1.
Seth Rollins
–
Colby Daniel Lopez is an American professional wrestler and actor currently signed to WWE, where he performs under the ring name Seth Rollins on the Raw brand. After signing with WWE in 2010, he was sent to its developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling where he was the first FCW Grand Slam Champion, after WWE rebranded FCW into NXT, he became the inaugural NXT Champion. Rollins debuted on WWEs main roster in 2012 alongside Dean Ambrose, Rollins is a two-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion, a one-time United States Champion, a one-time WWE Tag Team Champion, the 2014 Money in the Bank winner, and the 2015 Superstar of the Year. Along with CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Kevin Owens, Rollins is one of four men to have been champion in WWE. Rollins has headlined numerous major events for WWE, including WrestleMania 31. Lopez was born in Buffalo, Iowa and he is of Armenian, German, and Irish descent. His surname, Lopez, comes from his Mexican-American stepfather, Lopez debuted in 2005 for Scott County Wrestling. He later won the SCW Heavyweight Championship, and spray-painted the championship belt black to mark The Black Era in SCW and he soon joined NWA Midwest and won the promotions tag team championship with Marek Brave. The two successfully defended the NWA Midwest Tag Team Championship against Ryan Boz and Danny Daniels, Brett Wayne and Hype Gotti and he also faced Eric Priest and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling superstar A. J. He briefly appeared in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and teamed with Jeff Luxon in a loss to The Latin American Xchange on Impact. in October 2006, at FIPs event on December 20,2008, Black defeated Go Shiozaki to win the FIP World Heavyweight Championship. At FIPs event on May 2,2009, Davey Richards was awarded the FIP World Heavyweight Championship by forfeit when Black was unable to compete, Jacobs announced that the three had formed a stable called The Age of the Fall. The angle was so controversial that ROH decided to remove the footage from the pay-per-view that was being taped at the event, however, the footage was heavily requested by ROH fans, so it was shown on the ROH Videowire for the week of September 15. Later on in the event, Black faced Jack Evans in a dark match, a six-man tag team match between The Age of the Fall and Jack Evans and The Irish Airborne ended in a no contest when Necro Butcher attacked the referee. The following night, Black defeated Alex Sugarfoot Payne, but was attacked by The Briscoe Brothers following the match and he appeared with The Age of the Fall in their match against The Briscoe Brothers during the main event. At Final Battle 2007, Black and Jacobs defeated The Briscoe Brothers to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship, at Take No Prisoners, ROHs sixth pay-per-view, Black challenged Nigel McGuinness for the ROH World Championship in a losing effort. At Up For Grabs, Black and Jacobs won a tournament to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship for a second time. The two lost the championship at Driven to the team of Kevin Steen and El Generico, at Final Battle 2008, after Black lost a number one contender match to Austin Aries, Jacobs turned on him, and Black was then attacked by Aries. At Full Circle, Black was given a match against then ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness on January 16
Seth Rollins
–
Rollins in April 2015
Seth Rollins
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Lopez as Black (left), in the ring along Age of The Fall leader
Jimmy Jacobs at a
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla event
Seth Rollins
–
Tyler Black in 2008
Seth Rollins
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Black wearing the
ROH World Championship before his defense at
Glory By Honor IX in September 2010
2.
Visual Concepts
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Visual Concepts Entertainment is a video game developer based in Novato, California best known for developing Take-Two Interactives 2K series of sports games. After the success of the series, they were acquired by Sega and became a wholly owned studio with Sega, usually termed a first-party developer. However, Sega at the time termed non-internal studios that the company set up or purchased as 1.5 development studios in order to differentiate them from their own internal studios. In January 2005, Visual Concepts was sold to Take-Two Interactive along with their wholly owned subsidiary Kush Games, with the purchase of Visual Concepts, Take-Two created 2K Games, a new publishing label. Although the company started out developing quirky titles such as Lester the Unlikely, development efforts are now primarily centered on sports such as Basketball. It also have two development studios, Visual Concepts China, and Visual Concepts Korea, the following games have been developed by Visual Concepts. Ooga Booga Sonic Adventure 2 Visual Concepts is listed in the credits of Sonic Adventure 2, a Dinosaurs Story Desert Strike Jungle Strike Toughman Contest Nickelodeon GUTS Phantom 2040 Star Trek, 25th Anniversary Spot, The Cool Adventure McDonaldland RoboCop Versus The Terminator Trog. Designasaurus II Dominus Task Force Gnarly Golf Great Western Shootout Pipe Dream
Visual Concepts
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Visual Concepts
3.
2K Sports
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2K Sports, Inc. is a division of 2K Games that develops and publishes sports video games. It comprises a development studio, Visual Concepts, which was purchased from Sega in 2005 after Sega Sports shut down. 2K Sports mainly develops and publishes American sports video games, such as NBA 2K series, the NHL 2K series and it previously produced the MLB 2K series. 2K Sports, which in late 2004 purchased development studio Indie Built from Microsoft Game Studios, Indie Built was known for its work on the Amped, Links, and Top Spin series. However, 2K Sports still owns the rights to intellectual properties. 2K Sports has the exclusive third-party rights to produce Major League Baseball, on October 20,2008, 2K Sports released their first PC game, NBA 2K9. Their second, MLB Front Office Manager, was released on January 26,2009, on January 23,2013, 2K Sports bought the WWE game license from THQ. The MLB 2K series was discontinued on January 6,2014 due to the reception of MLB 2K13. However, this move was met with frustration from fans as well as Xbox 360 owners. Current Visual Concepts Visual Concepts China Visual Concepts Korea Former Indie Built Kush Games PAM Development Venom Games Official website
2K Sports
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2K Sports, Inc.
4.
WWE 2K
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WWE 2K is a series that has more than 20 professional wrestling video games that are currently developed by Visual Concepts and Yukes, and it was later published by 2K Sports. These series of games are based on the wrestling promotion WWE, which features the professional wrestling match types, storylines. The series was originally named SmackDown, after WWEs own SmackDown television program. The first release in the series was WWF SmackDown. in March 2000, after the brand extension, the series was retitled SmackDown. vs. Raw in 2004, to indicate the Raw brand was also featured, within a few years, the series had expanded to a yearly release cycle for various seventh-generation consoles as well as mobile devices. Yukes had also released the games in Japan under the name of Exciting Pro Wrestling, Raw 2006, THQ took over as the Japanese publisher and the Japanese releases adopted the western name. The series was renamed as just simply WWE, starting from 2011 and 2012. After THQs dissolution in January 2013, it was reported that the rights for the WWE video game series were acquired by Take-Two Interactive. Take-Two confirmed the acquisition in February, saying that it would retain the services of Yukes. WWE 2K14 is the first game to be released under the 2K brand, reception to the series games has overall been favorable, and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 was rated 31st and 28th in IGNs Top 100 Games list and it is among the best-selling video game franchises, with 60 million copies shipped as of 2013. The first game in the series, WWF SmackDown, had a clear cut system for moves such as combining an arrow key with the circle button for grappling and moves and combining an arrow key with the X button for striking moves. Most of the games, from WWF SmackDown. 2, Know Your Role to WWE SmackDown vs, Raw 2006 used the aforementioned control scheme. When WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2007 was released, new mechanics were introduced, in which a new control scheme altered the grappling system of the game. For example, the player could place their opponent in a grappling position. Before the release of WWE SmackDown vs, included with the release of WWE SmackDown vs. Every game in the SmackDown vs, Raw series used to have the amount of damage inflicted to the players chosen superstar, measured with a meter on the HUD, where a design of a male figure presented the damage
WWE 2K
–
The logo for the WWE 2K series
WWE 2K
–
A screenshot of a
ladder match featuring
Jeff Hardy and
Kurt Angle in SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role
WWE 2K
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The create-a-wrestler feature, as seen on WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008
5.
Computing platform
–
Computing platform means in general sense, where any piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the system, even a web browser or other application. The term computing platform can refer to different abstraction levels, including a hardware architecture, an operating system. In total it can be said to be the stage on which programs can run. For example, an OS may be a platform that abstracts the underlying differences in hardware, platforms may also include, Hardware alone, in the case of small embedded systems. Embedded systems can access hardware directly, without an OS, this is referred to as running on bare metal, a browser in the case of web-based software. The browser itself runs on a platform, but this is not relevant to software running within the browser. An application, such as a spreadsheet or word processor, which hosts software written in a scripting language. This can be extended to writing fully-fledged applications with the Microsoft Office suite as a platform, software frameworks that provide ready-made functionality. Cloud computing and Platform as a Service, the social networking sites Twitter and facebook are also considered development platforms. A virtual machine such as the Java virtual machine, applications are compiled into a format similar to machine code, known as bytecode, which is then executed by the VM. A virtualized version of a system, including virtualized hardware, OS, software. These allow, for instance, a typical Windows program to run on what is physically a Mac, some architectures have multiple layers, with each layer acting as a platform to the one above it. In general, a component only has to be adapted to the layer immediately beneath it, however, the JVM, the layer beneath the application, does have to be built separately for each OS
Computing platform
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Android, a popular mobile operating system
6.
