1.
World Xtreme Wrestling
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Court Bauer, a member of the WWE creative team, was formerly a booker for the promotion during the mid-1990s. The promotion features in the film The Wrestler, where Mickey Rourkes character Randy The Ram Robinson wrestles Tommy Rotten, originally formed in 1970 as the Trans World Wrestling Federation in association with the original Wild Samoan Pro Wrestling Training Center, the promotions early history is unrecorded. However, Jules Strongbow and Yukon Jack have both been credited as former heavyweight champions, during the early 1990s, the promotions roster included independent wrestlers such as Bam Bam Bigelow, Chief Dave Foxx, Billy Kidman, Chris Kanyon, Tony Stetson and Glen Osbourne. World Xtreme Wrestling was established in 1996 as a continuation of the Trans World Wrestling Federation, shortly after the close of Extreme Championship Wrestling, several former ECW wrestlers including Mikey Whipwreck, Devon Storm, Little Guido, The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer invaded Sportsfest 2001. In the main event, The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer were defeated by Samu, during that year, the promotion established a womens division with Kattra becoming the first WXW Womens Champion. She eventually was stripped of the title in March 2001 after failing to defend the championship, although BellaDonna won the title after defeating Jessica Dally on March 9, the title was again vacated. L. A. Smooth, Showtime Shane Black, Havoc, Nuissance, Supreme Lee Great, Rage TV features a rotating commentary team that has included Doc Daniels, The Bald Guy, Ben Miller, Saul Steinberk, Gerry Strauss and Nate Stein. Other independent wrestlers who have appeared on Rage TV include Salvatore Bellomo, Low Ki, John Rambo, in early 2002, WXW promoted its first tour overseas and appeared for U. S. troops stationed in the Middle East, including Afghanistan. In August 2002, the promotion held a tour in Asia. In late 2004, WXW expanded and began holding events in Florida near the original Wild Samoan Pro Wrestling Training Center in Pensacola, WXW began holding all of its events in Minneola, Florida, and broadcasting Rage TV on their website. A new branch of WXW, called WXW C4 was created and promotes events in Allentown. WXW C4 is run by Samu and Afa Jr. and has a television show. The Womens Elite 8 Tournament is a tournament formed by WXW promotion to offer a platform for top female wrestlers, there have been eight annual tournaments starting September 27,2002 in Danbury, Connecticut. The last tournament was held in 2009,09 Jan 2000 Pro wrestler dies in the ring. 10 Jan 2000 Red Lake Falls Tag Team - Hometown Boys Pin Hope On Pro Wrestling,22 Sept 2002 Duncan, Royal and Gary Will. Wrestling Title Histories, Revised 4th Edition, ISBN 0-9698161-5-4 Official website Official WXW C4 website
2.
Essen
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Essen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Its population of approximately 589,000 makes it the ninth-largest city in Germany and it is the central city of the northern part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area and seat to several of the regions authorities. Founded around 845, Essen remained a town within the sphere of influence of an important ecclesiastical principality until the onset of industrialization. The city then — especially through the Krupp family iron works — became one of Germanys most important coal and steel centers. Essen, until the 1970s, attracted workers from all over the country, following the region-wide decline of heavy industries in the last decades of the 20th century, the city has seen the development of a strong tertiary sector of the economy. Although it is the most indebted city in Germany, Essen continues to pursue its redevelopment plans, notable accomplishments in recent years include the title of European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr area in 2010 and the selection as the European Green Capital for 2017. In 1958, Essen was chosen to serve as the seat to a Roman Catholic diocese, in early 2003, the universities of Essen and the nearby city of Duisburg were merged into the University of Duisburg-Essen with campuses in both cities and a university hospital in Essen. Essen is located in the centre of the Ruhr area, one of the largest urban areas in Europe, comprising eleven independent cities and four districts with some 5.3 million inhabitants. The city limits of Essen itself are 87 km long and border ten cities, five independent and five kreisangehörig, the city extends over 21 km from north to south and 17 km from west to east, mainly north of the River Ruhr. The Ruhr forms the Lake Baldeney reservoir in the boroughs of Fischlaken, Kupferdreh, the lake, a popular recreational area, dates from 1931 to 1933, when some thousands of unemployed coal miners dredged it with primitive tools. Generally, large areas south of the River Ruhr are quite green and are quoted as examples of rural structures in the otherwise relatively densely populated central Ruhr area. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Essen with 9. 2% of its covered by recreational green is the greenest city in North Rhine-Westphalia. The city has been shortlisted for the title of European Green Capital two consecutive times, for 2016 and 2017, winning for 2017, the city was singled out for its exemplary practices in protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity and efforts to reduce water consumption. Essen participates in a variety of networks and initiatives to reduce gas emissions. The lowest point can be found in the borough of Karnap at 26.5 m. The average elevation is 116 m, Essen comprises fifty boroughs which in turn are grouped into nine suburban districts often named after the most important boroughs. Each Stadtbezirk is assigned a Roman numeral and has a body of nineteen members with limited authority. Most of the boroughs were originally independent municipalities but were annexed from 1901 to 1975
3.
Oberhausen
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Oberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen. The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is a point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The citys Sea Life Centre was home to Paul the Octopus, Oberhausen was named for its 1847 railway station which had taken its name from the Castle Oberhausen. The new borough was formed in 1862 following inflow of people for the coal mines. Awarded town rights in 1874, Oberhausen absorbed several neighbouring boroughs including Alstaden, parts of Styrum, Oberhausen became a city in 1901, and they incorporated the towns of Sterkrade and Osterfeld in 1929. The Ruhrchemie AG synthetic oil plant was a target of the Oil Campaign of World War II. In 1973 Thyssen employed 14,000 people in Oberhausen in the steel industry, in 1954 the city began hosting the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, and the 1982 Deutscher Filmpreis was awarded to a group that wrote the Oberhausen Manifesto. The age breakdown of the population is, There are 12. 5% non-Germans living in Oberhausen
4.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
5.
Ruhr
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The Ruhr, or the Ruhr district, Ruhr region, Ruhr area or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2, 800/km² and a population of eight and a million, it is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany. It consists of large, industrial cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to the west. In the southwest it borders the Bergisches Land and it is considered part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of more than 12 million people, which is among the largest in Europe. The most populous cities are Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg, the Ruhr area has no administrative center, each city in the area has its own administration, although there exists the supracommunal Regionalverband Ruhr institution in Essen. Since the 19th century, these districts have grown together into a complex with a vast industrial landscape. For 2010, the Ruhr region was one of the European Capitals of Culture, the urban landscape of the Ruhr extends from the Lower Rhine Basin east to the Westphalian Plain and south to the hills of the Rhenish Massif. Through the centre of the Ruhr runs a segment of the belt that extends across Germany from west to east. Historically, this belt has underlain some of Germanys richest agricultural regions. Geologically, the region is defined by coal-bearing layers from the upper Carboniferous period, the coal seams reach the surface in a strip along the River Ruhr and dip downward from the river to the north. Beneath the River Lippe, the coal seams lie at a depth of 600 to 800 metres, the thickness of the coal layers ranges from one to three metres. This geological feature played a role in the development of coal mining in the Ruhr. According to the Regionalverband Ruhr,37. 6% of the area is built up. A total of 40. 7% of the land remains in agricultural use. Forests account for 17. 6%, and bodies of water and other types of land use occupy the rest, the inclusion of four mainly rural districts in the otherwise mainly industrial Ruhr helps to explain the large proportion of agricultural and forested land. In addition, the city boroughs of the Ruhr region have outlying districts with a rural character, seen on a map, the Ruhr could be considered a single city, since—at least in the north-south dimension—there are no visible breaks between the individual city boroughs. Thus the Ruhr is described as an urban area, which shares a similar history of urban. Instead, the city boroughs and urban districts of the Ruhr grew independently of one another during the Industrial Revolution
6.
Hanover
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At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Electorate was enlarged to become a Kingdom with Hanover as its capital. From 1868 to 1946 Hanover was the capital of the Prussian Province of Hanover and it is now the capital of the Land of Lower Saxony. Since 2001 it has been part of the Hanover district, which is a body made up from the former district. With a population of 518,000, Hanover is a centre of Northern Germany. Hanover also hosts annual commercial trade fairs such as the Hanover Fair, every year Hanover hosts the Schützenfest Hannover, the worlds largest marksmens festival, and the Oktoberfest Hannover, the second largest such festival in Germany. In 2000, Hanover hosted the world fair Expo 2000, the Hanover fairground, due to numerous extensions, especially for the Expo 2000, is the largest in the world. Hanover is of importance because of its universities and medical school, its international airport. The city is also a crossing point of railway lines and highways. Hanover is the traditional English spelling, the German spelling is becoming more popular in English, recent editions of encyclopaedias prefer the German spelling, and the local government uses the German spelling on English websites. The traditional English spelling is used in historical contexts, especially when referring to the British House of Hanover. Hanover was founded in times on the east bank of the River Leine. Its original name Honovere may mean high bank, though this is debated, Hanover was a small village of ferrymen and fishermen that became a comparatively large town in the 13th century due to its position at a natural crossroads. As overland travel was difficult, its position on the upper navigable reaches of the river helped it to grow by increasing trade. In the 14th century the churches of Hanover were built. The beginning of industrialization in Germany led to trade in iron and silver from the northern Harz Mountains, in 1636 George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, ruler of the Brunswick-Lüneburg principality of Calenberg, moved his residence to Hanover. The Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg were elevated by the Holy Roman Emperor to the rank of Prince-Elector in 1692, thus the principality was upgraded to the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, colloquially known as the Electorate of Hanover after Calenbergs capital. Its electors would later become monarchs of Great Britain, the first of these was George I Louis, who acceded to the British throne in 1714. The last British monarch who ruled in Hanover was William IV, semi-Salic law, which required succession by the male line if possible, forbade the accession of Queen Victoria in Hanover
7.
