1.
Birmingham, Alabama
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Birmingham is the most populous city in the U. S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Jefferson County. The citys population was 212,237 in the 2010 United States Census, the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of about 1,128,047 according to the 2010 Census, which is approximately one quarter of Alabamas population. Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period and it was named for Birmingham, England, one of the UKs major industrial cities. The Alabama city annexed smaller neighbors and developed as an industrial and railroad center, based on mining, the new iron and steel industry. Most of the settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry. From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was an industrial center of the southern United States. Its growth from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames as The Magic City and its major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry. Rails and railroad cars were manufactured in Birmingham. The two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South have been nearby Atlanta and Birmingham, since the 1860s, the economy has diversified since industrial restructuring in the latter half of the 20th century. Banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical transmission, medical care, college education. Except for coal mining, the industry has declined in the Birmingham area, Birmingham ranks as one of the most important business centers in the Southeastern United States and as one of the largest banking centers in the nation. In higher education, Birmingham has been the location of the University of Alabama School of Medicine, since that time it has also gained the University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of three main campuses of the University of Alabama System. It is also home to three institutions, Samford University, Birmingham-Southern College, and Miles College. In total, the Birmingham area has major colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, physical therapy, pharmacy, law, engineering, the city has three of the states five law schools, Cumberland School of Law, Birmingham School of Law, and Miles Law School. Birmingham is also the headquarters of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and Southeastern Conference, Birmingham was founded on June 1,1871, by the Elyton Land Company, whose investors included cotton planters, bankers and railroad entrepreneurs. It sold lots near the crossing of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North Alabama railroads. The first business at that crossroads was the trading post and country store operated by Marre, the site of the railroad crossing was notable for its proximity to nearby deposits of iron ore, coal, and limestone – the three main raw materials used in making steel. Birmingham is the only place worldwide where significant amounts of all three minerals can be found in close proximity, from the start the new city was planned as a center of industry
2.
McCalla, Alabama
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Mc Calla is an unincorporated community in Jefferson and Tuscaloosa counties, Alabama, United States, southwest of Bessemer and the geographic terminus of the Appalachian Mountains. He also served as surveyor of many of the rivers throughout the South, tannehill State Park features a 19th-century blast furnace, the Iron and Steel Museum of Alabama, various historical buildings, rustic cabins, and a campground. The park also has a slave cemetery, the McCalla area is served by McAdory Elementary, McAdory Middle and McAdory High schools. Morris Higginbotham, head coach for several high schools in the Birmingham area. Bo Jackson was raised in McCalla and went through the McAdory school system where he set records in multiple sports. He is an American former professional baseball and football player and is the athlete to be named an All-Star in two major American sports. Sherri Martel, known as Sensational Sherri, was a professional wrestling valet who died in McCalla Chad Smith, pitcher for the Miami Marlins organization
3.
Professional wrestling
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Professional wrestling is a dramatized athletic performance that portrays a combat sport. Various forms of weaponry are sometimes used, the content – including match outcomes – is scripted and choreographed, and the combative actions and reactions are performed to appear violent without injuring the wrestlers. Before the 1980s, these facts were considered trade secrets, in the mid-90s, the presentation of scripted events as legitimate is known as kayfabe. Although the combative content is staged and communicated between the wrestlers, there are physical hazards involved - including permanent injury and death. While it has declined in Europe, in North America it has experienced several different periods of prominent cultural popularity during its century. The advent of television gave professional wrestling a new outlet, unlike in Europe, show wrestling has become especially prominent in Japan and in North America. In Brazil, there was a popular wrestling television program from the 1960s to the early 1980s called Telecatch. High-profile figures in the sport have become celebrities or cultural icons in their native or adopted home countries, although professional wrestling started out as petty acts in sideshows, traveling circuses and carnivals, today it is a billion-dollar industry. Revenue is drawn from live event ticket sales, network television broadcasts, pay-per-view broadcasts, personal appearances by performers, branded merchandise, pro wrestling was also instrumental in making pay-per-view a viable method of content delivery. Annual shows such as WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and formerly Bash at the Beach, Halloween Havoc, home video sales dominate the Billboard charts Recreational Sports DVD sales, with wrestling holding anywhere from 3 to 9 of the top 10 spots every week. Due to its persistent cultural presence and to its novelty within the performing arts, there have also been many fictional depictions of wrestling, the 2008 film The Wrestler received several Oscar nominations and began a career revival for star Mickey Rourke. Because actual events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines for the performers, special care must be taken when talking about people who perform under their own name. The actions of the character should be considered fictional events, wholly separate from the life of the performer and this is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers will incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and those who participated felt that it was necessary that spectators should be kept in a constant and complete illusion of a real competition to keep audience interest. For decades, up until the mid-1980s, wrestlers lived their lives as though they were their characters. Wrestlers, bookers and promoters all rigorously enforced the illusion and very few were allowed into the society of professional wrestling to maintain suspension of disbelief. The practice of keeping the illusion, and the methods used to do so, came to be known as kayfabe within wrestling circles. An entire lexicon of slang jargon and euphemism developed to allow performers to communicate without outsiders knowledge of what was being said, occasionally a performer will deviate from the intended sequence of events
4.
New Orleans
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New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U. S. Census, the New Orleans metropolitan area had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502. The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and it is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music, and its celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras. The city is referred to as the most unique in the United States. New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River, the city and Orleans Parish are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north, before Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. As of 2015, it ranks third in population, trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish, La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded May 7,1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time and his title came from the French city of Orléans. The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris, during the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a campaign against the British from the city in 1779. New Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight, nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians, Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city. The Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the republic in the Western Hemisphere. It had occurred several years in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue
5.
Donna Christanello
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Mary Alfonsi, better known by her ring name Donna Christanello, was a professional wrestler trained by The Fabulous Moolah. She was active from the late 1960s through the 1980s and she frequently wrestled women such as Ann Casey, Vicki Williams, Evelyn Stevens and Leilani Kai throughout the 1970s. Christanello was employed at a restaurant in Pittsburgh when she decided to contact a promoter to become a professional wrestler. Male wrestlers Waldo Von Erich and Klondike Bill helped set her up with womens wrestling trainer The Fabulous Moolah and she moved to South Carolina in 1963 to train with Moolah. In 1969, Christanello competed during an Australian tour with Toni Rose, Jessica Rodgers, Betty and Rita Boucher, Ramona Isbell, Marva Scott and she was the frequent tag team partner of Toni Rose. She and Rose won the National Wrestling Alliances NWA Womens World Tag Team Championship in 1970, in 1972, she competed at the Superbowl of Wrestling, where she and Rose defended the time World Womens Tag Team Championship against Sandy Parker and Debbie Johnson. They eventually lost the title in October 1973 to Joyce Grable, there is also an unrecorded title change. Susan Green and Sandy Parker won the World Tag Team title from Christanello and Rose in November 1971 in Hawaii and lost them in February 1972 to Christanello and Rose in Hong Kong. They also defended the title in the NWA and American Wrestling Association, as a result, they were recognized as the first WWF Womens Tag Team Champions. During the mid-1980s she competed in the WWFs womens division, Christianello continued to wrestle in tag team matches. On May 5,1984, Susan Starr and Christianello defeated Wendi Richter, on June 5,1984, Peggy Lee and Christianello defeated The Fabulous Moolah and Desiree Petersen. The next day Moolah and Petersen defeated the team of Christianello, on June 9, Moolah and Petersen defeated Martin and Christianello. The following day, Moolah and Petersen once again defeated Christianello, in August 1984, Christianello wrestled primarily singles matches. On August 19, Susan Green defeated Christianello, in matches on both August 20 and 21, Susan Starr defeated Christianello. In 1987, she wrestled as part of Sensational Sherris team at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, Christanello was born and raised in Pittsburgh and was of Italian descent. She lived with The Fabulous Moolah on-and-off for forty years, ending in May 1999 when she moved back to Pittsburgh, while living with Moolah, she helped train womens wrestlers Sherri Martel and Brittany Brown. After retiring from the ring, she was employed by Wal-Mart in the accounting department and her niece, Marie Minor, was trained by Christanello and worked as a wrestler under the ring name Angie Minelli for several years in the 1980s. On August 25,2011, she died from a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the Fabulous Moolah, First Goddess of the Squared Circle
6.
