, Cena, along with fellow wrestlers Triple H and Chris Jericho, appeared on the ''Idol Gives Back'' fund-raising special. In March 2009, Cena made an appearance on ''Saturday Night Live'' during the show's cold opening sequence. On March 7, 2009, he was a guest on NPR's quiz show ''Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!'' in a Not My Job sequence titled "Sure, pro wrestling is a good gig, but when you win, do they throw teddy bears into the ring?"

Television

In 2001, between his training in Ultimate Pro Wrestling and Ohio Valley Wrestling, Cena was involved in the UPN produced reality show ''Manhunt''. Cena portrayed Big Tim Kingman, leader of the group of bounty hunters who chased down the contestants who acted as fugitives. The show, however, was mired in controversy when it was alleged that the portions of the show were rigged to eliminate certain players, scenes were re-shot or staged to enhance drama and contestants read from scripts.

Cena was also featured on the ABC reality series ''Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race'', which aired in June 2007, making it to the final round before being eliminated on June 24, placing third in the competition overall.

In 2007 Cena was also interviewed for the ''CNN Special Investigations Unit'' documentary, "Death Grip: Inside Pro Wrestling", which focused on steroid and drug use in professional wrestling. When asked if he had taken steroids he was heard to reply, "I can't tell you that I haven't, but you'll never prove that I have." The day after the documentary aired WWE accused CNN of taking Cena's comments out of context to present a biased point of view, backing up their claim by posting an unedited video of his answering the same question—filmed by WWE cameras from another angle—in which he is heard beginning the same statement with "Absolutely not". A text interview on the website with Cena later had him saying the news outlet should apologize for misrepresenting him, which CNN refused in a statement, saying they felt the true answer to the question began with the phrase "My answer to that question". They did, however, edit the documentary on subsequent airings to include the "Absolutely not".

Cena hosted the Australian Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards with Natalie Bassingthwaighte on October 11, 2008 in Melbourne, Australia.

He guest starred as Ewan O'Hara in an episode of the fourth season of the comedy drama ''Psych'', as the brother of Juliet O'Hara, played by Maggie Lawson.

He also guest starred in the seventh episode of Disney Channel's Hannah Montana Forever as himself.

Make-A-Wish Foundation

John Cena has granted over 200 wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and in 2009 was a recipient of the Chris Greicius Celebrity Award.

Endorsements

Before his professional wrestling career, Cena appeared in an advertisement for Gold's Gym. As a wrestler he has endorsed the energy drink YJ Stinger, appearing in commercials beginning in October 2003, and Subway, for whom he filmed advertisements with their spokesperson Jared Fogle in November 2006 that began airing the next January. For a time in 2007 he also endorsed two "signature collections" of energy drinks and energy bars sold by American Body Builders. In 2008, Cena filmed a commercial as part of Gillette's "Young Guns" NASCAR campaign.

In 2009, Cena expanded his relationship with Gillette by introducing a new online campaign called "Be A Superstar" featuring himself alongside WWE Superstars Chris Jericho and Cody Rhodes. The campaign features motivational videos.

Fashion

For the extent of his WWE career, Cena's attire has attempted to reflect the most current thug fashions and stylings within the hip hop culture that his character represents. Cena started out wearing "throwback jerseys" until WWE produced specific Cena merchandise which he began wearing. While Cena was a member of the ''SmackDown!'' brand, one of his WWE produced t-shirts bore the suggestive spoonerism "Ruck Fules". Whenever it appeared on television the image was censored, not by the network, but by WWE to sell more shirts under the premise that it was "too hot for TV." He also wore a chain with a large padlock, occasionally using it as a weapon, until WrestleMania 21, when it was replaced with a chromed and diamond studded "Chain Gang" spinner medallion—reminiscent of the ones worn by members of G-Unit—matching his spinner title belt.

Around the time ''The Marine'' was released, Cena began wearing attire more military related, including camouflage shorts, dog tags, a Marine soldier cap and a WWE produced shirt with the legend "Chain Gang Assault Battalion." Shortly after WrestleMania 23, when promotion for The Marine ended, the military attire diminished and was replaced with apparel bearing his new slogan "American Made Muscle" along with denim shorts, not seen since he was a member of the SmackDown roster. He then wore shirts that promoted Cenation and his trademark line "You Can't See Me." In late 2011, Cena again switched to wearing camo shorts (to honor the U.S. Armed Forces), coininciding with his new black "Rise Above Hate" T-shirt promoting WWE's "Be a Star" anti-bullying campaign.

Music

In addition to his wrestling career, Cena is a rapper and a hip hop musician. Cena performed his fifth WWE theme song, "Basic Thugonomics," himself, and it was featured on the WWE soundtrack album ''WWE Originals''. He also recorded a song,"Untouchables", for the company's next soundtrack album ''WWE ThemeAddict: The Music, Vol. 6''. He collaborated on the song H-U-S-T-L-E remix along with Murs, E-40, and Chingo Bling.