Sauerland
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The Sauerland is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited. For these reasons, it has chosen as the first place in Germany to reintroduce the Wisent. The Sauerland is the largest tourist region in North Rhine-Westphalia, in particular for mountain biking & cycling, water sports, the town and Skiliftkarussell of Winterberg in the Hochsauerlandkreis is a major winter sport resort. The name Sauerland is first mentioned as Suderland in a document from 1266. After 1400 the letter d started to disappear, therefore, Sauerland = southern country is the most convincing meaning, opposed to the theory that Sauer is from the German word sauer meaning sour. Linguistically, suder-“ is similar to the Old Saxon sûðar, the Duchy of Limburg covered a very small area in the lower Lenne river valley. After the Napoleonic Wars the area part of Prussia and was integrated into the new province of Westphalia. After World War II Westphalia was merged with the new state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Today, the Sauerland belongs to the districts Märkischer Kreis, Olpe, to the west the hills continue into the Bergisches Land, to the south into the Siegerland, and to the north-east into the Teutoburg Forest. The major rivers of the Sauerland are the Ruhr and the Lenne, several artificial lakes were created on the smaller rivers by building dams to store water for the nearby Ruhr area, the biggest reservoirs being the Möhne and Bigge. Both Langenberg and Kahler Asten are peaks in the Rothaargebirge mountains, the Sauerland has six reservoir lakes. The Rheinisches Schiefergebirge was subjected to folding and faulting in the Variscan orogeny in Carboniferous times, the tectonic uplift to the present-day low mountain range began approximately 500,000 years ago and is still going on. Most of the Sauerland rock originates from a Middle and Upper Devonian marginal shallow sea, in some areas limestones from an ancient reef fringe prevail and are karstified. The Sauerland has several caves, especially in the northern part, in some areas of the Sauerland the occurrence of lead-zinc-silver-ores lead to the development of a considerable mining industry, the center of which was the town of Meggen. Mining in this area lasted until the second half of the 20th century. The sandstones, greywackes and quartzites of the Sauerland as well as, to a minor extent, the largest town of the Sauerland is Iserlohn, other larger towns are Lüdenscheid and Arnsberg. Meschede is the home of an abbey, another abbey is placed at Bestwig. Upland Parts of the Sauerland, especially the valleys in the northwest
8.
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
9.
WWE Network
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WWE Legends House was a reality show produced by WWE, that aired on the WWE Network. Production for the show began in January 2012, the show took place in Palm Springs, California and Rancho Mirage, California, and nine episodes were shot over a 21-week period, including post-production. The show began filming in early February 2012 at the house of Harpo Marx. At CES2014, WWE announced that Legends House would premiere on the WWE Network on April 17,2014
10.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
11.
Chikara (professional wrestling)
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Chikara is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company takes both the name and logo from the Japanese kanji meaning strength and it was founded in 2002 by professional wrestlers Mike Quackenbush and Reckless Youth, who also served as trainers and in-ring performers. The company focuses on promoting tag team matches, with emphasis on the high-flying lucha libre style and their other major events include Aniversario, held in May, and the Young Lions Cup tournament, held between June and August. The company crowned its first singles champion in 2011, with the introduction of the Chikara Grand Championship, influenced by the lucha libre style, Chikara performers are grouped into tecnicos and rudos. Just as in lucha libre, many performers in the promotion have also performed under masks and with unique gimmicks. Originally, the school was to be called Impact Wrestling, but when Montoya decided not to put up money for its foundation and left the project, Carter, the Wrestle Factory was founded by Carter and Quackenbush in Allentown, Pennsylvania on January 7,2002. The first class included UltraMantis, Mister Zero, Dragonfly, Hallowicked, in May of the same year, Chikara expanded into a wrestling promotion with the intent of showcasing its students. The main event of the first show featured Quackenbush and Youth joined by Don Montoya as the Black T-shirt Squad defeat the Gold Bond Mafia of Chris Hero, CM Punk, and Colt Cabana. In the early days, Blind Rage, Hallowicked, and Ichabod Slayne formed a stable known as the Night Shift and they frequently feuded with tecnicos Quackenbush, Youth, and UltraMantis. 2002 was also marked by a lawsuit against Chikara for promoting shows out of the Wrestle Factory, neighborhood activists claimed that the building was not properly zoned for assembly, and that the shows detracted from the complexion of the community. It was eventually ruled that Chikara provided inadequate parking for their shows and this deterred Chikara from holding any more shows until October. Chikara soon reached an agreement with St. John’s Lutheran Church in Allentown to hold shows there, Chikara also began a second Wrestle Factory class, but lost trainer Reckless Youth at the beginning of the class, as he left the wrestling business. Chikara soon debuted a concept that lasts to this day in their promotion, commonly abbreviated as the YLC, the tournament was designed to showcase the best of the Wrestle Factory graduates. It continues to be a showcase of talent from the independent circuit. Hallowicked defeated Mister ZERO to win the first tournament, Chikara took a two-week break during Christmastime before returning in 2003, establishing a tradition of seasons that they maintain today. In 2004, Chris Hero became a co-trainer at the Chikara Wrestle Factory, in 2005, Jorge Skayde Rivera joined as the third trainer. In March 2005, the school moved from Allentown to the New Alhambra Arena and they then took over the training for Combat Zone Wrestling, leading to the schools new name of CZW/Chikara Wrestle Factory. After the schools split in 2007, the center became once again simply known as the Chikara Wrestle Factory
12.
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
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Since then, Disco, Talwar and Lost have retired and left the company. Since 2007, Excalibur has been the head play-by-play commentator, with a rotation of wrestlers on color commentary, taste the Radness, Free Admission, Straight to DVD, Steen Wolf, Black Cole Sun, From Parts Well Known, and Matt Rushmore. In 2016, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter called PWG the best wrestling in North America, in May 2003, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla announced its first show that would take place on July 26. The promotion released a press release announcing the shows main event that would feature what would have been the first match to take place between A. J. PWG announced more matches in the leading up to their debut event, featuring a mix of well known independent wrestlers. Due to injuries and booking conflicts, the card ended up being changed several times, Samoa Joe was unable to compete in the promotions debut show because of an injury he suffered in a match with Paul London at a Ring of Honor event a few weeks earlier. He ended up being replaced by Frankie Kazarian, over the next few months, PWGs popularity began to grow among the Southern California wrestling community and was considered the top independent promotion in California. Despite only running six shows in its first year, PWG was voted Promotion Of The Year in the 2003 SoCalUncensored. com Year End Awards. Along with putting local wrestlers in many of their storylines, PWG also brought in out of town talent that werent booked on other local shows. During its first year, PWG brought in such as A. J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Homicide, Chris Hero, Brian Kendrick, Colt Cabana, in July 2004, PWG moved to the Hollywood/Los Feliz Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles. The first show in the new building saw A. J, after this event, PWG would run at the Hollywood/Los Feliz JCC for the next two years, and was nicknamed The Sweatbox by its fans due to the heat that the building would generate during warm nights. As PWG went on, their normal attendance numbers would begin to grow from 150-200 fans a show, in April 2005, PWG ran its first All Star Weekend shows during the weekend of WrestleMania 21 and drew their biggest crowds at the time. PWG booked several stars such as A. J, styles, Christopher Daniels, James Gibson, Chris Sabin, Jonny Storm, Kendo Kashin, Samoa Joe, and many other TNA and ROH stars to participate in the weekends events. In September 2005, PWG ran the first annual Battle of Los Angeles tournament, styles, Christopher Daniels, James Gibson, Super Dragon, Kevin Steen, El Generico, and several others. Chris Bosh would end up winning the tournament by defeating A. J, in February 2006, PWG held two shows in Europe. The first event was held in Essen, Germany, the second show was held the night after the Essen event in Kent, England. Both shows featured the majority of PWGs regular roster, along with several European wrestlers, in July 2006, PWG announced that they would be leaving the JCC due to the gym being turned into a gymnastics training center for young children
13.