The Fabulous Moolah
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Mary Lillian Ellison was an American professional wrestler, better known by her ring name The Fabulous Moolah. She began her working with promoter Billy Wolfe and his wife, wrestler and trainer Mildred Burke. She won the NWA World Womens Championship in 1956 and was the most prominent holder of the title for approximately the next 30 years, Ellison was marketed by the WWF as holding the record for the longest title reign by any athlete in any professional sport. According to WWE, she was also the first WWF Womens Champion, in addition, Ellison was a prominent trainer and promoter in womens professional wrestling, but other female wrestlers have accused her of financial and sexual exploitation. In the 1990s, she returned to the WWF in a role with longtime friend Mae Young. In 2010, WWE recognized her as the 27th best wrestler ever, Mary Lillian Ellison was born in 1923 in Kershaw County, South Carolina, and grew up in Tookiedoo,12 miles from Columbia. The youngest of five children, Ellison was the daughter of a part Cherokee father. Her parents owned a farm, a store, and a service station. When her mother died of cancer, eight-year-old Ellison went to live with her paternal grandmother, at age 10, Ellison was still deeply distraught over her mothers death, to cheer her up, her father took her to the local wrestling matches. Ellison liked the matches, but it was not until she saw Womens Champion Mildred Burke wrestle that they began to mean more to me. Ellison returned to the Columbia home of her father and brothers and she graduated Columbia High School, but at age 14 married 21-year-old Walter Carroll. They soon became parents to a daughter, a few months after the birth of her daughter, she divorced Carroll. Still only 15, she left her daughter with a friend, Ellison began her wrestling career with Mildred Burkes husband Billy Wolfe, the dominant womens promoter of the time. She competed with other female wrestlers, stepping into the ring with the likes of Mae Young, Cecilia Blevins. She, however, soon began a romance with wrestler Johnny Long, Long later introduced Ellison to Jack Pfefer who gave her the moniker Slave Girl Moolah. By the early 1950s, Moolah was a valet for Nature Boy Buddy Rogers, accompanying him to the ring while providing eye candy for the male audiences, Ellison broke up the partnership because Rogers kept pushing her to begin a sexual relationship. She then served as the valet for the Elephant Boy, Olivas was Mexican, but had very dark skin, which caused controversy when Ellison, a white woman, would kiss him on the cheek during their ring entrance routine. At one show in Oklahoma City, a man, who thought that Olivas was a black man, Moolah later left Pfeffers promotion and began wrestling under Boston promoters Tony Santos and Paul Bowser
7.
Manager (professional wrestling)
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In professional wrestling, a manager is a secondary character paired with a wrestler for a variety of reasons. A female accompanying character is called a valet, although proper managers can also be female. The wrestler that a manager manages is called his or her charge, a wrestlers manager has nothing to do with their real-world agent. A manager is somewhat like an agent for an actor or an athlete, he helps his client to book matches and appearances. Within the context of storylines, the positions the charge for title opportunities, decides whom to trust as an ally. Outside of storylines, a job is to help the wrestler theyre paired with get over. For this reason, managers are usually paired with wrestlers who the writers feel have great potential, for example, if a wrestler can perform well in the ring, but lacks the gift of gab, a manager will cut promos for him. Often the very act of aligning with a manager, or conversely breaking away from a manager theyve worked with, can change a wrestlers alignment, making them a sudden fan favorite or villain. While the basic goal of a manager to give his or her wrestlers a push does not change, a heel manager, for example, may have their wrestler constantly duck tougher opponents while cheating to help them win when they do wrestle. Certain wrestlers employ a kind of manager, known as a handler. If a wrestlers character calls for it, a handler is the person who can control a wild wrestler prone to go out of control. A classic example of this was The Undertaker, who in his early Deadman persona could only be controlled by Paul Bearer, a recent example of this was wrestler Umaga and his handler, Armando Estrada, as well as Rusev and his ambassador, Lana. Most managers are male, a female who accompanies a wrestler to the ring is often referred to as a valet, valets, in general, rarely cut promos, instead simply making their presence felt by accompanying a wrestler during his promo. Although true female managers are rare, some have had long and storied careers, a male wrestler or character accompanying a prominent female wrestler to the ring could be considered a valet as well, though this is exceptionally rare. Enforcers appear in storylines where a wrestler needs to have back watched, enforcers will keep outside interference from taking place in a match, or become outside interference themselves. Outside the ring, they protect their charges from ambushes by other wrestlers. They tend to come from the ranks of larger, more intimidating looking wrestlers. From the early years of pro wrestling to the mid-1990s, managers were very common because they served a secondary purpose, a managers job was to cut promos on behalf of clients who may not be as charismatic
8.
Columbia, South Carolina
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Columbia is the capital and largest city of the U. S. state of South Carolina, with a population of 133,803 as of 2015. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, the name Columbia is a poetic term used for the United States, originating from the name of Christopher Columbus. The city is located approximately 13 miles northwest of the center of South Carolina. It lies at the confluence of the Saluda River and the Broad River, in 1860, the city was the location of the South Carolina Secession Convention, which marked the departure of the first state from the Union in the events leading up to the Civil War. At the time of European encounter, the inhabitants of the area that became Columbia were a people called the Congaree, in May 1540, a Spanish expedition led by Hernando de Soto traversed what is now Columbia while moving northward. The expedition produced the earliest written records of the area. From the creation of Columbia by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1786, the Congarees, a frontier fort on the west bank of the Congaree River, was the head of navigation in the Santee River system. A ferry was established by the government in 1754 to connect the fort with the growing settlements on the higher ground on the east bank. Like many other significant early settlements in colonial America, Columbia is on the line from the Piedmont region. The fall line is the spot where a river becomes unnavigable when sailing upstream, State Senator John Lewis Gervais of the town of Ninety Six introduced a bill that was approved by the legislature on March 22,1786, to create a new state capital. There was considerable argument over the name for the new city, according to published accounts, Senator Gervais said he hoped that in this town we should find refuge under the wings of COLUMBIA, for that was the name which he wished it to be called. One legislator insisted on the name Washington, but Columbia won by a vote of 11–7 in the state senate, the site was chosen as the new state capital in 1786, due to its central location in the state. The State Legislature first met there in 1790, after remaining under the direct government of the legislature for the first two decades of its existence, Columbia was incorporated as a village in 1805 and then as a city in 1854. Columbia received a stimulus to development when it was connected in a direct water route to Charleston by the Santee Canal. This canal connected the Santee and Cooper rivers in a 22-mile-long section and it was first chartered in 1786 and completed in 1800, making it one of the earliest canals in the United States. With increased railroad traffic, it ceased operation around 1850, the commissioners designed a town of 400 blocks in a 2-mile square along the river. The blocks were divided into lots of 0.5 acres and sold to speculators, buyers had to build a house at least 30 feet long and 18 feet wide within three years or face an annual 5% penalty. The perimeter streets and two streets were 150 feet wide
9.
American Wrestling Association
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The American Wrestling Association was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo, the territory was originally part of the National Wrestling Alliance, becoming an independent territory in the late 1950s. Anton Stecher was a member of the NWA in 1948 and had promoted wrestling in Minneapolis since 1933 through his Minneapolis Boxing and Wrestling Club. In 1952, he sold a one third interest in the promotion to his son Dennis, Stecher died on October 9,1954 and control of the promotion passed to Karbo and Dennis. Verne Gagne, an amateur wrestling champion, had become a well known. He aspired to become NWA World Champion, but for reasons to do with politics inside the NWA. In 1959, Dennis Stecher sold his majority stake in the Minneapolis Boxing and Wrestling Club to Karbo and they became co-owners of the promotion from that point onward. In 1960, after unsuccessfully lobbying the NWA for a match between Gagne and the NWA World Champion Pat OConnor, Gagne and Karbo led certain territories out of the NWA forming the AWA. The AWA unilaterally recognized NWA World Champion Pat OConnor as AWA World Champion, OConnor was stripped of the AWA title and it was awarded to Gagne on August 16,1960. While OConnor was considered the first AWA Champion, he never wrestled in the AWA until later in the 1960s, starting in the 1970s, Gagne trained his newcomer wrestlers from his farm in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Relationships were also developed with existing promotions in Houston, Memphis, after Gagnes retirement in 1981, he focused the promotion on Nick Bockwinkel, a loyal employee of several years who was a mat-wrestling technician like Gagne had been. Starting in 1982 and accelerated by a role in the hit film Rocky III, Hogan rapidly caught on as a babyface with AWA fans, and became the AWAs top draw. But even as his popularity grew to unprecedented levels, Gagne refused to him the AWA World Heavyweight Champion. He recognized Hogans showmanship and charisma and was aware of his potential drawing power. On two occasions, Gagne went so far as to tease AWA title wins for Hogan, only to return the title to Bockwinkel via technicalities, the first was on April 18,1982. Hogan defeated Bockwinkel with the help of an object that Bockwinkels manager Bobby Heenan had interjected into the match. After the three count the belt was awarded to Hogan and he was announced as the new champion, Heenan informed the referee of the object and the ref questioned Hogan about this, but the blood on Hogans face was evidence that the object had also been used on him. The ref stood by his decision and Hogan left the arena as the new AWA World champion, six days later on AWA television, AWA President Stanley Blackburn stripped Hogan of the title and returned it to Bockwinkel
10.