PlayStation 4
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The PlayStation 4 is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It competes with Nintendos Wii U and Microsofts Xbox One, as part of the generation of video game consoles.84 teraflops. The consoles controller was redesigned and improved over the PlayStation 3, with improved buttons and analog sticks. Heightened demand also helped Sony top global console sales, by the end of 2016, more than 53 million consoles have been sold worldwide, with more than 57 million shipped. All models, including the original sold in 2013, support HDR10 high-dynamic-range color, according to lead architect Mark Cerny, development of Sonys fourth video game console began as early as 2008. Less than two earlier, the PlayStation 3 had launched after months of delays due to issues with production. The delay placed Sony almost a year behind Microsofts Xbox 360, PlayStation Europe CEO Jim Ryan said Sony wanted to avoid repeating the same mistake with PS3s successor. In designing the system, Sony worked with software developer Bungie, in 2012, Sony began shipping development kits to game developers, consisting of a modified PC running the AMD Accelerated Processing Unit chipset. These development kits were known as Orbis, in early 2013, Sony announced that an event known as PlayStation Meeting 2013 would be held in New York City, U. S. on February 20,2013, to cover the future of PlayStation. Sony officially announced the PlayStation 4 at the event and it revealed details about the consoles hardware and discussed some of the new features it will introduce. Sony also showed off real-time footage of games in development, as well as some technical demonstrations, the design of the console was unveiled in June 2013 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, and the initial recommended retail prices of $399, €399, and £349 given. The console was released on November 15,2013 in the United States and Canada, by the end of 2013, the PS4 was launched in more European, Asian and South American countries The PS4 released in Japan at ¥39,980 on February 22,2014. Sony finalized a deal with the Chinese government in May 2014 to sell its products in mainland China, and the PS4 will be the first product to be released. Kazuo Hirai, chief officer of Sony, said in May, The Chinese market. I think that we will be able to replicate the kind of success we have had with PS4 in other parts of the world in China. In September 2015, Sony reduced the price of the PS4 in Japan to ¥34,980, with similar price drops in other Southeast Asian markets. The first official sub £300 PS4 bundle was the £299.99 Uncharted Nathan Drake Collection 500GB, released in the UK on October 9,2015, a 1TB £329.99 version was offered at the same time. On October 9,2015, the first official cut of the PS4 in North America was announced
PlayStation 4
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PlayStation 4 at E3 2013
PlayStation 4
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PlayStation 4 console with DualShock 4 controller
PlayStation 4
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DualShock 4 controller
PlayStation 4
–
PlayStation Camera
7.
Xbox One
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The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. It is the first Xbox game console to be released in China, Microsoft marketed the device as an all-in-one entertainment system. The Xbox One mainly competes against consoles such as Sonys PlayStation 4, the console optionally includes a redesigned Kinect sensor, marketed as the Kinect 2.0, providing improved motion tracking and voice recognition for use in its graphical user interface and games. The Xbox One offers the ability for users to record and share clips from gameplay or live-stream directly to Twitch, Ustream, the consoles controller was redesigned over the Xbox 360s, with a redesigned body, D-pad and triggers capable of delivering directional haptic feedback. The Xbox One received mostly positive reception for its refined design, multimedia features. Its original user interface was panned for being nonintuitive, although changes made to it and its Kinect received praise for its improved motion-tracking accuracy, its face recognition logins, and its voice commands. A redesigned model known as Xbox One S was released in August 2016, it has a design, native support for 4K video playback and upscaling. It was praised for its size, its on-screen visual improvements, and its lack of an external power supply. Xbox One is the successor to Xbox 360, Microsofts previous video game console, over the years, the 360 had received a number of small hardware revisions to reduce the units size and improve its reliability. Initial hardware for the 360s successor, commonly referred to by the industry as the Xbox 720, was reportedly under development as early as May 2011, the official developer kit was codenamed Durango, and appeared to be available to developers by mid-2012. The console was unveiled under the name Xbox One on May 21,2013 in a press conference designed to cover the units broad multimedia. A second press event for the console was held during E32013, at that time, Microsoft announced that the console would be released in 21 different markets on November 22,2013, but this was later amended down to 13. The change, which pushed the date for the other eight markets to 2014, was attributed to unforeseen complexity in localizing the devices voice recognition capabilities. Later, in September 2014, the Xbox One was released in 26 markets, including remaining markets in Europe, the Japanese market, from the first announcement to the actual launch of the product, Microsoft made some significant changes to the console. These policies were reversed in June 2013, at the time of the security breach, Microsoft was in the development stage for its next-generation gaming system. Between 2011 and 2013, the hackers spent hundreds of hours searching through Microsofts network copying log-in credentials, source code, technical specifications, Group members say they were driven by an immense curiosity about Microsofts then-unreleased Xbox One console and associated software. The original Xbox Ones exterior casing consists of a two-tone liquid black finish, with finished in a matte grey. The matte side of the top of the consists of a large air vent
Xbox One
–
Xbox One console with its controller and
Kinect motion sensing peripheral
Xbox One
–
Xbox One at E3 2013
Xbox One
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The Xbox One's upgraded
Kinect is more accurate than its predecessor.
Xbox One
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Xbox One dashboard display.
8.
Professional wrestling
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Professional wrestling is an athletic form of entertainment 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
Professional wrestling
–
A professional wrestling match in Sikeston, Missouri in May 1938. Two wrestlers grapple in a wrestling ring while a referee (in white, right) looks on.
Professional wrestling
–
A wrestler (
Christopher Daniels) leaps off the top rope
Professional wrestling
–
WWE Money in the Bank Ladder Match, 2009
Professional wrestling
–
A tag team match in progress -
Jeff Hardy kicks
Umaga, while their respective partners,
Triple H and
Randy Orton, encourage them and reach for the tags.
9.
Sports game
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A sports game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including sports, track and field, extreme sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport, whilst others emphasize strategy. Some, such as Need for Speed, Arch Rivals and Punch-Out, satirize the sport for comic effect. This genre has been throughout the history of video games and is competitive. A number of game series feature the names and characteristics of real teams and players, Sports games involve physical and tactical challenges, and test the players precision and accuracy. Most sports games attempt to model the athletic characteristics required by that sport, including speed, strength, acceleration, accuracy, as with their respective sports, these games take place in a stadium or arena with clear boundaries. Sports games often provide play-by-play and color commentary through the use of recorded audio, Sports games sometimes make use of different modes for different parts of the game. This is especially true in games about American football such as the Madden NFL series, sometimes, other sports games offer a menu where players may select a strategy while play is temporarily suspended. Some sports games also require players to shift roles between the athletes and the coach or manager and these mode switches are more intuitive than other game genres because they reflect actual sports. Older 2D sports games sometimes used a graphical scale, where athletes appeared to be quite large in order to be visible to the player. As sports games have evolved, players have come to expect a realistic graphical scale with a degree of verisimilitude. Sports games often simplify the game physics for ease of play, Games typically take place with a highly accurate time-scale, although they usually allow players to play quick sessions with shorter game quarters or periods. Sports games sometimes treat button-pushes as continuous signals rather than discrete moves, in order to initiate, for example, football games may distinguish between short and the long passes based on how long the player holds a button. Golf games often initiate the backswing with one button-push, and the swing itself is initiated by a subsequent push. ″also can customize person and can make own team″ In 1958, William Higinbotham created a game called Tennis for Two, the players would select the angle at which to put their racket, and pressed a button to return it. Although this game was simple, it demonstrated how an action game could be played on a computer. Video games prior to the late 1970s were primarily played on university mainframe computers under timesharing systems that supported multiple computer terminals on school campuses, the two dominant systems in this era were Digital Equipment Corporations PDP-10 and Control Data Corporations PLATO
Sports game
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Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (2007), a Wii game played by miming sports activity.
Sports game
–
One of the various angles of
Intellivision World Series Baseball, one of the earliest sports game to incorporate multiple camera angles in a manner resembling a television broadcast.
10.
Video game
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A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game referred to a raster display device. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial, the electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms, examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices, the input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, and buttons, or even, with the Kinect sensor, a persons hands and body. Players typically view the game on a screen or television or computer monitor, or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and, in the 2010s, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD74 billion annually worldwide, early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a Cathode ray tube Amusement Device was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S. Written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanens on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961, and the hit ping pong-style Pong, used the DEC PDP-1s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold and it used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green, Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the Brown Box and these were followed by two versions of Ataris Pong, an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores. The game also became the subject of articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first killer app, the term platform refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term system is commonly used
Video game
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Two girls playing a driving-themed video arcade game in 2007.
