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| Name | Dennis Knight |
|---|---|
| Names | Dennis KnightLeatherfaceBogus MankindMidianMideon (born December 26, 1968) After dropping the Leatherface gimmick, Tex teamed up with Mark Canterbury who wrestled as the masked “Master Blaster�. |
| Name | Knight, Dennis |
| Date of birth | December 26, 1968 |
| Place of birth | Orlando, Florida, U.S. |
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Sean Morley |
|---|---|
| Names | The Big ValbowskiToo Hip |
| Image1 | Venis elbow drop.jpg |
| Image1 cap | Morley executing an elbow drop |
| Image2 | Venis.jpg |
| Image2 cap | Venis during the Hulkamania Tour in November 2009. |
Category:1971 births Category:Canadian libertarians Category:Canadian professional wrestlers Category:Canadian sportspeople of Irish descent Category:Living people Category:People from Oakville, Ontario
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | The Undertaker |
|---|---|
| Names | Cain the UndertakerTexas Red is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name The Undertaker. He is signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), currently wrestling on the SmackDown brand, but is currently inactive due to an injury. |
| Image1 | TakerTombstone.jpg |
| Image1 cap | The Undertaker about to perform the Tombstone piledriver on Ric Flair at WrestleMania X8. |
| Image2 | Undertaker oldschool.jpg |
| Image2 cap | The Undertaker performs Old School (an arm twist ropewalk chop) on Heidenreich. |
| Image3 | Undertaker-Gogoplata-Edge.jpg |
| Image3 cap | The Undertaker locks Edge in the Hell's Gate. |
| Image4 | Undertaker-Prepares-To-Legdrop-Edge.jpg |
| Image4 cap | The Undertaker prepares to legdrop Edge. |
The Mirror ranked The Undertaker's Wrestlemania undefeated streak as the 7th greatest winning streak in sports, and it was the only ranked streak from professional wrestling.
Won during The Invasion.}} The Undertaker's fourth reign was as WWE Undisputed Champion.}}
Category:1965 births Category:American professional wrestlers Category:California State University, Long Beach alumni Category:Fictional undead Category:Living people Category:People from Houston, Texas Category:University of St. Thomas (Houston) alumni
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
He was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europe's ruling monarchs. At the age of 20 he married his first cousin, Queen Victoria, with whom he had nine children. At first, Albert felt constrained by his position as consort, which did not confer any power or duties upon him. Over time he adopted many public causes, such as educational reform and the abolition of slavery, and took on the responsibilities of running the Queen's household, estates and office. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Albert aided in the development of Britain's constitutional monarchy by persuading his wife to show less partisanship in her dealings with Parliament—although he actively disagreed with the interventionist foreign policy pursued during Lord Palmerston's tenure as Foreign Secretary.
He died at the early age of 42, plunging the Queen into a deep mourning which lasted for the rest of her life. Upon Queen Victoria's death in 1901, their son, Edward VII, succeeded as the first monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, named after the ducal house to which Albert belonged.
Albert and his elder brother, Ernest, spent their youth in a close companionship scarred by their parents' turbulent marriage and eventual separation and divorce. After their mother was exiled from court in 1824, she married her lover, Alexander von Hanstein, Count of Polzig and Beiersdorf. She probably never saw her children again and died of cancer at the age of 30 in 1831. The following year, their father married his own niece, his sons' cousin Princess Antoinette Marie of Württemberg, but the marriage was not close, and Antoinette Marie had little, if any, input into her stepchildren's lives.
The brothers were educated privately at home by Christoph Florschütz and later in Brussels, where Adolphe Quetelet was one of their tutors. Like many other princes, Albert studied at the University of Bonn as a young adult. Albert studied law, political economy, philosophy, and art history. He played music and excelled in gymnastics, especially fencing and riding. His teachers in Bonn included the philosopher Fichte and the poet Schlegel.
Victoria came to the throne aged just eighteen on 20 June 1837. Her letters of the time show interest in Albert's education for the role he would have to play, although she resisted attempts to rush her into marriage. In the winter of 1838–39, the prince visited Italy, accompanied by the Coburg family's confidential adviser, Baron Stockmar.
Albert returned to England with Ernest in October 1839 to visit the Queen, with the object of settling the marriage. Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to him on 15 October 1839. Victoria's intention to marry was declared formally to the Privy Council on 23 November, and the couple married on 10 February 1840 at the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace. Just before the marriage, Albert was naturalised by Act of Parliament, and granted the style of Royal Highness by an Order-in-Council. The British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, advised the Queen against granting her husband the title of "King Consort". Parliament even refused to make Albert a peer – partly because of anti-German feeling and a desire to exclude Albert from any political role. Melbourne led a minority government and the opposition took advantage of the marriage to weaken his position further. They opposed the ennoblement of Albert and granted him a smaller annuity than previous consorts, £30,000 instead of the usual £50,000. Albert claimed that he had no need of a British peerage; he wrote, "It would almost be step downwards, for as a Duke of Saxony, I feel myself much higher than as a Duke of York or Kent." For the next seventeen years, Albert was formally titled "HRH Prince Albert" until, on 25 June 1857, Victoria formally granted him the title Prince Consort.
The position in which the prince was placed by his marriage, while one of distinction, also offered considerable difficulties; in Albert's own words, "I am very happy and contented; but the difficulty in filling my place with the proper dignity is that I am only the husband, not the master in the house." The Queen's household was run by her former governess, Baroness Lehzen. Albert referred to her as the "House Dragon", and manoeuvred to dislodge the Baroness from her position.
Within two months of the marriage, Victoria was pregnant. Albert started to take on public roles; he became President of the Society for the Extinction of Slavery (slavery had already been abolished throughout the British Empire, but was still lawful in places such as the United States and the colonies of France); and helped Victoria privately with her government paperwork. In June 1840, while on a public carriage ride, Albert and the pregnant Victoria were shot at by Edward Oxford, who was later judged insane. Neither was hurt and Albert was praised in the newspapers for his courage and coolness during the attack. Albert was gaining public support as well as political influence, which showed itself practically when, in August, Parliament passed the Regency Act 1840 to designate him Regent in the event of Victoria's death before their child reached the age of majority. Their first child, Victoria, named after her mother, was born in November. Eight other children would follow over the next seventeen years. All nine children survived to adulthood, a fact which biographer Hermione Hobhouse credited to Albert's "enlightened influence" on the healthy running of the nursery. In early 1841, he successfully removed the nursery from Lehzen's pervasive control, and in September 1842, Lehzen left England permanently – much to Albert's relief.
After the 1841 general election, Melbourne was replaced as Prime Minister by Sir Robert Peel, who appointed Albert as chairman of the Royal Commission in charge of redecorating the new Palace of Westminster. The Palace had burnt down seven years before, and was being rebuilt. As a patron and purchaser of pictures and sculpture, the commission was set up to promote the fine arts in Britain. The commission's work was slow, and the architect, Charles Barry, took many decisions out of the commissioner's hands by decorating rooms with ornate furnishings which were treated as part of the architecture. Albert was more successful as a private patron and collector. Among his notable purchases: early German and Italian paintings – such as Lucas Cranach the Elder's Apollo and Diana and Fra Angelico's St. Peter Martyr – and contemporary pieces from Franz Xaver Winterhalter and Edwin Landseer. Dr. Ludwig Gruner, of Dresden, assisted Albert in buying pictures of the highest quality.
Albert and Victoria were shot at again on both 29 and 30 May 1842, but were unhurt. The culprit, John Francis, was detained and condemned to death, although he was later reprieved. Some of their early unpopularity came about because of their stiffness and adherence to protocol in public, though in private the couple were more easy-going. In early 1844, Victoria and Albert were apart for the first time since their marriage when he returned to Coburg on the death of his father.