WWE
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Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. was an American professional wrestling promotion and the sanctioning body for the World Wide Wrestling Federation and later World Wrestling Federation. Founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt in 1953, Capitol Wrestling Corporation is the precursor to todays WWE, run by Jess grandson, Jess McMahon was a successful boxing promoter who began working with Tex Rickard in 1926. With the help of Rickard, he began promoting boxing at the third Madison Square Garden, a few years prior, professional wrestler Toots Mondt had created a new challenge of professional wrestling that he called “Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling”. He convinced wrestler Ed Lewis and his manager Billy Sandow to implement this new solution, after much success, a disagreement over power caused the trio to dissolve and, with it, their promotion. Mondt later formed partnerships with other promoters, including Jack Curley in New York City. Mondt eventually took over the New York wrestling scene, due to the fact Curley was dying, with the aid of several bookers, together, McMahon and Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. which later joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1953. In November 1954, Jess McMahon died and Ray Fabiani, one of Mondts associates, both men left the company in protest following the incident and formed the WWWF in the process, awarding Rogers the new WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in April of that year. He lost the championship to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17,1963, after gaining a television program deal and turning preliminary wrestler Lou Albano as a manager for Sammartinos heel opponents, the WWWF was doing sell out business by 1970. Mondt left the company in the late 1960s and although the WWWF had withdrawn from the NWA, Vince McMahon, at the annual meeting of the NWA in 1983, the McMahons and WWF employee Jim Barnett all withdrew from the organization. By March 1979, for marketing purposes, the World Wide Wrestling Federation was renamed the World Wrestling Federation and that same year, Vincent J. McMahons son, Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sports, Inc. incorporated on February 21,1980, originally in Massachusetts. In 1982, Titan Sports Inc. acquired Capitols operations, effectively relocating its headquarters to Greenwich, in an attempt to make the WWF the premier wrestling promotion in the world, McMahon began an expansion that fundamentally changed the industry. In the end, the elder McMahon would never live to see his company grow from a promotion to what is now a worldwide organization. He died from cancer at 69 years old on May 24,1984. By 1985, Titan moved to Stamford, Connecticut then establishing a new entity in 1987 in Delaware which later merged with the old company in 1988. Titan later changed its name to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. before finally becoming World Wrestling Entertainment, list of independent wrestling promotions in the United States
11.
Randy Savage
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Savage is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers in history, a number of peers have ranked Savage among the industrys top performers of all time. For most of his tenures in the WWF and WCW, Savage was managed by his real-life wife Miss Elizabeth Hulette and he has won 29 titles during a 32-year career, including the WWF World Heavyweight Championship twice and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship four times. Aside from championships, he was the 1987 WWF King of the Ring, at the peak of his popularity, he held similar drawing power to that of Hulk Hogan. He was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015, Poffo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the elder son of Judy and Angelo Poffo. His father was Italian American and his mother was Jewish, Poffo was raised Roman Catholic, Angelo was a well-known wrestler in the 1950s and 1960s, who was featured in Ripleys Believe It or Not. for his ability to do sit-ups for hours on end. His younger brother is professional wrestler Lanny Poffo and he lived in Zanesville, Ohio, where he attended Grover Cleveland Middle School. He graduated from Downers Grove North High School in Downers Grove and he later moved to Staten Island, New York, before moving to Lexington, Kentucky, where he lived for many years. Savage was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals organization as an out of high school. He was placed in the leagues to develop, where he mostly played as an outfielder in the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds. Savage was 18 when he began playing minor league baseball, one of his teammates on the 1971 Gulf Coast League Cardinals was Larry Herndon who was also his roommate. Savage would swing a bat into a car tire as a regular training exercise in order to strengthen his hands. The technique was so effective that Herndon adopted it and used it during his own career as a baseball coach, Savage injured his natural throwing shoulder after a collision at home plate, and he learned to throw with his left arm instead. Savages last season was 1974, when he played for the Tampa Tarpons and he played 289 games in four minor league seasons, batting.254 with 16 home runs and 66 RBIs. Savage first broke into the business in 1973 during the fall. His first wrestling character, The Spider, was similar to Spider-Man, the Macho Man nickname was adopted after his mother Judy Poffo read a Readers Digest article predicting that the phrase would become the next hot term. Savage eventually decided to end his career and become a full-time wrestler. He wrestled his first match against Midwest Territory wrestler Golden Boy Paul Christy, Savage worked with his father and brother in Michigan, the Carolinas, Georgia, the Maritimes, and the eastern Tennessee territory run by Nick Gulas. After a while, his father felt that his sons were not getting the pushes they deserved so he started the outlaw International Championship Wrestling promotion in the mid-American states, eventually, ICW disbanded and Randy and Lanny entered the Memphis scene, joining Jerry Lawlers Continental Wrestling Association
12.
Ted DiBiase
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Theodore Marvin Ted DiBiase Sr. is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is signed with WWE working in their Legends program, DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation and he is regarded by many as the greatest villain in pro wrestling history. IGN called DiBiase one of the most gifted technical wrestlers to ever grace the squared-circle, among other accolades in the WWF, DiBiase was the first North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time Tag Team Champion and the 1988 King of the Ring. DiBiase also created his own championship, the Million Dollar Championship and he held the WWF World Heavyweight Championship belt in 1988 after purchasing it from André the Giant, but this period is not recognized by WWE as an official title reign. Nonetheless, DiBiase frequently headlined WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV, DiBiase headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, being inducted by his sons, Ted Jr. and Brett. DiBiase is the son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills. He is the son of wrestler Iron Mike DiBiase, who was Italian. Ted DiBiase is of mostly German and English ancestry and his adoptive father died of a heart attack in the ring when Ted was just 15. Seven-time NWA world champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, in response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so Ted was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship, while there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling. Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk and he made his professional wrestling debut as a referee on June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts in 1975 where he wrestled for four years and his first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television, DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr. s World Wrestling Federation in 1979. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the titles first champion, on June 19,1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional South American Championship to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion. He was Hulk Hogans opponent in Hogans first Madison Square Garden match, DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run frequently tagging with Tommy Wildfire Rich. The two then feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, the feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Tommy Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase
13.
Shawn Michaels
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Michael Shawn Hickenbottom, better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is an American actor, professional wrestling personality, television presenter and retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, as an ambassador and trainer, Michaels wrestled consistently for WWE, formerly the World Wrestling Federation, from 1988 until his first retirement in 1998. He held non-wrestling roles from 1998 to 2000 and resumed wrestling in 2002 until retiring ceremoniously in 2010, in the WWF/E, Michaels headlined major pay-per-view events between 1989 and 2010, closing the companys flagship annual event, WrestleMania, five times. He was the co-founder and original leader of the successful stable and he also wrestled in the American Wrestling Association, where he founded The Midnight Rockers with Marty Jannetty in 1985. After winning the AWA Tag Team Championship twice, the continued to the WWF as The Rockers. Within the year, Michaels would twice challenge for the WWF Championship and win his first WWF Intercontinental Championship, heralding his arrival as one of the industrys premier singles stars. He would go on to be regarded as its finest performer in the 1990s and 2000s. Michaels was voted the greatest professional wrestler of all time in a 2011 poll of the WWE roster, Michaels is a four-time world champion, having held the WWF Championship three times and WWEs World Heavyweight Championship once. He is also a two-time Royal Rumble winner, the first WWF Grand Slam Champion, Hickenbottom was born on July 22,1965, in Chandler, Arizona. As a child, Hickenbottom disliked the name Michael, so his family, ever since, he has been referred to as Shawn. Additionally, Hickenbottom moved around frequently since his father was in the military and he knew he wanted to become a professional wrestler at the age of twelve and said he performed a wrestling routine in his high schools talent show, complete with fake blood. Hickenbottom was already an athlete, his career began at the age of six when he started playing football and he was a stand-out linebacker at Randolph High School on Randolph Air Force Base and eventually became captain of the football team. After graduating, Hickenbottom attended Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas and he then began pursuing a career in professional wrestling. Hickenbottom began to train under Mexican professional wrestler Jose Lothario, during his training, Hickenbottom adopted the ring name, Shawn Michaels. Michaels performance in his debut match impressed many veterans, including Terry Taylor, in January 1985, he debuted for World Class Championship Wrestling, the NWA territory in Dallas, Texas. In April 1985, Michaels went to work for another NWA territory in Kansas City called Central States Wrestling, there, he and tag team partner Marty Jannetty defeated The Batten Twins for the NWA Central States Tag Team Championship, later losing it back to the Battens. After leaving Kansas City, he returned to Texas to wrestle for Texas All-Star Wrestling, during his time with TASW, Michaels replaced Nick Kiniski in the American Breed tag team, teaming with Paul Diamond. Michaels and Diamond were awarded the TASW Tag Team Championship by Chavo Guerrero Sr, the team was later renamed American Force
14.