Video game
–
Tennis for Two, an early
analog computer game that used an
oscilloscope for a display
Video game
–
Nolan Bushnell at the
Game Developers Conference in 2011
11.
Nintendo
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Nintendo Co. Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is one of the worlds largest video game companies by market capitalization, founded on 23 September 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small businesses, such as cab services. The word Nintendo can be translated from Japanese to English as leave luck to heaven. From 1992 until 2016, Nintendo was also the majority shareholder of Major League Baseballs Seattle Mariners, as of 31 March 2014, Nintendo has cumulative sales of over 670.43 million hardware units and 4.23 billion software units. The company has created and released some of the best-known and top-selling video game franchises, such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo was founded as a card company in late 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda. The handmade cards soon became popular, and Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce cards to satisfy demand, in 1949, the company adopted the name Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd. doing business as The Nintendo Playing Card Co. outside Japan. Nintendo continues to manufacture playing cards in Japan and organizes its own contract bridge tournament called the Nintendo Cup. In 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi, visited the U. S. to talk with the United States Playing Card Company and he found that the biggest playing card company in the world was using only a small office. Yamauchis realization that the card business had limited potential was a turning point. He then acquired the license to use Disney characters on playing cards to drive sales, in 1963, Yamauchi renamed Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd. to Nintendo Co. Ltd. The company then began to experiment in other areas of business using newly injected capital during the period of time between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi company called Daiya. However, Nintendo was forced to sell it because problems with the unions were making it too expensive to run the service. It also set up a hotel chain, a TV network. All of these ventures failed, and after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, playing card sales dropped. In 1966, Nintendo moved into the Japanese toy industry with the Ultra Hand, Yokoi was moved from maintenance to the new Nintendo Games department as a product developer. Nintendo continued to produce toys, including the Ultra Machine, Love Tester
Nintendo
–
The exterior of Nintendo's main headquarters in
Kyoto, Japan
Nintendo
–
Former headquarters plate, from when Nintendo was solely a playing card company
Nintendo
–
The
Love Tester, one of Nintendo's experimental toys.
Nintendo
–
The
Wii Remote, along with the
Wii, was said to be revolutionary because of its motion detection capabilities.
12.
PlayStation 3
–
The PlayStation 3 is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the successor to PlayStation 2, and is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles and it was first released on November 11,2006, in Japan, November 17,2006, in North America, and March 23,2007, in Europe and Australia. The PlayStation 3 mainly competes against consoles such as Microsofts Xbox 360, the console was first officially announced at E32005, and was released at the end of 2006. It was the first console to use Blu-ray Disc as its storage medium. In September 2009, the Slim model of the PlayStation 3 was released and it no longer provided the hardware ability to run PS2 games. It was lighter and thinner than the version, and featured a redesigned logo and marketing design. A Super Slim variation was released in late 2012, further refining and redesigning the console. The system had a start in the market but managed to recover. As of March 2016, PlayStation 3 has sold 85 million units worldwide, putting it about on par with Xbox 360 and its successor, the PlayStation 4, was released later in November 2013. On September 29,2015, Sony confirmed that sales of the PlayStation 3 were to be discontinued in New Zealand, in March 2017, the official site for PlayStation 3 in Japan was updated to state that it would be discontinued soon. Sony officially unveiled PlayStation 3 to the public on May 16,2005, at E32005, Video footage based on the predicted PlayStation 3 specifications was also shown. Two hardware configurations were also announced for the console, a 20 GB model, the 60 GB model was to be the only configuration to feature an HDMI port, Wi-Fi internet, flash card readers and a chrome trim with the logo in silver. Both models were announced for a worldwide release, November 11,2006, for Japan and November 17,2006, for North America. On September 6,2006, Sony announced that PAL region PlayStation 3 launch would be delayed until March 2007, because of a shortage of materials used in the Blu-ray drive. Also, the price of the Japanese 20 GB model was reduced by over 20%. During the event, Sony showed 27 playable PS3 games running on final hardware, PlayStation 3 was first released in Japan on November 11,2006, at 07,00. According to Media Create,81,639 PS3 systems were sold within 24 hours of its introduction in Japan, soon after its release in Japan, PS3 was released in North America on November 17,2006. Reports of violence surrounded the release of PS3, a customer was shot, campers were robbed at gunpoint, customers were shot in a drive-by shooting with BB guns, and 60 campers fought over 10 systems
PlayStation 3
–
Silver PlayStation 3 consoles on show in 2006
PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
–
120 GB Slim model
PlayStation 3
–
The PS3 Super Slim model, released in 2012
13.
Xbox 360
–
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the console in the Xbox series. The Xbox 360 competed with Sonys PlayStation 3 and Nintendos Wii as part of the generation of video game consoles. The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12,2005, with detailed launch, the Xbox 360 features an online service, Xbox Live, which was expanded from its previous iteration on the original Xbox and received regular updates during the consoles lifetime. In addition to multimedia features, the Xbox 360 allows users to stream media from local PCs. Several peripherals have been released, including controllers, expanded hard drive storage. The release of additional services and peripherals helped the Xbox brand grow from gaming-only to encompassing all multimedia. Launched worldwide across 2005–2006, the Xbox 360 was initially in short supply in many regions, including North America, the earliest versions of the console suffered from a high failure rate, indicated by the so-called Red Ring of Death, necessitating an extension of the devices warranty period. Microsoft released two redesigned models of the console, the Xbox 360 S in 2010, and the Xbox 360 E in 2013. As of June 2014,84 million Xbox 360 consoles have sold worldwide, making it the sixth-highest-selling video game console in history. The Xbox 360s successor, the Xbox One, was released on November 22,2013, on April 20,2016, Microsoft announced that it would end the production of new Xbox 360 hardware, although the company will continue to support the platform. Known during development as Xbox Next, Xenon, Xbox 2, Xbox FS or NextBox, in February 2003, planning for the Xenon software platform began, and was headed by Microsofts Vice President J Allard. That month, Microsoft held an event for 400 developers in Bellevue, also that month, Peter Moore, former president of Sega of America, joined Microsoft. On August 12,2003, ATI signed on to produce the graphic processing unit for the new console, before the launch of the Xbox 360, several Alpha development kits were spotted using Apples Power Mac G5 hardware. This was because the systems PowerPC970 processor running the same PowerPC architecture that the Xbox 360 would eventually run under IBMs Xenon processor, the cores of the Xenon processor were developed using a slightly modified version of the PlayStation 3s Cell Processor PPE architecture. According to David Shippy and Mickie Phipps, the IBM employees were hiding their work from Sony and Toshiba, jeff Minter created the music visualization program Neon which is included with the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 was released on November 22,2005, in the United States and Canada, December 2,2005, in Europe and December 10,2005, in Japan. It was later launched in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Russia
Xbox 360
Xbox 360
Xbox 360
–
Xbox 360 Pro
Xbox 360
–
Xbox 360 Arcade
14.
Stamford, Connecticut
–
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643. As of July 1,2014, according to the Census Bureau, the population of Stamford had risen to 128,278, making it the third-largest city in the state and the seventh-largest city in New England. Approximately 30 miles from Manhattan, Stamford is in the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk Metro area which is a part of the Greater New York metropolitan area. Stamford is home to four Fortune 500 Companies, nine Fortune 1000 Companies and this gives Stamford the largest financial district in New York Metro outside New York City itself and one of the largest concentrations of corporations in the nation. Stamford is also home to the Stamford Waterside Design District - a creative neighborhood and shopping destination dedicated to Interior Design, Stamford was known as Rippowam by the Native American inhabitants to the region, and the very first European settlers to the area also referred to it as such. The name was changed to Stamford after the town Stamford, Lincolnshire. The deed to Stamford was signed on July 1,1640 between Captain Turner of the New Haven Colony and Chief Ponus, by the 18th century, one of the primary industries of the town was merchandising by water, which was possible due to Stamfords proximity to New York. In 1692, Stamford was home to a famous witch trial than the well-known Salem witch trials. The accusations were less fanatical and smaller-scale but also grew to prominence through gossip, Stamford incorporated as a city in 1893. In 1950, the Census Bureau reported the population as 94. 6% white and 5. 2% black. In the 1960s and 1970s, Stamfords commercial real estate boomed as corporations relocated from New York City to peripheral areas, a massive urban redevelopment campaign during that time resulted in a downtown with many tall office buildings. Rich Co. was the urban renewal developer of the downtown in an ongoing redevelopment project that was contentious, beginning in the 1960s. Over the years, other developers have joined in building up the downtown, since 2008, an 80-acre mixed-use redevelopment project for the Stamfords Harbor Point neighborhood has added additional growth south of the citys Downtown area. Once complete, the redevelopment will include 6,000,000 square feet of new residential, retail, office and hotel space, as of July 2012, roughly 900 of the projected 4,000 Harbor Point residential units had been constructed. Stamford is situated near the point of Connecticut. There are still a number of references to North Stamford as a separate town, surrounding towns include Pound Ridge, New York to the north, Greenwich to the west, and both Darien and New Canaan to the east. The city has an area of 52.09 square miles, Stamford, like the rest of coastal Connecticut, lies in the broad transition zone between the cold continental climate to the north and the more mild temperate/subtropical climate, to the south
Stamford, Connecticut
–
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
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Bank and Main Streets, from a 1911 postcard
Stamford, Connecticut
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One Landmark Square, the second tallest building in the city, located in the heart of Downtown Stamford.