Combat Zone Wrestling
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Combat Zone Wrestling is an American independent wrestling promotion. Ladders, tables, steel folding chairs, thumbtacks, barbed wire, weed whackers, light tubes, panes of glass, the company filled a niche for hardcore wrestling fans that had been left open by the folding of Extreme Championship Wrestling. CZW established themselves as the leading American hardcore wrestling promotion at the ECW Arena with their Cage of Death 3 show in 2001 and their homegrown roster helped establish what became a top independent promotion in later years. Although they are most commonly known for their ultraviolent style, their shows feature almost every style of wrestling as well. Just about any card will feature high flying, comedy, strong style, chain wrestling and their annual Tournament of Death show emphasizes the ultraviolent style of CZW, while their annual Best of the Best emphasizes on the technical and aerial style. CZW was broadcast on The Fight Network to viewers in the UK, CZW now runs shows on a monthly basis at the Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, New Jersey, they will occasionally run shows outside New Jersey. In 2015, CZW signed a deal for pay-per-views on In Demand, in 2016, CZW was covered by Vice Media in the documentary Bloodlust, Tournament of Death, Inside Americas Most Violent Deathmatch. Combat Zone Wrestlings Pro Wrestling Academy was founded in New Jersey by John Zandig in 1998, after training the classes alone, Zandig enlisted the help of Jon Dahmer, who helped train with Zandig for the next three classes. The first student trained was Lobo, who worked with Zandig before their wrestling careers, Nick Gage and Justice Pain were the next two students to be trained by Zandig. The fourth student and fifth student trained was TCK and Ric Blade, the academy relocated to The 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA and briefly merged with the Chikara Wrestle Factory. Shortly after the class, the Academy separated from the Chikara Wrestle Factory and moved its operation back to New Jersey, then back to Philadelphia. Currently, Drew Gulak is the trainer of the academy. Both promotions traded talent throughout 2000 and 2001, the company vs company feud was based in Japan. The CZW warriors in BJW included Wifebeater, Nick Gage, Trent Acid, Justice Pain, Johnny Kashmere, Nate Hatred, Ruckus, Nick Berk, notable incidents included Zandig turning face in Japan and Jun Kasai joining Zandig as part of his Big Dealz stable in CZW. Kasai competed in a match which was later dubbed Un FN Believable, in a shoot interview Wifebeater stated communication difficulties between the two was a major factor which led to the incident. Wifebeater pleaded that they should not execute the maneuver, though the move went on, the reason for the collapse of the inter-promotional deal is uncertain. After a controversial exploding panes of glass match, between Zandig and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in Japan,2001, Zandig left BJW with the BJW death match title belt, many wrestlers of both promotions at the time were confused about the collapse between the two. In February 2000, the company would relocate from their home arena in Mantua, New Jersey to Champs Soccer Arena, in Sewell and they would remain there for two years until the state of New Jersey banned the use of ultraviolent weapons in wrestling
14.
Evolve (professional wrestling)
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Evolve Wrestling is an American professional wrestling promotion founded in 2010 by former Ring of Honor booker and Dragon Gate USA vice president, Gabe Sapolsky. The company features a roster of wrestlers from all over the America, the promotion had a close working relationship with sister promotion Dragon Gate USA until Dragon Gate USAs closure in August 2015. In 2015, Evolve formed a relationship with WWE, allowing WWE to scout Evolve talent to sign for their NXT division, in 2009, Gabe Sapolsky announced a new wrestling promotion via some viral videos featuring one of the companys competitors, Jimmy Jacobs. After this more videos were produced promoting more performers, as well as featuring blogs written by the wrestlers about their feelings regarding the company. The first show, Evolve 1, Richards vs. Ibushi, was held on January 16,2010, in Rahway, on January 29,2010, Sapolsky announced that Evolve would no longer be booking Davey Richards as he had signed a new contract with Ring of Honor. The concept of the promotion was initially an emphasis on the wrestlers win-loss records and they divided the company into two divisions, singles wrestlers and tag teams. As per the website, some wrestlers would need to earn their way onto the roster by winning a qualifying match, on November 25,2011, Evolve and Dragon Gate USA announced the unification of the two promotions. In February 2013, Evolve announced that they would be holding a tournament to crown the first Evolve Champion as they were eliminating the records system at that time, the tournament was held in Secaucus, New Jersey, at WrestleCon in April 2013. Evolve used the records of the talent to determine the seedings in the tournament, on April 5, AR Fox defeated Sami Callihan in the final to become the inaugural champion. On September 18,2013, Vito LoGrasso announced that his new Wrestling School signed an agreement to be the Development Center for Evolve. In November 2014, Evolve, along with Dragon Gate USA, Full Impact Pro and Shine Wrestling, all under the WWNLive banner, the following month, WWNLive announced a long-term deal with Great-Wall International Sports Management for regular tours of Asia, starting in the spring of 2015. In 2015, WWNLive opened a facility in Trinity, Florida named World Wrestling Network Academy. During 2015, Evolve entered a relationship with WWE, evolves wrestlers were featured on WWE. com, while WWE NXT wrestlers Sami Zayn, Chad Gable and Jason Jordan took part in Evolve events in non-wrestling roles. In January 2016, NXT General Manager William Regal and WWE COO Triple H attended Evolve 54, as part of the relationship, it was announced in March 2016 that Evolve would hold qualifying matches for WWEs Cruiserweight Classic. On April 1 and April 2,2016 Evolve held shows at Eddie Deen’s Ranch in the build-up to Wrestlemania 32, on October 24,2016, WWNLive and FloSports announced a new streaming service, which would host events held by the WWNLive promotions, including Evolve
15.
Dragon Gate
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Dragon Gate is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion formerly known as Toryumon Japan. On July 4,2004 Último Dragón left the Toryumon Gym in Mexico and took the name, the promotion subsequently changed its name to Dragon Gate and declared Cima its first Open the Dream Gate Champion. Both Ring of Honors All Star Extravaganza III on March 30 and Supercard of Honor II on March 31,2007, in Detroit, in 2008, Dragon Gate promoted their first set of shows in the United States. The first show place in Los Angeles on September 5 and featured El Generico, Necro Butcher. Their second show was in Hawaii on September 8, in 2009, Dragon Gate debuted in the United Kingdom. Their first show was held on November 1,2009, in Oxford, furthermore, they ran the first of what would become annual visits to Europe, in particular the United Kingdom, in October and November. Japans Dragon Gate promotion announced its expansion into the United States with Dragon Gate USA on April 14,2009, also in 2009 it was announced that they created another branch promotion Dragon Gate UK. Dragon Gate Nex is a project of Dragon Gate, which gives the young wrestlers of the more experience. In mid-2006, the NEX project was announced, virtually all of the shows take place in the Dragon Gate Arena, the main training ring at the Dragon Gate offices in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan. In addition to the recent graduates, comedy characters, gaijin talent, the occasional main card member of the roster will compete as well. This is done to enhance the experience to be gained for the trainees. The vast majority of NEX shows are called Sanctuary and are twice a month. They generally draw an attendance of around 90 fans due to the limited size, there are also special event shows called Premium, which are the equivalent in atmosphere to a pay-per-view. These shows involve the main members of the roster and will draw up to 100 in attendance. Early in NEX, they ran two shows at Shin-Kiba 1st RING in Tokyo, Japan, although this has since been discontinued. The following is a list of Japanese wrestlers who have graduated from the Dragon Gate Dojo in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, along with the USA Dojo in Houston, Texas. Graduates are regarded as Dragon Gate Trueborn, having trained in the Dragon System exclusively through Dragon Gate as opposed to the Ultimo Dragon Gym. They are listed in alphabetical order
16.
Pro Wrestling Noah
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Pro Wrestling Noah is a major Japanese professional wrestling promotion, founded in 2000 by former All Japan Pro Wrestling legend Mitsuharu Misawa. In January 1999, All Japan founder and promoter Giant Baba died, leaving the company in the hands of his widow Motoko Baba as owner and Misawa as president. However, disheartened with Motoko Babas proposed direction for the company, All but two native stars and two gaijin followed Misawa. Noahs promotional symbol, an ark with a dove holding an olive branch, Noah also features a strong junior heavyweight division, which was something that All Japan had been relatively lacking in the 1990s due to lack of pushes for the younger stars. The Wrestling Observer named Noah as the best promotion in 2004 and 2005, a spinoff league called Pro Wrestling Sem was launched in 2006. Similar to New Japan Pro Wrestlings Young Lions system, it will function as a facility for rookies, with Naomichi Marufuji. Pro Wrestling Sem is also a reference to the Biblical story of Noah, on June 13,2009, Misawa teamed with Go Shiozaki against Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith at Hiroshima Green Arena. After taking a belly to back suplex from Saito, Misawa lost consciousness and was taken to a hospital and he was pronounced dead in the hospital at 10,10 p. m. JST due to spinal damage. On June 27,2009, Akira Taue was named as Misawas successor, also in 2009, Noah lost their weekly television show on Nippon TV. In 2010, Pro Wrestling Noah announced a new Global League Tournament comprising twelve of Noahs top heavyweight stars, the promotion celebrated its 10th anniversary in summer 2010. They had a series of events planned to commemorate the milestone. On December 19, Noah confirmed that the five men had indeed refused to re-sign with the promotion, the following month, all five men joined All Japan. Kobashi returned to wrestle his retirement match in a Noah ring on May 11,2013, on April 30,2014, Noahs arguably biggest star and ace Kenta announced his resignation from the promotion. In early 2015, NJPW wrestler Jado took over as the new booker of Noah. On April 21, one of Noahs bigger stars, Takeshi Morishima, was forced to retire from wrestling due to issues with his blood. On December 24,2015, Noah announced the signing of freelancer Katsuhiko Nakajima, four days later, Noah announced the departures of Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste and Takeshi Morishima, following their contracts with the promotion expiring at the end of the year. On June 13,2016, freelancer Go Shiozaki officially re-signed with Noah, on November 1,2016, it was announced that Noah had been sold to IT development company Estbee, Co, Ltd. As a result, former All Japan president Masayuki Uchida took over as the new Noah president, on November 7, Estbee officially changed its name to Noah Global Entertainment kabushiki gaisha
17.