Extreme Championship Wrestling
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Extreme Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon. ECW closed when then owner Paul Heyman declared bankruptcy in April 2001, after purchasing the assets of ECW in 2003, World Wrestling Entertainment relaunched the Extreme Championship Wrestling franchise as a WWE brand with their existing Raw and SmackDown brands. It debuted on June 13,2006 on Sci Fi in the United States and it was replaced the following week with WWE NXT. ECW had its origins in 1989 under the banner Tri-State Wrestling Alliance owned by Joel Goodhart, in 1992, Goodhart sold his share of the company to his partner, Tod Gordon, who in return renamed the promotion Eastern Championship Wrestling. When Eastern Championship Wrestling was founded, it was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance, at the time, Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert was the lead booker of Eastern Championship Wrestling. Gilbert, after an out with Tod Gordon, was replaced in September 1993 by Paul Heyman. Heyman, known on television as Paul E. Dangerously, had just left World Championship Wrestling and was looking for a new challenge. In 1994, Jim Crocketts non-compete agreement with Ted Turner, who purchased World Championship Wrestling from Crockett in November 1988, was up and he decided to start promoting with the NWA again. Crockett went to Tod Gordon and asked him to hold a tournament for the NWAs top prize, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, in ECWs home area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 27,1994. Gordon planned to have Shane Douglas, who was scheduled to face 2 Cold Scorpio in the tournament finals, Tod Gordon and Paul Heyman originally planned the idea of throwing down the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt. Heyman persuaded Douglas by noting that the negative would only be that NWA traditionalists would just see them as traitors to tradition, coralluzzo believed that Douglas was a bad risk and had the tendency to no-show events. Douglas ultimately decided to go through with Gordon and Heymans plan and he then raised the Eastern Championship Wrestling title belt and declared it to be a World Heavyweight Championship — calling it the only real world title left in professional wrestling. Gordon made the announcement on the next edition of NWA-ECW programming. The promotion showcased many different styles of wrestling, including hardcore wrestling matches as well as lucha libre. The bulk of ECWs shows remained at the ECW Arena, a former warehouse secluded under a section of Interstate 95, seating comprised simple folding chairs and four sets of portable bleachers, and the whole sort of unconventional set up reflected the gritty style of the wrestling itself. Shows were actually broadcast on a Philadelphia local cable station on Tuesday evenings. After Sports Channel Philadelphia went off the air in 1997, the moved to WPPX-TV61. It later moved to an independent broadcast station in Philadelphia on either Friday or Saturday night at 1 or 2 a. m
15.
World Championship Wrestling
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WCW Inc. was an American professional wrestling promotion, historically based in Atlanta, Georgia. Immediately after the buyout, the business was renamed the Universal Wrestling Corporation, WCW also developed a popular cruiserweight division. WCW eclipsed the WWF in popularity throughout the United States for much of the latter-1990s, however, numerous financial, Turner owned WCW until 2001, when selected assets were purchased by the WWF. Since 2001, WCW images and video footage have been distributed in WWE-owned media. Two separate subsidiary companies exist as successors to WCW, WCW, Inc. is the WWE subsidiary established in Delaware in late 2000, initially as W. Acquisition Company, which holds the rights to the WCW video library and other intellectual property. The former WCW entity, which retained liabilities not acquired by WWE, was renamed back to the Universal Wrestling Corporation, the name World Championship Wrestling was first used as a brand and television show title in 1982. Jim Barnett came to Atlanta in the 1970s during a struggle over Georgia Championship Wrestling. Barnett ultimately became majority owner of the promotion, and began using his previous name for his new promotions television program in 1982. The promotion was purchased by Jim Crockett Promotions. However, it was not until November 2,1988 that an actual, National Wrestling Alliance -affiliated promotion called World Championship Wrestling appeared on the national scene and this entity was under the ownership of media mogul and cable-TV pioneer Ted Turner, based in Atlanta, Georgia. WCW went through changes in business and creative leadership during its existence. Once Bischoff was relieved of his duties in 1999, Vince Russo, the two, however, did not get along well and Bischoff soon resigned from the sinking company. It was only a few months later that Russo would also depart after suffering from a concussion at the hands of Bill Goldberg, following Russos departure, the creative needs of the WCW were handled by a booking committee which included Johnny Ace and Terry Taylor. From 2000 to 2001, Monster Jam had a series of trucks based on wrestlers names. These include nWo, Sting, Nitro Machine, Madusa and Goldberg, the first to go was nWo, which only ran for a season. Next, all but Goldberg, Nitro, and Madusa were retired after the WCW sponsorship was lost, Nitro then became Flashfire, and then was converted into Inferno. Madusa has stayed the same since its creation, because it is driven by former WCW wrestler Debrah Miceli, as for Goldberg, it was changed to Team Meents in 2002, then into Maximum Destruction, which debuted in 2003 and continues to compete in the series. WCW also had a presence in NASCAR from the mid-1990s to 2000, sponsoring the #29 team in the Busch Grand National Series full-time and the #9 Melling Racing team in the Winston Cup Series part-time
16.
Tag team
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Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. A tag team may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, in most team matches, only one competitor per team is allowed in the ring at a time. This status as the active or legal wrestler may be transferred by physical contact, the team-based match has been a mainstay of professional wrestling since the mid twentieth century, and most promotions have sanctioned a championship division for tag teams. g. A couple tag-teaming in an argument with another person, in 1901 the first tag team match was held in the United States, in San Francisco. San Francisco promoters introduced tag team wrestling as a way of improving the sport’s entertainment value, while tag team wrestling is now almost traditional in American professional wrestling, the innovation didnt become especially popular outside San Francisco until the 1930s. The first World tag team championship was also crowned in San Francisco in the early 1950s, typically, a tag team championship is awarded to and defended by team of two. In kayfabe, this made it difficult for challengers to prepare for their title fights. This was a gimmick, and is still utilized by other wrestling companies. The stipulation has become known as the freebird rule. A common storyline is former tag team partners turning on each other and this can be used when one member is being called on to develop a new gimmick. The basic tag team match has two teams of two facing off against each other. All standard rules for singles wrestling apply to a team match, however, only one wrestler from each team, called the legal man is allowed in the ring at a time. All other members of the team wait outside the ropes in the teams specified corner, only an active/legal wrestler is allowed to score a fall or have a fall scored against him/her. But any wrestler, legal or outside, may face disqualification for himself or his team for violating rules, once a tag is made, the wrestler tagging out has a grace period to leave the ring before risking disqualification. The wrestler outside the ring must be touching the tag rope tied in the corner, tags are legal as long as the two team members touch. The referee has to see and/or hear the contact between the two wrestlers in order for the tag to be legal. As the ultimate authority over the match, a referee may overlook any of these at his discretion, in some multi-man tag matches in lucha libre, a wrestler can make himself the teams legal man simply by setting foot in the ring, and his partner then leaves. This allows for action to become nearly continuous, two referees, one stationed inside the ring and one on the floor, are employed to maintain order for this type of match
17.