, Isle of Wight]] By 1844, Albert had managed to modernise the royal finances and through various economies had sufficient capital to purchase Osborne House on the Isle of Wight as a private residence for their growing family. Over the next few years a house modelled in the style of an Italianate villa was built to the designs of Albert and Thomas Cubitt. Albert laid out the grounds, and improved the estate and farm. Albert managed and improved the other royal estates; his model farm at Windsor was admired by his biographers, and under his stewardship the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall – the hereditary property of the Prince of Wales – steadily multiplied.
Unlike many landowners who approved of child labour and opposed Peel's repeal of the Corn Laws, Albert supported moves to raise working ages and free up trade. In 1846, Albert was rebuked by Lord George Bentinck when he attended the debate on the Corn Laws in the House of Commons to give tacit support to Peel. During Peel's premiership, Albert's authority behind, or beside, the throne became more apparent. He had access to all the Queen's papers, was drafting her correspondence and was present when she met her ministers, or even saw them alone in her absence. The clerk of the Privy Council, Charles Greville, wrote of him: "He is King to all intents and purposes."
That summer, Victoria and Albert spent a rainy holiday in the west of Scotland at Loch Laggan, but heard from their doctor, Sir James Clark, that his son had enjoyed dry, sunny days further east at Balmoral Castle. The tenant of Balmoral, Sir Robert Gordon, died suddenly in early October, and Albert began negotiations to take over the lease of the castle from the owner, the Earl Fife. In May the following year, Albert leased Balmoral, which he had never visited, and in September 1848 he, his wife and the older children went there for the first time. They came to relish the privacy it afforded. was housed in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London.]] Revolutions spread throughout Europe in 1848 as the result of a widespread economic crisis. Throughout the year, Victoria and Albert complained about Foreign Secretary Palmerston's independent foreign policy, which they believed destabilised foreign European powers further. Albert was concerned for many of his royal relatives, a number of whom were deposed. He and Victoria, who gave birth to their daughter Louise during that year, spent some time away from London in the relative safety of Osborne. Although there were sporadic demonstrations in England, no effective revolutionary action took place, and Albert even gained public acclaim when he expressed paternalistic, yet well-meaning and philanthropic, views. In a speech to the Society for the Improvement of the Condition of the Labouring Classes, of which he was President, he expressed his "sympathy and interest for that class of our community who have most of the toil and fewest of the enjoyments of this world". It was the "duty of those who, under the blessings of Divine Providence, enjoy station, wealth, and education" to assist those less fortunate than themselves. The Great Exhibition of 1851 arose from the annual exhibitions of the Society of Arts, of which Albert was President from 1843, and owed the greater part of its success to his efforts to promote it. Albert served as president of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, and had to fight for every stage of the project. In the House of Lords, Lord Brougham fulminated against the proposal to hold the exhibition in Hyde Park. Opponents of the exhibition prophesied that foreign rogues and revolutionists would overrun England, subvert the morals of the people, and destroy their faith. Albert thought such talk absurd and quietly persevered, trusting always that British manufacturing would benefit from exposure to the best products of foreign countries. A surplus of £180,000 was raised, which went to purchase land in South Kensington and establish educational and cultural institutions there – including what would later be named the Victoria and Albert Museum. The area was referred to as "Albertopolis" by sceptics.
Albert involved himself in promoting many public educational institutions. Chiefly at meetings in connection with these he spoke of the need for better schooling. A collection of his speeches was published in 1857. Recognised as a supporter of education and technological progress, he was invited to speak at scientific meetings, such as the memorable address he delivered as president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science when it met at Aberdeen in 1859. His espousal of science spawned opposition from the Church. His proposal of a knighthood for Charles Darwin, after the publication of On the Origin of Species, was rejected.
Albert continued to devote himself to the education of his family and the management of the royal household. His children's governess, Lady Lyttelton, thought him unusually kind and patient, and described him joining in family games with enthusiasm. He felt keenly the departure of his eldest daughter for Prussia when she married her fiancé at the beginning of 1858, and was disappointed that his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, did not respond well to the intense educational programme that Albert had designed for him. At the age of seven, the Prince of Wales was expected to take six hours of instruction, including an hour of German and an hour of French every day. When the Prince of Wales failed at his lessons, Albert caned him. Corporal punishment was common at the time, and was not thought unduly harsh. Albert's biographer Roger Fulford wrote that the relationships between the family members were "friendly, affectionate and normal ... there is no evidence either in the Royal Archives or in the printed authorities to justify the belief that the relations between the Prince and his eldest son were other than deeply affectionate." Philip Magnus wrote in his biography of Albert's eldest son that Albert "tried to treat his children as equals; and they were able to penetrate his stiffness and reserve because they realised instinctively not only that he loved them but that he enjoyed and needed their company."
In 1861, Victoria's mother and Albert's aunt, the Duchess of Kent, died and Victoria was grief-stricken; Albert took on most of the Queen's duties, despite being ill himself with chronic stomach trouble. In August, Victoria and Albert visited the Curragh Camp, Ireland, where the Prince of Wales was doing army service. It was there that the Prince of Wales was introduced, by his fellow officers, to Nellie Clifden, an Irish actress.
By November, Victoria and Albert had returned to Windsor, and the Prince of Wales had returned to Cambridge, where he was a student. Two of Albert's cousins, King Pedro V and Prince Ferdinand of Portugal, died of typhoid fever. On top of this news, Albert was informed that gossip was spreading in gentlemen's clubs and the foreign press that the Prince of Wales was still involved with Nellie Clifden. Albert and Victoria were horrified by their son's indiscretion, and feared blackmail, scandal or pregnancy. Although Albert was ill and at a low ebb, he travelled to Cambridge to see the Prince of Wales to discuss his son's indiscreet affair. On 9 December, one of Albert's doctors, William Jenner, diagnosed typhoid fever. Congestion of the lungs supervened, and Albert died at 10:50 p.m. on 14 December 1861 in the Blue Room at Windsor Castle, in the presence of the Queen and five of their nine children. Though the contemporary diagnosis was typhoid fever, modern writers have pointed out that Albert was ill for at least two years before his death, which may indicate that a chronic disease, such as renal failure or cancer, was the cause of death.
The Queen's grief was overwhelming, and the tepid feelings the public had felt for Albert previously were replaced by sympathy. Victoria wore black in mourning for the rest of her long life, and Albert's rooms in all his houses were kept as they had been, even with hot water brought in the morning, and linen and towels changed daily. Such practices were not uncommon in the houses of the very rich. Victoria withdrew from public life and her seclusion eroded some of Albert's work in attempting to re-model the monarchy as a national institution setting a moral, if not political, example. Albert is credited with introducing the principle that the British Royal Family should remain above politics. Before his marriage to Victoria, she supported the Whigs; for example, early in her reign Victoria managed to thwart the formation of a Tory government by Sir Robert Peel by refusing to accept substitutions which Peel wanted to make among her ladies-in-waiting.
Albert's body was temporarily entombed in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The mausoleum at Frogmore, in which his remains were deposited a year after his death, was not fully completed until 1871. The sarcophagus, in which both he and the Queen were eventually laid, was carved from the largest block of granite that had ever been quarried in Britain. Despite Albert's request that no effigies of him should be raised, many public monuments were erected all over the country, and across the British Empire. The most notable are the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial in London. The plethora of memorials erected to Albert became so great that Charles Dickens told a friend that he sought an "inaccessible cave" to escape from them.
