title: Zolpidem

text: Alcohol has cross tolerance with GABA receptor positive allosteric modulators, such as the benzodiazepines and the nonbenzodiazepine drugs. For this reason, alcoholics or recovering alcoholics may be at increased risk of physical dependency or abuse of zolpidem. It is not typically prescribed in people with a history of alcoholism, recreational drug use, physical dependency, or psychological dependency on sedative-hypnotic drugs. A 2014 review found evidence of drug-seeking behavior, with prescriptions for zolpidem making up 20% of falsified or forged prescriptions.


title: Zolpidem

text: Rodent studies of the tolerance-inducing properties have shown that zolpidem has less tolerance-producing potential than benzodiazepines, but in primates, the tolerance-producing potential of zolpidem was the same as seen with benzodiazepines, therefore further research is necessary.


title: Zolpidem

text: Overdose can lead to coma or death. When overdose occurs, there are often other drugs in the person's system.


title: Zolpidem

text: Zolpidem overdose can be treated with the GABA receptor antagonist flumazenil, which displaces zolpidem from its binding site on the GABA receptor to rapidly reverse the effects of the zolpidem. It is unknown if dialysis is helpful.


title: Zolpidem

text: Zolpidem may be quantitated in blood or plasma to confirm a diagnosis of poisoning in people who are hospitalized, to provide evidence in an impaired driving arrest, or to assist in a medicolegal death investigation. Blood or plasma zolpidem concentrations are usually in a range of 30–300μg/L in persons receiving the drug therapeutically, 100–700μg/L in those arrested for impaired driving, and 1000–7000μg/L in victims of acute overdosage. Analytical techniques, in general, involve gas or liquid chromatography.


title: Zolpidem

text: Zolpidem is a ligand of high-affinity positive modulator sites of GABA receptors, which enhances GABAergic inhibition of neurotransmission in the central nervous system. It selectively binds to α subunits of this pentameric ion channel. Accordingly, it has strong hypnotic properties and weak anxiolytic, myorelaxant, and anticonvulsant properties. Opposed to diazepam, zolpidem is able to bind to binary αβ GABA receptors, where it was shown to bind to the α1–α1 subunit interface. Zolpidem has about 10-fold lower affinity for the α- and α- subunits than for α, and no appreciable affinity for α subunit-containing receptors. ω type GABA receptors are the α-containing GABA receptors and are found primarily in the brain, the ω receptors are those that contain the α-, α-, α-, α-, or α subunits, and are found primarily in the spine. Thus, zolpidem favours binding to GABA receptors located in the brain rather than the spine. Zolpidem has no affinity for γ and γ subunit-containing receptors and, like the vast majority of benzodiazepine-like drugs, it lacks affinity for receptors containing α and α. Zolpidem modulates the receptor presumably by inducing a receptor conformation that enables an increased binding strength of the orthosteric agonist GABA towards its cognate receptor without affecting desensitization or peak currents.


title: Zolpidem

text: Like zaleplon, zolpidem may increase slow wave sleep but cause no effect on stage 2 sleep. A meta-analysis that compared benzodiazepines against nonbenzodiazepines has shown few consistent differences between zolpidem and benzodiazepines in terms of sleep onset latency, total sleep duration, number of awakenings, quality of sleep, adverse events, tolerance, rebound insomnia, and daytime alertness.


title: Zolpidem

text: Microsome studies indicate zolpidem is metabolized by CYP3A4 (61%) CYP2C9 (22%), CYP1A2 (14%), CYP2D6 (<3%), and CYP2C19 (<3%). It is principally metabolized into three metabolites, none of which are believed to be pharmocologically active. The absolute bioavailability of zolpidem is about 70%. The drug reaches peak concentration in about 2 hours and has a half life in healthly adults of about 2-3 hours. Zolpidem's half life is decreased in children and increased in the elderly and people with liver issues. While some studies show men metabolize zolipdem faster than women (possibly due to testosterone), others do not. A review found only a 33% lower clearance in women compared to men, suggesting the FDA's dosage reduction of 50% for women may have been too large.


title: Zolpidem

text: People should not consume alcohol while taking zolpidem, and should not be prescribed opioid drugs nor take such illicit drugs recreationally. Opioids can also increase the risk of becoming psychologically dependent on zolpidem. Use of opioids with zolpidem increases the risk of respiratory depression and death. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising that the opioid addiction medications buprenorphine and methadone should not be withheld from patients taking benzodiazepines or other drugs that depress the central nervous system (CNS).


title: Zolpidem

text: Next day sedation can be worsened if people take zolpidem while they are also taking antipsychotics, other sedatives, anxiolytics, antidepressant agents, antiepileptic drugs, and antihistamines. Some people taking antidepressants have had visual hallucinations when they also took zolpidem.


title: Zolpidem

text: Cytochrome P450 inhibitors, particularly CYP3A4 and CYP1A2 inhibitors such as fluvoxamine, ciprofloxacin, and clarithromycin will increase the effects of a given dose of zolpidem. Cytochrome P450 activators like St. John's Wort may decrease the activity of zolpidem. One study found that caffeine increases the concentration over time curve of zolpidem by about 20% and furthermore found that caffeine cannot adequately compensate for the impaired cognition caused by zolpidem.


title: Zolpidem

text: Three syntheses of zolpidem are common. 4-methylacetophenone is used as a common precursor. This is brominated and reacted with 2-amino-5-methylpyridine to give the imidazopyridine. From here the reactions use a variety of reagents to complete the synthesis, either involving thionyl chloride or sodium cyanide. These reagents are challenging to handle and require thorough safety assessments. Though such safety procedures are common in industry, they make clandestine manufacture difficult.


title: Zolpidem

text: A number of major side-products of the sodium cyanide reaction have been characterised and include dimers and mannich products.


title: Zolpidem

text: Zolpidem was used in Europe starting in 1988, and was brought to market there by Synthelabo. Synthelabo and Searle collaborated to bring it to market in the US, and it was approved in the United States in 1992 under the brand name "Ambien". It became available as a generic medication in 2007.


title: Zolpidem

text: In 2015, the American Geriatrics Society said that zolpidem, eszopiclone and zaleplon met the Beers criteria and should be avoided in individuals 65 and over "because of their association with harms balanced with their minimal efficacy in treating insomnia." The AGS stated the strength of the recommendation that older adults avoid zolpidem is "strong" and the quality of evidence supporting it is "moderate."


title: Zolpidem

text: Prescriptions in the US for all sleeping pills (including zolpidem) steadily declined from around 57 million tablets in 2013, to around 47 million in 2017, possibly in relation to concern about prescribing addictive drugs in the midst of the opioid crisis.


title: Zolpidem

text: The United States Air Force uses zolpidem as one of the hypnotics approved as a "no-go pill" (with a six-hour restriction on subsequent flight operation) to help aviators and special duty personnel sleep in support of mission readiness. (The other hypnotics used are temazepam and zaleplon.) "Ground tests" are required prior to authorization issued to use the medication in an operational situation.


title: Zolpidem

text: Zolpidem has potential for either medical misuse when the drug is continued long term without or against medical advice, or for recreational use when the drug is taken to achieve a "high". The transition from medical use of zolpidem to high-dose addiction or drug dependence can occur with use, but some believe it may be more likely when used without a doctor's recommendation to continue using it, when physiological drug tolerance leads to higher doses than the usual 5mg or 10mg, when consumed through inhalation or injection, or when taken for purposes other than as a sleep aid. Recreational use is more prevalent in those having been dependent on other drugs in the past, but tolerance and drug dependence can still sometimes occur in those without a history of drug dependence. Chronic users of high doses are more likely to develop physical dependence on the drug, which may cause severe withdrawal symptoms, including seizures, if abrupt withdrawal from zolpidem occurs.


title: Zolpidem

text: Other drugs, including benzodiazepines and zopiclone, are also found in high numbers of suspected drugged drivers. Many drivers have blood levels far exceeding the therapeutic dose range, suggesting a high degree of excessive-use potential for benzodiazepines, zolpidem and zopiclone. US Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy says that he was using zolpidem (Ambien) and promethazine (Phenergan) when caught driving erratically at 3 a.m. "I simply do not remember getting out of bed, being pulled over by the police, or being cited for three driving infractions," Kennedy said.


title: Zolpidem

text: Nonmedical use of zolpidem is increasingly common in the US, Canada, and the UK. Some users have reported decreased anxiety, mild euphoria, perceptual changes, visual distortions, and hallucinations. Zolpidem was used by Australian Olympic swimmers at the London Olympics in 2012, leading to controversy.


title: Zolpidem

text: For the stated reason of its potential for recreational use and dependence, zolpidem (along with the other benzodiazepine-like Z-drugs) is a Schedule IV substance under the Controlled Substances Act in the US. The United States patent for zolpidem was held by the French pharmaceutical corporation Sanofi-Aventis.


title: Zolpidem

text: The Z-drugs including zolpidem have been used as date rape drugs. Zolpidem is available legally by prescription, and broadly prescribed unlike other date rape drugs: gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), which is used to treat narcolepsy, or flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), which is only prescribed as a second-line choice for insomnia. Zolpidem can typically be detected in bodily fluids for 36 hours, though it may be possible to detect it by hair testing much later, which is due to the short elimination half-life of 2.5–3 hours. This use of the drug was highlighted during proceedings against Darren Sharper, who was accused of using the tablets he was prescribed to facilitate a series of rapes.


title: Zolpidem

text: Zolpidem received widespread media coverage in Australia after the death of a student who fell from the Sydney Harbour Bridge while under the influence of zolpidem.