Stamford, Connecticut
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Welcome sign in the city's Springdale neighborhood.
15.
Kurt Angle
–
Kurt Steven Angle is an American professional wrestler, actor, and retired amateur wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, performing as the general manager on Raw brand. While a student at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Angle won numerous accolades, after graduating college, Angle won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1995 World Wrestling Championships. He then won a freestyle wrestling gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, Angle is one of four people to complete an amateur wrestling Grand Slam. In 2006, he was named by USA Wrestling as the greatest shoot wrestler ever and he was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 for his amateur accomplishments. Angle made his first appearance at a wrestling event in 1996. He signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation that same year. He is the tenth Triple Crown Champion and the fifth Grand Slam Champion in WWE history, on March 312017, Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He is the second Triple Crown winner in TNA history and the one to hold all the required titles at once. Angle is also a two-time King of the Mountain, as part of TNA, he made appearances for New Japan Pro Wrestling and the Inoki Genome Federation, holding the IWGP Heavyweight Championship once. In 2013, Angle was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame, between WWF/WWE, Japan, and TNA, Angle has won 13 world championships and 21 total championships. Angle is also the person to have been King of the Mountain. He has headlined numerous pay-per-view events for both WWF/WWE and TNA throughout his career, including the event for both promotions, WrestleMania in WWE, and Bound for Glory in TNA. In 2004, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter inducted Angle into its Hall of Fame and he is considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, ESPN journalist and former WWE personality Jonathan Coachman described Angle as the greatest Ive ever seen in the ring. Angle was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon Township, Pennsylvania and he attended Clarion University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a degree in education in 1993. Angle has four brothers and a sister, LeAnne, who died in 2003. His father, an operator, was killed in a construction accident when Angle was 16. Angle stated in an interview that, following the death of his father, he regarded his wrestling coach, David Schultz, while training Angle, Schultz was murdered in January 1996 by John Eleuthère du Pont, the sponsor of Schultzs team of Olympic prospectives
Kurt Angle
–
Angle in August 2005
Kurt Angle
–
Angle with the
WWF European and
Intercontinental championships
Kurt Angle
–
Angle at
King of the Ring in 2000 – a tournament he won
Kurt Angle
–
Angle and
Brock Lesnar after their
WWE Championship title match at
WrestleMania XIX
16.
John Cena
–
John Felix Anthony Cena Jr. is an American professional wrestler, rapper, actor, and reality television show host. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand, Cena started his professional wrestling career in 1999 with Ultimate Pro Wrestling and won the UPW Heavyweight Championship the following year. Cena signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation in 2001. From a generic character in 2002, Cena morphed into a rapper for the period of 2002–2004. Cena later transitioned to his current character, which he describes as a goody-two shoes Superman, in 2012, IGN described Cena as WWEs franchise player since 2005 and WWE credited Cena as being the face of WWE in 2015 since 2004. Industry veterans John Layfield, Paul Heyman and Kurt Angle have called Cena the greatest WWE star of all time. Throughout his WWE career, Cena has won 25 championships, with 16 reigns as a world champion and he is also a five-time United States Champion, and four-time world tag team champion. Furthermore, he is a Money in the Bank ladder match winner, a two-time Royal Rumble winner, Cena has the fourth-highest number of combined days as WWE Champion, behind Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, and Hulk Hogan. He has also headlined WWEs flagship event, WrestleMania, on five different occasions over the course of his career, as of 2016, John Cena is WWEs highest-paid wrestler. Cena has also made appearances on shows including Manhunt, Deal or No Deal, MADtv, Saturday Night Live, Punkd, Psych. He was also a contestant on Fast Cars and Superstars, The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, Cena is also the host of American Grit on Fox. Cena is involved in philanthropic causes, most notably with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He has granted the most wishes in Make-A-Wish history, Cena was born on April 23,1977 in West Newbury, Massachusetts, to Carol and John Cena, Sr. He is the second oldest of five brothers, Dan, Matt, Steve and his maternal grandfather was baseball player Tony Lupien. His father is of Italian descent, while his mother has English, Cena originally attended Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, before transferring to Cushing Academy, a private prep boarding school. After graduating from Cushing Academy, Cena attended Springfield College in Springfield, in college, Cena was a NCAA Division III All-American center on the college football team, wearing the number 54, which is still used on some of his WWE merchandise. He graduated from Springfield in 1998 with a degree in physiology, after which he pursued a career in bodybuilding. Cena started training to become a wrestler in 1999 at Ultimate Pro Wrestlings California-based Ultimate University operated by Rick Bassman
John Cena
–
John Cena at a house show in 2015
John Cena
–
Cena performing an " FU " (
standing fireman's carry takeover) on
Kurt Angle in January 2005
John Cena
–
Cena with his customized
WWE United States Championship belt
John Cena
–
Cena facing off against
Edge at a WWE
house show
17.
Royal Rumble (2017)
–
Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for the Raw and SmackDown brands. It took place on January 29,2017, at the Alamodome in San Antonio and this was the 30th event under the Royal Rumble chronology. The event was also the second Royal Rumble to be held in the Alamodome, after 1997, eight matches were contested at the event, including three on the pre-show. In the main event, Randy Orton won the Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Roman Reigns, John Cena defeated AJ Styles, in another prominent match, to capture his record thirteenth WWE Championship and his sixteenth overall world championship, tying Ric Flairs record. The card featured eight matches, including three on the pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines and had results predetermined by WWE on the Raw and SmackDown brands. Storylines were produced on WWEs weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live, and 205 Live, the latter of which is cruiserweight exclusive. After defeating Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series in his first match in 12 years, the next week, Paul Heyman stated that Brock Lesnar would also compete in the Royal Rumble as he has something to prove, having been humiliated by Goldberg. Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Sheamus confirmed their entries via Twitter on January 16, later that night on Raw, Titus ONeil challenged The New Day for one of their spots. Big E accepted the challenge and defeated ONeil, on the January 17 episode of SmackDown, Bray Wyatt stated that he, Randy Orton, and Luke Harper would enter the match. On January 23,2017, Big Show was confirmed for the match via Facebook, Seth Rollins had confirmed his entry via Twitter on January 9, but lost his spot to Sami Zayn on the January 23 episode of Raw, after a distraction by Triple Hs music. Later in the night, Big Cass and Rusev announced their participation in the match, on the January 24 episode of SmackDown, Mojo Rawley won a 10-man battle royal to qualify for the match. The remaining eight spots were revealed at the event during the match, after the match, Jericho, who lost to Seth Rollins earlier that night, revealed it was his plan so that Owens would win and retain the title. Reigns and Rollins attacked both by performing Double Powerbombs on Jericho and Owens through broadcast tables, the next night on Raw, Owens and Jericho celebrated Owens win, stating their friendship was even stronger now. Foley threatened that if Jericho does not enter the cage, he will be fired, both were then put into a tag team match against Reigns and Rollins. The latter two won by disqualification after Braun Strowman came out and attacked both, Reigns later retained the United States Championship against Owens after Rollins attacked an interfering Jericho. The following week, Reigns again retained the United States Championship, Owens was banned from ringside during the match due to losing to Rollins earlier that night. The following week, Rollins faced Strowman in a rematch, ending in a double countout, Reigns again defended the United States Title, this time in a handicap match against both Jericho and Owens. After Jericho and Owens double-teamed Reigns, Jericho scored the pinfall to become the United States Champion, after the match, Owens powerbombed Reigns through a broadcast table
Royal Rumble (2017)
–
Royal Rumble match in 2010.
18.