All manner of objects are named after Prince Albert, from Lake Albert in Africa to the city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, to the Albert Medal presented by the Royal Society of Arts. Four regiments of the British Army were named after him: 11th (Prince Albert's Own) Hussars; Prince Albert's Light Infantry; Prince Albert's Own Leicestershire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry, and The Prince Consort's Own Rifle Brigade. He and Queen Victoria showed a keen interest in the establishment and development of Aldershot in Hampshire as a garrison town in the 1850s. They had a wooden Royal Pavilion built there in which they would often stay when attending reviews of the army. Albert established and endowed the Prince Consort's Library at Aldershot, which still exists today.
Biographies published after his death were typically heavy on eulogy. Theodore Martin's five-volume magnum opus was authorised and supervised by Queen Victoria, and her influence shows in its pages. Nevertheless, it is an accurate and exhaustive account. Lytton Strachey's Queen Victoria (1921) was discredited by his repetition of gossip that Albert was illegitimate, and that he did not love the Queen but married her in pursuit of power. Such calumnies were soundly dismissed by mid-twentieth-century biographers such as Hector Bolitho and Roger Fulford, who (unlike Strachey) had access to Victoria's journal and letters. Other popular myths about Prince Albert – such as the claim that he introduced Christmas trees to Britain – are dismissed by scholars. More recent biographers, such as Stanley Weintraub, portray Albert as a figure in a tragic romance, who died too soon and was mourned by his lover for a lifetime.
| Name | Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
|---|---|
| Dipstyle | His Royal Highness |
| Offstyle | Your Royal Highness |
| Altstyle | Sir |
On his stallplate as a Knight of the Garter his arms are ensigned by a royal crown and show the six crests of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; these are from left to right: 1. "A bull's head caboshed Gules armed and ringed Argent, crowned Or, the rim chequy Gules and Argent" for Mark. 2. "Out of a coronet Or, two buffalo's horns Argent, attached to the outer edge of each five branches fesswise each with three linden leaves Vert" for Thuringia. 3. "Out of a coronet Or, a pyramidal chapeau charged with the arms of Saxony ensigned by a plume of peacock's feathers Proper out of a coronet also Or" for Saxony. 4. "A bearded man in profile couped below the shoulders clothed paly Argent and Gules, the pointed coronet similarly paly terminating in a plume of three peacock's feathers" for Meissen. 5. "A demi griffin displayed Or, winged Sable, collared and langued Gules" for Jülich. 6. "Out of a coronet Or, a panache of peacock's feathers Proper" for Berg. However in 1917, during the First World War, King George V abandoned heraldic references to the royal family's German heritage, and the Saxon shield was removed.
Prince Albert's 40 grandchildren included four reigning monarchs: King George V of the United Kingdom; Wilhelm II, German Emperor; Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse; and Carl Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Albert's many descendants include royalty and nobility throughout Europe.
Category:1819 births Category:1861 deaths Category:British Field Marshals
Category:Chancellors of the University of Cambridge Category:German immigrants to the United Kingdom Category:House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Category:Knights Companion of the Order of the Star of India Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Knights of St Patrick Category:Knights of the Garter Category:Knights of the Golden Fleece Category:Knights of the Thistle Category:People from Coburg Category:Princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Category:Princes of the United Kingdom Category:Royal Fellows of the Royal Society Category:University of Bonn alumni Category:Queen Victoria Category:Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Mick Foley |
|---|---|
| Names | Nick Foley |
| Height |
Michael Francis "Mick" Foley, Sr. (born June 7, 1965)
After several years of wrestling in the independent circuit, Foley began receiving offers from various regional promotions, including the UWF. He joined Memphis-based CWA as Cactus Jack, where he teamed with Gary Young as part of the Stud Stable. Cactus and Young briefly held the CWA tag titles in late 1988. On November 20, Foley left CWA for Texas-based World Class Championship Wrestling.
In World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), Cactus Jack, billed as Cactus Jack Manson, was a major part of Skandor Akbar's stable. Foley also won several titles, including the company's light heavyweight and tag team titles before leaving the company, losing his last match to Eric Embry in nine seconds. He then briefly competed in Alabama's Continental Wrestling Federation before completing a brief stint with World Championship Wrestling, including a match against Mil Máscaras at . It was during this period that Foley was involved in a car accident that resulted in the loss of his two front teeth, adding to the distinctive look for which he is famous. Following the short stint with WCW, Foley then signed with Herb Abrams's Universal Wrestling Federation. In UWF, Foley teamed with Bob Orton to feud with Don Muraco, Sunny Beach, and Brian Blair.
He soon left UWF for Tri-State Wrestling (a forerunner to Extreme Championship Wrestling), whose style of high impact and violent wrestling style fit Foley well. On one night, known as Tri-State's Summer Sizzler 1991, Cactus Jack and Eddie Gilbert had three matches in one night: Cactus won a Falls Count Anywhere match, lost a Stretcher match, and then fought to a double disqualification in a Steel Cage match. These matches caught the attention of World Championship Wrestling promoters, and after a brief stint working in the Global Wrestling Federation, he joined WCW. After feuds with Van Hammer and Abdullah the Butcher, Cactus Jack faced Sting, then WCW champion, in a non-title Falls Count Anywhere match at Beach Blast in 1992, which Sting won. For a long time, Foley considered this the best match he ever worked. While Foley was away, WCW ran an angle where Cactus Jack's absence was explained with a farcical comedy storyline in which he went crazy, was institutionalized, escaped, and developed amnesia. Foley had wanted the injury storyline to be very serious and generate genuine sympathy for him before his return. The comedy vignettes that WCW produced instead were so bad that Foley jokes in Have a Nice Day that they were the brainchild of WCW executives who regarded a surefire moneymaking feud as a problem that needed to be solved. Race won the match for Vader by using a cattle prod on Cactus, knocking him out. The level of violence involved in this feud caused WCW to refuse to book Cactus Jack against Vader on a pay-per-view again. On March 16, 1994, during a WCW European tour, Foley and Vader had one of the most infamous matches in wrestling history in Munich, Germany. Foley began a hangman, a spot where a wrestler's head is tangled between the top two ring ropes The spot is usually painful but safe (though in WCW the danger factor was raised slightly because their ring ropes were not actual ropes, but elevator cables encased with rubber). Unbeknownst to Foley, however, 2 Cold Scorpio had earlier complained that the ropes were too loose, resulting in the ring staff tightening the ropes to the maximum. Later that year, Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan were scheduled to win the tag team titles at Slamboree in 1994. Foley had to choose between reattaching his ear or wrestling in the pay-per-view and winning the titles. Foley chose to wrestle and won his only championship in WCW. Later on, Foley was frustrated by WCW's reluctance to work a storyline around losing his ear.
WCW also shared a brief co-promotion with ECW during this time in which Foley represented WCW on ECW television as the WCW Tag Team champion. During a promo, Foley spat on his Tag Team title belt and threw it to the ground to appeal to the hardcore fans who frowned upon the mainstream promotions.
At the tail end of 1994, Foley joined Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) as Cactus Jack, causing Boo Bradley to lose the TV Title. He often teamed with Brian Lee to feud with Bradley and Chris Candido. Cactus Jack then began a crusade to rid Bradley of his valet Tammy Lynn Sytch. He ignited a feud between Candido and Bradley when he accused Candido of having sexual relations with Sytch. Cactus Jack left SMW before the feud was resolved.
In 1995, Foley went to Japan and wrestled in International Wrestling Association of Japan, where he engaged in feuds with Terry Funk and Shoji Nakamaki. During his brief stint in Japan Foley had the nickname "Tsunami Stopper." Foley, however, soon returned to ECW to feud with The Sandman. Funk returned to team up with Sandman, and during a particularly violent spot, the pair hit Cactus with a Singapore cane forty-six times. Cactus Jack then defeated Funk at Hostile City Showdown 1995. Later, he fought Sandman for the ECW championship. During the match, Cactus Jack knocked Sandman unconscious and was declared the winner. Referee Bill Alfonso, however, reversed his decision on the grounds that the title cannot change hands by knockout.