Impact Wrestling
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Impact Wrestling is a privately held American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee and founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett in 2002. The promotion was known as NWA, Total Nonstop Action and was associated with the National Wrestling Alliance. After the agreement ended in 2007, the company created its own TNA World Heavyweight and it is the only major American promotion to predominantly make use of a six-sided wrestling ring. The concept of TNA originated shortly after World Championship Wrestling ended in 2001, bob Ryder, Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett went on a fishing trip and contemplated their futures in the professional wrestling business. Only one wrestling product remained on United States national television, the World Wrestling Federation, the Jarretts found the financial backing they needed and the company put on its first show on June 19,2002. That night, however, in a match just before they went on the air. The estimated repair time was 30–60 minutes, which they did not have because the schedule called for them to go live in a few minutes, whether the ring was ready or not. Backstage, the producers shuffled the schedule so that some non-wrestling segments went first to give the crew some more time. The ring crew fixed the rope with the help of Ron and Don Harris, initially, TNAs weekly pay-per-view show operated as the companys main source of revenue, in place of monthly pay-per-view events used by other promotions. These shows took place mostly at the Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, after 27 months and 111 pay-per-view events, TNA began holding a weekly television show and monthly three-hour pay-per-views. The last weekly pay-per-view took place on September 8,2004, Xplosion launched on November 27,2002 as TNAs first regular cable show and featured exclusive matches from the TNA Asylum as well as exclusive interviews with TNA wrestlers. On November 18,2004, the became a recap show of the previous weeks Impact. in light of alterations in the taping schedule. Xplosion resumed airing exclusive matches once more on October 7,2005 in addition to recapping Impact, the Xplosion Xclusives also aired on the now-ceased TNA Global Impact. Airing of Xplosion in the United States ceased at the end of 2006, in May 2004, TNA introduced a television program, Impact. produced at Soundstage 21 at Universal Studios Florida and broadcast on Fox Sports. In November 2004, TNA held the first of these pay-per-views, Victory Road, the television contract with Fox Sports expired in May 2005 and was not renegotiated, leaving TNA without television exposure. This prompted TNA to air Impact, via webcasts – originally made available via BitTorrent and eventually via RealPlayer – and on Urban America Television replacing Xplosion. During this time, TNA continued pursuing a television deal for regular broadcasting, would later secured a deal with Spike TV. In October 2006, TNA began holding select pay-per-views outside of its filming location
18.
Bobby Roode
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Robert Bobby Roode Jr. is a Canadian professional wrestler currently signed to WWE performing in its developmental territory, NXT, where he is the current NXT Champion in his first reign. He is best known for his 12-year tenure working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling from 2004 to 2016, Roode debuted as part of Team Canada in 2004, becoming a NWA World Tag Team Champion with Eric Young. After exploring a run after the teams breakup, he formed a successful pairing with James Storm as Beer Money. Together with Storm, he is a six-time TNA World Tag Team Champion and he subsequently defeated Storm to become TNA World Heavyweight Champion and became the longest reigning champion in the companys history, at 256 days. Roode was trained in his hometown of Peterborough, Ontario by fellow Ontarians Sean Morley and he completed his training after a year and wrestled his debut match in June 1998 as Total Lee Awesome against Pete Rock. He then went on to work for various Canadian independent promotions, as well as making appearances for the Puerto Rican promotion and he also went on to work a series of dark matches for World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment between 1998 and 2004 before he was signed by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. He later rejoined them as a part of their Wrestling Reality show to be aired on The Fight Network, however, while in TNA, Roode also wrestled for BSE Pro in Ontario, Border City Wrestling in Windsor, Ontario and at NWA Shockwave in New Jersey. He is the former BCW Can-Am Heavyweight Champion, on March 18,2006, he won the NWA Shockwave Internet Championship from Josh Daniels at an NWAS/New York Wrestling Connection cross-promotional event. Eight days later, on March 26, Roode won the vacant NWA Shockwave Heavyweight Championship at Disturbing the Peace 2006 in a four-way match, Roode held both titles until May 21, when he dropped the Internet title and successfully defended the Heavyweight title against Slyck Wagner Brown. Due to the restarting of the company, all of the NWA Cyberspace championships were vacated, Roode performed for the World Wrestling Federation numerous times between 2001 and 2004. On the February 3,2001 episode of Jakked/Metal he competed under the ring name Rudy Rude where he lost to Perry Saturn, on March 18,2002 he teamed with Kingman to face Billy Kidman and Tommy Dreamer in a dark match loss. On the November 3,2002 episode of Sunday Night Heat he teamed with Mark Maraculi to face 3-Minute Warning in another loss and he appeared on the March 2,2003 episode of Heat facing Al Snow in a losing effort. On the July 12,2003 episode of Velocity he faced Sean OHaire in a loss, on the July 13,2003 episode of Heat he teamed with Tyson Dux in a losing effort against La Résistance. On the August 23,2003 episode of Velocity he teamed with Eric Young in a loss against The Full Blooded Italians, on the October 11,2003 episode of Velocity he lost to Billy Kidman. On the October 26,2003 episode of Heat he teamed with Arch Kincaid to face The Hurricane, on November 3,2003, he was in a dark match before Raw, where he lost to Eric Young. In another dark match on November 6 before SmackDown, in May 2004, Roode was brought into Total Nonstop Action Wrestling by Scott DAmore, the owner of Border City Wrestling, a Canadian independent promotion for which Roode had worked on occasion. Roode debuted in TNA as part of the Team Canada stable, and took part in the World X-Cup, Team Canada went on to feud with 3Live Kru and Americas Most Wanted. As the biggest and most powerful member of Team Canada at the time, Roode acted as the enforcer of the group, a role popularised by Arn Anderson
19.
Grizzly Smith
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Aurelian Smith was an American professional wrestler better known as Grizzly Smith. He was the father of professional wrestlers Aurelian, Jr. Michael, Smith began competing in professional wrestling in Texas, but he worked on an oilfield part-time as well. Smith also competed in Georgia, where he challenged Freddie Blassie for the NWA Georgia World Heavyweight Championship but was unable to win the title belt, while wrestling in Texas, Smith met Luke Brown, who he followed to Oklahoma. Smith, who had wrestled under the ring names Jake Smith and Tiny Anderson, began competing as Grizzly Smith, Smith and Brown formed a tag team known as The Kentuckians, and the pair used the gimmick of a pair of hillbillies. Together, they won the Georgia version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship in 1962 and held them until dropping them to Lenny Montana, in 1964 The Kentuckians made a brief stop in the WWWF in the Northeast. They feuded with Gorilla Monsoon & Klondike Bill, the Graham Brothers, unfortunately the team never won the tag titles and went back south. The Kentuckians biggest rivals were The Assassins, with whom they feuded in matches across the United States, in many of these matches, The Assassins were joined by The Missouri Mauler and The Kentuckians teamed with Haystacks Calhoun. They held the belts for several months before dropping them to Gorilla Monsoon, later in 1966, Smith and Brown won the American Wrestling Associations Midwest Tag Team Championship. In January 1967, the Kentuckians showed up in Japans International Wrestling Enterprise, smiths feud with The Assassins also took him to Western Canada, where he teamed with Don Leo Jonathan to defeat The Assassins for the Vancouver version of the NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship. Smith, who was wrestling under the ring name Ski Hi Jones, and Jonathan held the title from March 25,1968 until the following month, Smith then returned to Texas, where he was involved in a rivalry with The Spoiler. The two wrestlers feuded over the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship, which Smith won from The Spoiler in June 1968, the following month, Smith gained another title when he teamed with Fritz Von Erich to defeat The Spoiler and Gary Hart to win the NWA American Tag Team Championship. Smith and The Spoiler continued to feud, however, and The Spoiler regained the Heavyweight Championship in August, the Kentuckians reunited in the NWA Tri-State territory. They won the match and the belts but were stripped of the championship later that month. They continued to pursue the belts and regained later that month. After retiring as a competitor, Smith promoted wrestling events in Louisiana alongside Jack Curtis and he then worked with Bill Watts in the Mid-South territory until being fired during a disagreement over wages. From there, he went to Mississippi to work with promoter George Culkin, Smith was born in Grayson County, Texas and grew up with a brother, who died at age nine, and two sisters. He had two children from his first marriage, Aurelian, Jr. and a daughter and he later had two more children, Michael and Robin, with his second wife Marsha. Three of his went on to become professional wrestlers, Aurelian, Jr. as Jake The Snake Roberts, Michael as Sam Houston
20.