ECW One Night Stand (2006)
–
ECW One Night Stand was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment. It was held on June 11,2006, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, the main event was John Cena versus Rob Van Dam for the WWE Championship, which Van Dam won by pinfall after performing a Five Star Frog Splash following interference from Edge. Another match on the undercard was Edge, Mick Foley, and Lita versus Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer and Beulah McGillicutty in a Hardcore Intergender match. The build-up for One Night Stand occurred on both Raw and SmackDown heading into the pay-per-view, but build-up behind the scenes began several months earlier, as WWE was bringing back ECW full-time. The news that WWE was planning to bring back ECW was leaked in the middle of April as Vince McMahon decided to revive ECW as a full-time brand, reports beforehand stated that WWE was prepared to bring back ECW immediately after WrestleMania 22. WWE opted to cancel its webcast Velocity and replace it with the new ECW program, the new brand was officially confirmed by WWE on May 25,2006, with its debut show airing on June 13,2006 on the Sci Fi Channel. At WrestleMania, Rob Van Dam competed in and won a six-man Money in the Bank ladder match for a championship of his choice anytime over the next year. On the May 22 episode of Raw, John Cena defeated Chris Masters, after the match, Van Dam entered the ring and announced that he was cashing in his opportunity for the WWE Championship at One Night Stand. The two exchanged lefts and rights, with Masters getting involved, the distraction allowed Van Dam to toss his briefcase into Cenas face and then hit him with the Van Daminator. The two had a signing for their match on the June 5,2006 episode of Raw. Before signing the contract, Van Dam told Cena that he would win the WWE Championship at One Night Stand, ECW representative Paul Heyman told Cena that the ECW fans can’t wait to boo him out of the Hammerstein Ballroom. Cena signed the contract and wished Van Dam luck, Heyman, however, told Cena that he had brought some people from ECW and at that point, Balls Mahoney, Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman entered the ring. Cena attempted to fight them off, but Sandman hit Cena with his Singapore cane, ECWs Sabu then came out and sent Cena through the table with his Atomic Arabian Facebuster move. Several Raw superstars ran out to attempt to fight off the ECW Originals, because of this, a match was booked for the WWE vs. ECW Head to Head special that aired on the USA Network on June 7,2006 between Cena and Sabu. The match ended in a no contest after ECWs newest wrestler, Big Show attacked Cena, at WrestleMania 22, Edge defeated Mick Foley in a Hardcore Match after a spear off the apron and through a flaming table on the outside. On the May 1,2006 episode of Raw, Foley was a guest on The Cutting Edge and the two agreed to a WrestleMania Hardcore rematch the next week. Before the match began on the May 8,2006 episode of Raw, Foley announced that the match was now a triple threat match, with Tommy Dreamer added as the third person. During the match, however, Foley turned heel for the first time in eight years
ECW One Night Stand (2006)
–
Promotional poster featuring
Rob Van Dam at
WrestleMania 22
ECW One Night Stand (2006)
–
John Cena who lost to
Rob Van Dam for the
WWE Championship.
ECW One Night Stand (2006)
–
Mick Foley, who teamed up with
Edge to take on
Tommy Dreamer and
Terry Funk at One Night Stand.
19.
WrestleMania XXVI
–
WrestleMania XXVI was a joint-promotion event, with performers both from the Raw and SmackDown brands. The events card consisted of eight matches, including three main matches, the first of these matches was a no disqualification, no countout match, in which The Undertaker defeated Shawn Michaels to improve his undefeated WrestleMania streak to 18–0. Per the pre-match stipulation, Michaels was forced to retire, the second was a singles match for the WWE Championship that saw John Cena defeat Batista to win the championship. The third saw World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho defeat the 2010 Royal Rumble winner Edge to retain the title, the undercard also included a No Holds Barred match between Bret Hart and Mr. McMahon and the sixth annual Money in the Bank ladder match. Tickets for the event commenced sale to the public on November 7,2009, WrestleMania XXVI generated approximately 885,000 PPV buys, grossing US$49 million in revenue. With an attendance of 72,219, the event grossed $5.8 million in sales, making the event the highest grossing. At The Bash in 2009, Edge and Chris Jericho established a tag team partnership when they won the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship that night and their partnership was short lived as Edge suffered a torn achilles tendon and had to vacate his half of the championship. Jericho distanced himself from Edge, crediting himself for all of the teams success, in the main event of the Elimination Chamber event three weeks later, Jericho won the World Heavyweight Championship in an Elimination Chamber match. The following night on Raw, Edge challenged Jericho for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania after spearing him, John Cena sided with Bret Hart over Harts hostility with WWE Chairman Mr. McMahon. When Hart and McMahon confronted each other on the February 1 episode of Raw, WWE Champion Batista saved McMahon from an attack, after the show ended, Cena tried to help Hart but was too attacked by Batista. With Cena too tired to compete, Batista defeated him and won the title, on the February 22 episode of Raw, Cena asked for a rematch for the title at WrestleMania, which McMahon gave him the opportunity as long as he defeated Batista that night. Later that night, Batista intentionally got himself disqualified by blowing Cena low to set up their match at WrestleMania, at WrestleMania XXV, Shawn Michaels was unsuccessful in defeating The Undertaker and ending Undertakers undefeated streak at the event. When the match won the 2009 Slammy Award for Match of the Year, Michaels stated in his speech that he could still defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania. A month later, The Undertaker, then the World Heavyweight Champion, made his reply, on the following night, The Undertaker changed his mind and accepted the rematch but with the stipulation that if Michaels loses, he would have to retire. Michaels accepted, noting that if he could not end the streak, two weeks later, Michaels and The Undertaker agreed on another additional stipulation, that the match would have no disqualifications and no count-outs. The qualifying match was later that night, where Christian defeated Carlito to qualify. On the March 1 episode of Raw, Jack Swagger and Montel Vontavious Porter defeated Santino Marella, on the March 5 episode of Smackdown, Matt Hardy defeated next to qualify for the match when he defeated Drew McIntyre on the March 5 episode of SmackDown. In what was declared as the final qualifying match, Evan Bourne defeated William Regal on the March 9 episode of Raw to become the eighth competitor
WrestleMania XXVI
–
Promotional poster featuring (left to right)
Shawn Michaels,
Triple H,
John Cena,
The Undertaker and
Batista
WrestleMania XXVI
–
Shawn Michaels was the co-host for this event.
WrestleMania XXVI
–
Bret Hart would go on to face
Mr. McMahon in a
No Holds Barred match, his first match in WWE since 1997.
WrestleMania XXVI
–
An attendance record setting 72,219 fans at the
University of Phoenix Stadium for WrestleMania XXVI
20.
Dave Bautista
–
David Michael Dave Bautista Jr. is an American actor and former professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, and bodybuilder. He holds the record for the longest reign as World Heavyweight Champion at 282 days and he was the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble match and went on to headline WrestleMania 21, one of the top five highest-grossing pay-per-view events in professional wrestling history. When Bautista returned to WWE in 2014, he won the 2014 Royal Rumble match, in August 2012, Bautista signed a contract with Classic Entertainment & Sports to fight in mixed martial arts. He won his MMA debut on October 6,2012, defeating Vince Lucero via TKO in the first round and he was representing the Philippines during the fight. Bautista first entered the world of acting in 2006, Bautista is set to reprise his role as Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and Avengers, Infinity War. He has also appeared in several films since 2009. Bautista was born in Washington, D. C and his mother, Donna Raye, has Greek ancestry, and his father, David Michael Bautista, is the son of Filipino immigrants. His parents separated and eventually divorced and his paternal grandfather served in the Philippines military, worked as a taxicab driver, barber, and held other jobs to feed the family. Bautista has said that he is not ashamed to admit he lived in poverty and he has admitted to having a hard life, before he had reached the age of nine, three murders had occurred on his front lawn. As young as age 13, he was stealing automobiles, by age 17, Bautista was considered estranged from his parents and lived on his own. He later admitted, I am proud of my parents and they are good, honest, hard-working folks. They taught me the values of working hard and he became a regular bouncer for clubs until he was arrested after a fight that left two patrons injured, one of whom was rendered unconscious. After a trial, he was sentenced to one year of probation and he also worked as a lifeguard before pursuing a career in bodybuilding. He credits bodybuilding with potentially saving his life, Bautista tried out at the World Championship Wrestling Power Plant, but was told he would never make it in the wrestling business by Sgt. Bautista also trained with Marrese Crump in Muay Thai and Eskrima, most recently, he trained at Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu under Cesar Gracie and has become a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He made his Ohio Valley Wrestling debut in 2000 under the ring name Leviathan, as a member of the Disciples of Synn stable, he went undefeated until being beaten at Christmas Chaos by Kane with help from Stone Cold Steve Austin. He later won the OVW Heavyweight Championship from The Machine Doug Basham before losing the belt to The Prototype, a few months later, Bautista left OVW after he was promoted WWEs main roster. While still in OVW, Bautista began appearing on non-televised WWE events and he began his televised WWE career on May 9,2002 on an episode of SmackDown. as Deacon Batista, a villainous enforcer for Reverend DVon
Dave Bautista
–
Bautista at the
Guardians of the Galaxy premiere in July 2014.