Returning to the IWA, Cactus Jack began a feud with Leatherface, whom he had betrayed during a tag team match. Foley also continued to wrestle in independent circuits, winning championships on the Ozark Mountain and Steel City circuits. On August 20, 1995, IWA organized a "King of the Death Match" tournament. Each level of the tournament featured a new and deadly gimmick: Cactus Jack's first round was a barbed-wire baseball bat, thumbtack death match, in which he defeated Terry Gordy; the second round was a barbed-wire board, bed of nails match where Cactus Jack defeated Shoji Nakamaki. The final, against Terry Funk, was a barbed-wire rope, barbed-wire and C4 board, time-bomb death match, which Cactus Jack won with help from Tiger Jeet Singh. After the match, both men were ravaged by the wire, and burned by the C4 explosions. Foley later said that he only received $300 for the entire night but, "looking back [in 2010 he wrote that] that match in Honjo is probably the performance I'm proudest of."). Even when he tried to give sincere good-byes to the fans, Cactus Jack was met with chants of "You sold out" by the ECW fanbase everywhere he went. Cactus was booked to face WWF hater Shane Douglas, who won when he put Jack into a figure four leglock that allowed Mikey Whipwreck to hit him repeatedly with a steel chair. Foley's last ECW match was against Whipwreck in April 1996, and he recounts that he was not looking forward to it due to the increasingly hostile reactions he got even when he wasn't in character. The ECW fans, who knew that this was Foley's last match, finally returned his affection. They cheered him throughout the match and chanted, "Please don't go!" After the match, Foley told the audience that their reaction made everything worthwhile and made his exit by dancing with Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie. Foley has said that this exit was his favorite moment in wrestling.
The Mankind-Undertaker feud continued with the first ever Buried Alive match at . Undertaker won the match, but Paul Bearer, Terry Gordy (as the Executioner), Mankind and other heels attacked the Undertaker and buried him alive. Afterward, he challenged Mankind to a match at Survivor Series, which he won. The feud ended after one more match at for the WWF Championship, which Undertaker had won at WrestleMania 13. Undertaker won the match and Bearer took a leave of absence, ending the feud.
Jim Ross then began conducting a series of interviews with Mankind. During the interviews, Ross brought up the topic of Foley's home videos and the character he played in them, Dude Love. Around this time, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels won the WWF Tag Team Championships from Owen Hart and The British Bulldog, but Michaels was injured and could no longer compete. Mankind tried to replace him, but Austin said he wanted "nothing to do with a freak" and resigned himself to facing Hart and the Bulldog alone the next week. Halfway into the match, however, Foley debuted a new persona known as Dude Love who suddenly appeared and helped Austin take the victory, becoming the new Tag Team Champions. Austin and Dude vacated their tag team titles when Austin suffered a (legitimate) serious neck injury at the hands of Owen Hart at SummerSlam. Dude Love feuded with Hunter Hearst Helmsley, as the two competed in a Falls Count Anywhere match. One of Foley's most memorable vignettes aired before the match began, in which Dude Love and Mankind discussed who should wrestle the upcoming match. Eventually, "they" decided that it should be Cactus Jack, and Foley's old character made his WWF debut. Jack won the match with a Piledriver through a table. Shortly thereafter, Extreme Championship Wrestling's Terry Funk joined the WWF as "Chainsaw Charlie," and he and Jack defeated the New Age Outlaws at WrestleMania XIV in a Dumpster match to win the tag team titles. The next night, however, Vince McMahon stripped them of the belts and scheduled a rematch in a steel cage, which the Outlaws won with help from their new allies, D-Generation X.
On April 6, 1998, Foley turned heel when Cactus Jack explained the fans would not see him anymore because they did not appreciate him and only cared about Stone Cold Steve Austin. Vince McMahon explained to Austin the next week that he would face a "mystery" opponent at Unforgiven. That opponent turned out to be Dude Love, who won the match by disqualification, meaning that Austin retained the title. McMahon, displeased with the outcome, required Foley to prove he deserved another shot at Austin's title with a number one contendership match against his former partner, Terry Funk. The match was both the WWF's first ever "Hardcore match" and the first time that Foley wrestled under his own name. Foley won, and after the match, a proud McMahon came out to Dude Love's music and presented Foley with the Dude Love costume. At , Dude Love took on Austin for the title. McMahon designated his subordinates Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson as the timekeeper and ring announcer, and made himself the special referee. The Undertaker, however, came to ringside to ensure McMahon called the match fairly, and with his presence, Dude Love lost the match and was "fired" by McMahon the June 1st edition of Raw.
Many future matches attempted to replicate some of the spots from this match. In his autobiography Have a Nice Day! A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, Foley wrote that he couldn't remember much of what happened, and he had to watch a tape of the match to write about it. The match was voted Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Match of the Year for 1998. Although many fans regard the match as a classic, it has generated controversy as well. Critics charge that the falls in the match were so extreme and they set the bar for further bumps so high that the inevitable attempts to equal or surpass them would be unsafe for the wrestlers involved. Additionally, in his autobiography, Terry Funk wrote that both falls, including the second one through the cage, were planned. Foley said in his first book that his wife cried during a post match phone conversation between the two, and this made Foley strongly consider retiring from wrestling. He also said that after the match, Vince McMahon thanked him for all he had done for the company, but made Foley promise to "never do anything like that again."
Foley returned from knee surgery as Mankind to win the WWF Championship for the third time at SummerSlam in a triple threat match against Steve Austin and Triple H. It is believed that Mankind was booked to win the championship that night because Austin refused to lose it to Triple H. Foley stated the reason he was booked into the match was because Austin had torn a ligament in his knee and a triple threat match would add enough intangibles to make an acceptable match without aggravating Austin's knee. Mankind's win also led to an enraged Triple H to assault Austin, justifying Austin's absence while his knee healed. Triple H defeated Mankind and won the title the next night on Raw. A major feud developed between Mankind and the McMahon-Helmsley regime, led by Triple H, which led to Mankind's reverting to his Cactus Jack persona and facing Triple H for the WWF Championship at Royal Rumble in a Street Fight. Cactus used barbed wire and thumbtacks, trademark weapons from his pre-WWF days, but Triple H won the match after delivering two pedigrees, the second onto a pile of tacks. This feud culminated with a rematch at No Way Out in a Hell in a Cell match, where stipulations held that if Cactus Jack did not win the title, Foley would retire from wrestling. Triple H won, after throwing Foley over him onto the cage. The cage gave away, snapped and Foley fell through the canvas thus ending the match, ostensibly ending Foley's career. Foley left for a few weeks but returned at the request of Linda McMahon to wrestle for the title at WrestleMania 2000 against Triple H, The Rock, and The Big Show. Triple H won, and Foley did not wrestle again for four years.
Foley made a surprise return on the Monday Night Raw just prior to WrestleMania X-Seven and announced that he would be the special guest referee in the match between Mr. McMahon and his son Shane at WrestleMania. After WrestleMania, Foley made sporadic WWF TV appearances throughout the spring and summer, at one point introducing Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura during a taping of Raw in the state as a foil to Mr. McMahon, as well as serving as the guest referee for the Earl Hebner versus Nick Patrick Referee match at the WWF Invasion pay-per-view.
Foley returned as commissioner in October 2001, near the end of The Invasion angle. During this brief tenure, Foley had the opportunity to shoot on the WWF's direction and how dissatisfied he was with it. Saying that there were far too many championships in the company, he booked unification matches prior to the final pay-per-view of the storyline, Survivor Series. After Survivor Series, he ended his commissionership at Vince McMahon's request and left the company.