title: Zolpidem

text: As of September 2018, zolpidem was marketed under many brands: Adorma, Albapax, Ambien, Atrimon, Belbien, Bikalm, Cymerion, Dactive, Dalparan, Damixan, Dormeben, Dormilam, Dormilan, Dormizol, Eanox, Edluar, Flazinil, Fulsadem, Hypnogen, Hypnonorm, Intermezzo, Inzofresh, Ivadal, Ivedal, Le Tan, Lioram, Lunata, Medploz, Mondeal, Myslee, Nasen, Niterest, Nocte, Nottem, Noxidem, Noxizol, Nuo Bin, Nytamel, Nyxe, Olpitric, Onirex, Opsycon, Patz, Polsen, Sanval, Semi-Nax, Sleepman, Somex, Somidem, Somit, Somnil, Somnipax, Somnipron, Somno, Somnogen, Somnor, Sonirem, Sove, Soza, Stilnoct, Stilnox, Stilpidem, Stimin, Sublinox, Sucedal, Sumenan, Vicknox, Viradex, Xentic, Zasan, Zaviana, Ziohex, Zipsoon, Zodem, Zodenox, Zodium, Zodorm, Zolcent, Zoldem, Zoldorm, Zoldox, Zolep, Zolfresh, Zolip, Zolman, Zolmia, Zolnox, Zolnoxs, Zolodorm, Zolnyt, Zolpeduar, Zolpel, Zolpi, Zolpi-Q, Zolpic, Zolpidem, Zolpidem tartrate, Zolpidemi tartras, Zolpidemtartraat, Zolpidemtartrat, Zolpidemum, Zolpigen, Zolpihexal, Zolpimist, Zolpineo, Zolpinox, Zolpirest, Zolpistar, Zolpitop, Zolpitrac, Zolpium, Zolprem, Zolsana, Zolta, Zoltar, Zolway, Zomnia, Zonadin, Zonoct, Zopid, Zopidem, Zopim, and Zorimin.


title: Zolpidem

text: While cases of zolpidem improving aphasia in people with stroke have been described, use for this purpose has unclear benefit. Zolpidem has also been studied in persistent vegetative states with unclear effect. A 2017 systematic review concluded that while there is preliminary evidence of benefit for treating disorders of movement and consciousness other than insomnia (including Parkinson's disease), more research is needed. More recent research has found zolpidem treatment to be effective in the short term, but only in a small proportion of cases (estimated at around 5%) and only when the brain injury is of a specific type. Tolerance to the beneficial effects also develops rapidly, and so for these reasons while zolpidem may sometimes be used as a "last resort" treatment, it has numerous disadvantages and research continues into novel treatments that might provide the same kind of benefits in a larger proportion of patients, and with a more sustained benefit.


title: Zolpidem

text: Animal studies in FDA files for zolpidem showed a dose dependent increase in some types of tumors, although the studies were too small to reach statistical significance. Some observational epidemiological studies have found a correlation between use of benzodiazepines and certain hypnotics including zolpidem and an increased risk of getting cancer, but others have found no correlation; a 2017 meta-analysis of such studies found a correlation, stating that use of hypnotics was associated with a 29% increased risk of cancer, and that "zolpidem use showed the strongest risk of cancer" with an estimated 34% increased risk, but noted that the results were tentative because some of the studies failed to control for confounders like cigarette smoking and alcohol use, and some of the studies analyzed were case–controls, which are more prone to some forms of bias. Similarly, a meta-analysis of benzodiazepine drugs also shows their use is associated with increased risk of cancer.


title: Randy Jackson

text: Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American record executive and television presenter, perhaps best known as a judge on "American Idol" from 2002 to 2013.


title: Randy Jackson

text: Jackson began his career in the 1980s as a session musician playing bass guitar for an array of jazz, pop, rock, and R&B performers. He moved on to work in music production and in the A&R department at Columbia Records and MCA Records. Jackson is best known from his appearances as the longest-serving judge on "American Idol" and executive producer for MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew".


title: Randy Jackson

text: In May 2020, Jackson was rehired as bassist for Journey following their sudden split with founding member Ross Valory. Jackson had previously filled the role on the band's 1986 album "Raised on Radio" and its tour.


title: Randy Jackson

text: Jackson was born June 23, 1956, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the son of Julia, a homemaker, and Herman Jackson, a plant foreman. He graduated from Southern University in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in music.


title: Randy Jackson

text: In the early 1980s, he played on three albums for Jean-Luc Ponty and with the rock band Taxxi. From 1986 to 1987, he was a session musician for the rock group Journey. He played on Journey's 1986 album "Raised on Radio." He moved to Italy in the late 1980s and played on a record by Italian pop star Zucchero. The record, "Zucchero and the Randy Jackson Band", was produced by Corrado Rustici who played guitar with Jackson on many albums in the early 1980s.


title: Randy Jackson

text: In 1985, Keith Richards was asked to provide music for the Whoopi Goldberg comedy vehicle "Jumpin' Jack Flash". Richards assembled an all-star band which included Aretha Franklin on piano and lead vocals and Jackson on bass guitar. This song was the fourth track on Aretha's 1986 album titled "Aretha". Jackson can be seen in the song's video.


title: Randy Jackson

text: In the late 1980s, Jackson was still doing sessions. He was notably on the first solo album by famed session guitarist Steve Lukather. Jackson was a featured bass guitarist on five songs on Maze's 1989 "Silky Soul" album. He also performed on several of Kenny G's albums.


title: Randy Jackson

text: Jackson was the bass guitarist on the 1991 self-titled Divinyls album (which features the song "I Touch Myself") as well as featured bassist on several tracks of Tracy Chapman's 1992 release, "Matters of the Heart". He performed on the singles "Bang Bang Bang", "Open Arms", and "Dreaming on a World". That same year, Jackson also played bass on Bruce Springsteen's song "Human Touch".


title: Randy Jackson

text: On March 11, 2008, Jackson released an album produced entirely by himself, titled "Randy Jackson's Music Club, Vol. 1". The album's release was preceded by the single "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow" sung by Paula Abdul. In 2009, Randy began working with former Idol finalist Kimberley Locke, producing her 4th album. The lead single, "Strobe Light", was released March 16, 2010. In February 2010, Jackson participated in We Are the World 25 for Haiti as part of the chorus.


title: Randy Jackson

text: Jackson is the manager for the Charlotte-based band Paper Tongues. With the help of Jackson, they signed with a major label, A&M/Octone Records. He has also worked as an executive, spending eight years as vice president of artists and repertoire (A&R) at Columbia Records and four years heading A&R at MCA Records.


title: Randy Jackson

text: Jackson also hosts a radio top 40 countdown known as "Randy Jackson's Hit List", which is syndicated by Westwood One. Every week, Jackson counts down his top 30 Urban AC and Mainstream AC hits. He also gives behind-the-scenes information on "American Idol" on the internet radio station Artist Underground.


title: Randy Jackson

text: Starting in 2002, Jackson was one of the panel judges on the Fox Network reality television series "American Idol", along with Paula Abdul (2002–2009), Simon Cowell (2002–2010), Kara DioGuardi (2009–2010), Ellen DeGeneres (2010), Jennifer Lopez (2011–2012), Steven Tyler (2011–2012), Nicki Minaj (2013), Mariah Carey (2013), and Keith Urban (2013). As a result of Cowell's departure, Jackson was left as the sole original judge on "American Idol". His role was originally going to be reduced to that of a mentor, so the 2013 season would have all new judges, but it was later decided that he would remain as a judge for season 12. On May 9, 2013, Jackson announced that he would be leaving "American Idol" after twelve seasons due to him wanting to focus on other business ventures. On September 3, 2013, it was announced that Jackson would replace Jimmy Iovine as the in-house mentor on "American Idol". He departed the series for good in November 2014.


title: Randy Jackson

text: Jackson produced "America's Best Dance Crew", an American group dance competition and reality television show, which premiered on February 7, 2008, on MTV and was cancelled in 2012 due to declining ratings. Each week, the teams showcased their creative talents in choreography and their dance skills, and one crew was eliminated by the judges. The competition continued until the sole winning dance crew was awarded the title of America's Best Dance Crew, and a cash prize of $100,000.


title: Randy Jackson

text: Jackson's first marriage, to Elizabeth Jackson, was dissolved in 1990; they had one daughter named Taylor. In 1995, Jackson married Erika Riker, with whom he has two children, a daughter named Zoe and a son named Jordan. In 2014, Riker filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences; it was finalized in 2019.


title: Randy Jackson

text: In 2003, Jackson lost following gastric bypass surgery. He stated in a February 2008 television commercial that he has type 2 diabetes.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash is the oblique slanting line punctuation mark . Also known as a stroke, a solidus or several other historical or technical names including oblique and virgule. Once used to mark periods and commas, the slash is now used to represent division and fractions, exclusive 'or' and inclusive 'or', and as a date separator.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: Slashes may be found in early writing as a variant form of dashes, vertical strokes, etc. The present use of a slash distinguished from such other marks derives from the medieval European virgule (, which was used as a period, scratch comma, and caesura mark. (The first sense was eventually lost to the low dot and the other two developed separately into the comma and caesura mark ) Its use as a comma became especially widespread in France, where it was also used to mark the continuation of a word onto the next line of a page, a sense later taken on by the hyphen . The Fraktur script used throughout Central Europe in the early modern period used a single slash as a scratch comma and a double slash as a dash. The double slash developed into the double oblique hyphen and double hyphen or before being usually simplified into various single dashes.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In the 18th century, the mark was generally known in English as the "oblique". The variant "oblique stroke" was increasingly shortened to "stroke", which became the common British name for the character, although printers and publishing professionals often instead referred to it as an "oblique". In the 19th and early 20th century, it was also widely known as the "shilling mark" or "solidus", from its use as the currency sign for the shilling. The name "slash" is a recent development, not appearing in Webster's Dictionary until the Third Edition (1961) but has gained wide currency through its use in computing, a context where it is sometimes used in British English in preference to "stroke". Clarifying terms such as "forward slash" have been coined owing to widespread use of Microsoft's DOS and Windows operating systems, which use the backslash extensively.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash is commonly used in many languages as a shorter substitute for the conjunction "or", typically with the sense of exclusive or (e.g., Y/N permits yes or no but not both). Its use in this sense is somewhat informal, although it is used in philology to note variants (e.g., "virgula/") and etymologies (e.g.,


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: Such slashes may be used to avoid taking a position in naming disputes. One example is the Syriac naming dispute, which prompted the US and Swedish censuses to use the respective official designations "Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac" and "Assyrier/Syrianer" for the ethnic group.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In particular, since the late 20th century, the slash is used to permit more gender-neutral language in place of the traditional masculine or plural gender neutrals. In the case of English, this is usually restricted to degendered pronouns such as "he/she" or "s/he". Most other Indo-European languages include more far-reaching use of grammatical gender. In these, the separate gendered desinences (grammatical suffices) of the words may be given divided by slashes or set off with parentheses. For example, in Spanish, is a son and a is a daughter; some proponents of gender-neutral language advocate the use of or when writing for a general audience or addressing a listener of unknown gender. Less commonly, the æ ligature or at sign is used instead: . Similarly, in German and some Scandinavian and Baltic languages, refers to any secretary and to an explicitly female secretary; some advocates of gender neutrality support forms such as for general use. This does not always work smoothly, however: problems arise in the case of words like ("doctor") where the explicitly female form is umlauted and words like ("Chinese person") where the explicitly female form loses the terminal "-e".