Memphis, Tennessee
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Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U. S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf, Memphis had a population of 653,450 in 2013, making it the largest city in the state of Tennessee. It is the largest city on the Mississippi River, the third largest in the greater Southeastern United States, the greater Memphis metropolitan area, including adjacent counties in Mississippi and Arkansas, had a 2014 population of 1,317,314. This makes Memphis the second-largest metropolitan area in Tennessee, surpassed by metropolitan Nashville, Memphis is the youngest of Tennessees major cities, founded in 1819 as a planned city by a group of wealthy Americans including judge John Overton and future president Andrew Jackson. A resident of Memphis is referred to as a Memphian, and the Memphis region is known, particularly to media outlets, as Memphis and the Mid-South. Occupying a substantial bluff rising from the Mississippi River, the site of Memphis has been a location for human settlement by varying cultures over thousands of years. The historic Chickasaw Indian tribe, believed to be their descendants, French explorers led by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto would encounter the Chickasaw in that area, in the 16th century. J. D. L. Chickasaw Bluffs, located on the Mississippi River at the present day location of Memphis, spain and the United States vied for control of this site, which was a favorite of the Chickasaws. The United States gained the right to navigate the Mississippi River, the Spanish dismantled the fort, shipping its lumber and iron to their locations in Arkansas. Captain Isaac Guion led an American force down the Ohio River to claim the land, by this time, the Spanish had departed. The forts ruins went unnoticed twenty years later when Memphis was laid out as a city, the city of Memphis was founded on May 22,1819 by John Overton, James Winchester and Andrew Jackson. They named it after the ancient capital of Egypt on the Nile River, Memphis developed as a trade and transportation center in the 19th century because of its flood-free location high above the Mississippi River. Located in the delta region along the river, its outlying areas were developed as cotton plantations. The cotton economy of the antebellum South depended on the labor of large numbers of African-American slaves. Through the early 19th century, one million slaves were transported from the Upper South, Many were transported by steamboats along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. This gave planters and cotton brokers access to the Atlantic Coast for shipping cotton to England, the citys demographics changed dramatically in the 1850s and 1860s under waves of immigration and domestic migration. Due to increased immigration since the 1840s and the Great Famine, ethnic Irish made up 9.9 percent of the population in 1850, but 23.2 percent in 1860, when the total population was 22,623. They had encountered considerable discrimination in the city but by 1860 and they also gained many elected and patronage positions in the Democratic Party city government, and an Irish man was elected as mayor before the Civil War
21.
Jim Cornette
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James Mark Cornette is an American professional wrestling manager, commentator, promoter, booker and podcaster. He has also worked as a character in an authoritative role, as Commissioner of Ring of Honor. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Cornette always loved wrestling, reportedly installing an antenna on top of his house as a youth so he could watch as much regional wrestling as possible. He began working at wrestling events at the age of 14, serving as a photographer, ring announcer, timekeeper, magazine correspondent and his dedication was such that he timed television shows with a stopwatch and would present her with typed formats for every show. By 1982, Cornette was now also writing programs for arena shows, having published in wrestling magazines. In August, he travelled to Memphis to see the TV match between Jerry Lawler and Ric Flair, after the show ended, Cornette was tapped on the shoulder by promoter Jerry Jarrett, and asked if he wanted to become a manager on television. As Cornette has recalled, despite his presence being tolerated at shows and TV tapings for nearly a decade, Cornette made his ringside debut on September 25,1982, managing future manager Sherri Martell. Cornette was given the gimmick of a rich kid turned inept manager whose clients kept firing him after one match, the most notable wrestlers in this angle were Dutch Mantell and Crusher Broomfield. Over the next 14 months Cornette also managed Jesse Barr, other wrestlers included a trio in Nashville consisting of Carl Fergie, Norman Fredrich Charles III, and the Angel, a trio that he called the Cornette Dynasty. After a short-lived run in Georgia through a deal Jarrett had with Ole Anderson, Cornette returned to Memphis in July 1983, in November 1983, Mid-South promoter Bill Watts recognised his business was down, and was looking to reinvigorate his territory. Watts asked Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler to visit a TV taping, Jarrett suggested a talent trade, and invited Watts to Memphis to see who he liked. Watts also noticed the young manager in Cornette, and in his own words, recalled He was so obnoxious I wanted to slap him. As the more senior Jimmy Hart was still required by Jarrett, Watts took Cornette to manage his new team, notable wrestlers in the trade who left Mid-South for Memphis included Rick Rude and Jim Neidhart. The influx of the new talent had an impact, and business first rebounded. It was during this time that Cornette acquired his tennis racquet which became his trademark and he has stated he had seen a college movie at the time with an obnoxious rich kid carrying a badminton racquet with him, so he decided on a tennis racquet. At times Cornette loaded the racquet with a shoe to guard against aggressive fans. Cornette and the Midnight Express debuted on Mid-South television on November 23,1983, after the first few weeks in the territory the team faced the Mid-South tag team champions Magnum TA and Mr. Wrestling II. At a TV taping for a signing for an upcoming championship match
22.
Battle royal (professional wrestling)
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In professional wrestling, a battle royal is a multi-competitor match type in which wrestlers are eliminated until one is left and declared winner. Typical battle royals begin with a number of participants in the ring, created by World Championship Wrestling in 1995, the World War 3 battle royal involved a three-ring setup and 60 competitors. 20 wrestlers started in each of the 3 rings in which they would wrestle under regular battle royal rules, once there were only 30 competitors left, all competitors would enter the central and continue in that ring under regular rules until 1 man was left standing. In 1988 the NWA named a pay-per-view after the Bunkhouse Stampede, gauntlet for the Gold is a variation on the battle royal used by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. In this version two wrestlers begin in the ring, with wrestlers entering on a set time period. Wrestlers are eliminated by being thrown over the top rope and to the floor until two wrestlers are left, at point a standard singles match begins. A Last Blood battle royal is essentially a multi-competitor First Blood match, the winner is the last wrestler in the match not bleeding. Generally used in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, a battle royal begins with wrestlers surrounding the ring instead of inside it. At the start of the match they battle for half of them to get into the ring, a diva battle royal is one which features female competitors. However, in this variant divas can be thrown through or under the ropes as well as over the top rope, a WWE diva battle royal with the addition of fetish outfits, such as french maid, nurse, schoolgirl, etc. Often the type of outfit is chosen by an audience poll, match will begin as the multi-women over-the-top elimination battle royal. They are eliminated from the match if they being thrown over the top ropes, the final two competitors will face each other in a ladder match, where the winner will receive a TNA Knockout Championship match, while the runner-up will have her head and hair shaved. WWEs Royal Rumble is a battle royal begins with two wrestlers in the ring, with the remaining participants introduced one by one at a set time period. Elimination occurs in the way with the last person standing as the winner, after all participants have entered the ring. As a result, the winner qualifies for a World Championship shot at Wrestlemania. A two-ring variation on a royal, the wrestlers start in one ring and try to throw wrestlers into the second ring. This was held by World Championship Wrestling at the 1991 Starrcade event, a variation of Battlebowl involves 100 wrestlers splits into 50 in two rings. The only way to be eliminated is to be thrown over the ropes, no matter how and where you hit, whether its apron, floor or barricade you are also eliminated
23.
Tom Prichard
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Thomas Dr. Tom Prichard is an American professional wrestler and author. He is the brother of Chris and Bruce Prichard, Prichard joined the Continental Wrestling Federation in the late 1980s, and feuded with The Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony. On October 3,1988 in Birmingham, Alabama, he defeated Anthony in the finals of a tournament to win the vacant CWF Heavyweight Championship. Prichard lost the title to Wendell Cooley on April 7,1989 in Knoxville, Tennessee and he lost the title to Dennis Condrey a month later on July 22 in Dothan, Alabama, before once again regaining it after defeating Condrey on December 6 of that same year. Prichard held the title until the CWF closed later that month and they feuded with the other top babyfaces, including Jeff Jarrett, Bill Dundee, Robert Fuller, and others. Afterwards, Prichard competed in the Memphis end of the USWA before the opening of Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1992. They continued to feud with The Fantastics throughout mid-1992, and were defeated for the titles on August 8,1992 in a barbed wire cage match in Johnson City. They traded the titles with the Rock N Roll Express three times in a variety of matches over the following year before Lane left the promotion. On November 24,1993 in Boston on the World Wrestling Federations pay-per-view Survivor Series 1993, Prichard and Del Ray defeated the Rock N Roll Express. The Rock N Roll Express regained the titles on February 18,1994 in Port Huron, Michigan, at WrestleMania X the Heavenly Bodies defeated the Bushwhackers in a dark match. Prichard fought in a couple of matches against Bret Hart. They held the titles until the promotion folded on November 26,1995, after SMW folded, the Heavenly Bodies briefly wrestled for Extreme Championship Wrestling, until Prichard returned to the WWF. Prichard competed under his own name with his Heavenly Bodies attire at the Survivor Series 1995, Prichard was the first man eliminated as the Bodydonnas defeated Barry Horowitzs Underdogs team. Before this appearance he had cut off his trademark long brown locks into a blond crew cut. On the WrestleMania XII pre-show, on March 31,1996 and they held the titles until May 19,1996, when they were defeated by the Godwinns in Madison Square Garden in New York City. After Skip left the WWF in fall of 1996, Prichard became a jobber named Dr. X. Dr. X fought mainly on house shows but made a few TV appearances on Superstars, Dr. X lost to Brakkus at In Your House 12, Its Time. By 1997, he became a trainer for the company, responsible for training such future stars as The Rock, Kurt Angle, on September 27,1999, Prichard teamed up with Jeff Jarrett to face against Chyna and Debra on Raw Is War
24.