Dave Bautista
–
Batista in September 2005 as the
World Heavyweight Champion.
Dave Bautista
–
Batista at a SmackDown! live event in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dave Bautista
–
Batista during his second World Heavyweight Championship reign.
21.
Rob Van Dam
–
Robert Alex Rob Szatkowski, better known by his ring name Rob Van Dam, is an American professional wrestler and occasional actor. Van Dam has won 21 total championships and is the wrestler in history to have held the WWE Championship, the ECW World Championship. Van Dam is also the 2006 Money in the Bank winner, a WWE Triple Crown Champion, following the end of The Undertakers Wrestlemania winning streak in 2014, Van Dams record of 4-0 is now the longest active undefeated streak at WrestleMania. Van Dam is also undefeated at November to Remember, and Bound for Glory pay-per-view events, Van Dam gained his mainstream popularity by 1998 when he won the ECW World Television Championship, which he held for a record 700 days. Between ECW, WWF/WWE, and TNA, Van Dam headlined pay-per-view events in three decades between the 1990s and 2010s, closing the ECWs premier annual event November to Remember in 1998, Van Dam is also a five time world tag team champion. He is also a former TNA X Division Champion, in 2002, Van Dam was ranked the number one wrestler in the world by Pro Wrestling Illustrated. He was voted Most Popular Wrestler by readers of the magazine in 2001, WWE has named him the greatest star in ECW history. Szatkowski grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan and graduated from Pennfield Senior High School, Szatkowski made his first appearance on WWF television in 1987 in a skit with The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. This early appearance was included as a bonus feature on WWEs Before They Were Superstars DVD and on WWEs Rob Van Dam. He was also in attendance at WrestleMania III as stated on The Hulk Hogan, the name Rob Van Dam was given to him in 1991 by Ron Slinker, a promoter in Florida, possibly because of his martial arts experience and his resemblance to actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. He wrestled in independent promotions across Michigan, including the United States Wrestling Association. In SAPW, he won his first wrestling championship, the SAPW Tag Team Championship and he also wrestled in several independent promotions across America, and in All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he challenged for the World Junior Heavyweight Championship on several occasions. He signed with World Championship Wrestling in late 1992 and was dubbed Robbie V by Ron Slinker upon his arrival since Bill Watts did not like the name Rob Van Dam. Robbie made his WCW debut on the January 23,1993 episode of Saturday Night as a fan favorite and his last televised match was on the May 22 episode of Saturday Night, a tag team loss with Erik Watts against Shanghai Pierce and Tex Slazenger. He departed the company after an uneventful and forgettable run, in January 1996, Van Dam signed with promoter Paul Heymans Philadelphia-based promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling, defeating Axl Rotten in his debut match at House Party. Van Dams mannerisms were those of a stoner, and he became a face due to his laid-back attitude, on March 30, he faced 2 Cold Scorpio in a match for the World Television Championship. The match ended in a draw with 2 Cold Scorpio retaining the title, Van Dam gained attention following a series of matches with long-time rival Sabu, which began with a match at Hostile City Showdown, won by Sabu. After the match, Van Dam declined to show respect for his opponent, leading to a rematch at A Matter of Respect
Rob Van Dam
–
Rob Van Dam in April 2014.
Rob Van Dam
–
RVD as both
ECW World Tag Team Champion with
Sabu behind him, and
ECW World Television Champion.
Rob Van Dam
–
Van Dam after winning the Intercontinental Championship at
WrestleMania X8.
Rob Van Dam
–
RVD as Intercontinental Champion
22.
IGN
–
The website was the brainchild of media entrepreneur Chris Anderson and launched on September 29,1996. It focuses on games, films, television, comics, technology, the company is located in San Franciscos SOMA district in California, United States. Originally a network of websites, IGN is now distributed on mobile platforms, console programs on the Xbox and PlayStation, FireTV, Roku, and via YouTube, Twitch, Hulu. IGN was sold to publishing company Ziff Davis in February 2013 and now operates as a J2 Global subsidiary. com, PSXPower, Saturnworld, Next-Generation. com and Ultra Game Players Online. Imagine expanded on its owned-and-operated websites by creating a network that included a number of independent fansites such as PSX Nation. com, Sega-Saturn. com, Game Sages. In 1998, the network launched a new homepage that consolidated the individual sites as system channels under the IGN brand, the homepage exposed content from more than 30 different channels. Next-Generation and Ultra Game Players Online were not part of this consolidation, dissolved with the cancellation of the magazine, and Next-Generation was put on hold when Imagine decided to concentrate on launching the short-lived Daily Radar brand. In February 1999, Imagine Media incorporated a spin-off that included IGN and its channels as Affiliation Networks. In September, the newly spun-out standalone internet media company, changed its name to Snowball. com, at the same time, small entertainment website The Den merged into IGN and added non-gaming content to the growing network. Snowball held an IPO in 2000, but shed most of its properties during the dot-com bubble. In June 2005, IGN reported having 24,000,000 unique visitors per month, with 4.8 million registered users through all departments of the site, IGN is ranked among the top 200 most-visited websites according to Alexa. In September 2005, IGN was acquired by Rupert Murdochs multi-media business empire, News Corporation, IGN celebrated its 10th anniversary on January 12,2008. IGN was headquartered in the Marina Point Parkway office park in Brisbane, California, on May 25,2011, IGN sold its Direct2Drive division to Gamefly for an undisclosed amount. In 2011, IGN Entertainment acquired its rival UGO Entertainment from Hearst Corporation, ultimately, News Corp. planned to spin off IGN Entertainment as a publicly traded company, continuing a string of divestitures for digital properties it had previously acquired. Financial details regarding the purchase were not revealed, prior to its acquisition by UGO, 1UP. com had previously been owned by Ziff Davis. Soon after the acquisition, IGN announced that it would be laying off staff and closing GameSpy, 1UP. com, the role-playing video game interest website Vault Network was acquired by IGN in 1999. GameStats, a review website, was founded by IGN in 2004. GameStats includes a GPM rating system incorporates an average press score and average gamer score
IGN
–
IGN Entertainment's former headquarters in
Brisbane,
California.
IGN
–
IGN Entertainment Inc.
23.
Corey Graves
–
Matthew Polinsky is an American color commentator, columnist, and retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE and works on WWEs flagship show Raw and he is a former NXT Tag Team Champion with Adrian Neville. Polinsky is also known for his work on the independent circuit under the ring name Sterling James Keenan, Polinsky was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of a Hungarian couple. He attended college and got a degree in marketing, Keenan debuted on March 22,2000. Throughout the next few years, Keenan appeared for various promotions, including Dory Funk Jr. s Funkin Conservatory, where he competed with wrestlers including Paul London, Adam Windsor, and Onyx. In 2002, Keenan teamed with Dreamachine Chris Cage to win the Funkin Conservatory Tag Team Championship by defeating the team of London, Keenan also made appearances for NWA Upstate, Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South, Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling, and Full Throttle Wrestling. On April 26,2002, Keenan and Mad Mike won the NWA East Tag Team Championship by defeating The Premiere Players, Keenan was part of the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers promotion in both of its incarnations. He won the UIPW Keystone Cruiserweight Championship, beginning in 2005, he appeared regularly for Far North Wrestling, and on November 2,2007, he won a Battle royal to win the FNW Heavyweight Championship. He defeated Samoa Joe and Rikishi by countout on August 23,2007 to win the Ballpark Brawl Natural Heayweight Title, on February 24,2008, Keenan won Absolute Intense Wrestlings Heavyweight Championship by winning a 30-Man gauntlet match. Keenan competed for Pro Wrestling Zero1, and has won the Zero-One United States Heavyweight Championship on two occasions, on March 8,2008, Keenan defeated Mr. Wrestling 3 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to win the championship for the first time. He only held the championship for a week, before dropping it to Dr. X on March 15 in Morganville, on May 9, Keenan won the championship for the second time, defeating Jake Manning in Limerick, Pennsylvania. He held the championship for just under a month, before losing it to Rick Landell on June 1, throughout the years Keenan has also made sporadic appearances for Ring of Honor. His debut appearance for the promotion was at Round Robin Challenge II on April 25,2003 and he returned to ROH over two years later at Redemption on August 12,2005, where he participated in a Four Corner Survival match won by Ace Steel. Six months later, at In Your Face, Keenan and Jason Blade lost a tag match to The Briscoe Brothers. He made a appearance in ROH in 2007 at the Fifth Year Festival, Dayton event, losing to Jimmy Rave and another appearance in March 2009 at Steel City Clash. He also appeared on the Ring of Honor Wrestling television show on the April 4,2009 episode, Keenan debuted in the International Wrestling Cartel on October 19,2002, defeating Troy Lords. On the following IWC show, Keenan defeated CM Punk, before losing to Shirley Doe on two occasions but defeating Josh Prohibition. On December 28, Keenan teamed with Dustin Ardine to challenge the Devils Advocates for the IWC Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful
Corey Graves
–
Corey Graves in August 2013 as one half of the
NXT Tag Team Champions
24.