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash is also used as a shorter substitute for the conjunction "and" or inclusive or (i.e., A or B or both), typically in situations where it fills the role of a hyphen or en dash. For example, the "Hemingway/Faulkner generation" might be used to discuss the era of the Lost Generation inclusive of the people around and affected by both Hemingway and Faulkner. This use is sometimes proscribed, as by "New Hart's Rules", the style guide for the Oxford University Press.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash, as a form of inclusive or, is also used to punctuate the stages of a route (e.g., Shanghai/Nanjing/Wuhan/Chongqing as stops on a tour of the Yangtze).


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The word "slash" is also developing as a way to introduce topic shifts or follow-up statements. "Slash" can introduce a follow up statement, such as, "I really love that hot dog place on Liberty Street. Slash can we go there tomorrow?" It can also indicate a shift to an unrelated topic, as in "JUST SAW ALEX! Slash I just chubbed on oatmeal raisin cookies at north quad and i miss you." The new usage of "slash" appears most frequently in spoken conversation, though it can also appear in writing.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: Sometimes the word "slash" is used in speech as a conjunction to represent the written role of the character (as if a written slash were being read aloud from text), e.g. "bee slash mosquito protection" for a beekeeper's net hood, and "There's a little bit of nectar slash honey over here, but really it's not a lot." (said by a beekeeper examining in a beehive), and ""Gastornis" slash "Diatryma"" for two supposed genera of prehistoric birds which are now thought to be one genus.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The fraction slash is used between two numbers to indicate a fraction or ratio. Such formatting developed as a way to write the horizontal fraction bar on a single line of text. It is first attested in England and Mexico in the 18th century. This notation is known as an online, solidus, or shilling fraction. Nowadays fractions, unlike inline division, are often given using smaller numbers, superscript, and subscript (e.g., ⁄). This notation is responsible for the current form of the percent , permille , and permyriad signs, developed from the horizontal form which represented an early modern corruption of an Italian abbreviation of "per cento".


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: Many fonts draw the fraction slash (and the division slash) less vertical than the slash. The separate encoding is also intended to permit automatic formatting of the preceding and succeeding digits by glyph substitution with numerator and denominator glyphs (e.g., display of "1, fraction slash, 2" as "½"), though this is not yet supported in many environments or fonts. Because of this lack of support, some authors still use Unicode subscripts and superscripts to compose fractions, and many fonts design these characters for this purpose. In addition, all of the multiples less than 1 of ⁄ for 2 ≤ n ≤ 6 and n = 8 (e.g. ⁄ and ⁄), as well as ⁄, ⁄, and ⁄, are in the Unicode Number Forms or Latin-1 Supplement block as precomposed characters.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: This notation can also be used when the concept of fractions is extended from numbers to arbitrary rings by the method of localization of a ring.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The division slash , equivalent to the division sign , may be used between two numbers to indicate division. For example, can also be written as . This use developed from the fraction slash in the late 18th or early 19th century. The formatting was advocated by De Morgan in the mid-19th century.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: A "quotient of a set" is informally a new set obtained by identifying some elements of the original set. This is denoted as a fraction formula_1 (sometimes even as a built fraction), where the numerator formula_2 is the original set (often equipped with some algebraic structure). What is appropriate as denominator depends on the context.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In the most general case, the denominator is an equivalence relation formula_3 on the original set formula_2, and elements are to be identified in the quotient formula_5 if they are equivalent according to formula_3; this is technically achieved by making formula_5 the set of all equivalence classes of formula_3.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In group theory, the slash is used to mark quotient groups. The general form is formula_9, where formula_10 is the original group and formula_11 is the normal subgroup; this is read "formula_12 mod formula_13", where "mod" is short for "modulo". Formally this is a special case of quotient by an equivalence relation, where formula_14 iff formula_15 for some formula_16. Since many algebraic structures (rings, vector spaces, etc.) in particular are groups, the same style of quotients extend also to these, although the denominator may need to satisfy additional closure properties for the quotient to preserve the full algebraic structure of the original (e.g. for the quotient of a ring to be a ring, the denominator must be an ideal).


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: When the original set is the set of integers formula_17, the denominator may alternatively be just an integer: formula_18. This is an alternative notation for the set formula_19 of integers modulo "n" (needed because formula_19 is also notation for the very different ring of "n"-adic integers). formula_18 is an abbreviation of formula_22 or formula_23, which both are ways of writing the set in question as a quotient of groups.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: Slashes may also be used as a combining character in mathematical formulae. The most important use of this is that combining a slash with a relation negates it, producing e.g. 'not equal' formula_24 as negation of formula_25 or 'not in' formula_26 as negation of formula_27; these slashed relation symbols are always implicitly defined in terms of the non-slashed base symbol. The graphical form of the negation slash is mostly the same as for a division slash, except in some cases where that would look odd; the negation formula_28 of formula_29 (divides) and negation formula_30 of formula_3 (various meanings) customarily both have their negations slashes less steep and in particular shorter than the usual one.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The Feynman slash notation is an unrelated use of combining slashes, mostly seen in quantum field theory. This kind of combining slash takes a vector base symbol and converts it to a matrix quantity. Technically this notation is a shorthand for contracting the vector with the Dirac gamma matrices, so formula_32; what one gains is not only a more compact formula, but also not having to allocate a letter as the contracted index.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash, sometimes distinguished as "forward slash", is used in computing in a number of ways, primarily as a separator among levels in a given hierarchy, for example in the path of a filesystem.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash is used as the path component separator in many computer operating systems (e.g., Unix's ). In Unix and Unix-like systems, such as macOS and Linux, the slash is also used for the volume root directory (e.g., the initial slash in ). Confusion of the slash with the backslash largely arises from the use of the latter as the path component separator in the widely used MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows systems.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash is used in a similar fashion in internet URLs (e.g., ). Often this portion of such URLs corresponds with files on a Unix server with the same name, and this is where this convention for internet URLs comes from.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash in an IP address (e.g., ) indicates the prefix size in CIDR notation. The number of addresses of a subnet may be calculated as 2, in which the address size is 128 for IPv6 and 32 for IPv4. For example, in IPv4, the prefix size /29 gives: 2 = 2 = 8 addresses.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash is used as a division operator in most programming languages while APL uses it for reduction (fold) and compression (filter). The double slash is used by Rexx as a modulo operator, and Python (starting in version 2.2) uses a double slash for division which rounds (using floor) to an integer. In Raku the double slash is used as a "defined-or" alternative to ||. A dot and slash is used in MATLAB and GNU Octave to indicate an element-by-element division of matrices.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: Comments that begin with (a slash and an asterisk) and end with were introduced in PL/I and subsequently adopted by SAS, C, Rexx, C++, Java, JavaScript, PHP, CSS, and C#. A double slash is also used by C99, C++, C#, PHP, Java, Swift, and JavaScript to start a single line comment.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In SGML and derived languages such as HTML and XML, a slash is used in closing tags. For example, in HTML, begins a section of bold text and closes it. In XHTML, slashes are also necessary for "self-closing" elements such as the newline command where HTML has simply .


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In a style originating in the Digital Equipment Corporation line of operating systems (OS/8, RT-11, TOPS-10, et cetera), Windows, DOS, some CP/M programs, OpenVMS, and OS/2 all use the slash to indicate command-line options. For example, the command is understood as using the command dir ("directory") with the "wide" option. Notice that no space is required between the command and the switch; this was the reason for the choice to use backslashes as the path separator since one would otherwise be unable to run a program in a different directory.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: Slashes are used as the standard delimiters for regular expressions, although other characters can be used instead.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: IRC and many in-game chat clients use the slash to mark commands, such as joining and leaving a chat room or sending private messages. For example, in IRC, is a command to join the channel "services" and is a command to format the following message as though it were an action instead of a spoken message. In "Minecraft"s chat function, the slash is used for executing console and plugin commands. In "Second Life"s chat function, the slash is used to select the "communications channel", allowing users to direct commands to virtual objects "listening" on different channels. For example, if a virtual house's lights were set to use channel 42, the command "/42 on" would turn them on. In "Discord", Slash commands are used to send special messages and execute commands, like sending a shrug (¯\_(ツ)_/¯) or a table flip ((╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻), or changing your nickname using "/nick". Now, slash commands can also be used to use Discord bots.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The Gedcom standard for exchanging computerized genealogical data uses slashes to delimit surnames. Example: Bill /Smith/ Jr. Slashes around surnames are also used in Personal Ancestral File.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash (as the "shilling mark" or "solidus") was an abbreviation for the shilling, a former coin of the United Kingdom and its former colonies. Before the decimalisation of currency in Britain, its currency abbreviations (collectively £sd) represented their Latin names, derived from a medieval French modification of the late Roman libra, solidus, and denarius. Thus, one penny less than two pounds was written During the period when English orthography included the long s, , the ſ came to be written as a single slash. The s. and the d. might therefore be omitted, and "2/6" meant "two shillings and sixpence". Amounts in full pounds, shillings and pence could be written in many different ways, for example: £1 9s 6d, £1.9.6, £1-9-6, and even £1/9/6d (with a slash used "also" to separate pounds and shillings). The same style was also used under the British Raj and early independent India for the predecimalization rupee/anna/pie system.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In five East African countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, and the "de facto" country of Somaliland), where the national currencies are denominated in shillings, the decimal separator is a slash mark (e.g., ). Where the minor unit is zero, an equals sign is used (e.g., 5/=).