All Star Wrestling
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Dixons promotion tours theatres, leisure centres, town halls and similar venues, many of them old venues for televised wrestling in the UK in the 1950-1980s, as well as holiday camps. These matches are currently being repeated on the Men & Movies channel, Haystacks would go on to achieve household fame in the UK after he moved to Joint Promotions in 1975 as the tag team partner and later the archenemy of Big Daddy. This title continued until champion Adrian Street emigrated to America in 1981, Wrestling Enterprises also collaborated heavily with another independent promoter, former middleweight star Jackie Pallo. Neither promoter was able to gain a slice of ITV coverage however, by the mid-1980s All Star was running shows head-to-head with Joint Promotions and had its own TV show on satellite channel Screensport. The beginning of this period coincided with the return to action for legendary masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki under the All Star banner. At the end of 1988, Greg Dyke cancelled wrestling on ITV after 33 years, headline matches frequently pitted Nagasaki in violent heel vs heel battles against the likes of Rocco, Dave Fit Finlay, Skull Murphy and even Giant Haystacks. All Stars post-television boom wore off after 1993 when Nagasaki retired for a second time, however, the promotion kept afloat on live shows at certain established venues and particularly on the holiday camp circuit. Since the mid-1990s, the promotion has mainly been focussed on family entertainment, after the demise of Joint/RWS, All Stars chief rival on the live circuit was Scott Conways TWA promotion, founded as the Southeastern Wrestling Alliance in 1989. Disaffected with this and other matters, Conway cut his links with All Star and he began to promote his TWA as an alternative, featuring more serious wrestling. All Star duly adapted to meet the challenge, recruiting a new generation of such as Dean Allmark and Robbie Dynamite. The promotional war came to an end in 2003 when Conway relocated to Thailand. All Star has re-established old links with promoters in France, Germany, Japan, mason would also guest on WWE Smackdown in 2008, defeating MVP. The promotion also runs a school in Birkenhead, Merseyside, with Allmark. Dixon and Muellers daughter Laetitia, a ring announcer for the promotion, is married to Allmark and the couple have one son, Joseph. In April 2014, ASW established a relationship with Japanese promotion Wrestle-1, the Mountevans committee was an independent committee which met in 1947 to establish a set of rules and championships for the British professional wrestling scene. Four of the six current titles listed above were set up by the committee, All Star Wrestling hosted many other such championships in the past, some of which have since been moved to or revived by other promotions. TNA World Tag Team Title Defended on All Star shows by then-champions Doug Williams, Title still active, mostly in its promotion of origin. WCW TV Title Brought to All Star briefly by Lord Steven Regal while on World Tour in 1996, pan Pacific World Heavyweight title Claimed on All Star shows by Joe E Legend c
18.
Hardcore wrestling
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Hardcore wrestling is a form of professional wrestling where disqualifications, count-outs, and all other different rules do not apply. Hardcore wrestling became acknowledged as a wrestling style first in Japan with promotions such as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling. It then became successful in America with Extreme Championship Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment capitalized on the success and introduced the WWF Hardcore Championship in the 1990s. The WWF soon began to turn the matches into comedy skits, Hardcore contrasts with traditional mat-based wrestling, where solid technical skills are preferred over hardcores stuntworks, blood, sweat, gore, and severe shock value. As professional wrestling entered the mid 20th century, promoters and performers looked for ways to heighten audience excitement. Blood, while initially taboo, was found to be a significant draw, methods were devised for wrestlers to make themselves bleed purposefully as part of their performance. Wrestlers such as Wild Bull Curry, Classy Freddie Blassie, Dory Funk, Sr. and Giant Baba were among those who introduced the bloody brawling style which caught on in Japan and the American South. The National Wrestling Alliance had Brass knuckles championships in the Texas and Florida territories, brawling continued to evolve and grow in popularity in America through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The Detroit territory was home to The Sheik, Abdullah the Butcher and Bobo Brazil, the Puerto Rico territory featured Carlos Colón, The Invader and Abdullah, and introduced fire as an element of violence. More specialties such as matches, scaffold matches and Dog Collar matches were introduced. The NWA eventually instituted a World Brass Knuckles Championship, which was active in the Tennessee territory from 1978 to 1980, in 1989, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling was founded in Japan, the first promotion dedicated largely to the wild brawling style. In the early 1990s, the Puerto Rican promoter Victor Quiñones arrived in Japan, FMW escalated the violence to legitimately dangerous new levels, with barbed wire ropes, timed C4 explosives, exploding wire ropes, and land mines, known as deathmatch. The federation featured many future North American stars, and became popular worldwide. Soon after, in the United States, two independent promotions had brief but significant runs, serving as prototypes for Extreme Championship Wrestling. the National Wrestling Federation was based in New York state. Both TWA and NWF featured Larry Winters and DC Drake, who engaged in a blood feud. The two promotions ended about the time, and National Wrestling Alliance Eastern Championship Wrestling took their place, with many of the same wrestlers. Eddie Gilbert was the booker, and was replaced a few months later by Paul Heyman. After splitting off from the NWA, the changed its name to Extreme Championship Wrestling
19.
Drake Younger
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Drake Wuertz is an American retired professional wrestler. He is currently a referee, signed to WWE, on their developmental territory NXT and he is known for his deathmatch wrestling style. Drake tried his hand at wrestling joining Crazy Ass Wrestling, a wrestling group run by Diehard Dustin Lee. A few years later, Drake, along with fellow Indianapolis natives Scotty Vortekz, Cliff Crunk, xOMGx, dojo, training under American Kickboxer, after already debuting for Insanity Pro Wrestling in Indianapolis. In 2002, Drake disappeared from wrestling for over a year citing personal issues, during this hiatus, Drake was in a car accident which gave him the gash on his shoulder. In March 2006, Drake returned to Insanity Pro Wrestling in a losing effort Diehard Dustin Lee, in June 2006 Drake and Dustin Lee went at it once again but this time at IWA Mid-Souths King of the Deathmatch tournament. He defeated Dustin Lee in the 1st round in a cage match, on January 5,2008, Drake defeated Carlton Kaz for the IPW Grand Heavyweight Championship, making him a two time champion by also winning the Jr. Heavyweight Championship a few years back. On January 3,2009, Younger lost his IPW World Heavyweight Championship to Jon Moxley at Animosity 09 in a Dog Collar Match, Drake debuted for Combat Zone Wrestling in July 2006 in the fifth annual Tournament of Death. Drake lasted to the finals but was eliminated by Nick Gage, the following year, he made it to the finals again and defeated Brain Damage to become the TOD6 Champion. On October 11,2008, Younger gave his CZW Ultraviolent Underground Championship to Danny Havoc at Decision08, on January 30,2010 Drake Younger would lose his CZW World Heavyweight Title belt to B-Boy at High Stakes 4 - Skys The Limit. On April 10,2010 at Swinging For The Fences, Drake Younger teamed with Eddie Kingston to win the CZW World Tag Team Champions by defeating The Best Around. On July 10,2010, Younger and Kingston were stripped of the CZW World Tag Team Championship, on September 9,2010 at CZWs Its Always Bloody In Philadelphia Drake Younger turned heel when he turned on the Suicide Kings and his friend Scotty Vortekz. On April 12,2014, after signing with WWE, Younger made his appearance for CZW. He is the competitor to ever win both the Best Of The Best Tournament and the Tournament Of Death. On February 13,2016, Younger returned to CZW and was inducted into their Hall of Fame. In February 2007, Younger defeated Ian Rotten, Mad Man Pondo,2 Tuff Tony, Mickie Knuckles, on December 1,2007, Drake Younger competed in the third IWA Deep-South Carnage Cup where he wrestled a Three Way Deathmatch against Viking and WHACKS. In the match WHACKS dropped himself from the ceiling on Drake Younger who lay on a table with light tubes on top of him, the shattering of the light tubes caused a big tear in Drakes left ear due to which he could not finish the tournament. The injury caused him to wear ear protection for the next couple months, on September 17,2011 Drake was crowned IWA Mid Souths King of the Deathmatches
20.