Renee Young
–
Renee Paquette is a Canadian sports broadcaster and actress. She is currently a personality with WWE under the ring name Renee Young. She is a sportscaster for The Score. Paquette was born in Toronto, Ontario, after high school, she applied to several colleges and began training in improvisational comedy. At the age of 19, she relocated to Los Angeles, California to pursue a career as an actress, but later moved back to Toronto and auditioned for films, music videos. Young had previously performed interviews exclusively for WWE Active since February 2013, Young debuted on the January 23 episode of NXT as a backstage interviewer. com, until its cancellation in June 2015. It received a Slammy Award for Favorite Web Show of the Year and she also presents WWE Vintage Collection alongside Hall of Famer Mean Gene Okerlund. In September 2013, Young made her debut on NXT. She began performing color commentary during NXT Divas matches, before becoming a full-time color commentator on NXT for several months. From July 3,2014 to January 9,2015, Young served as a commentator on WWE Superstars, alongside Tom Phillips. In April 2015, Young began hosting her own show titled Unfiltered with Renee Young, in which she interviews fellow WWE employees, in June, Young served as the co-host of the sixth season of Tough Enough, alongside Chris Jericho. On the December 20,2016 episode of SmackDown, Young interviewed Intercontinental Champion The Miz following his title defense against Apollo Crews. After Young asked Miz about his obsession with Dean Ambrose, Miz sarcastically responded by revealing Young and Ambroses real-life relationship, on December 27, Young was confronted by Maryse backstage on SmackDown. Maryse slapped Young the following week in retaliation, before joining The Score, Paquette worked for BiteTV, where she presented a show about extreme sports and music called Rippin It-N-Lippin It during 2008 and 2009. She appeared in a commercial for Oxy, and had a part in a Tom Green music video, prior to this, she had a cameo in the music video for Kelly Clarksons 2005 song Behind These Hazel Eyes. She also appeared in a national Noxzema commercial, and did a photoshoot for Toro Magazine, in 2016, it was announced that Paquette would be appearing as a main cast member for the sixth season of Total Divas. She had previously appeared in episodes on a recurring basis. On being a fan, Paquette said, I attended a few events
Renee Young
–
Young in March 2015.
Renee Young
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Young in April 2014.
25.
Goldust
–
Dustin Patrick Runnels is an American professional wrestler who is currently signed to WWE on the Raw brand under the ring name Goldust, where he teams with R-Truth as The Golden Truth. He is the son of the late WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes, Runnels enigmatic, flamboyant, sexually ambiguous gimmick of Goldust has remained popular in WWF/E. He is also known for performing in various such as World Championship Wrestling. Among the other names Runnels has performed under are Black Reign, between WWF/E and WCW, Runnels has won 20 total championships. In WCW, he was a two-time United States Heavyweight Champion, a one-time Six-Man Tag Team Champion, in WWF/E, he is a three-time Intercontinental Champion, a nine-time Hardcore Champion, a one-time World Tag Team Champion, and a two-time WWE Tag Team Champion. Runnels professional wrestling debut came on September 13,1988, defeating Bob Cook in a match for the Tampa-based Championship Wrestling from Florida group, the company would be renamed Professional Wrestling Federation in February 1989 after his father, Dusty Rhodes, began wrestling there. Runnels would capture the Florida Heavyweight Championship on May 23,1989 from Al Perez, in December 1988, Runnels began performing as Dustin Rhodes and would begin working for the newly Ted Turner-owned World Championship Wrestling. Rhodes teamed with Kendall Windham in an tag team called The Texas Broncos that saw success against The Cruel Connection. Their first defeat came against The Original Midnight Express at a show on December 10,1988 in Philadelphia. Dustins first singles match came two days later at a TV taping in Atlanta, GA when he defeated Trent Knight, Rhodes initial WCW run lasted only a few months, as he exited the company two months after his father. In March 1989, he toured Japan for All Japan Pro Wrestling in its annual Champion Carnival, under the name Dusty Rhodes and he returned to AJPW for a ten and a twenty-day tour in the spring and summer of 1990. Runnels began wrestling in United States Wrestling Association in July 1989, There he feuded mainly with Tony Anthony for Anthonys CWA Heavyweight Championship but never won the belt. He left the USWA in the spring of 1990, Runnels debuted as a fan favorite in the World Wrestling Federation in late 1990, wrestling as Dustin Rhodes. In December 1990, Rhodes defeated Ted DiBiase in a televised ten-minute challenge match, on January 19,1991, at the Royal Rumble, Rhodes and his father Dusty lost to Ted DiBiase and Virgil in a tag team bout, and both left immediately after. In February 1991, Runnels joined World Championship Wrestling, wrestling as The Natural Dustin Rhodes and he feuded with Larry Zbyszko until April 1991, when he refused to join Alexandra Yorks York Foundation, thus beginning a feud with Foundation member Terrence Taylor. In late 1991, Rhodes formed a tag-team with Barry Windham, the pair received a title shot at Clash of the Champions XVII, but Windham was injured prior to the event. A returning Ricky Steamboat was chosen to partner Rhodes, and the duo won the WCW World Tag Team Championship. They lost the belts on January 16,1992, to Arn Anderson and they held the belts for about two months before losing them to Steamboat and Shane Douglas in a memorable match on the November 18 edition of Clash of the Champions
Goldust
–
Goldust in April 2014
Goldust
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Goldust in 1995
Goldust
–
Goldust in 2002
Goldust
–
Rhodes signing autographs, without his face paint
26.
Dwayne Johnson
–
Dwayne Douglas Johnson, also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor, producer, singer, and professional wrestler. He holds American and Canadian citizenships and he later played for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League and was cut two months into the 1995 season. This led him to become a professional wrestler like his grandfather, Peter Maivia and he returned to wrestling part-time for WWE from 2011 to 2013 and continues to make sporadic non-wrestling appearances for the company. Johnson has 17 championship reigns in WWE, including 10 as a champion, winning the WWF/WWE Championship eight times. He won the WWF Intercontinental Championship twice and the WWF Tag Team Championship five times, Johnson is the sixth Triple Crown Champion in WWE history and won the 2000 Royal Rumble. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, co-written with Joe Layden, was published in 2000. It debuted at No.1 on The New York Times Best Seller list, spent 20 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, Johnsons first leading film role was in The Scorpion King in 2002. For this role, he was paid US $5.5 million and he has since appeared in various films, and become known for his ability to reinvigorate film franchises. Perhaps his greatest success in his career can be sourced to his role as Luke Hobbs in The Fast. Forbes listed Johnson No.25 in the Top 100 Most Powerful Celebrities in 2013 and he is the worlds highest-paid actor of 2016. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016, in 2015, Muscle & Fitness named Johnson their Man of the Century. Johnson was born in Hayward, California, the son of Ata Johnson and professional wrestler Wayde Douglas Bowles and his maternal grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, was also a wrestler. His maternal grandmother, Lia Maivia, was one of few female promoters, taking over Polynesian Pacific Pro Wrestling after her husbands death in 1982. His cousin, Savelina Fanene, is also a wrestler working for WWE. His father is a Black Nova Scotian, and his mother is of Samoan heritage and his father was part of the first black tag team to win the World Tag Team Championship in the World Wrestling Federation. Through his mother, he is considered a relative of the Anoai wrestling family. Johnson briefly lived in the suburb of Grey Lynn in Auckland and he attended Richmond Road Primary School, before returning to the United States with his parents. Johnson spent 10th grade at President William McKinley High School in Honolulu, as he entered 11th grade, his fathers job required his relocation to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Dwayne Johnson
–
Johnson at the premiere of
Hercules in
Sydney in June 2014
Dwayne Johnson
–
As part of
The Corporation, The Rock feuded with
Stone Cold Steve Austin and stole Austin's personalized
WWF Championship, the Smoking Skull belt.
Dwayne Johnson
–
The Rock's popularity was fueled by his charisma and speaking abilities, which led to many catchphrases and merchandising opportunities.
Dwayne Johnson
–
The Rock as the WWF Champion in 2000
27.