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: Slashes are a common calendar date separator used across many countries and by some standards such as the Common Log Format used by web servers. Depending on context, it may be in the form Day/Month/Year, Month/Day/Year, or Year/Month/Day. If only two elements are present, they typically denote a day and month in some order. For example, 9/11 is a common American way of writing the date 11 September; Britons write this as 11/9. Owing to the ambiguity across cultures, the practice of using only two elements to denote a date is sometimes proscribed.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: Because of the world's many varying conventional date and time formats, ISO 8601 advocates the use of a Year-Month-Day system separated by hyphens (e.g., Victory in Europe Day occurred on 1945-05-08). In the ISO 8601 system, slashes represent date ranges: "1939/1945" represents what is more commonly written as The autumn term of a northern-hemisphere school year might be marked "2010-09-01/12-22".


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In English, a range marked by a slash often has a separate meaning from one marked by a dash or hyphen. "24/25 December" would mark the time shared by both days (i.e., the night from Christmas Eve to Christmas morning) rather than the time made up by both days together, which would be written "24–25 December". Similarly, a historical reference to "1066/67" might imply an event occurred during the winter of late 1066 and early 1067, whereas a reference to 1066–67 would cover the entirety of both years. The usage was particularly common in British English during World War II, where such slash dates were used for night-bombing air raids. It is also used by some police forces in the United States.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash is used in numbering to note totals. For example, "page 17/35" indicates that the relevant passage is on the 17th page of a 35-page document. Similarly, the marking "#333/500" on a product indicates it is the 333rd out of 500 identical products or out of a batch of 500 such products. For scores on schoolwork, in games, &c., "85/100" indicates 85 points were attained out of a possible 100.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: Slashes are also sometimes used to mark ranges in numbers that already include hyphens or dashes. One example is the ISO treatment of dating. Another is the US Air Force's treatment of aircraft serial numbers, which are normally written to note the fiscal year and aircraft number. For example, "85-1000" notes the thousandth aircraft ordered in fiscal year 1985. To indicate the next fifty subsequent aircraft, a slash is used in place of a hyphen or dash: "85-1001/1050".


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: A pair of slashes (as "slants") are used in the transcription of speech to enclose pronunciations (i.e., phonetic transcriptions). For example, the IPA transcription of the English pronunciation of "solidus" is written . Properly, slashes mark broad or phonemic transcriptions, whereas narrow, allophonic transcriptions are enclosed by square brackets. For example, the word "little" may be broadly rendered as but a careful transcription of the velarization of the second L would be written .


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In sociolinguistics, a double or triple slash may also be used in the transcription of a traditional sociolinguistic interview or in other type of linguistic elicitation to represent simultaneous speech, interruptions, and certain types of speech disfluencies.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash is used in various scansion notations for representing the metrical pattern of a line of verse, typically to indicate a stressed syllable.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash (as a "virgule") offset by spaces to either side is used to mark line breaks when transcribing text from a multi-line format into a single-line one. It is particularly common in quoting poetry, song lyrics, and dramatic scripts, formats where omitting the line breaks risks losing meaningful context. For example, when quoting Hamlet's soliloquy


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: into a prose paragraph, it is standard to mark the line breaks as "To be, or not to be, that is the Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to The slings and arrows of outrageous Or to take arms against a sea of And by opposing end them..." Less often, virgules are used in marking paragraph breaks when quoting a prose passage. Some style guides, such as "Hart's", prefer to use a pipe in place of the slash to mark these line and paragraph breaks.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The virgule may be thinner than a standard slash when typeset. In computing contexts, it may be necessary to use a non-breaking space before the virgule to prevent it from being widowed on the next line.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash has become standard in several abbreviations. Generally, it is used to mark two-letter initialisms such as A/C (short for "air conditioner"), w/o ("without"), b/w ("black and white" or, less often, "between"), w/e ("whatever" or, less often, "weekend" or "week ending"), i/o ("input/output"), r/w ("read/write"), and n/a ("not applicable"). Other initialisms employing the slash include w/ ("with") and w/r/t ("with regard to"). Such slashed abbreviations are somewhat more common in British English and were more common around the Second World War (as with "S/E" to mean "single-engined"). The abbreviation 24/7 (denoting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) describes a business that is always open or unceasing activity.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash in derived units such as m/s (meters per second) is not an abbreviation slash, but a straight division. It is however in that position read as 'per' rather than e.g. 'over', which can be seen as analogous to units whose symbols are pure abbreviations such as mph (miles per hour), although in abbreviations 'per' is 'p' or dropped entirely (psi, pounds per square inch) rather than a slash.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In the US government, the names of offices within various departments are abbreviated using slashes, starting with the larger office and following with its subdivisions. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation is formally abbreviated FAA/AST.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash or vertical bar (as a "separatrix") is used in proofreading to mark the end of margin notes or to separate margin notes from one another. The slash is also sometimes used in various proofreading initialisms, such as l/c and u/c for changes to lower and upper case, respectively.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash is used in fan fiction to mark the romantic pairing a piece will focus upon (e.g., a K/S denoted a "Star Trek" story would focus on a sexual relationship between Kirk and Spock), a usage which developed in the 1970s from the earlier friendship pairings marked by ampersands (e.g., K&S). The genre as a whole is now known as slash fiction. Because it is more generally associated with homosexual male relationships, lesbian slash fiction is sometimes distinguished as femslash. In situations where other pairings occur, the genres may be distinguished as m/m, f/f, &c.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash is used under the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules to separate the title of a work from its statement of responsibility (i.e., the listing of its author, director, &c.). Like a line break, this slash is surrounded by a single space on either side. For example:


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash is sometimes used as an abbreviation for building numbers. For example, in some contexts, 8/A Evergreen Gardens specifies Apartment 8 in Building A of the residential complex Evergreen Gardens. In the United States, however, such an address refers to the first division of Apartment 8 and is simply a variant of Apartment 8A or 8-A. Similarly in the United Kingdom, an address such as 12/2 Anywhere Road means flat (or apartment) 2 in the building numbered 12 on Anywhere Road.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: Slashes are used in musical notation as an alternative to writing out specific notes where it is easier to read than traditional notation or where the player can improvise. They are commonly used to indicate chords either in place of or in combination with traditional notation and for drummers as an indication to continue with the previously indicated style.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: A slash is used to mark a spare (knocking down all ten pins in two throws) when scoring ten-pin and duckpin bowling.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In online messaging, a slash might be used to imitate the formatting of a chat command (e.g., writing "/fliptable" as though there were such a command) or the closing tags of languages such as HTML (e.g., writing "/endrant" to end an ironic diatribe or "/s" to mark the preceding text as sarcastic). A pair of slashes is sometimes used as a way to mark italic text, where no special formatting is available (e.g., /italics/).


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The Iraqi language uses the slash as a letter, representing the voiced pharyngeal fricative, as in /ameeni, "woman".


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: There are usually no spaces either before or after a slash. According to "", a slash is usually written without spacing on either side when it connects single words, letters or symbols. Exceptions are in representing the start of a new line when quoting verse, or a new paragraph when quoting prose. "The Chicago Manual of Style" also allows spaces when either of the separated items is a compound that itself includes a space: "Our New Zealand / Western Australia trip". (Compare use of an en dash used to separate such compounds.) "The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing" prescribes, "No space before or after an oblique when used between individual words, letters or symbols; one space before and after the oblique when used between longer groups which contain internal spacing", giving the examples "n/a" and "Language and Society / "Langue et société"".


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: According to "The Chicago Manual of Style", when typesetting a URL or computer path, line breaks should occur before a slash but not in the text between two slashes.


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: As a very common character, the slash (as "slant") was originally encoded in ASCII with the decimal code 47 or 0x2F. The same value was used in Unicode, which calls it "solidus" and also adds some more characters:


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: In XML and HTML, the slash can also be represented with the character entity   or the numeric character reference   or  .


title: Slash (punctuation)

text: The slash may also be read out as "and", "or", "and/or", "to", or "cum" in some compounds separated by a slash; "over" or "out of" in fractions, division, and numbering; and "per" or "a(n)" in derived units (as km/h) and prices (as $~/kg), where the division slash stands for "each".