CZW World Heavyweight Championship
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The CZW World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned and copyrighted by the professional wrestling promotion Combat Zone Wrestling. It was created and debuted on March 27,1999 at CZWs The Staple Gun event, the championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches, usually of hardcore/ultraviolent type. There have been a total of 43 reigns among 24 different wrestlers, the current champion is Joe Gacy, who is in his first reign as champion. The championship was created and debuted on March 27,1999 at CZWs The Staple Gun event, the championship has been defended and lost in countries other than the United States multiple times. The first time it changed hands on foreign soil was on April 15,2001, even though the CZW World Heavyweight Championship is supposed to only be eligible to heavyweights, multiple lower-class wrestlers have held the championship. Wrestlers such as Drake Younger, Nick Gage, Nick Berk, the championships current design involves three metal plates positioned on a leather strap. The central plate has the word World at the top, while the word Champion at the bottom, there are two light tubes that are placed at each end of the plate. The CZW logo is engraved at the center of the plate. The inaugural champion was Gage, who won the championship by defeating 20 other men in a battle royal on March 27,1999 at CZWs The Staple Gun event, at 567 days, Drake Youngers only reign is the longest in the titles history. John Zandig, Nick Berk, and Yoshihiro Tajiri are tied for shortest in the history at less than 1 day. John Zandig holds the record for most reigns, with six, Joe Gacy is the current champion, having defeated Jonathan Gresham for the championship on December 10,2016. 1. ^ - This description is based on the current design of the CZW World Heavyweight Championship, as seen in the images throughout the article
21.
Hideo Itami
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A former amateur kickboxer, Kobayashis wrestling style is based upon strong kicks and strikes. He was also the winner of the 2012 Global League and the 2013 Global Tag League tournaments, Kobayashi made his professional wrestling debut on May 24,2000 against future ally and rival, Naomichi Marufuji, in All Japan Pro Wrestling to compete in their junior heavyweight division. One of Misawas focuses in his new promotion was the heavyweight division. Being sidelined with injuries for the majority of Noahs first year of operation, Kobayashi made his return in July 2001 and he advanced to the finals by defeating Kotaro Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi before losing to Yoshinobu Kanemaru on the Navigation with Breeze Tour. Following his relative success in the tournament, Kenta had an increase in his popularity, March 1,2003 saw Kenta team with Naomichi Marufuji for the first time against Makoto Hashi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru in a winning effort. While defending the tag title, Kenta continued his venture in hopes of winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight title once again on November 30,2003. Kenta began his series on the First Navigation tour, beating Juventud Guerrera. This was followed by defeats to Yoshinari Ogawa and Jun Akiyama, the final match of the series was a loss against Marufuji in October. Their reign as champions came to an end after almost two years by Kanemaru and Sugiura after the latter pinned Kenta and this led to Kenta getting one more chance to challenge for the Junior Heavyweight title against Yoshinobu Kanemaru on July 18, which saw him win the title. He made his first defense two months later against Suwa, then against Kotaro Suzuki as his ego, Mushiking Terry. Simultaneously, Kenta began teaming with Katsuyori Shibata as The Takeover, challenging for the GHC Tag Team Championship, on March 5,2006, Kenta faced a major challenge in Kenta Kobashi, which saw him lose following a Burning Hammer. This was followed by a loss of the Junior Heavyweight title on June 4 to Takashi Sugiura and this saw Kenta shift his attention to the GHC Heavyweight Championship, challenging Naomichi Marufuji, losing in a match which won numerous awards and accolades from the wrestling media. Kenta spent the majority of his 2007 time in Noah wrestling a variety of tag team and six-man tag team matches with protégé Taiji Ishimori and Akitoshi Saito as partners. As Kenta and Ishimori progressed as a unit, they entered the first NTV Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Tournament, in the finals they beat Marufuji and Kota Ibushi to win the tournament. Kenta lost the title in February 2009 to rival in their rivalry with another member of the GPWA in the Kensuke Office, Katsuhiko Nakajima. In October, Kobayashi was forced to vacate the title after suffering a knee injury, Kobayashi made his return from injury on June 6,2010, losing to Naomichi Marufuji in a GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship number one contenders match. On October 30,2010, Kenta and Atsushi Aoki defeated Roderick Strong, on January 29,2011, Kenta turned heel and join the Disobey stable with members Muhammad Yone, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Genba Hirayanagi. Kenta would change his look and attitude, then on March 5, he turned on Yone, removing him from the group
22.
Go Shiozaki
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Go Shiozaki is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion. He made his debut for the promotion in July 2004 and remained with it until the end of 2012, afterwards, he returned to Noah, where, in May 2016, he won the GHC Heavyweight Championship for the third time. He has also worked for American promotions Ring of Honor and Full Impact Pro, in August 2016, Shiozaki was appointed the chairman of Noahs wrestlers association. Following his debut, Shiozaki became a protégé of the legendary Kenta Kobashi, Shiozaki and Kobashi formed a very successful tag team and the biggest match the two had as a team was a losing effort against Kensuke Sasaki and his own protégé, Katsuhiko Nakajima. The match reached critical acclaim, being given a rating from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. In the beginning of 2006, Shiozaki fractured his jaw against Kenta, in late April 2007, Shiozaki represented Noah in the prestigious King of Europe Cup. He defeated Real Quality Wrestling representative Martin Stone in the first round before falling to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla representative Davey Richards in the quarterfinals, Shiozaki returned to Noah in mid-2009 and gained a significant push as Mitsuharu Misawas new tag team partner. They soon won the Global Tag League in May and thus became the top contenders to the GHC Tag Team Championship. During their title match on June 13 against champions Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith, after Misawa remained motionless following the suplex, officials quickly tended to him before he was taken to a hospital, where he died later on. On June 14, reigning GHC Heavyweight Champion Jun Akiyama was forced to vacate the title due to herniated discs in his back, as a result, Shiozaki was nominated by Akiyama to wrestle for the title against the number one contender Takeshi Rikio. After a hard-fought twenty-minute match, Shiozaki managed to defeat Rikio to become the new GHC Heavyweight Champion and he then went on to successfully defend his title for the first time on September 27 against Akitoshi Saito. However his second defense was unsuccessful as on December 6. As a result of the victory, Shiozaki and Aoki were scheduled to defend the title during Asistencia Asesoría y Administracións Triplemania XVIII show, at TripleMania, Shiozaki and Aoki were the first team eliminated when Joe Lider pinned Shiozaki. The match and the title were won by Los Maniacos. The draw with Nakamura led to a No Time Limit match at a Pro Wrestling Noah show on August 22, Shiozaki and Nakamura had their third match on January 4,2011, at New Japans Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome, where Nakamura was victorious. Shiozaki regained the GHC Heavyweight Title by defeating Takashi Sugiura on July 10,2011, on January 4,2012, Shiozaki returned to New Japan at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome, where he and Naomichi Marufuji defeated CHAOS Top Team in a tag team match. On January 22, Shiozaki lost the GHC Heavyweight Championship to Takeshi Morishima, on October 26, Shiozaki and Akitoshi Saito defeated Kenta and Maybach Taniguchi to win the GHC Tag Team Championship. Six days later, Shiozaki and Saito lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to Naomichi Marufuji, on December 19, Noah confirmed that Shiozaki would be leaving the promotion following December 24
23.
Takashi Sugiura
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Takashi Sugiura is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for Pro Wrestling Noah. Sugiura, an amateur wrestler, joined Noahs dojo in 2000, making his professional debut on December 23,2000. He has also competed in mixed martial arts with a victory over Giant Silva. Sugiura wrestled as a heavyweight in his earlier pro career and is a former GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion. Sugiura moved up to heavyweight and became the second longest reigning GHC Heavyweight Champion, as of September 2011, Sugiura is the chairman of Noahs Wrestlers Association and holds the concomitant position on the promotions board of directors. Sugiura was a judoka in high school and narrowly missed the cut representing Japan at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He then became an instructor and was recruited to the All Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo by Tamon Honda. Sugiura made his debut in December 23,2000, when he partnered Masao Inoue and Takeshi Rikio in a tag match against Takeshi Morishima, Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Initially a low-card wrestler, Sugiuras American-influenced style became popular with fans, within a few months the two defeated Naomichi Marufuji and KENTA for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship ending the teams long & historic run. Sugiura owns the distinction of being the only wrestler in Pro Wrestling Noah to have been a champion on two separate occasions. Nakamura then stated there would be a singles match between them soon, as he felt he was embarrassed by a wrestler below his standards. Shiozaki/Sugiura picked up the win & Nakamura demanded a rematch against the duo with Hirooki Goto as his tag team partner, on July 20, he faced Hiroshi Tanahashi in the first ever NJPW vs. NOAH match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. After 24 minutes and two High Fly Flows, Tanahashi retained the Championship, Sugiura also participated in the 2009 G1 Climax. With his rival Nakamura in his block, a long anticipated singles match came to pass, although he lost the match he still managed to finish second in his block & advanced to the semi-finals losing to the tournament eventual winner Togi Makabe. On December 6,2009, Sugiura pinned Go Shiozaki to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship, on October 1,2010, Sugiura travelled to Tamaulipas, Mexico to defend the GHC Heavyweight Championship, defeating Chessman at Asistencia Asesoría y Administración event Héroes Inmortales IV. Sugiura returned to New Japan on January 4,2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome, on July 10, Sugiura lost the GHC Heavyweight Championship to Go Shiozaki, ending his reign at 581 days. On January 4,2012, Sugiura returned to New Japan at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome, in early 2014, Sugiura formed the Dangan Yankies tag team with Pro Wrestling Zero1s Masato Tanaka. In addition, Tokyo Sports named Dangan Yankies the 2014 tag team of the year, on December 23,2015, Sugiura turned on Noah and joined the villainous Suzuki-gun stable
24.