In 2004, Foley returned briefly to wrestling, competing in the Royal Rumble and eliminating both Orton and himself with his trademark Cactus Jack clothesline. He and The Rock reunited as the Rock 'n' Sock Connection and lost a handicap match to Evolution at WrestleMania XX when Orton pinned Foley with an RKO as Foley pulled out Mr. Socko, this match turned out to be The Rock's final match in the WWE. The two continued to feud, culminating in a hardcore match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship at Backlash, where Orton defeated Foley as his Cactus Jack persona to retain the title with a botched RKO onto a barbed wire wrapped baseball bat, which Foley now regards as possibly the best match of his career. Later in the year, he would make a one-time appearance at Japanese promotion HUSTLE, challenging for the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship against then champion, Toshiaki Kawada, albeit in a losing effort.
Foley appeared as a color commentator at WWE's ECW One Night Stand, which aired on June 12, 2005, and subsequently renewed his contract with WWE. Foley returned in 2005 in a match where fans were able to vote on which persona he would appear as—Mankind, Dude Love, or Cactus Jack—against Carlito at Taboo Tuesday. Foley cut promos for each character and an online vote was held. The fans voted for Mankind, who went on to win the match. On the February 16, 2006 Raw, Foley returned to referee the WWE Championship match between Edge and John Cena. After Cena won, Edge attacked Foley, and the following week, Edge challenged Foley to a match at WrestleMania 22. Edge defeated Foley after spearing him through a flaming table. In the weeks after the match, Foley turned heel and allied himself with Edge against the newly rejuvenated ECW. This would be the first WWE heel turn (and his final heel turn) of Foley since his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin as Dude Love in 1998. At ECW One Night Stand, Foley, Edge and Lita defeated Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer and Beulah McGillicutty.
Foley then engaged in a storyline rivalry with Ric Flair, inspired by real-life animosity between the two. In Have a Nice Day!, Foley wrote that Flair was "every bit as bad on the booking side of things as he was great on the wrestling side of it." In response, Flair wrote in his autobiography that Foley was "a glorified stuntman" and that he was able to climb the ladder in the WWF only because he was friends with the bookers. The two had a backstage confrontation at a Raw event in 2003, but Foley has said that they have largely reconciled. To spark the feud, Flair again called Foley a "glorified stuntman" and Foley called Flair a "washed up piece of crap" and challenged him to a match. The result was a Two out of Three Falls match at Vengeance, where Flair beat Foley in two straight falls; with a rollup counter to the figure four in the first and by disqualification in the second after a trashcan shot. After the match, Flair was split wide open by Foley with a barbed wire bat. The two then wrestled an "I Quit" match at SummerSlam, which Flair won when he forced Foley to quit by threatening Melina with a barbed wire bat. On the August 21 edition of Raw, Foley literally kissed Vince McMahon's buttocks as part of McMahon's "Kiss My Ass Club" gimmick after he threatened to fire Melina. Shortly thereafter, she betrayed Foley and announced that he was fired.
Seven months later, Foley made his return to Raw on March 5, 2007 as a face again and tricked McMahon into giving him his job back. On April 9, Foley contributed to the Make-a-Wish Foundation and helped a young child named Michael Peña to become an honorary General Manager of the night. Foley appeared again on June 11 for Mr. McMahon Appreciation Night insulting McMahon. Foley also announced his place as a number one contender for the WWE Championship. During the Raw broadcast before , Foley was scheduled to make his official in-ring return in a match against Umaga but he attacked Umaga before the match, and the match was never started. At Vengeance, Foley wrestled in a WWE Championship Challenge match involving WWE Champion John Cena, Randy Orton, King Booker, and Bobby Lashley. Cena retained by pinning Foley. A month later, Foley made an appearance on Raw as the special guest referee for a match between Jonathan Coachman and Mr. McMahon's storyline illegitimate son Hornswoggle. Hornswoggle won the match, after Foley handed him a miniature Mr. Socko. Foley then made an appearance on SmackDown the same week, where he defeated Coachman with Hornswoggle as the special guest referee. On the January 7, 2008 episode of Raw, Foley and his tag team partner Hornswoggle qualified for the Royal Rumble by defeating The Highlanders, but Foley was eliminated by Triple H during the Rumble.
Foley debuted as a color commentator for SmackDown alongside Michael Cole at Backlash in 2008, replacing Jonathan Coachman. On the August 1 edition of SmackDown, Foley was kayfabe attacked by Edge during Edge's promo for his SummerSlam match against The Undertaker. Foley sat out the August 8 SmackDown to sell his recovery from the injuries. Tazz filled in for Foley as a color commentator on SmackDown, while Raw wrestler Matt Striker filled in for Tazz on ECW. Foley told Long Island Press pro wrestling columnist Josh Stewart in August 2008 that "creatively, the announcing job wasn't working out too well". Foley allowed his contract with WWE to expire on September 1, 2008 and quietly left the company.
On the September 18, 2008 edition of Impact!, Foley made his first televised appearance for TNA, where Jeff Jarrett introduced him to the audience on the arena's video wall. Two weeks later, Foley made his full television debut in a promo making comments about the WWE roster, Vince McMahon and Kurt Angle. At Bound for Glory IV, he was the special guest enforcer for Jarrett and Angle's match. Later, on Impact!, Foley said goodbye, but was then approached by Jeff Jarrett with a new offer; he later indicated that they had come to terms on a new contract and would make a major announcement the next week. On the October 23 episode of Impact!, Foley announced that he was now co-owner of TNA along with Jarrett, just after Kurt Angle headbutted him.
On November 27, Thanksgiving Day, TNA presented the Turkey Bowl. Alex Shelley ended up being pinned by Rhino, and Foley handed Rhino the check. Afterwards, the defeated Shelley had to put on a Turkey Suit in compliance with the match rules, albeit with much refusal. However, Shelley "flipped off" Foley and proceeded to beat him up. In the aftermath, Mick mentioned that Shelley is lucky he still has his job. The Main Event Mafia's Kevin Nash, Booker T, and Scott Steiner were going to take on Brother Devon, A.J. Styles, and Mick Foley in his debut matchup at Genesis. Nash, however, suffered a legitimate staph infection and missed Genesis. He was replaced by Cute Kip. Foley got the pin when he hit Scott Steiner with a double arm DDT onto a chair.
On April 19, 2009 at Lockdown, he defeated Sting to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship for his first ever championship in TNA, and his fourth World title overall. Foley turned heel. Mick did not lose the championship, but Sting became the new leader of the Main Event Mafia by pinning Kurt Angle at Sacrifice. Foley had also stated on Impact! tapings that if he retained the TNA World Heavyweight Title at the King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary, he would only put the title up in a match once a year. However, he lost the title to Kurt Angle in the King of The Mountain match at Slammiversary. He received a rematch at Victory Road, commenting he had only submitted once in his career (to Terry Funk, in a spinning toe hold) and swore he'd never do it again. He lost the match when Angle forced him to submit again with the ankle lock.
On July 30, 2009, the 200th episode of Impact!, Foley won the TNA Legends Championship by pinning champion Kevin Nash in a tag team match where Nash teamed with Angle and Foley with Bobby Lashley. At Hard Justice Nash defeated Foley to regain the title, following interference from Traci Brooks.