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Kenneth Wayne Shamrock ("né" Kilpatrick; born February 11, 1964) is an American bare-knuckle boxing promoter and semi-retired professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, and kickboxer. He is best known for his time in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and other combat sports. A member of the UFC Hall of Fame, Shamrock is widely regarded as an icon and pioneer of the sport. He has headlined over 15 main events and co-main events in the UFC and Pride FC and set numerous MMA pay-per-view records. In the early part of his UFC career, Shamrock was named "The World's Most Dangerous Man" by ABC News in a special called "The World's Most Dangerous Things". The moniker has stuck as his nickname.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock became known early on in the UFC for his rivalry with Royce Gracie. After fighting to a draw in the inaugural UFC "Superfight", he became the first UFC Superfight Champion when he defeated Dan Severn at UFC 6; the title was eventually replaced by the UFC Heavyweight Championship when weight categories were introduced to the UFC. He was also the first foreign MMA champion in Japan, winning the title of King of Pancrase Openweight title. During his reign as the UFC Superfight Champion, he was widely considered the #1 mixed martial artist in the world, and in 2008, Shamrock was ranked by Inside MMA as one of the top 10 greatest mixed martial arts fighters of all time. He is the founder of the Lion's Den mixed martial arts training camp, and is the older brother of fellow fighter Frank Shamrock.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In addition to his mixed martial arts career, Shamrock enjoyed considerable success in professional wrestling, particularly during his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). There, he is a one-time Intercontinental Champion, a one-time World Tag Team Champion and the 1998 King of the Ring. Shamrock also wrestled for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA, now Impact Wrestling), where he is a one-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion – the first world champion under the TNA banner – and a 2002 Gauntlet for the Gold winner. He headlined multiple pay-per-view events in both promotions, including 1997's , where he challenged for the WWF Championship. Additionally, Shamrock was also one of the first wrestlers to use the shoot style of wrestling in America, being credited by WWE with popularizing the legitimate ankle lock submission hold.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: A "military brat," Kilpatrick was born at Robins Air Force Base, in Warner Robins, Georgia, where he lived for his first four years. His father Richard Kilpatrick was a United States Air Force enlistee, and his mother Diane Kilpatrick was a waitress and dancer who had her first son when she was 15. Shamrock had three brothers and came from a broken family in a predominantly black neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: He was often left to fend for himself, and, without his parents' supervision or guidance, got into many fights. His father abandoned his family when Shamrock was five. His mother married an Army aviator named Bob Nance, and the newly formed family moved to Napa, California, Nance's hometown. Shamrock and his brothers were outsiders in this community, coming from a poor background and speaking in a Southern accent. They continued to cause trouble and get into fights and began using drugs. Nance, who fought in the Vietnam War, joined the local fire department and also worked in roofing and upholstery. Shamrock became involved in and excelled at sports at a young age, playing in Little League baseball and Pop Warner football. Nance remembers a veteran coach telling him that he had never seen a player with as much heart and tenacity as the young Shamrock. Shamrock was not as involved with drugs as his brothers, such as his brother Richie, who enjoyed smoking marijuana and eventually using heroin intravenously, but who also played football.<ref name="ericuribe.com/2012/10/04/ken-shamorck"></ref>


title: Ken Shamrock

text: At age 10, Shamrock ran away from home for the first time, and was stabbed by another child on the run, ending up in the hospital. When he was 13, his stepfather kicked him out of their home, and each of the brothers went their own ways. Shamrock lived in cars before being placed in a foster home. He went through seven group homes and served time in a juvenile hall. He moved between several more group homes before being placed in Bob Shamrock's Boys' Home at age 14 in Susanville, California where he turned his life around. Bob Shamrock legally adopted Ken as his son, and Ken changed his last name from Kilpatrick to Shamrock in Bob's honor.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: At Lassen High School, Shamrock (known there as Kenny Nance) excelled in football and wrestling. As a senior, he qualified for the state championships in wrestling, but broke his neck in practice days before the competition and underwent neck surgery. He received no scholarship offers from any big colleges, and doctors told him his sports career was likely over. Against doctors' orders, he joined the Shasta College football team, where he was voted team captain in his final season. The San Diego Chargers of the National Football League later offered him a tryout, but he declined in order to pursue a career in professional wrestling, where he debuted in 1989 in the South Atlantic Pro Wrestling promotion.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In 1988, Shamrock trained as a professional wrestler under Buzz Sawyer, Nelson Royal, and Gene Anderson. He debuted in 1989 in Royal's North Carolina-based Atlantic Coast Wrestling promotion under the ring name Wayne Shamrock. After ACW folded, he moved on to the George Scott/Paul Jones-run company South Atlantic Pro Wrestling (which initially promoted under the banner of the North American Wrestling Association) and changed his ring name to Vince Torelli. Later he adopted the nickname "Mr. Wrestling" and a more villainous persona.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In June 1990, after being inspired by Dean Malenko, Shamrock applied for the American tryouts of Japanese Universal Wrestling Federation in Florida. As it was a shoot style promotion, where real strikes and holds were used, Shamrock was put to spar legitimately against other participants, among them Bart Vale. After passing another tryout in Japan, he was eventually accepted, and in October he had his debut match in UWF, wrestling under the name of "Wayne Shamrock" and defeating Yoji Anjo. He became instantly popular and was put on a match against Masakatsu Funaki next. UWF folded shortly after, and Shamrock followed Funaki and other wrestlers to its successor promotion, Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, led by Yoshiaki Fujiwara.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Even though he had not started his mixed martial arts career yet, Shamrock had his first fighting experience in Fujiwara Gumi, as the results of many matches were chosen by having the wrestlers partake in competitive grappling at the gym. He had his first high level bout with Duane Koslowski, Dennis Koslowski's twin brother and a 1988 Summer Olympics Greco-Roman wrestler, whom Shamrock submitted twice before working their actual match. A different situation happened with Kazuo Takahashi, as he broke the script and shot on Shamrock in their November 1991 match, leading the American to fight back and knock him out with a soccer kick to the face at 1:27. They wrestled a rematch in 1992, with both wrestlers working heavily stiff, though with no more incidents. Shamrock himself praised Takahashi as a wrestler, comparing him to himself.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock made his WWF debut as a face on the February 24, 1997 episode of "Monday Night Raw," the same episode of Raw where ECW promoted their first pay-per-view Barely Legal 1997. On March 23, 1997, Shamrock, identified as Ken Shamrock and billed as "The World's Most Dangerous Man"—a name given to him by ABC News—refereed a submission match between Bret Hart and Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock returned to the ring following WrestleMania, squashing Vernon White (one of his Lion's Den students) in his debut WWF match. He went on to feud with Vader, Bret Hart, and The Hart Foundation throughout 1997. Shamrock's feud with Vader continued in Japan, through a working agreement between the WWF and FMW, Shamrock wrestled Vader in an Ultimate Rules Steel Cage match for FMW's Kawasaki Legend 1997 super show featuring 4 other promotions. The match ended in a TKO win for Vader as Shamrock was suffering from internal bleeding from a lung infection and a rib injury.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock's rivalry with the Harts led to his first WWF pay-per-view main event at and culminated in a bout between him and The British Bulldog for the European Championship at SummerSlam which Shamrock lost by disqualification after hitting the Bulldog with a can of dog food. Shamrock went on to wrestle Bret Hart to a no-contest in a match for the latter's WWF Championship on the edition of October 21 of "Raw". He again challenged for the WWF Championship in the main event of December's , defeating champion Shawn Michaels by disqualification when Triple H interfered.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Throughout early 1998, Shamrock feuded with The Rock and his Nation of Domination stable over Rock's Intercontinental Championship. On January 18 at Royal Rumble, during a match the referee Mike Chioda was distracted by The Rock's team Nation of Domination when The Rock's teammate D'Lo Brown's foot was stuck in the ropes, before The Rock used brass knuckles to hit him. He then disposed of the brass knuckles inside his trunks behind the referee's back. Shamrock was originally set to win the match and defeat The Rock. The Rock appealed to Chioda who discovered the foreign object. Shamrock objected to using the brass knuckles to Chioda before Chioda reversed the decision and took the Intercontinental Championship belt from Shamrock and gave it back to The Rock, making The Rock the winner via disqualification. After the match, Shamrock attacked Chioda for taking the Intercontinental Championship belt from him. Two months later on March 29 at WrestleMania XIV, Shamrock originally defeated The Rock, though the decision was reversed when Shamrock continued to apply his ankle lock after The Rock had submitted, and The Rock was declared the winner by disqualification.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In June 1998, Shamrock competed in the 1998 King of the Ring tournament, eliminating Nation members Mark Henry, Kama and The Rock, as well as Jeff Jarrett, to win the tournament. Following the King of the Ring, Shamrock feuded briefly with the returning King Mabel, who had interfered to attack him in a rematch with Jarrett, and whom Shamrock defeated in a singles match injuring his leg. He next feuded with Owen Hart: Hart defeated Shamrock in a "Hart Family Dungeon match" at , and Shamrock defeated Hart in a "Lion's Den match" at SummerSlam. In September, he formed a short-lived stable with Mankind and The Rock.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock turned heel in October 1998 and won the vacant Intercontinental Championship on October 12, defeating X-Pac in the finals of an eight-man tournament. In November, Shamrock joined Mr. McMahon's Corporation after McMahon offered him "a family" in exchange for his services. On December 14, Shamrock and fellow Corporation member the Big Boss Man defeated the New Age Outlaws for the WWF Tag Team Championship, making Shamrock a dual champion. The duo held the titles until January 25, 1999, when they lost to Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In January 1999, Shamrock began feuding with Billy Gunn, Goldust and Val Venis, all of whom had made overtures to his kayfabe sister, Ryan. He lost the Intercontinental Championship to Venis on February 14 at when Gunn, the guest referee, delivered a fast count. Shamrock took part in a four way bout for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania XV. The reigning champion Road Dogg, was able to retain his title by pinning Goldust after Shamrock and Venis were counted out while brawling outside the ring.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In early mid-1999, the Corporation began feuding with The Undertaker and his Ministry of Darkness, with The Undertaker's minions repeatedly ambushing Shamrock and kidnapping Ryan, sacrificing her on the Undertaker's symbol. After breaking away from the Corporation, thus turning face once more, Shamrock went on to feud with The Undertaker at and lost.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: After losing to Undertaker, Shamrock, Big Show, Mankind and Test formed The Union, a stable of wrestlers in opposition to the Corporate Ministry. The Union dissolved soon after defeating the Corporate Ministry at Over the Edge in May. Shamrock briefly feuded with Jeff Jarrett before beginning a rivalry with martial artist Steve Blackman that saw he and Blackman fight one another in a series of unorthodox matches. The feud ended at SummerSlam, where Shamrock defeated Blackman in a "Lion's Den weapons match". He went on to feud with the newly debuted Chris Jericho until departing the WWF in late 1999 in order to resume his mixed martial arts career. His departure was attributed on screen to an injury inflicted by Jericho's bodyguard, Mr. Hughes. Shamrock has since appeared in the video games "WWF SmackDown!", "" (in Royal Rumble matches only), "WWF WrestleMania 2000", "WWF No Mercy", "WWE '13" and "WWE 2K16".