Kenta Kobashi
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Kenta Kobashi is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He started his career in All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1988, before taking part in an exodus led by Mitsuharu Misawa. Kobashi worked for Noah for thirteen years, though spent years sidelined due to various injuries and he is also a former practiced rugby player, judoka, and bodybuilder. Kobashi practiced judo and rugby union during high school in Fukuchiyama and he practised body building after his graduation while working regular jobs. He applied and was accepted to All Japan Pro Wrestlings dojo on June 20,1987 and he was trained there by Dory Funk, Jr. Giant Baba, Kazuharu Sonoda and Masanobu Fuchi, Kobashi debuted as a professional wrestler in Ryūō, Shiga on February 26,1988. He was booked by Shohei Giant Baba to lose his first 63 matches. It was all part of Babas master plan, even in defeat, the fiery, charismatic Kobashi shined, Kobashi won his first match in May 1989. During 1989, when The Road Warriors were in AJPW, they taught Kobashi the Road Warrior Workout and he first gained some prominence as member of Mitsuharu Misawas faction during Misawas feud with Jumbo Tsuruta. Kobashi during this period played dual roles according to who his partners, when teamed with the higher ranking Misawa or Toshiaki Kawada, Kobashi would play the gutsy underdog. At the same time, when teamed with the much smaller Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, he would play a big brother role, coming in to try to save the day after Kikuchi had been worked on for a while by the opponents. Eleven months later he won his first title, the All Asia Tag Team Championship with Tiger Mask II, however, shortly after removing the mask, Kobashi, over the next two years, Kobashi held the All Asia belts with Johnny Ace twice and with Kikuchi once. In 1993, he became Misawas main tag partner in the middle of the year when Kawada became Misawas main rival and he gained his first singles victory over a former Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, when he defeated Terry Gordy in May of that year. On December 3,1993 Kobashi gained his first pin over Kawada, won his first Worlds Strongest Tag Determination League, Kobashi received his first shot at the Triple Crown Championship against then-champion Steve Williams on September 3,1994, but lost at Nippon Budokan, Tokyo. Kobashis singles matches around this time with Kawada, Misawa and Stan Hansen are amongst his most highly regarded, in tag competition he had strong efforts with opponents as diverse as rookie Jun Akiyama to elderly legend and promotion owner Giant Baba. Over the next few years Kobashi continued to more honors. In the 1994 Champion Carnival he gained his first singles victory over Hansen and his next title challenge was against Kawada in January 1995. This led to a 60-minute time limit draw, and is regarded as the greatest 60 minute bout in wrestling history by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, on June 9,1995, Kobashi and Misawa lost the tag title to Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada
25.
Barcelona
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Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. Barcelona has a cultural heritage and is today an important cultural centre. Particularly renowned are the works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is located in Barcelona, the city is known for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences and expositions and also many international sport tournaments. It is a cultural and economic centre in southwestern Europe, 24th in the world. In 2008 it was the fourth most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union, in 2012 Barcelona had a GDP of $170 billion, it is leading Spain in both employment rate and GDP per capita change. In 2009 the city was ranked Europes third and one of the worlds most successful as a city brand, since 2011 Barcelona has been a leading smart city in Europe. During the Middle Ages, the city was known as Barchinona, Barçalona, Barchelonaa. Internationally, Barcelonas name is abbreviated to Barça. However, this refers only to FC Barcelona, the football club. The common abbreviated form used by locals is Barna, another common abbreviation is BCN, which is also the IATA airport code of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport. The city is referred to as the Ciutat Comtal in Catalan. The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear, the ruins of an early settlement have been excavated in the El Raval neighbourhood, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5000 BC. The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends, the first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum centred on the Mons Taber, under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens, the city minted its own coins, some from the era of Galba survive. Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral, also known as the Basilica La Seu, is said to have founded in 343
26.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
27.
2300 Arena
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Located in South Philadelphia under an elevated stretch of Interstate 95, it is named after its address at 2300 South Swanson Street. The facility was originally a warehouse that was built in 1974. Rail tracks next to the building allowed trains to drop off freight for storage, the tracks were eventually paved over to become an extension of West Ritner Street, allowing West Ritner Street to intersect with South Swanson Street. Elias Stein and Leon Silverman of the law firm Stein & Silverman Family Partnership, the southern part of the facility was given the name Viking Hall when the South Philadelphia Viking Club, a local chapter of mummers, began utilizing it. They used the building for storage and to rehearse for the annual Mummers Parade, the Viking Club would also stage midnight bingo games at the venue to raise funds for their organization. The northern part of the building was occupied by retail space, ECW broadcast Barely Legal, their first live pay-per-view event from the venue in April 1997. The event was headlined by Terry Funk defeating Raven to become ECW World Heavyweight Champion, immediately following the broadcast, the building lost power. Paul Heyman commented in April 1998 as to whether ECW would run another pay-per-view event from the venue, the promotion gradually moved its shows away from Philadelphia, running only 6 events at the venue in 2000. The final ECW show at the venue was Holiday Hell in December 2000, headlined by Steve Corino retaining his ECW World Heavyweight Championship against Justin Credible and The Sandman. Ring of Honor opted to run their shows at Murphy Recreation Center, controversy arose when Xtreme Pro Wrestling signed an exclusive lease with the venue in December 2002 and renamed the building XPW Arena, preventing other promotions from utilizing it. Forced to relocate, CZW moved their shows to the new CZW Arena in Southwest Philadelphia, in January 2003, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission banned barbed wire and light tubes from professional wrestling matches in response to violent XPW and CZW events at the venue. The buildings ownership evicted XPW from the venue in February 2003 after the failed to make lease payments. CZW resumed running shows at the venue in March 2003, with 3PW returning in November 2003, the buildings name was officially changed to New Alhambra Sports & Entertainment Center in 2004, and was later shortened to New Alhambra Arena in 2006 and Alhambra Arena in 2008. The name was suggested by J. Russell Peltz, who began co-promoting professional boxing cards at the venue with Joe Hand Promotions in May 2004 and it paid homage to the original Alhambra Movie Theater in South Philadelphia that hosted boxing in the 1950s and 1960s. In June 2005, an unofficial ECW reunion show called Hardcore Homecoming, An Extreme Reunion drew a sell-out crowd, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission lifted their January 2003 ban on barbed wire for the main event between Sabu, Shane Douglas and Terry Funk. ROH debuted at the venue in March 2006 with Arena Warfare, the event was headlined by Samoa Joe defeating Colt Cabana and Christopher Daniels. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling debuted at the venue in June 2006 with Hardcore War, the event was headlined by Americas Most Wanted, the NWA World Tag Team Champions, facing Team 3D and The James Gang in a non-title match. The ECW brand of WWE ran a show at the venue in June 2006
28.
Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
29.