After this, Foley turned his attention away from Abyss and Dr. Stevie and concentrated on Hulk Hogan's arrival in TNA, appearing to be paranoid about Hogan taking over TNA. On the December 3 edition of Impact! Foley teased another heel turn by booking face Kurt Angle in a handicap match, after Angle refused to give him information on who Hogan is bringing to TNA. At Final Resolution Abyss and Foley defeated Stevie and Raven in a "Foley's Funhouse" tag team match. On January 4, 2010, the day of Hulk Hogan's debut for TNA, Foley was assaulted by the reunited Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman, when trying to get a meeting with Hogan. On the January 21 edition of Impact! new Executive Producer Eric Bischoff fired Foley, after claiming to have been attacked by him. On the February 11 edition of Impact!, Bischoff and Foley "talked it over", as Hogan had suggested two weeks prior, and Foley was entered in the 8 Card Stud Tournament at Against All Odds. The match was a No Disqualification match against Abyss, who won the match and advanced. On the March 15 edition of Impact! Bischoff announced that he would be shaving Foley bald as a punishment for trying to help Jeff Jarrett in a handicap match the previous week. At first Foley was seemingly going along with the plan, but at the last second he shoved Mr. Socko down Bischoff's throat, put him on the barber's chair and shaved him nearly bald. On the following edition of Impact!, Foley lost to Jarrett in a No Disqualification Career vs. Career match set up by Bischoff, forcing Foley to kayfabe leave TNA. In reality, Foley was taken off television due to him being on his way to exceed the maximum number of dates per year on his contract, at the pace he was making appearances.
Adult fiction
In the late 2001, Foley hosted a series of Robot Wars dubbed "Extreme Warriors." He also provided a guest voice for two episodes of the Nickelodeon animated series , in which he portrayed a satirical earthbending wrestler named the Boulder (essentially a parody of Foley's friend and former partner the Rock), and provided the voice for Gorrath in the pilot episode of Megas XLR. Foley appeared in an episode of Boy Meets World as Mankind, giving advice to Eric Matthews before giving Eric the mandible claw and an airplane spin. Foley was also a voice in an episode of Celebrity Deathmatch where he was an animated version of Mankind doing a stunt from the ceiling, and later in the same episode he fought and defeated Ernest Hemingway. Foley also had a small role in the 2007 thriller movie Anamorph starring Willem Dafoe.
Foley has frequently appeared on Air America Radio's Morning Sedition, including several stints as a guest host and has appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show. He also hosted WWE's radio show. Foley also occasionally appears on the Opie and Anthony Show. In the summer of 2007, Mick Foley was filmed for the film Bloodstained Memoirs, a wrestling documentary.
In 2009, Foley had a guest voice appearance on Adult Swim show Squidbillies as Thunder Clap, a former pro-wrestler (strongly resembling Hulk Hogan in both appearance and speech), who had recently gone through some tough times, during the Season 4 episode "Anabolic-holic". On August 22, 2009, Foley made his stand-up debut at the Improv in Los Angeles, CA. The event is being billed the "Total Xtreme Comedy show" and also features comedians, Steve Simone, Brad Williams, Bret Ernst and Ring of Honor's Colt Cabana, who is also making his stand-up debut. The money Foley makes from the event will go to Wrestler's Rescue, which creates awareness and helps raise money to support the health care needs of retired professional wrestlers. In October 2009, Foley was guest DJ on E Street Radio, a Satellite radio station dedicated to the music of Bruce Springsteen.
On November 19, 2009 Foley made his first appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Deemed the "Senior Ass Kicker", Foley defended the pro-gay rights views of Will Phillips. He showed up again on March 15, 2010 to help correspondent Wyatt Cenac compare politics to pro wrestling, giving speeches for and against the use of the filibuster. Due to his charitable work and for standing up for a Will Phillips, Foley was awarded a "Medal of Reasonableness" by Jon Stewart at the 2010 Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
In mid 2010, Foley has appeared on Chicago Comic Con, where he had his own booth promoting TNA. He was also interviewed by Victory Records, mentioning his interest in Swedish hard rock band Sister Sin).
On September 27, 2010, it was announced that Union Square Agency and American Original would be producing a feature film based on Foley's life.
In November 2010 Foley was a contestant on an all TNA week of Family Feud, teaming with Jay Lethal, Matt Morgan, Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam against Angelina Love, Christy Hemme, Lacey Von Erich, Tara and Velvet Sky.
Foley has participated in numerous Make-a-Wish Foundation events, made surprise visits to children in hospitals and has also visited schools and libraries, talking to students about the value of education and the importance of reading and traveled to various military bases and military hospitals to visit U.S. troops. For several years Foley visited Washington D.C. based military hospitals on almost a monthly basis and in a Washington Time's article was referred to as a "Legend among hurt troops." Foley sponsors seven children with ChildFund International (formerly Christian Children's Fund), a group he has been affiliated with since 1992. In recent years, he has become one of the fund's leading donors, helping fund childhood education centers in the remote areas of the Philippines and Mexico, as well as four small community schools in the war torn West African country of Sierra Leone. After visiting the country in November 2008, an experience he called "one of the best experiences of my life; maybe the best," Foley committed to funding a larger primary school as well, which was completed in September 2009.
Having become a devoted fan of Tori Amos' music in 1993 with particularly the song "Winter" from the Little Earthquakes album, and following a meeting with Amos at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con, Foley became involved with the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), a group Amos co-founded in 1994. He joined their National Leadership Council, a small group of key supporters who have given their time and money to help RAINN eliminate sexual violence. Foley donated 50% of the advance royalties from his upcoming memoir "Countdown to Lockdown" to RAINN. The other 50% will go toward helping sexual abuse victims in Sierra Leone. Foley began training to be a volunteer for RAINN's online hotline in January 2010 and was named RAINN's Volunteer of the Month in September 2010, an honor he stated was as special as any he had received in his career.
Foley has been outspoken in his support for the Democratic party. During the 2004 election cycle, Foley argued the Democratic point of view in a WWE-sponsored debate against John "Bradshaw" Layfield, who spoke for the Republican side. He was a contributor to Barack Obama's campaign for the U.S. presidency in 2008.
Mr. Foley is also an ardent supporter of Stony Brook University basketball.
{|class="wikitable" width=100% |- !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=5%|Wager !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=20%|Winner !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=20%|Loser !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=20%|Location !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=15%|Date !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=20%|Notes |----- align="center" |Career |Triple H |Cactus Jack |Hartford, Connecticut | | |- align="center" |Career |Jeff Jarrett |Mick Foley |Orlando, Florida | | |}
Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:American children's writers Category:American memoirists Category:American novelists Category:American professional wrestlers Category:American professional wrestlers of Irish descent Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:People from Bloomington, Indiana Category:People from Long Island Category:Professional wrestling executives Category:Professional wrestling managers and valets Category:Professional wrestling referees Category:Ward Melville High School alumni Category:State University of New York at Cortland alumni
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Mark Henry |
|---|---|
| Names | Mark Henry |
| Height | (born June 12, 1971) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) performing on its Raw brand. Aside from wrestling, he is a 1992 Olympian, and winner of the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic. Since joining the WWF/E in 1996, he has become a one-time WWE European Champion and a one-time world champion, having held the ECW Championship in 2008. |
| Image1 | Henry gets an early lead.jpg |
| Image1 cap | Henry prepares to perform a World's Strongest Slam on John Cena. |
| Image2 | Two for One.jpg |
| Image2 cap | Henry performing a body avalanche on Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes. |
Category:1971 births Category:African American professional wrestlers Category:American strength athletes Category:American weightlifters
Category:Living people Category:Olympic athletes who wrestled professionally Category:Olympic weightlifters of the United States Category:People from the Beaumont – Port Arthur metropolitan area Category:Powerlifters Category:Weightlifters at the 1992 Summer Olympics Category:Weightlifters at the 1996 Summer Olympics Category:Weightlifters at the 1995 Pan American Games
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Mae Young |
|---|---|
| Names | Mae YoungThe QueenThe Great Mae Young |
| Birth date | March 12, 1923 |
| Retired | February 10, 2005 (from active work) |
As an instructor, one of her students was Ric "The Equalizer" Drasin. Young and Moolah both competed at Survivor Series with Debra and Tori against Ivory, Jacqueline, Terri Runnels, and Luna.