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock returned to professional wrestling in March 2002, refereeing a Ring of Honor match between Bryan Danielson and Low Ki.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock made an appearance in the independent Wrestling company Juggalo Championship Wrestling during their flagship annual event, Bloodymania III, defeating Jimmy Jacobs with Dan Severn as the special guest referee.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In December 2013 at "Amo del Hexagono" in Costa Rica, he made his return by attacking Carlito and challenging him to a match.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In May 2002, Shamrock signed a one-year deal with the newly formed Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion. On the inaugural TNA pay-per-view on June 19, Shamrock won the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship in a Gauntlet for the Gold match and is recognized as TNA's first ever World Champion. After feuding with Malice for several weeks, Shamrock left TNA shortly after losing the title to Ron Killings on August 7.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock made two appearances for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) between 2003 and 2004. He defeated Takashi Iizuka at NJPW Ultimate Crush II in May 2003. He then lost to Josh Barnett by disqualification at NJPW Nexess.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock made a special return to New Japan Pro-Wrestling on October 27th, 2022, at Rumble on 44th Street, escorting Clark Connors to the ring for his match against Minoru Suzuki, in which Suzuki was victorious. After the match, Suzuki and Shamrock stared off, hinting a brawl, however both instead embraced in the ring.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock briefly returned to TNA in July 2004. In his return, he only wrestled twice: for the NWA Heavyweight Championship in a gauntlet match, and an eight-man guitar-on-a-pole match. In both matches, he was unsuccessful in winning. Shamrock then departed TNA again shortly after the latter match.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock returned to professional wrestling on November 30, 2018, for Battle Championship Wrestling in Melbourne, Australia. He defeated BCW Tag Team Champion Gabriel Wolfe in a singles match before teaming with Carlo Cannon in an impromptu BCW Tag Team Championship match against Wolfe and Big Cuz, in which Shamrock and Cannon were successful in capturing the BCW tag team titles. These matches were Shamrock's first since 2009 and his first championship since the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in the summer of 2002. They would go on to hold the titles for nine months to the day losing them to The Preston Kindred (Jonathan Preston & Sean Preston).


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In August 2019, it was announced that Shamrock would be returning to TNA, now known as Impact Wrestling, for the first time since 2004. He returned at the September 5 "Impact!" TV taping in Las Vegas, Nevada and furthered his feud with Moose that began over social media. Shamrock faced Moose at the 2019 Bound for Glory event in a losing effort. On the October 29 episode of "Impact!", Shamrock was challenged to a match by Joey Ryan. The following week, Shamrock defeated Ryan, winning his first match since 2002. In February 2020, he was inducted into the Impact Hall of Fame. On March 17, ICU interrupted Shamrock's interview with Josh Mathews. The mysterious figure threw a fireball into Shamrock's eyes. He took off the mask and it was revealed to be Sami Callihan. Callihan would take his phone and the lights would go off and he would disappear. The feud would culminate at Rebellion 2020 Night 1 in an Unsanctioned match, where Shamrock submitted Callihan to an ankle lock. Ken Shamrock turned heel when he aligned himself with Sami Callihan and attacked Eddie Edwards.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: The origins of Shamrock's mixed martial arts career began in the Japanese pro wrestling organization Fujiwara Gumi. On October 4, 1992, at the Tokyo Dome, a legitimate match between "Wayne Shamrock" (Shamrock's ring name in Japan) and kickboxer Don Nakaya Nielsen took place. Shamrock submitted Nielsen in 45 seconds, first threatening him with a rear naked choke and then locking a neck crank/keylock combination for the win. The success of this match made young professional wrestlers Shamrock, Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki question what they had been told since entering into predetermined wrestling: that nobody would ever pay to see real matches. Shamrock, Funaki and Suzuki then founded a group of professional wrestlers and decided to pursue marketable legitimate matches. They formed a promotion called Pancrase.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock made his mixed martial arts debut at Pancrase on September 21. Using professional wrestling rules—no closed fisted punching to the head and breaks on the ropes—but fighting for real without predetermined finishes, Shamrock beat Funaki by arm-triangle choke in the main event of the first Pancrase show on September 21, 1993. Shamrock considered this a big victory, as it had been the first time he beat Funaki in all his time as Funaki's apprentice, and the show attracted a sell-out audience of 7,000.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: He followed up with victories over Yoshiki Takahashi, Takaku Fuke and Andre Van Den Oetelaar, and was slated to fight co-founder Minoru Suzuki on January 19, 1994. According to Shamrock, he was asked by Pancrase management not to injure Suzuki during the match, as the Japanese was already affected by a back injury. However, during the match Suzuki refused to release a kneebar after Shamrock had grabbed the ropes to escape, which injured the American's leg and forced him to forfeit the fight. The incident angered Shamrock, but there were no consequences.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: His ninth match, against Matt Hume, would be a controversial one too. The bout was finished by Shamrock performing a professional wrestling northern lights suplex floated over into a Kimura lock and was widely considered to be a worked shoot. When Shamrock was asked about the matter in 1998, he revealed that Hume and him had agreed to work the match in an exhibition format. Later, in 2015, he would answer to a similar question: "I talked to Matt and I said that we would go in with each other but I wouldn't hurt him. I wouldn't hurt him, because he had been so green. [...] So those were understandings I had with guys because I was so much better than they were. And I'm not going to go in there and abuse these guys."


title: Ken Shamrock

text: He defeated world kickboxing champion Maurice Smith and Alex Cook in the opening round of the 16-man and Masakatsu Funaki and Manabu Yamada in the to become the first King of Pancrase in December 1994. With this win, Shamrock became the first ever foreign champion in MMA history in Japan. He then defended his King of Pancrase title against Bas Rutten in 1995, submitting him with a kneebar. He lost the title in his next fight against Pancrase co-creator, Minoru Suzuki.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In addition to his MMA bouts in Pancrase, Shamrock also competed in a kickboxing match in 1994 with Dutch champion Frank "The Animal" Lobman, who holds a pro record of 110-6 with a 90% KO ratio. The American had only rudimentary striking experience, but he took the fight expecting it to help him to work on proper kickboxing. Shamrock broke Lobman's nose with a right cross early in the bout but was ultimately defeated by TKO due to leg kicks.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock eventually had a falling out with Pancrase management in early 1996 and left the company to compete in the UFC full-time. Shamrock left Pancrase with a record of 17–3.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: From there he went to the newly formed Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a fighting tournament that would take place in America. Although Shamrock initially believed it to be a professional wrestling event, he decided to sign up nonetheless, supported by Pancrase members Masakatsu Funaki and Takaku Fuke. The event, "UFC 1", was held under a one-night tournament format, but Shamrock only realized it would be real fighting after watching Gerard Gordeau knock out Teila Tuli in the first bout.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In the first round, Shamrock was pitted against kickboxing stylist Patrick Smith, who he made short work of by throwing Smith to the mat and submitting him with a heel hook. His next opponent was Brazilian jiu-jitsu exponent and eventual tournament winner Royce Gracie. Shamrock sprawled a takedown and manoeuvred on top of Gracie, but the latter escaped from under his mount attempt and returned to his feet. The Brazilian then pulled guard, so the American grabbed his ankle and sat back to attempt another heel hook. According to Shamrock, however, Gracie had wrapped his gi around Shamrock's arm, and when the latter sat back, it pulled Gracie on top of him. With his arm still entangled, the American could not apply his leglock, which Gracie capitalized on to secure a choke with his free hand and submit Shamrock. While the move is often listed as a rear naked choke, Shamrock later stated it to be actually a gi choke, as Royce had wrapped the cloth of his gi around Ken's neck. The ending of the fight was also controversial, as the referee did not see the tap and ordered the two fighters to continue fighting after Gracie had let go of the hold. Shamrock paused for a few seconds but declined, admitting to the ref that he tapped out and that it would not be fair for him to continue fighting.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: After the fight, Shamrock admitted that he had underestimated Gracie. In 2008 he said: "I didn't know who Royce Gracie was... When I saw him in his gi, I thought he was some karate guy [with no grappling skills]." On the other hand, in 2015 Shamrock said he had watched the "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu: In Action" before the event and showed it to Funaki and the rest: "So one thing led to another, they started to support me on it- they did know that that gi meant a lot- but when they saw it too they thought "Yeah, you'll be able to beat this guy pretty well." And I had confidence, too." Anyway, he put the blame of his loss in the fact that he wasn't allowed to wear wrestling shoes during the fights, while Gracie himself had been allowed to wear his gi and choke Shamrock with it. "[Wearing shoes] is a lot of the set ups and the positions for my leglocks- being able to get my knee inside, being able to spin and push off, and being able to secure the leg. You take the shoes off, it's like being on ice on the mat if you've never done it before."