Jeff Jarrett
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He is currently signed with Impact Wrestling as the Executive Producer for the promotion. In that role, he is again in charge of day to day operations of the promotion. He is also known from his multiple runs in World Championship Wrestling. A third-generation wrestler, Jarrett has held 77 total championships in various promotions throughout his career and his NWA title reigns occurred within TNA, under his co-ownership of the company. Between WCW, WWF/E, & TNA, Jarrett has held 14 World Championships and 24 total championships and he was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2015. Jeff Jarrett made his debut at the age of 18 in April 1986 when jobber Tony Falk attempted to end his lengthy losing streak by challenging Jarrett, then a referee. Jarrett accepted the challenge, wrestling Falk to a 10-minute draw and he also wrestled with the American Wrestling Association in the late 1980s. In 1989, Jerry Jarrett purchased the Texas-based World Class Championship Wrestling promotion, over the following years, Jarrett won the USWA Southern Heavyweight Championship on 10 occasions and the USWA World Tag Team Championship on 15 occasions. Jarrett also wrestled on the independent circuit for 7 years, appearing in Japan, in 1990, he wrestled his first tour of Japan for Super World Sports. In 1993, he was hired by the World Wrestling Federation, Jarretts first involvement with World Wrestling Federation came on August 9,1992 when he participated in the kick-off to the first cross-promotional angle between the WWF and the USWA. Sitting at ringside along with Jerry Lawler at the WWF house show that was being held at the Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee, after defeating Kamala by disqualification that night, Bret Hart accepted Jarretts challenge for a match the next time that the World Wrestling Federation came to Memphis. Beginning in October, Jarrett himself began making appearances on WWF house show events, defeating Mondo Kleen, at a WWF Wrestling Challenge taping in Louisville, Kentucky on October 28, Jarrett scored his biggest victory of his nascent WWF career by upsetting Rick Martel. However the scheduled match between Hart and Jarrett on October 31st in Memphis was cancelled due to poor weather, following the cancelled Memphis show he returned to the USWA. Nearly a year later, Jarrett would return to the WWF, Jarretts character would strut to the ring wearing flashing Double J hats and ring attire, and he punctuated his promos with the phrase aint I great. He ended his interviews by distinctly spelling out his name, Jarrett made his pay-per-view debut in January 1994 at the Royal Rumble, entering the Royal Rumble match as the 12th participant and was eliminated less than 90 seconds later by Randy Savage. At SummerSlam, he won a match against Mabel by pinfall, at Survivor Series, Jarrett competed in a 10-man elimination tag match. His team lost when all the members of the team including himself were counted out, in January 1995, Jarrett had a brief feud with Bret Hart, ultimately losing to Hart on the January 23 episode of Monday Night Raw. At the Royal Rumble in Tampa, Florida, Jarrett defeated Razor Ramon to win the Intercontinental Championship
30.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling
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In 2005, Inoki sold the promotion to Yukes, who later sold it to Bushiroad in 2012. Naoki Sugabayashi has served as the Chairman of the promotion since September 2013, owing to its TV program aired on TV Asahi, NJPW is the largest professional wrestling promotion in Japan and the second largest promotion in the world. It was affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance at various points, NJPWs biggest event is the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, held each year since 1992 and currently promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom banner. The promotion was founded by Antonio Inoki in 1972, after his departure from the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance promotion, the first NJPW event took place on March 6,1972, in Tokyo. Inoki would serve as the president of the promotion until 1989, the promotion was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance from 1975 to 1985 and once more from 1992 to 1993. NJPW briefly reaffiliated with the NWA in the early 2010s as well, also known as Shin Nihon Puroresu, NJPW is considered the top wrestling promotion in Japan and is comparable to WWE in the United States in terms of popularity in the country. In the past NJPW has worked with WWE, World Championship Wrestling, occasionally, NJPW will also host cross-promotional matches with other Japanese promotions, such as All Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Noah. The promotion also has its own governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix and they also hold several tournaments each year, including the G1 Climax, World Tag League, New Japan Cup and Best of the Super Juniors. The final NEVER event was held in November 2012, on January 4,2011, New Japan officially announced the NJPW Invasion Tour 2011, Attack on East Coast, the promotions first tour of the United States to be held in May 2011. The tour featured shows in Rahway, New Jersey on May 13, New York City on May 14 and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 15, as part of the tour, NJPW introduced a new title, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. On January 31,2012, Yukes announced that it had sold all shares of New Japan Pro Wrestling to card game company Bushiroad for ¥500 million, New Japan aired its first internet pay-per-view, the fourth day of the 2012 G1 Climax, on August 5,2012. The October 8,2012, King of Pro-Wrestling pay-per-view marked the first time viewers outside Japan were able to order a pay-per-view by the promotion through Ustream. On October 5,2012, New Japan announced the creation of the NEVER Openweight Championship, a two-day tournament to determine the inaugural champion was held between November 15 and 19,2012. During the tour, New Japan wrestlers also took part in an event held by Canadian promotion Border City Wrestling. A year later, NJPW and ROH announced another tour together to four more supershows, War of the Worlds 15 on May 12 and 13 in Philadelphia. In June 2014, New Japan announced a partnership with the new American GFW organization helmed by Jeff Jarrett, in November 2014, GFW announced that it would be broadcasting NJPWs Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome on pay-per-view in the United States as a four-hour event. Also in November 2014, the American AXS TV network announced it had acquired rights to rebroadcast a series of thirteen episodes of NJPW matches from TV Asahi, the series premiered on January 16,2015, airing weekly on Fridays. Averaging 200,000 viewers per episode, the show was considered a success, in June 2016, the show was also acquired by the Canadian Fight Network
31.
Zack Sabre Jr.
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Lucas Eatwell is a British professional wrestler better known by the ring name Zack Sabre Jr. He is currently working for Evolve, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and holds the British Heavyweight, Evolve, Sabre is a former NWA United Kingdom Junior Heavyweight Championship winner and a product of the NWA-UK Hammerlock training school. He started training with NWA-UK Hammerlock at the age of 14, under the guidance of Jon Ryan and his offense includes various technical wrestling holds and pinning combinations, along with hard hitting strikes, which stems from his love of puroresu. Sabre has had various feuds throughout his career, with such as Go Shiozaki, El Generico, Martin Stone, Prince Devitt. He was a member of popular British tag team the Leaders of the New School, the readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter voted Sabre the Best Technical Wrestler of 2014 and 2015. He also won PWGs 2015 Battle of Los Angeles tournament, Sabre and Havoc lost the bout, but gave a strong effort. It wasnt until 13 April 2007, when Sabre returned to IPW, Sabre lost to his current partner Paul Robinson. Just one day later on 14 April 2007, in Buckland, Sabre defeated Paul Robinson to gain his first victory in IPW, Three months later, on 27 July 2007, in Sittingbourne, Sabre lost to Mark Sloan. Sabre would once again be in the ring with Mark Sloan and Paul Robinson on 11 November 2007, in Sittingbourne, the experience paid off for Mark Sloan, who came out victorious. IPW, UKs second show of 2008 took place on 27 January and saw Sabre make his debut in Orpington, Zack was featured on the No Escape afternoon show where he managed to defeat Mark Sloan and Wade Fitzgerald in a triple threat match. IPWs annual Battle Royale took place on 16 March 2008, Sabre drew number nine but was eventually eliminated by Martin Stone. Sabre finally returned to Non-British-National-Championship-Tournament action in IPW, UK, where he teamed with fellow Leader Of The New School Marty Scurll. Sabre and Scurll took on The Iron Lions, consisting of Andy Boy Simmonz & James Tighe, as part of IPW, the Iron Lions were the eventual winners of the contest. In 2009 Sabre and Scurll focused their attention on the IPW, UK tag team division, a highly anticipated rematch finally took place between the teams at the 2009 Sittingbourne Spectacular after the Leaders scheduled opponents had to pull out through injury. This time the championships were on the line, and the Leaders won again to claim their first championship gold in IPW, the Leaders have enjoyed a tag title reign until 26 August 2012, where they were defeated by Project EGO. Though considered an underdog by many, Sabre made it through to the fourteen of the British National Championship Tournament, hosted by IPW. In the first round of the tournament, Sabre defeated Hated Heroes member, in the second round of the tournament, Sabre was pitted against All Star Wrestling regular, Mikey Whiplash. Sabre managed to pick up the win over the more experienced Whiplash, in the final fourteen Sabre was scheduled to wrestle The Last Ninja of 3CW, however due to complications, Jules Lambrini took Ninjas place but was defeated by Sabre
32.
Necro Butcher
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Dylan Keith Summers is an American retired professional wrestler best known by his ring name Necro Butcher. Throughout the years he has worked for promotions, including Ring of Honor, Full Impact Pro, IWA Mid-South, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Big Japan Pro Wrestling. Summers is well known for his willingness to participate in a creative and dangerous mix of hardcore wrestling, deathmatches, in 1998, Summers made his professional wrestling debut after teaming with Aaron White to take on Victor Pain and Canyon. Summers, enlisted in the 20th Special Forces Group, continued to work small independent shows across Texas as Michael Van Slyck, on March 16,1999, as Necro Butcher, he won his first professional wrestling championship, after defeating Damon Richards to become IHW Hardcore champion. Butchers popularity continued to dominate Texas wrestling, and at his debut in TCW and his success in TCW came to a halt after a dispute with its promoter. He lost the Hardcore title to Hellhammer before leaving the company, Butcher continued to build up his reputation as the most violent Death Match wrestler in Texas. On October 10,1999, Butcher faced Mad Man Pondo for the first time, throughout 2001, Butcher had worked IWA Mid-South in an attempt to make a name for himself in the top independent leagues. Becoming a regular across the NWA promotions, Butcher gained widespread visibility in 2002, in July 2002, competing in IWA Mid-South, he defeated Mark Wolf, Mitch Page,2 Tuff Tony, and finally Spyder Nate Webb to become the 2002 King of the Deathmatch. Necro would go to the finals in the 2005 Strong Style Tournament, defeating Eddie Kingston and B. J. Whitmer, in 2005 and 2006, Necro had two high-profile matches against both Samoa Joe and Low Ki. He lost to Joe in their first match, the event of IWAs debut in the ECW Arena. He then went on to lose in January 2006 again to Joe, three months later, in Low-Kis second match in the promotion, he took out Necro. The two met in a rematch in December, where the stipulation was a tap out/knock out finish, although Necro lost all four matches, his star remained high after taking a lot of abuse from both Joe and Ki. In mid-2007, at IWA MS Point Proven in Philadelphia, Necro and his frequent tag team partner Toby Klein battled and were defeated by Low-Ki, the TCB were accompanied to the ring by Halfbreed Billy Gram. Necro eventually won his first IWA gold, the Death Match title, on September 9,2007, in Sellersburg and he would lose the title on March 1,2008, to Danny Havoc. His success in IWA-MS lead him to become an attraction for hardcore oriented indy promotions in North America. For Combat Zone Wrestling, Butcher worked a program with Wifebeater, Butcher returned the following year and was eliminated in round two by Ian Rotten. He reached the final at the 3rd annual Tournament of Death before finally winning Tournament of Death 4 by defeating John Zandig and this victory made him the first person ever to win both the King of the Deathmatch and Tournament of Death. At Cage of Death VII on December 10,2005, Necro, along with Toby Klein and Joker, took on Nick Gage, Justice Pain, during the match, Pain was to perform a Pain Thriller on Necro, but Necro Sandbagged the move
33.