Cena's debut album, ''You Can't See Me'', was recorded with his cousin Tha Trademarc. It features, amongst other songs, his entrance theme, "The Time is Now", and the single "Bad, Bad Man", for which a music video was made that parodied 1980s culture, including the television show ''The A-Team''. A video was also made for the second single, "Right Now," and premiered on the August 8 ''Raw''. Cena and Tha Trademarc were later featured on a track by The Perceptionists named "Champion Scratch." Cena will appear on Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins' upcoming album ''Still Cool'' featuring other guests.

;Albums

''You Can't See Me''

* Released: May 10, 2005

Chart positions: 15 U.S. ''Billboard'' 200, 10 U.S. Top R&B;/Hip-Hop Albums, 3 U.S. Rap, 103 UK Albums Chart

* Singles: "The Time Is Now", "Bad Bad Man" (featuring Bumpy Knuckles), "Right Now"

Personal life

Cena writes left-handed. He is a fan of Japanese animation and has mentioned that his favorite animated movie is ''Fist of the North Star''. He has also said he is a fan of the video game series ''Command & Conquer'' and noted that it was his favorite game. Cena is also a fan of the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Boston Celtics, Cena collects muscle cars and has over 20, some of which are one-of-a-kind.

While promoting his 2009 film, ''12 Rounds'', Cena announced his engagement to his girlfriend Elizabeth Huberdeau. They were married on July 11, 2009.

In wrestling

Finishing moves

''Attitude Adjustment'' (formerly ''FU'') (Fireman's carry transitioned into a takeover or a powerslam, sometimes from the second rope) – 2003–present

STF (formerly ''STFU'') – 2005–present

Signature moves

Diving leg drop bulldog

Dropkick, sometimes from the top rope

* Emerald Flowsion

Fisherman suplex

''Five Knuckle Shuffle'' (Running delayed fist drop, with theatrics, sometimes diving from the top rope)

* Gutwrench suplex

* ''Protobomb'' (OVW / UPW) / Spin-out powerbomb (WWE)

Running leaping shoulder block

Running one–handed bulldog

Sitout hip toss

''Rapper Punch'' ("You can't see me!" taunt followed by haymaker)

Spinebuster - 2002 - 2005 used rarely there after

''Throwback'' (Running neck snap to a bent–over opponent)

Twisting belly to belly suplex

Nicknames

"The Doctor of Thuganomics"

"The Champ" (as either the WWE Champion or the World Heavyweight Champion) – 2005–present

* "The Chain Gang Commander"

"The Chain Gang Soldier"

*"The CeNation Commander-in-Chief"

"The Marine"

* "Superman"

* "The Voice of Little Jimmys" (while feuding with R-Truth)

Managers

Kenny Bolin

* B–2

* Redd Dogg

Entrance themes

"Slam Smack" by R. Hardy (FirstCom Production Music) (June 27, 2002–November 7, 2002)

"Insert Bass Here" by DJ Case (FirstCom Production Music) (November 14, 2002–February 13, 2003)

* "Basic Thuganomics" by John Cena (March 27, 2003–March 10, 2005; April 5, 2009 for his entrance at WrestleMania XXV)

*"We Are One" by 12 Stones (WWE; October 3, 2010-November 21, 2010; Used While a part of Nexus)

* "The Time is Now" by John Cena and Tha Trademarc (March 17, 2005–present)

Championships and accomplishments

Ohio Valley Wrestling

OVW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Rico Constantino

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI Feud of the Year (2006)

PWI Feud of the Year (2011)

PWI Match of the Year (2007)

PWI Match of the Year (2011)

PWI Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2003)

PWI Most Popular Wrestler of the Year (2004, 2005, 2007)

PWI Wrestler of the Year (2006, 2007)

PWI ranked #1 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2006 and 2007

Pro Wrestling Report

*Match of the Year (2006) vs. Rob Van Dam at ECW One Night Stand II

Ultimate Pro Wrestling

UPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

World Wrestling Entertainment

World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Shawn Michaels (1) and Batista (1)

WWE Championship (10 times)

WWE Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with David Otunga (1), and The Miz (1)

WWE United States Championship (3 times)

* Royal Rumble (2008)

* Slammy Award winner – 2009 and 2010 Superstar of the Year

Slammy Award for Holy $#!+ Move of the Year (2010)

*Slammy Award for Game Changer of the Year (2011) – with The Rock

'''Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Wrestler of the Year (2007, 2010)

* 5 Star Match vs. CM Punk at WWE Money in the Bank on July 17, 2011

Best Box Office Draw (2007)

Best on Interviews (2007)

Most Charismatic (2006–2010)

Most Charismatic of the Decade (2000–2009)

Best Gimmick (2003)

References

Further reading

External links

John Cena at WWE.com

Professional wrestling record for John Cena from The Internet Wrestling Database

John Cena at Online World of Wrestling

Category:1977 births Category:American film actors Category:American football offensive linemen Category:American professional wrestlers Category:American professional wrestlers of Italian descent Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Drifting drivers Category:Formula D drivers Category:Living people Category:People from Essex County, Massachusetts Category:People from Tampa, Florida Category:Rappers from Florida Category:Springfield College (Massachusetts) alumni Category:Springfield Pride football players

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