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock was originally scheduled to compete at "UFC 2" but broke his hand after blocking a high kick while sparring with a teammate. He still wanted to compete, but when doctors told him that he might never fight again if he injured his hand any further, he reluctantly withdrew.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On September 9, 1994, Shamrock returned to the octagon at "UFC 3" in an event that was marketed by the UFC as the ultimate rematch between two-time champion Royce Gracie and #1 contender Shamrock. Shamrock's first fight, now wearing better shoes, was against top ranked judo practitioner Christophe Leininger. Shamrock's next fight was in the semifinals against kickboxer Felix Mitchell. Shamrock defeated Mitchell with the popularized rear naked choke. With this win, Shamrock advanced to the finals of "UFC 3". However, Shamrock refused to compete in the finals after he learned Gracie had dropped out of the tournament after his win over Kimo Leopoldo, combined with a knee injury he suffered during his match with Leininger.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On April 5, 1995, at "UFC 5", Shamrock got his rematch with Gracie in a match called "The Superfight," which would determine the UFC Champion. At the time, Gracie had a reputation as being seemingly unbeatable. Gracie came into the octagon at 190 pounds, while Shamrock cut his weight down to 205 pounds for the bout. Mere hours before the event, the UFC suddenly instituted a 30-minute time limit, mainly due to pay per view time constraints. Both Gracie and Shamrock were upset at the sudden rule change. Shamrock and Gracie fought for the entire allotted time of 30 minutes along with 5 minutes of overtime before the match was declared a draw. Had there been ringside judges, UFC matchmaker Art Davie believes that Shamrock would have been declared the winner. Gracie left with a melon sized welt closing his eye, a result of a standing punch due to a sudden change of the rules in which both of the fighters were restarted on their feet. Shamrock was not satisfied with his performance against Gracie, saying "it's certainly not a win. You gain nothing (with a draw)". Shamrock expressed desire to fight Gracie again for a third time in 1996, saying that if it went to a draw again, he would have Gracie declared the winner and Shamrock would forfeit his UFC Superfight Championship belt to Gracie.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock was then matched up with "UFC 5" tournament champion Dan Severn at "UFC 6" on July 14, 1995, to determine the reigning champion of the UFC. The "superfight", a match presented as a fight between the "best of the best", was still the match that would determine the UFC champion and the tournament winner would be considered the #1 contender for the newly created UFC Superfight Championship (later replaced by the UFC Heavyweight Championship when weight categories were introduced to the UFC). Their feud began at the pre-fight press conference. After most of the attention from the media was given to Shamrock, Severn got up and walked out of the door without explanation. Shamrock took Severn's action as a sign of disrespect. Severn later said that he walked out because he felt that it would be unfair to Shamrock for him to be present in the room while Shamrock was discussing his fight strategy to the media. Shamrock became even more furious when he found a newsletter back at the hotel that explained to readers how Severn was going to destroy Shamrock. During the match, Shamrock forced Severn to tap out to a choke in 2:14 to win the UFC Superfight Championship.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On September 8, 1995, at "UFC 7", Shamrock successfully defended the UFC Superfight Championship against UFC 6 Tournament Champion "The Russian Bear" Oleg Taktarov. Shamrock stated in his autobiography that he was uncomfortable fighting Taktarov, as Oleg trained with the Lion's Den and he did not wish to injure his friend and teammate. In "Beyond the Lion's Den", Shamrock states; "In addition to being his friend, I was also trying to get him into Pancrase and if I broke his leg it would be a while before he could recover and he needed the money. I figured my best chance of winning without seriously hurting him was to beat on him with punches... If I could open a cut and get him to start pouring blood, I could get a referee stoppage. It might not have been the best plan going into a fight, but considering the options it seemed like the best option available. And it turned out fine. I battered him around for the duration of the match, the bout was declared a draw and when Oleg recovered he went on to fight in Pancrase."


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock then defended his belt against Kimo Leopoldo at "UFC 8" in February 1996 in Puerto Rico. In the bout, Shamrock secured a kneebar, forcing Kimo to submit. With the win, Shamrock defended his UFC Superfight title for the second time.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock was then scheduled to face number one contender and rival Dan Severn at "UFC 9" in a rematch of their fight at "UFC 6", which Shamrock won by guillotine choke in 2:14. Their rematch at UFC 9 was marketed as the "Clash of the Titans 2" and took place in the Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan, in Severn's home state.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: UFC owner Bob Meyrowitz, referee John McCarthy and a team of lawyers were in court until 4:30 p.m. on the day of the fight battling with the District Attorney of Michigan, who was trying to prevent the UFC from holding the event in the state. An ultimatum was issued: the fight could go on as long as there were no closed fisted strikes to the head and no headbutts. The UFC, desperate to put the show on, agreed to the terms. Fighters were warned hours before the show that they would be arrested if they punched to the head with a closed fist. When Shamrock learned of the sudden rule change, he made up his mind that he was not going to fight. While training for the match, Shamrock suffered a torn lateral meniscus, a partially torn ACL, a broken nose, and cracked ribs. His injuries, combined with the rule change, meant he did not think he could win the fight because all of his weapons were taken away from him. Shamrock was also fearful that he would be arrested; the troubled boys from his father's foster home would be watching him and he was afraid of setting a bad example. If Shamrock withdrew, the main event would have been cancelled and the UFC could have suffered substantial monetary damage. After UFC owner Bob Meyrowitz and other UFC officials pleaded with Shamrock to go on with the show, Shamrock, despite the injuries and new rules, reluctantly gave in to the pressure.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In a fight that would be called "The Dance in Detroit", both Severn and Shamrock circled each other with little to no contact for a combined total of almost thirty minutes. "I took the center of the ring understanding that I was going to be fighting for my life and Dan never came at me," Shamrock said. Severn later said that his strategy was purposely not to engage with Shamrock and wait for the fans to boo, hoping that the booing would affect Shamrock psychologically and force him to make a mistake that Severn could capitalize on. Finally, after over 15 minutes of stalling, Severn shot for a takedown, but was unsuccessful and following a brief scramble, Shamrock put Severn on his back in full mount. Shamrock held the mount for close to five minutes, throwing open fist palm strikes to Severn's head and an occasional closed fist punch to the body. Shamrock felt as though he would have damaged Severn badly and perhaps finished him from this position of full mount had he been allowed to punch Severn in the face with a closed fist. Severn eventually gave his back in an attempt to get out and the risk paid off as Shamrock slid off Severn's back and onto his back in full guard. Severn landed a headbutt to open a cut above Shamrock's eye and followed with elbow strikes and punches from Shamrock's guard. Shamrock eventually got back to his feet and after six more minutes stalling, the fight went to a judges' decision. The judges gave a split decision win to Dan Severn, which upset Shamrock because he felt as though Severn had broken the rules by utilizing the banned closed fist punches to the head and headbutts. Chants of "boring!" and "Let's go Red Wings!" were echoed throughout the arena during the fight. Shamrock later stated that going through with this fight was the biggest regret of his fighting career.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: After taking time off away from the octagon to heal injuries, Shamrock entered the UFC's Ultimate Ultimate 1996 in December 1996. Shamrock appeared as a guest on the mainstream American television program "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" to promote the event. Frank Shamrock served as Ken's head cornerman for the event. Shamrock's opponent in the quarterfinals of the tournament was Judo black belt, kickboxer, and Golden Gloves champion Brian Johnston. Shamrock eventually tapped Johnston out with a forearm choke and advanced to the semifinals of the tournament. Shamrock, however, broke the same hand during this fight that kept him out of "UFC 2" and had to withdraw from the tournament. If Ken Shamrock was not injured, he would have faced Tank Abbott in the semifinals and more than likely would have defeated Tank to then go on to the finals of the tournament and face Don Frye. Betting odds had Ken Shamrock as a huge favorite to beat Don Frye in the finals and win the whole one night Ultimate Ultimate 1996 tournament.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: After "UFC 9", United States Senator John McCain was successful in pulling UFC pay-per-view broadcasts from numerous cable systems, including TCI Cable, which greatly hurt pay-per-view revenue. Combined with money drying out, the need to support his family and being burnt out from fighting, Shamrock left MMA for professional wrestling signing with the World Wrestling Federation.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On January 30, 2000, at the Pride Grand Prix 2000 Opening Round, Guy Mezger, one of Shamrock's fighters, fought Kazushi Sakuraba, who at the time was considered to be one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world. Mezger took the fight on two weeks' notice and had a broken foot going into the fight. The contract that Mezger signed stipulated that the fight would be one 15-minute round with no overtime. The fight mostly consisted of Mezger controlling the fight by stopping Sakuraba's takedown attempts while landing strikes from the outside. The round ended and Mezger expected the fight to go to the judges, but Pride officials wanted the fight to go to overtime.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: According to Mezger, Pride did not like the outcome of the fight and changed the agreement/contract on the spot in order to give Sakuraba another chance to win the fight. Ken Shamrock, Mezger's corner man, entered the ring and an argument ensued. Mezger was then ordered out of the ring and back to the locker room by Shamrock, who was livid at the decision to extend the fight because of Mezger's foot injury and the fact that he had taken the fight on short notice.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Mezger said, "For some reason, I had a tremendous amount of energy for that 15 minutes, but I started to kind of wilt near the end. Then they called it a draw and I'm like, "What?" Everyone blames Ken for being unprofessional. Really, Ken was protecting his fighter. We had an agreement. Sakuraba said, "I wanted to go another round, thinking it would be possible to salvage the match, but when it was decided to extend the fight, Ken Shamrock was making scary faces. Later I heard that Mezger's contract was only for a one-round fight. I thought, "Ah, then it couldn't be helped." But Shamrock didn't have to get so angry like that. Seeing Mezger getting scolded by him, I felt sorry for (Mezger)."


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Later that night, the president of Pride FC made a public apology to Mezger at the Tokyo Dome for the miscommunication. Braverman added, "We had a big meeting (with PRIDE). We were able to get some concessions out of them, money and guarantees of future fights. They wanted to make it right. One thing I said in the meeting was, "Do you want me to call Kenny back in here and see what he says?" "No, no, no, no!"