Larry Zbyszko
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Among other accolades, he is a two-time AWA World Heavyweight Champion, and the final titleholder. Zbyszko was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 28,2015, whistler trained under Bruno Sammartino after cutting his collegiate wrestling career at Penn State University short. He debuted in 1973 as the babyface Larry Zbyszko, with his name a tribute to 1920s Polish American wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko and he initially wrestled in the Pittsburgh area, appearing on the local wrestling program Studio Wrestling, before receiving bookings in Vancouver. He spent three years in the World Wide Wrestling Federation before traveling to California in 1975, Zbyszko was one of the attractions in the 1976 Latin America Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight championship, held in Guatemala City, under Jose Azzari promotions. Three days after the end of the tournament, an earthquake destroyed much of that Central American nation. Zbyszko returned to the WWWF in 1976 and formed a tag team with Tony Garea, with whom he won the WWWF World Tag Team Championships on November 21,1978 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Their reign lasted until March 6,1979, when they were defeated by the Valiant brothers in Allentown, Zbyszko feuded with Bugsy McGraw, Abdullah the Butcher and Superstar Billy Graham in addition to wrestling Killer Kowalski and Baron Mikel Scicluna. In 1978 he summarized his mat-based ringwork with the statement, I just believe in science over brawn, at the end of the decade, Zbyszko became frustrated with his inability to shed his label as Bruno Sammartinos protégé. He challenged Sammartino to a match, claiming this was the only way he could step out of Sammartinos shadow. Sammartino eventually agreed to the match after Zbyszko threatened to retire if he was not granted the match, the trainer and pupil faced one another in Allentown on January 22,1980, with Sammartino dominating the early stages of the match. So despised was Zbyszko by partisan Sammartino fans in the northeast that his car was repeatedly damaged and taxis in which he was travelling were overturned by fans. Zbyszko was struck with an iron pole following a match with Ivan Putski, after turning against Sammartino, Zbyszko was approached by the WWWFs Unholy Trio of managers, but he decided to continue wrestling without a manager. Sammartino and Zbyszko fought one another repeatedly in a feud that stretched throughout 1980. In the course of the feud, Zbyszko began referring to himself as The New Living Legend. The feud culminated in a cage match at Showdown at Shea at Shea Stadium in Flushing. Zbyszko left the WWF in 1981 and feuded with Brunos son David on the independent circuit and he eventually joined the Georgia Championship Wrestling territory of the National Wrestling Alliance, where he began claiming to have retired Bruno Sammartino. Zbyszko initially feuded with Tim Woods and Paul Orndorff, whom he was unable to defeat for the NWA National Heavyweight Championship. After Killer Tim Brooks defeated Orndorff for the title on March 20,1983, Zybszko immediately offered him US$25,000 for the title, which Brooks accepted
25.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
26.
The Rockers
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The Rockers were a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty that teamed from 1985 to 1992. The team worked for NWA Central States Wrestling, the American Wrestling Association, Continental Wrestling Federation, Continental Wrestling Association and the World Wrestling Federation. In 1992, the team had a violent kayfabe breakup that helped propel Michaels into the ranks with The Heartbreak Kid gimmick that he used until his retirement in 2010. After the breakup Michaels and Jannetty had an on again, off again due to Jannetty leaving the WWF on more than one occasion. In 1996, Jannetty teamed up with Leif Cassidy to form The New Rockers but the team never achieved success in the WWF. In 2005, The Rockers reunited for one night but nothing came of it because Jannety was released by WWE. Instead, WWE reformed Michaelss other team, D-Generation X, to fill the story line, Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels first met and struck up a friendship when they both competed for the National Wrestling Alliances Central States Wrestling territory in Kansas City in 1985. Initially they would travel together since Jannetty was either teaming with Tommy Rogers as the Uptown Boys. After the team of Jannetty and Brown broke up Michaels and Jannetty started teaming up, on May 15,1985 Michaels and Jannetty defeated The Batten Twins to win the NWA Central States Tag Team Championship. Their first title reign was short-lived as the Batten Twins regained the title only a week later on May 22,1985. Shortly after the team lost the CSW tag team title, Michaels left Kansas City and the NWA, in TASW Shawn began teaming with Paul Diamond as ”American Force” and the team of Jannetty and Michaels seemed like it was never meant to be a permanent thing. The two were paired up by the AWA bookers, Greg Gagne suggested the name ”The Country Rockers”, Express not keen on the idea the two of them came up with the name The Midnight Rockers inspired by Judas Priest’s ”Living after Midnight”. AWA owner Verne Gagne did not seem to understand the idea, the two started wearing identical outfits and develop the ”Fun loving pretty boy” gimmick they would be known for throughout their time together. Their initial outing with Somers and Rose at the WrestleRock stadium show on April 20,1986 did not go well for Jannetty and Michaels who lost in front of 22,000 fans. When Somers and Rose beat Scott Hall and Curt Hennig for the AWA World Tag Team Championship the Midnight Rockers suddenly found themselves chasing the main tag team title of the promotion. The Midnight Rockers teamed up with Curt Hennig to defeat Somer, Rose, the Midnight Rockers would repeatedly challenge Somers throughout the rest of 1986 but never quite be able to get the win when the title was on the line. Finally near the end of year, Jannetty and Michaels defeated the champions in a ”non-title” Steel cage match on December 25,1986 on the AWA’s ”Brawl in St. Paul” show. A month later on January 271987 the Midnight Rockers defeated Rose, Jannetty and Michaels realized that the AWA was a promotion in decline, in fact it would shut down completely by 1990, and they decided that their best bet was to work for the WWF
27.
Marty Jannetty
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While in the WWF, he became a one time Intercontinental Champion and a one time Tag Team Champion with the 1-2-3 Kid, and headlined Survivor Series 1989. With Michaels, The Rockers became two time World Tag Team Champions in the American Wrestling Association, Jannetty was an amateur wrestler in the state of Georgia, qualifying for the state championship tournament his last three years of high school. He also boxed while in school, and won many Golden Gloves events. After high school Jannetty went on to wrestle at Chattahoochee Valley Community College in Alabama where he was a two time NJCAA qualifier. He then went on to Auburn University where he was going to wrestle, Jannetty then thought about trying football, but was instead coaxed into trying professional wrestling by Jerry Oates who trained him. Jannetty began his career in the National Wrestling Alliance in April 1984. The two teamed as The Midnight Rockers and quickly won the Central States Tag Team Championship from The Batten Twins. In the summer of 1985, he wrestled his first Japanese tour for All Japan Pro Wrestling, Jannetty would also wrestle Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship during his time in Kansas City. In 1986, the duo left the NWA for the American Wrestling Association, in the AWA, Jannetty and Michaels quickly built a reputation as a talented tag team, performing many acrobatic moves in tandem and electrifying crowds with their athleticism. The two won the World Tag Team Championship twice, first defeating Buddy Rose and Doug Somers and then Original Midnight Express for their second and final reign. They also won the Southern Tag Team Championship twice after defeating the Rock n Roll RPMs on two occasions before jumping to the World Wrestling Federation in 1988. Now called simply The Rockers, Jannetty and Michaels popularity carried over from their stint in the AWA and the team was often called tag team specialists by commentator Gorilla Monsoon. They made their WWF debut at a television taping on June 18,1988 and they faced tag teams such as Demolition, The Hart Foundation, despite their previous success, The Rockers never officially won the Tag Team Championship during their three-year run together in the WWF. The match was taped with The Rockers fairly winning the belts, the belts were returned to the Harts a week later, while the change was never broadcast or even acknowledged on television. When news spread, WWF explained that the result was void due to a collapsed turnbuckle in the ring during the bout. During a tag match at the USF Sun Dome in December 1990, Jannetty executed his Rocker Dropper finishing move on jobber Chuck Austin. Austins neck was broken as a result of tucking his head during the move. Austin was paralyzed and sued Jannetty, Michaels, and Titan Sports, when the case finally came to court in early 1994, Austin was awarded $26. 7M
28.