Plainfield, Indiana
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Plainfield is a town in Guilford, Liberty, and Washington townships, Hendricks County, Indiana, United States. The population was 27,631 at the 2010 census, in 1822 a tract of land which included the area now known as Plainfield was obtained by Jeremiah Hadley of Preble County, Ohio. Ten years later he sold it to his son, Elias Hadley, levi Jessup and Elias Hadley laid out the town in 1839. Plainfield was incorporated as a town in 1839, the Friends were plain people, and thus the name Plainfield. The high school continues to honor the Quakers, using the name for the schools mascot, Plainfield has long been associated with the national road, U. S. Route 40, which goes through town as Main Street. One incident which brought Plainfield national attention occurred in 1842 when former President Martin Van Buren was spilled deliberately from his coach into the thick mud of the highway. The practical joke came as a result of Van Burens vetoing a bill from Congress to improve the highway, when Van Buren came through Plainfield on a swing to shore up his popularity for the 1844 election, a group of perpetrators set up the incident. The elm tree whose roots caused the carriage to topple became known as the Van Buren Elm. An elementary school near this site is named Van Buren Elementary School, in the 1980s Plainfield became the headquarters of the Islamic Society of North America. The Hendricks County Bridge Number 316, Plainfield Historic District, and THI, Plainfield is located at 39°41′51″N 86°23′5″W. According to the 2010 census, Plainfield has an area of 22.38 square miles. Plainfield is located in the Central Till Plains region of the United States, there are few moderately sized hills, and a mix of deciduous forests and prairie covers much of the area within the town limits. White Lick Creek runs along the edge of Plainfield. Along the eastern edge of town, Clarks Creek, a tributary of White Lick Creek, flows towards the south. U. S. Route 40, also known as the Historic National Road, from north to south, State Road 267 connects Plainfield to the neighboring towns of Avon and Mooresville, and it provides access to Interstate 70. Plainfields historical town center is situated around the intersection of U. S. Route 40 and Center Street, as of the census of 2010, there were 27,631 people,9,747 households, and 6,756 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,240.7 inhabitants per square mile, there were 10,386 housing units at an average density of 466.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 85. 2% White,7. 9% African American,0. 2% Native American,3. 3% Asian,1. 5% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 4. 0% of the population
34.
Ian Rotten
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John Benson Williams is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Ian Rotten. He has wrestled in Global Wrestling Federation, Extreme Championship Wrestling, however, after heat from Jerry Lawler and a short stint as hockey gimmick Zach Blades, Williams went to wrestle for Skandor Akbar in the Global Wrestling Federation. After Brian Knighton suggested they become brothers, they became Ian and Axl Rotten, the Bad Breed defeated the Texas Mustangs for the GWF Tag Team Championship in January 1993. In June 1994 in Extreme Championship Wrestling, the Bad Breed started a feud with The Public Enemy over the ECW Tag Team Championship, Williams left ECW in late 1995 over money disputes and moved to Kentucky, where he started a wrestling hotline. He founded the IWA Mid-South promotion in early 1996, the group became the subject of controversy when a video of the matches was sent to local police forces. The IWA and local police were quick to assure the public that the matches were acting, in 2005, a concussion forced Williams into semi-retirement As of 2017, Williams had his last match vs. Marvelous Mitch Ryder and announced his retirement after the match
35.
J. C. Bailey
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Joseph Carl Bailey Jr. was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name J. C. He wrestled for numerous American-based professional wrestling promotions including Combat Zone Wrestling, IWA Mid-South, Bailey made his professional wrestling debut in 2001. On March 29,2003, Bailey defeated Nate Webb to win the IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship and he lost the championship to Michael Todd Stratton on May 24, but regained it a week later on May 31. In June 2003, Bailey, Ian Rotten, and Corporal Robinson invaded Combat Zone Wrestling on behalf of Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South, the following month, he competed in the second annual CZW Tournament of Death where he lost to Nick Mondo in a deathmatch involving light tubes. On August 9, at Aftermath, Bailey lost the IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship to Sonjay Dutt, on November 21, Bailey won a three-way match against Dutt and Nate Webb to win the IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship for the third time. He held the championship for two months before losing it to Matt Sydal on January 17,2004, on December 11,2004, he teamed up with Chri$ Ca$h, Nate Webb and SeXXXy Eddy to win the CZW World Tag Team Championship. Team Ca$h held the championship until February 5,2005, when Ca$h, the same night, Bailey became the first-ever CZW Ultraviolent Underground Champion. He lost the championship to Zandig in July 2005, the following month, on August 13, Bailey defeated Necro Butcher in a No Ropes Barbed Wire Death Match to win the Ultraviolent Underground Championship for the second time. He held the championship for five months, before losing it to Nick Gage on January 14,2006. On August 20,2006, he went to Japan and competed in the wrestling tournament WRESTLE EXPO2006 where he lost to 2 Tuff Tony after defeating Mad Man Pondo. On September 16,2006, he competed in the first Masters of Pain tournament where he lost to the Crazy Monkey Jun Kasai after defeating 2 Tuff Tony and Corporal Robinson. In December 2009, Bailey returned to CZW in December at Cage of Death 11, Bailey was accompanied in this attack by Halfbreed Billy Gram who in turn revealed that Bailey was the new member of The Cult Fiction stable led by Gram. On June 5, Bailey won the 2010 IWA Mid-South King of the Deathmatch tournament and he defeated Ian Rotten, Nick Gage, and Balls Mahoney en route to the final, where he defeated Devon Moore. On June 26, Bailey competed in CZWs Tournament of Death 9, baileys father, Joseph Bailey, ran the Bad 2 the Bone Wrestling promotion in Kentucky, until his death from cancer on June 16,2013. Bailey was found dead on August 30,2010, having died in his sleep, prior to his death he had complained of headaches and numbness in his hands. The cause of death was determined to be due to a brain aneurysm, caused by complications due to multiple concussions. His brain is expected to be donated for research at Boston University
36.
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
37.
Hall of fame
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A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or animals, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their fame in their field. Sometimes, the plaques may instead be posted on a wall or inscribed on a sidewalk. In other cases, the hall of fame is more figurative, the lists are maintained by an organization or community, and may be national, state, local, or private. The English-language term was popularised in the United States by the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at Bronx Community College, in New York City and its inspiration is the Ruhmeshalle in Munich, Germany. The Walhalla memorial in Bavaria, Germany, is an earlier hall of fame, conceived in 1807. The meaning of fame has changed over the years, originally meaning renown as opposed to more common meaning of celebrity
38.
Miami Herald
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The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County several miles west of Miami. Founded in 1903, it is the second largest newspaper in South Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County and it also circulates throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The newspaper employs over 800 people in Miami and across several bureaus, including Bogotá, Managua, Tallahassee, Vero Beach, Key West, the newspaper has been awarded 20 Pulitzer Prizes since beginning publication in 1903. Well-known columnists include Pulitzer-winning political commentator Leonard Pitts, Jr. Pulitzer-winning reporter Mirta Ojito, humorist Dave Barry, other columnists include Fred Grimm and longtime sportswriter Edwin Pope. Alexandra Villoch is the publisher, and Aminda Marqués Gonzalez is the executive editor, the newspaper averages 88 pages daily and 212 pages on Sundays. The Miami Heralds coverage of Latin American and Hispanic affairs is widely considered among the best of U. S. newspapers. The Miami Herald also participates in Politifact Florida, a website that focuses on the truth about Florida issues, along with the Tampa Bay Times, the Herald and the Times share resources on news stories related to Florida. The first edition was published September 15,1903, as The Miami Evening Record, after the recession of 1907, the newspaper had severe financial difficulties. Its largest creditor was Henry Flagler, through a loan from Henry Flagler, Frank B. Shutts, who was also the founder of the law firm Shutts & Bowen, acquired the paper, although it is the longest continuously published newspaper in Miami, the earliest newspaper in the region was The Tropical Sun, established in 1891. The Miami Metropolis, which later became The Miami News, was founded in 1896, and was the Heralds oldest competitor until 1988, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s, the Miami Herald was the largest newspaper in the world, as measured by lines of advertising. During The Great Depression in the 1930s, the Herald came close to receivership, on October 25,1939, John S. Knight, son of a noted Ohio newspaperman, bought the Herald from Frank B. Knight became editor and publisher, and made his brother, James L. Knight, lee Hills arrived as city editor in September 1942. He later became the Heralds publisher and eventually the chairman of Knight-Ridder Inc. a position he held until 1981, the Miami Herald International Edition, printed by partner newspapers throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, began in 1946. It was extended to Mexico in 2002, the Herald won its first Pulitzer Prize in 1950, for its reporting on Miamis organized crime. Its circulation was 176,000 daily and 204,000 on Sundays, on August 19,1960, construction began on the Herald building on Biscayne Bay. Also on that day, Alvah H. Chapman, started work as James Knights assistant, Chapman was later promoted to Knight-Ridder chairman and chief executive officer. The Herald moved into its new building at One Herald Plaza without missing an edition on March 23–24,1963, publication of a Spanish-language supplemental insert named El Herald began in 1976