At the age of seventy-six, she was named the WWF's "Miss Royal Rumble 2000" at the Royal Rumble by winning a bikini contest.
In 2004, Young and The Fabulous Moolah were invited to tour, as guests of honor, with the WWE's modern stars as part of that organization's fiftieth anniversary. Also in 2004, she was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. Young, along with several other lady wrestlers, starred in the 2005 film , She was attacked by Victoria as she left the ring, which led to Moolah and Mae removing Victoria's top, which helped Ashley Massaro win the match. Mae also appeared (with the aid of a walker) with The Fabulous Moolah on the Raw Family Reunion special on October 9, 2006, where the duo waved to the crowd from the stage.
On March 31, 2007, Young, along with The Fabulous Moolah, attended the WWE Hall of Fame 2007 Ceremonies on the eve of WrestleMania 23. At WrestleMania 23, she appeared dancing backstage with several other WWE superstars of the past and present. Mae made another appearance at the 2007 Draft Lottery on June 11. Mae also made a special appearance on SmackDown! on August 24 winning a bikini contest. Young also appeared on February 16, 2010 on a special segment where Jerry Springer guest hosted Raw where it was revealed that she was Jerry's secret romance.
Mae also made an appearance at Wrestlemania XXVI in a backstage segment that saw her kissing Santino Marella.
On November 15, 2010, Mae Young defeated Lay Cool in a no DQ, pinfalls count anywhere match on the entry ramp with the help of Melina, Eve Torres, Natalya, Gail Kim. and The Bella Twins, becoming the first person ever to wrestle in nine different decades. Prior to the match, Young called Lay Cool "sluts" and "bitches" despite the show's TV-PG rating, causing a big fan reaction.
Category:1923 births Category:American female professional wrestlers Category:Living people Category:People from Tulsa, Oklahoma Category:Professional wrestling trainers Category:WWE Hall of Fame
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Simultaneously, in a form of cross-promotion, Lawler engaged in a bitter feud with Vince McMahon (who at the time was never acknowledged as the actual owner of the World Wrestling Federation) back in the USWA. There Lawler played the babyface to his hometown Memphis audience, whereas McMahon (who had always played face in the WWF) was being portrayed as a smug heel intent on dethroning Lawler as the king of professional wrestling. As part of the cross-promotion, McMahon, Bret and Owen Hart, Giant González, Tatanka, and "Macho Man" Randy Savage would begin appearing on USWA television to further the feud. While the program continued in the USWA, the feud between Lawler and McMahon would not be acknowledged on WWF television.
The Hart Family (Bret, Owen, Bruce, and Keith) were scheduled to face a team captained by Lawler in an elimination match at Survivor Series. However Shawn Michaels had to take Lawler's place because Lawler was facing legal troubles. As a result, the feud between Lawler and Vince McMahon back in the USWA was also abruptly discontinued. Lawler did not face Bret Hart at another pay-per-view until the first In Your House, when he beat Hart after Hakushi and his manager Shinja interfered. This set up a "Kiss My Foot" match at King of the Ring 1995, which Bret won. however, the feud quickly disappeared.
Following the end of his legal troubles which kept him out of Survivor Series 1993, Lawler eventually returned to the WWF at WrestleMania X, which was also the first WWF pay-per-view he ever commentated at. During the main event of the night, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper served as special guest referee for the second WWF championship match. During this Lawler began making disparaging remarks about him. Lawler would continue to berate Piper on later episodes of Monday Night Raw, including bringing a skinny kid into the ring dressed as Piper and forcing him to kiss his feet. This ultimately led to a match between the two at King of the Ring 1994 which Lawler lost.
In the fall of 1994, Lawler initiated a feud with Doink the Clown. Lawler popped the balloons carried by Doink's midget sidekick, Dink. After Doink and Dink retaliated, Lawler introduced a midget sidekick of his own, who he named Queasy. After the match, however, Lawler's team turned on him, joining with Doink's team to attack Lawler.
In late 1994 and early 1995, Lawler wrestled briefly in Smoky Mountain Wrestling while still continuing to commentate sporadically for the WWF.
In 1997, Lawler became heavily involved in the working relationship between the WWF and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). In interviews and commentary, he referred to the promotion as "Extremely Crappy Wrestling".
In mid-1997, Lawler entered the King of the Ring tournament for the first time and advanced to the semi-final round where he was defeated by Mankind. By the fall, the WWF introduced a new "light-heavyweight division" to compete with World Championship Wrestling's cruiserweight division. Lawler's son, Brian Christopher, was one of the major light-heavyweight superstars in the division, although, the WWF played up an angle where both Lawler and Christopher would deny their family relationship, even though the two would aide each other in matches and so on.
By 1998, Lawler rarely wrestled in the WWF and focused on commentary. Despite their feud in the USWA in 1993, by 1998, Vince McMahon had turned heel in the WWF for the first time and left the announce position, to which Lawler began praising McMahon's name on commentary as part of his own heel persona, much to the chagrin of Jim Ross. It was McMahon's departure from the commentary team which led to the strong on-screen chemistry between Lawler and Ross in subsequent years. This played a key role in a change of Lawler's character; although he still supported the heels, he showed a sense of right and wrong, and would condemn actions of heels when they went too far. This began when Lawler surprisingly attacked Tazz when he started bullying Ross. At SummerSlam, The King wrestled Tazz in defense of Ross. In his account, there was no clear notice as to why she was fired; when Jim Ross broke the news to him, he stated that the Creative Team simply said that Stacy had "an attitude problem." Vince McMahon told Lawler that he did not know exactly what the attitude problem was, and failed to straighten the issue to the Lawlers. Considering that McMahon was Head of the Talent Creative Team, Lawler found it highly suspicious that McMahon then allowed him simply to quit, as if McMahon knew it would happen.
Lawler has stated several theories as to why he was allowed to leave. His first involves the ascent of Carter's career alongside the downfall of Chyna's. In his contention, Chyna was jealous of his wife's push inside the company, in part due to the Right to Censor storyline, and in part because of his wife's offer to pose for Playboy magazine. Until that time, Chyna had been the second major wrestling star from the World Wrestling Federation to have done a piece in Playboy (after Sable); during Chyna's debut on the adult magazine, she had suddenly broken her friendship with Carter.
In interviews, he has also stated that there may have been an alternate reason, namely, that the company wanted to fire him. He also criticizes McMahon for the cavalier attitude he had given him on the day he quit. In his recollection, Jim Ross was fired by McMahon with the exact same demeanor while struck with a bout of Bell's palsy in 1994, a time when Ross' "usefulness" had run out. Lawler felt that Carter's release was an attempt to remove him as well, stating that the company was well-aware that he would walk-out alongside his wife. Lawler's replacement with Paul Heyman launched a theory in which Heyman was promoted at Lawler's expense. Internet rumors circulated that the company was in better terms with Heyman than Lawler, and used remarks Lawler had made in criticism of ECW to launch a theory whereby Heyman wanted Lawler out. Lawler has stated repeatedly that he has no resentment towards Paul Heyman, accusing the media and internet theorists of spreading false information. In July, five months after the couple left the WWF, Lawler and Carter divorced.
During this time, Lawler made appearances on the independent circuit in both Australia and North America,
In addition, he has had sporadic matches with up-and-coming Raw superstars, such as Randy Orton, Muhammad Hassan, Gregory Helms and the team of Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, Jr.
In 2003, Raw's announce team of Lawler and Jim Ross feuded with Sunday Night Heat's team of Jonathan Coachman and Al Snow.
In July 2006, Randy Orton began a feud with Hulk Hogan. Lawler attacked Orton in defense of Hogan, which set up a match between them on Raw. Orton defeated Lawler after a low blow and an RKO.
On March 31, 2007, Lawler was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by William Shatner, whom Lawler had a memorable altercation with on a January 1995 episode of Raw. In August, King Booker claimed to be the only one entitled to be known as "King". After being beaten by Booker in the ring, Lawler was supposed to be forced to crown his opponent at an August 13 show in Madison Square Garden. During the ceremony, however, Lawler announced another king as a new opponent for Booker, "The King of Kings" Triple H. This led to a worked brawl between Lawler and Booker. Later that summer, he teamed with "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan to face Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes for the World Tag Team Championship but lost.
On the March 23, 2009 edition of Raw, Lawler challenged Chris Jericho to a match because of his disrespect and erractic behavior to WWE Hall of Famers, which Jericho accepted. The following week, Lawler lost to Jericho after submitting to the Walls of Jericho. After the match, Jericho outlined how he would remain supreme against WWE Hall of Famers at WrestleMania XXV.
On the Monday July 20, 2009 episode of Monday Night Raw, Lawler announced himself as the opponent against The Brian Kendrick. He went on to defeat Kendrick. On the November 16 edition of Raw, after recent acquisition Sheamus attacked the timekeeper in frustration for not receiving an opponent, Lawler left the announce table to confront Sheamus and check on the victim, only to receive a kick to the head for his troubles. On June 7, 2010, during a Viewer's Choice edition of Raw, Lawler lost his crown to the IRS because he had apparently not paid his taxes, but it was regained by Quinton Jackson later on. At the end of the night, Lawler was one of the many employees at ringside that were brutally attacked by the season 1 NXT rookies. Lawler however, was the only person at ringside that fought back, as he used punches and chops to attack the NXT rookies assaulting him until it was a 3-on-1 assault. The following week on Raw, Lawler and the Raw roster fought off the now-called "The Nexus" when they attempted to ambush John Cena a second time. On June 28, Lawler, Ricky Steamboat, Michael Hayes, Arn Anderson, Mike Rotunda, and Dean Malenko were severely attacked by the Nexus, just as they were celebrating Steamboat's career. Josh Mathews replaced Lawler on color commentator for the remainder of the show.
On the July 26, 2010 episode of Monday Night Raw, Lawler teamed with Mark Henry, Goldust, Yoshi Tatsu, Evan Bourne and The Hart Dynasty in a tag team elimination match versus the Nexus. Lawler was eliminated by Heath Slater.
Lawler's feud continued with The Miz on the December 20 Raw, where Lawler teamed up with Randy Orton and John Morrison to take on Miz, Alex Riley and Sheamus in a 6-man Tag match where Lawler pinned Miz to win the match. The following week Lawler defeated Miz again, this time by count-out. Later on that same night, Miz attacked Lawler from behind as he sat at the announce table. On the January 10, 2011 episode of Raw, Lawler once again teamed with Orton to face The Miz and Alex Riley, where Lawler would get the win again, this time pinning Riley.
In 1998, Lawler appeared in the movie Man on the Moon, starring Jim Carrey. His platform focused on making the streets safer for residents, beautifying the city, and improving the quality of education. In addition, he vowed to attract businesses to Memphis, improve the flow of traffic, create more parks, and decrease property taxes. Ultimately, however, Mayor Willie Herenton was easily reelected.
Lawler is the cousin of professional wrestler The Honky Tonk Man.
In 1993, Lawler was indicted for raping and sodomizing a 15-year old girl, who later admitted she had lied about the incident, which caused him to miss Survivor Series 1993. Lawler was arrested on March 16, 1999 after throwing a ticket at a police officer and running over the officer's foot.
Though he has spent most of his life in Memphis, Lawler did spend a part of his childhood in Ohio after his father was transferred to a job in the state. Though this stay was brief, it would have an influence on Lawler throughout his life thereafter. He often cites Cleveland as his second-favorite city behind only Memphis and is a die-hard fan of both the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Browns. When WWE comes to Cleveland, Lawler will usually wear a Browns jersey or an Indians jersey, and during baseball season, he will throw out the first pitch at an Indians game.
Jerry Lawler is also a collector of Coca-Cola merchandise.
1These title changes took place during an AWA hosted card as part of an interpromotional relationship between the American Wrestling Association, World Class Wrestling Association, and Continental Wrestling Association. Lawler also won the championship during a CWA hosted card. 2Lawler won the championship while wrestling on a CWA card in Memphis, Tennessee during the time when the AWA and CWA had a working partnership. It was the same situation during both of Lawler and Dundee's AWA World Tag Team Championship reigns.
Category:1949 births Category:American color commentators Category:American professional wrestlers Category:American professional wrestlers of Irish descent Category:Fictional kings Category:Living people Category:People from Memphis, Tennessee Category:Professional wrestling announcers Category:Professional wrestling trainers Category:WWE Hall of Fame
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Chris Jericho |
|---|---|
| Names | Chris Jericho better known by his ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-born Canadian television and stage actor, author, radio host, television host, rock musician and inactive professional wrestler. He is signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), on its Raw brand but he is currently taking a hiatus. He was also known for his time 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. |
| Filename | Fozzy - Enemy.ogg |
| Title | "Enemy" by Fozzy (2005) |
| Description | Sample from "Enemy" by Fozzy, featuring Chris Jericho on vocals. |
| Format | Ogg}} |
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 at 8:00 on XM 41 The Boneyard.
Jericho is also a contributor to the VH1 pop culture shows Best Week Ever, I Love the '80s, and VH1's top 100 artists. 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.
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 kayfabe feud with actor Mickey Rourke.
Jericho wrote a New York Times bestselling autobiography A Lion's Tale which was released in 2007. Jericho is writing a sequel to A Lion's Tale called Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps. The book is due out in February 2011.
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. Jericho appeared in the 2009 film Albino Farm. He guest starred in "Xero Control", an episode of the Disney XD original series Aaron Stone. In addition, 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.
Irvine and his wife Jessica have three children-a son named Ash Edward Irvine, who was born on September 23, 2003 and twin daughters.
Irvine currently divides his time between homes in Los Angeles, California and Tampa, Florida. Irvine was inducted into the Canadian Wrestling Hall of Fame on September 25, 1997. 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.
On February 7, 2009, Irvine punched a fan after she spat at him with fans outside Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, British Columbia after a World Wrestling Entertainment live event. 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. The two were given tickets for public intoxication and released. On February 16, 2010 after not going to court or paying his ticket, Kenton County Police issued an arrest warrant for the WWE star. However, later that day the court dropped the warrant saying that earlier that day Irvine had paid the ticket.
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 WWF Undisputed Champion.
{|class="wikitable" width=100% |- !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=5%|Wager !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=20%|Winner !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=20%|Loser !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=20%|Location !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=15%|Date !style="background: #e3e3e3;" width=20%|Notes |----- align="center" |Hair |Corazón de León |Cro-Magnon |Mexico City, Mexico |May 30, 1993 | |- |----- align="center" |Mask |Chris Jericho |Juventud Guerrera |Daly City, California | | |- |----- align="center" |Hair |Chris Jericho |Kevin Nash |Grand Rapids, Michigan |August 18, 2003 | |- |----- align="center" |Title |Rey Mysterio |Chris Jericho |Sacramento, California |June 28, 2009 | |}
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 people of Canadian descent Category:American Christians Category:American radio personalities
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