Saint Paul, Minnesota
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Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U. S. state of Minnesota. As of 2015, the estimated population was 300,851. Saint Paul is the county seat of Ramsey County, the smallest and most densely populated county in Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the states largest city. Known as the Twin Cities, the two form the core of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.52 million residents. Founded near historic Native American settlements as a trading and transportation center, the Dakota name for Saint Paul is Imnizaska. Though Minneapolis is better-known nationally, Saint Paul contains the state government, regionally, the city is known for the Xcel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild, and for the Science Museum of Minnesota. As a business hub of the Upper Midwest, it is the headquarters of such as Ecolab. Saint Paul, along with its Twin City, Minneapolis, is known for its literacy rate. It was the city in the United States with a population of 250,000 or more to see an increase in circulation of Sunday newspapers in 2007. The settlement originally began at present-day Lamberts Landing, but was known as Pigs Eye after Pierre Pigs Eye Parrant established a tavern there. Burial mounds in present-day Indian Mounds Park suggest that the area was inhabited by the Hopewell Native Americans about two thousand years ago. From the early 17th century until 1837, the Mdewakanton Dakota and they called the area I-mni-za ska dan for its exposed white sandstone cliffs. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, a U. S. Army officer named Zebulon Pike negotiated approximately 100,000 acres of land from the local Dakota tribes in 1805 in order to establish a fort. The negotiated territory was located on banks of the Mississippi River, starting from Saint Anthony Falls in present-day Minneapolis, to its confluence with the Saint Croix River. Fort Snelling was built on the territory in 1819 at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, the 1837 Treaty with the Sioux ceded all local tribal land east of the Mississippi to the U. S. Government. Taoyateduta moved his band at Kaposia across the river to the south, fur traders, explorers, and missionaries came to the area for the forts protection. Many of the settlers were French-Canadians who lived nearby, however, as a whiskey trade flourished, military officers banned settlers from the fort-controlled lands
29.
Jesse Ventura
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He was the first and only member of the Reform Party to win a major government position, but later joined the Independence Party of Minnesota. Ventura was a member of the U. S. Navy Underwater Demolition Team during the Vietnam War, after leaving the military, he embarked on a professional wrestling career from 1975 to 1986, taking the ring name Jesse The Body Ventura. He had a tenure in the World Wrestling Federation as a performer and color commentator. Near the end of his career, Ventura started acting, appearing in films such as Predator. Ventura first entered politics as Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Venturas campaign was unexpectedly successful, with him narrowly defeating both the Democratic and Republican candidates. The highest elected official to win an election on a Reform Party ticket. As governor, Ventura oversaw reforms of Minnesotas property tax as well as the states first sales tax rebate, Other initiatives taken under Ventura included construction of the METRO Blue Line light rail in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, and cuts in income taxes. Ventura left office in 2003, deciding not to run for re-election, after leaving office, Ventura became a visiting fellow at Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2004. He has since hosted a number of television shows and has written several political books. Ventura remains politically active and currently hosts a show on Ora TV, Ventura was born James George Janos on July 15,1951 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of George William Janos and his wife, Bernice Martha. Both of his parents were World War II veterans, Ventura has an older brother who served in the Vietnam War. Ventura has described himself as Slovak, since his fathers parents were from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in what is now Slovakia, Ventura was raised as a Lutheran. Born in south Minneapolis by the Lake Street bridge, he attended the Cooper Elementary School, Sanford Junior High School, Roosevelt High School inducted Ventura into its first hall of fame in September 2014. Ventura served in the United States Navy from December 1,1969, to September 10,1975, during the Vietnam War and he graduated in BUD/S class 58 in December 1970 and was part of Underwater Demolition Team 12. Ventura has frequently referred to his career in public statements. He was criticized by hunters and conservationists for stating in an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune in April 2001, Until you have hunted men, you havent hunted yet. Near the end of his service in the Navy, Ventura began to time with the South Bay chapter of the Mongols motorcycle club in San Diego. He would ride onto Naval Base Coronado on his Harley-Davidson wearing his Mongol colors, according to Ventura, he was a full-patch member of the club and even third-in-command of his chapter, but he never had any problems with the authorities
30.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
31.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
32.
Survivor Series (1987)
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Survivor Series was the first Survivor Series pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on Thanksgiving Day, November 26,1987, the entire undercard featured Survivor Series matches which included Randy Savages team defeating The Honky Tonk Mans team and The Fabulous Moolahs team defeating Sensational Sherris team. The event also featured a 10 tag team match in which Strike Force. The event was added after WrestleMania III, to market the success from Hulk Hogan, vince McMahon threatened cable companies who aired the NWAs Starrcade instead of Survivor Series would not be allowed to broadcast WrestleMania IV. Most cable providers gave into McMahons threat and only a handful aired Starrcade, Hogan congratulated his friend and said that André was the real champion of superstars all around the world. André surprisingly left the place before Hogan could even finish, in February, he came with a new manager Bobby Heenan. When Hogan came to know about that, he begged André not to keep Heenan as his manager because Heenan was Hogans longtime enemy, André said that he had come to challenge Hogan for the WWF World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania. He ripped off Hogans Hulkamania shirt and golden chain, turning heel and this culminated in their historic match at WrestleMania III, where Hogan defeated André to retain the title. During the match, he set a record by scoop slamming the 520-pound Frenchman. On August 22,1987 edition of Prime Time Wrestling, Paul Orndorff fired Bobby Heenan as his manager when he came to know that Heenan had brought in a new wrestler Rick Rude to replace Orndorff, Orndorff appointed Oliver Humperdink as his manager to feud with Rude. Superstar Billy Graham got involved in a feud with Butch Reed, One Man Gang interfered in a match where he hit Graham with a big splash on the concrete floor. Don Muraco came to the rescue of Graham and Graham who was scheduled to participate in the event of the first-ever Survivor Series retired due to an attack by One Man Gang. Ken Patera got involved in a feud with Bobby Heenan and The Heenan Family and turned babyface, many heel managers wanted to manage Bam Bam Bigelow, but Bigelow chose Oliver Humperdink as his manager thus making his WWF debut as a babyface. He also became a part of Hogans team, Randy Savage had been a heel since his WWF debut in the summer of 1985. He turned babyface in late 1987, after WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion The Honky Tonk Man claimed to be the greatest Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion and this led to a feud between Savage and Honky, leading to Savages face turn. On October 3,1987 edition of Saturday Nights Main Event, the title remained with Honky because a title cannot change hands by a DQ. Harley Race had won the 1986 King of the Ring tournament and was so proud about this that he called himself King Harley Race and wore a crown and cape to the ring. Jim Duggan did not agree with the fact and this placed Duggan and Race into a feud, Jake Roberts also feuded with Honky Tonk Man after Honky hit a guitar on Roberts on an edition of Snake Pit, completing Roberts babyface turn
33.
Noriyo Tateno
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Noriyo Tateno is a retired Japanese professional wrestler who is best known as one half of the tag team Jumping Bomb Angels with Itsuki Yamazaki. She worked in All Japan Womens Pro-Wrestling, WWF and has working in Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling since 1992. Tateno competed in All Japan Womens Pro-Wrestling in the 1980s, on August 10,1982, she defeated Chigusa Nagayo to win the AJW Junior Championship, which she held until January 8,1984 when she lost it to Nagayo. On February 28,1984, she was defeated by future partner Itsuki Yamazaki for the AJW Championship, Tateno also held the All Pacific Championship in All Japan. She defeated Bull Nakano for the title on November 13,1989 and held it until April 30,1990, Tateno teamed with Itsuki Yamazaki to form a tag team that initially competed in Japan. On January 5,1986, The Angels defeated Bull Nakano, then on March 20,1986, The Crush Gals defeated The Angels to capture the WWWA Tag Team titles. The Angels entered the World Wrestling Federation in mid-1987 known as The Jumping Bomb Angels, at the first ever Survivor Series, The Jumping Bomb Angels were the sole survivors in a womens Survivor Series match. On January 24,1988 at the inaugural Royal Rumble, they beat The Glamour Girls in a two-out-of-three falls match to win the WWF Womens Tag Team Championship. The Angels would reign for 136 days until June 8,1988 when The Glamour Girls defeated The Angels to recapture the WWF Womens Tag Team Championship, from 1992 until her retirement in 2010, Tateno competed in Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling