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007
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Raw 2007 is a professional wrestling video game released by THQ and developed by Yukes. The game is based on the wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment. It is the installment of the WWE SmackDown. Series and is the successor to 2005s WWE SmackDown. vs, raw 2006 and was succeeded by WWE SmackDown vs. On March 31,2006, THQ, Yukes and WWE officially confirmed the game, the game was released in November 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 consoles and in December 2006 for the PlayStation Portable system. The game introduced a few key new features including a control system, interactive hotspots. The game also included several improvements on the games existing match types and modes. In the new system, grappling moves are now affected by analog control, much like the previous game, one can also move around the ring by analog control instead of using the D-pad. An option to switch to the control layout is also possible. The chain reversal system has also improved and now involves grapples as well as strikes. In addition, a wrestler can lift up or hurt with certain strikes. A lot more interactivity in the arenas is also present such as fighting within the crowd, signs and objects from the crowd can be used to beat down the opponent. One major feature is the inclusion of environmental hotspots such as the ropes, steel steps. The PlayStation 2 version however has a restriction on crowd fighting, the graphics have also improved with each superstar consisting of 20,000 polygons for the Xbox 360 compared to the total of 5,000 from the PlayStation 2 version of the previous game. Sweat from the wrestlers has now included in the Xbox 360 version of the game. The games audio system has been overhauled and features new sound effects in Dolby 5.1 as well as the inclusion of new crowd chants, raw 2007 is the first WWE SmackDown vs. Raw game to feature Bobby Lashley, The Boogeyman, Candice Michelle, Finlay, Jillian Hall, Johnny Nitro, Mr. Kennedy, Melina, Mickie James, Trevor Murdoch, and Umaga. It is also the first appearance of Gregory Helms under his real name and it is Mark Henrys first appearance in the franchise since WWE SmackDown
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007
–
PlayStation 2 NTSC cover art featuring (clockwise from top left)
Rey Mysterio,
John Cena,
Torrie Wilson,
Triple H and
Batista
28.
WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It
–
Just Bring It is a professional wrestling video game released on the PlayStation 2 console by THQ and developed by Yukes Future Media Creators. It was released in Europe on November 16,2001, in the United States on November 18,2001, the game is part of the WWF SmackDown. Series based on the World Wrestling Federation professional wrestling promotion and it is also the sequel to WWF SmackDown. 2, Know Your Role and was succeeded by WWE SmackDown and this was the first game in the series to be featured on the PlayStation 2. It is also the last game in the series named under the WWF banner and this was the first game in the series to feature commentary, with Michael Cole and Tazz featured as the announcers. One improvement in this game is the appearance of six-man tag team matches, additionally, this was the first game of the series to give each wrestler two finishing moves, as well as the first to allow editing of the in-game wrestlers move sets. Just Bring It was also the first game in the series to feature authentic, the game features several venues from 2000 and 2001, including the arena for Raw Is War and both the original and new arenas for SmackDown. Rather than the Season Modes presented in the previous SmackDown, games, Just Bring It has a Story Mode. The player is more control over their wrestlers activities in Just Bring Its Story Mode. Throughout Story Mode, the player is able to attain unlockables, however, when the game was given the Sony Greatest Hits label, it was renamed to WWE SmackDown. The game received favorable reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic
WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It
–
NTSC cover art featuring (clockwise from top right)
Triple H,
The Rock,
Spike Dudley and
Kurt Angle
29.
WWE 2K14
–
WWE 2K14 is a professional wrestling video game developed by Yukes & Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the first game published by 2K Sports since Take-Two Interactive gained the license from THQ in a bankruptcy filing and it is the sequel to WWE13 and it is succeeded by WWE 2K15. It is the first game in the WWE 2K series and it was released on October 29,2013 in North America, October 30 in Japan and November 1,2013 in Europe. The online servers for WWE 2K14 were shut down on October 31,2015, many of the gameplay features from WWE13 have been updated. These include the system, allowing for more fluid walking, running and dragging motions. Characters also move faster than before, before running, characters display starting up animations, to prevent players from spamming running attacks. All chain reversals now result in attacks, to make for quicker matches by avoiding continuous reversal stalemates. Catapult finishers can now be used offensively, some characters can launch an opponent into the air and catch them for a catch finisher. Seven new OMG moments have been added, allowing certain finishers to be done on two opponents, and players to interact with the arena environment, the nearfall system too has been improved, with more two counts. Few new matches have been added, though a Slobberknocker Mode, the long-standing mode, Create-a-Superstar has been tweaked to have an expanded character save slot that can be filled with up to 100 created superstars. While the mode itself remains much of the same, the ability to use existing superstars as a template for new custom variants has been added, the player continues to have the option to create their own entrances and finishers. The ability to create a custom WWE championship is also available, like WWE Legends of WrestleMania and WWE13, the campaign revolves around historical stories rather than original ones. The mode features a roster of wrestlers and alternate gimmicks. In Wrestlemania mode, matches have primary objectives, required to beat the game, and bonus historical objectives, sometimes the player must follow a guided sequence of inputs, rather than freely control the character. In 45 primary matches, the player competes through storylines of various lengths, the Attitude Era chapter brings back some matches from WWE 13s Attitude Era mode, as well as some not covered before. The Ruthless Aggression chapter focuses on the departure of The Rock, lessened focus on Triple H and rise of John Cena, the final Universe Era chapter focuses on the rise of Randy Orton and the returns of The Rock and Brock Lesnar. The game has a mode that focuses on The Undertakers WrestleMania winning streak of 21 matches at the time of the games release. In The Streak mode, the player chooses to defend the streak as The Undertaker, battling waves of opponents, or to attempt to break it, when facing The Undertaker, the difficulty level is higher than in any previous WWE game
WWE 2K14
–
Cover art featuring
The Rock
WWE 2K14
–
The winning cover of the WWE 2K14 contest featuring
Daniel Bryan. The cover was designed by Mike Rodriguez of Corona, California.
30.
Michael Cole (wrestling)
–
Michael Sean Coulthard better known by his stage name Michael Cole, is an American professional wrestling commentator, show host, voice actor and former journalist. He is signed to WWE where he serves as the commentator on Raw and Raw pay-per-view events. Coulthard began his career in the media as a journalist, working for CBS Radio and his first high-profile assignment was to cover the failed 1988 US presidential campaign of Democratic Party nominee Michael Dukakis. In 1992, he reported on the campaign of Bill Clinton. Coulthard covered the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, the following year, he spent nine months covering the Yugoslavian civil war. In 1995, he was selected to cover the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. He returned to the campaign trail in 1996 to cover the campaigns of Steve Forbes. Coulthard came to the World Wrestling Federation in mid-1997 after being recommended to company officials by Todd Pettengill and he provided voice-overs for promotional videos and later became the host of LiveWire show alongside Jim Cornette. Cole first appeared on screen at the June 30,1997 episode of Raw is War, interviewing the Legion of Doom, in late 1997, Cole became one of the three announcers for the first hour of Monday Night Raw, alongside Jim Ross and Kevin Kelly. Eventually Cole was permanently replaced by Jerry Lawler later in the year, in 1999, Cole became the regular play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Raw, subbing for Jim Ross when Ross was devastated by Bells palsy. Television program debuted later that year, Cole was chosen to be the shows play-by-play announcer, Cole also had a stint doing commentary on SmackDown. s former sister show WWE Velocity. As an announcer, Cole was rarely involved in storylines, however, he has had roles in storylines involving Heidenreich, Stephanie McMahon, Vito. His 2004 angle with Heidenreich became infamous due to a scene where Heidenreich Heidenraped him in the arena restroom. In a 2008 interview, Heidenreich explained that the Cole rape angle was McMahons idea, and he also appeared in the Taxi Driver parody trailer in promotion of WrestleMania 21. On April 26,2006, WWE announced that Cole would become the Managing Editor of WWE. com, shortly after, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon told shareholders in a meeting held on September 14 that he thought that the website sucks. In response, Cole replied on WWE. Cole went on to say, So in summary, the web site does suck, compared to where we are going to take it, wish I could say the same for the boss. On the June 9 episode of SmackDown, Coles broadcast partner Tazz left from SmackDown to ECW on SciFi, leaving Cole at that moment without a broadcast partner. At ECW One Night Stand, John Bradshaw Layfield announced he would replace Tazz as color commentator and this proved true five days later when he appeared on that weeks episode of SmackDown. as Coles new broadcast partner
Michael Cole (wrestling)
–
Cole in 2010
Michael Cole (wrestling)
–
Cole at
WrestleMania XXVII.
Michael Cole (wrestling)
–
Cole (center) commentating on Raw with
John "Bradshaw" Layfield (left) and
Jerry Lawler (right) in January 2014
Michael Cole (wrestling)
–
Cole is a four-time
Slammy Award winner