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In early 2000, Shamrock made a comeback to the mixed martial arts scene following his 4-year hiatus in the WWF. Ken Shamrock was supposed to face Josh Barnett at SuperBrawl 16 February 8, 2000, but withdrew due to pay issues, Shamrock was the favorite to win the bout and was replaced by former fellow UFC Superfight Champion Dan Severn, He signed with Pride Fighting Championships and defeated Alexander Otsuka by KO due to punches at the Pride Grand Prix 2000 Finals in the superfight, his first fight back from the WWF. During the match Shamrock was able to totally knock out the tough Otsuka, a feat which renowned strikers like Igor Vovchanchyn and Wanderlei Silva failed to do. This was the first ever Pride event to be broadcast live in America and Pride strategically used Shamrock's drawing power in America by making his Superfight with Otsuka the co-headliner of the event.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On August 27, 2000, Shamrock fought consensus top 10 Heavyweight "Ironhead" Kazuyuki Fujita at Pride 10 - Return of the Warriors. Shamrock came into the fight with Fujita noticeably smaller than his previous fight with Otsuka, dropping roughly 15 pounds of weight. During the time before the fight, Shamrock was going through a divorce and had to take care of his young kids during the day, which severely cut into his training time for the fight. Despite this, Shamrock dominated Fujita throughout the entire fight, stopping takedowns from the Japanese wrestling champion and landing hard strikes, but eventually had his corner throw in the towel because he felt like he was having a heart attack. He was evaluated after the fight and it was determined that he was suffering from heart palpitations.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In March 2001, Shamrock was scheduled to fight Igor Vovchanchyn at Pride 13 - Collision Course, but re-injured his neck during training two weeks before the fight, the same serious neck injury that ended his WWF career.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock engaged in a feud with Don Frye during his career in the Pride Fighting Championships, whose background was Don Frye's trash talking. In 1999, Alicia Webb (also known as Ryan Shamrock) dated Ken Shamrock until early 2003. Frye made comments to the effect that Shamrock cheated on and divorced his wife to date a young girl (Alicia Webb was 19 and Ken Shamrock was 35 when they started dating). Frye also joked that Ken's (at the time) estranged father Bob and brother Frank would be in Frye's corner for the fight. Ken Shamrock was enraged by Frye's trash talk, causing a feud between Shamrock and Frye. Since then, Frye has stated that he only resorted to personal trash talk to make Ken want to fight him. Frye said: "I saw Ken Shamrock whoop him (Dan Severn) at UFC 6 and I thought, "That's a guy I gotta fight. Anybody who can whoop Dan Severn like that has gotta be a man and I want to test my size against his size. I had the chance to talk trash and they gave me the fight; I crossed the line. I wasn't professional about it, but Ken was and after the fight, we shook hands and went our separate ways."


title: Ken Shamrock

text: The feud ended on February 24, 2002, at Pride 19, where Shamrock fought Frye in the main event in a match that potentially had PRIDE Heavyweight Championship title implications (PRIDE FC considered giving the winner of this fight a title shot against Pride heavyweight champion Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira). Frye got the edge on a series of clinch battles, while Shamrock dropped down for an ankle lock and transitioned into both a kneebar and a toehold, wrenching Frye's leg badly; however, despite the damage, Frye refused to tap out and managed to knock Shamrock down in a subsequent punching exchange. The bout moved to the mat, where Shamrock attempted another ankle lock, only for Frye to try to counter with one of his own and finally refusing to tap out by sheer will until the time ran out. Frye won the fight via spit decision, and the two hugged after the fight ended, putting an end to their rivalry.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In October 2005, Shamrock lost to Kazushi Sakuraba in "Pride: Fully Loaded" by TKO. Three minutes into the bout, Sakuraba struck through Shamrock's guard with a left hand. Shamrock staggered back and ultimately fell into the ropes, his head hanging out of the ring and his back turned to Sakuraba. Sakuraba rushed in to follow up, but before any meaningful offense could be launched, the fight was halted by referee Yuji Shimada. Shamrock got up following the KO and protested vigorously. Opinions were mixed regarding the KO's legitimacy, though Ken's adopted brother and rival, Frank, stated to believe the stoppage was justified.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: A feud between Shamrock's Lion's Den camp and Tito Ortiz began to build on January 8, 1999, at "UFC 18". After upsetting top UFC fighter and Lion's Den member Jerry Bohlander, Ortiz mimicked shooting at Shamrock and put on a shirt in the octagon which read "I just f**ked your ass".


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On March 5, 1999, at "UFC 19", after Ortiz won by referee stoppage in his rematch with Guy Mezger, he immediately flipped off the Lion's Den corner and then put on a shirt that said "Gay Mezger is my Bitch". After Shamrock saw the shirt, he yelled into the octagon "Hey Tito, don't let me see you wearing that shirt!". Shamrock leaped onto the top of the cage, screaming at Ortiz and angrily waving his finger in Ortiz's face. Referee John McCarthy picked Ortiz up and carried him across the octagon to prevent the situation from escalating further. The situation was escalated to the point that police and security had to be called in to monitor the situation.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On November 22, 2002, at "UFC 40", nearly four years after the confrontation at "UFC 19", Shamrock returned to the UFC to fight Ortiz in a title match for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Shamrock's apparent size advantage did not factor into the fight, however; Shamrock experienced difficulty cutting weight for the first time and cut too much weight, weighing in at 201 lbs, 4 lbs under the 205 lb. limit. Ortiz shed light upon his feelings before the fight in his book "This is Gonna Hurt: The Life of a Mixed Martial Arts Champion"; "Ken Shamrock is a real good fighter. I was not intimidated by him, but I guess you can say I was a little bit afraid."


title: Ken Shamrock

text: The match garnered mainstream attention from media outlets such as ESPN and "USA Today". UFC President Dana White credited Shamrock for the show's success. White said, "the reason we did so well on UFC 40 was because of Ken Shamrock and the fact that everyone knew who he was." Shamrock nearly scored a knockout early in round 1, buckling Ortiz's knees with a punch and dropping him to one knee. However, Ortiz recovered shortly after and went on to dominate the fight with takedowns and ground-and-pound. Right before Round 4 started, Shamrock's cornerman threw in the towel and Ortiz successfully defended the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: After the fight was over, Shamrock revealed that he fought Ortiz with a torn ACL. He also seriously contemplated retirement from MMA, citing the fact that he had never lost two fights in a row in his career before and he had a buildup of injuries. In 2003, Shamrock had surgery to repair his ACL. Shamrock has said that since his knee injury, he has had difficulty shooting and taking people down, which resulted in Shamrock changing his primary style from a wrestler/grappler and moving more towards a standup fighter.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On November 21, 2003, at "UFC 45", Royce Gracie and Shamrock became the first inductees to the UFC Hall of Fame. UFC President Dana White said, "We feel that no two individuals are more deserving than Royce and Ken to be the charter members. Their contributions to our sport, both inside and outside the Octagon, may never be equaled."


title: Ken Shamrock

text: At "UFC 48" on June 19, 2004, a 40-year-old Shamrock returned to fight the Kimo Leopoldo in a rematch of the "UFC 8" Superfight Championship match, which Shamrock had won via submission due to a kneebar. The rematch saw Shamrock once again win, this time by way of KO. Shamrock injured his shoulder during the fight against Kimo. He originally thought it was just "wear and tear", but an MRI revealed a torn rotator cuff. Shamrock then had to have surgery to repair it.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On April 9, 2005, at "The Ultimate Fighter" finale Shamrock faced Rich Franklin. Shamrock applied a heel hook early in the fight that put Franklin on crutches for a week, but Franklin escaped and defeated Shamrock by a TKO.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On November 19, 2005, at "UFC 56", Dana White, the UFC president, announced that Shamrock would be one of the coaches (along with Tito Ortiz) for the upcoming third season of The Ultimate Fighter.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock was portrayed badly on the show, feuding with his fighters and often appearing uninterested. Shamrock admitted to doing a poor job with his fighters: "I failed them miserably, completely. So I have to figure out a way to get this...back in the driver's seat", Shamrock said during the show. Shamrock responded to his critics in an interview: "I trained three fighters that were the first three (UFC) Middleweight Champions: Jerry Bohlander, Guy Mezger and Frank Shamrock. And I've trained dozens of guys to be champs in other organizations. In Pancrase, I had eight fighters in the top ten at one point. I was the champion and (Masakatsu) Funaki was the number one contender. The rest were all Lion's Den fighters. My reputation doesn't have to be spoken for or defended. The UFC and Spike TV did what they thought they needed to do for ratings, but in the end, my fans, my family and my God know exactly who I am."


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On July 8, 2006, at "UFC 61", the rematch between Shamrock and Ortiz took place. Shamrock lost the rematch with Ortiz in 1:18 of the first round by a technical knockout. During the match, referee Herb Dean deemed that Shamrock was no longer able to intelligently defend himself and stopped the fight. Shamrock and the crowd were furious at the early stoppage and Dana White immediately put together a rematch on television.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: At "" on October 10, 2006, Shamrock was defeated again by Ortiz by KO after referee John McCarthy stopped the fight following multiple undefended fist strikes. Immediately after the fight, Ortiz initially celebrated his victory with a mocking "grave digger" routine and a T-shirt that said, "Punishing Him Into Retirement" after giving him the finger. However, Shamrock approached Ortiz and, after the two talked for several seconds, Shamrock said they could put all of their animosity aside as it was always "just business", shaking hands and burying the hatchet. UFC President Dana White said the day after Shamrock's fight with Ortiz, "Last night was a turning point for the UFC. This will further drive the evolution of mixed martial arts into a mainstream sport."


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock was rumored to fight Englishman Steve McDonald at "UFC 75", but he was ultimately released from his UFC contract in June 2007. Shamrock stated that the UFC released him solely because of his decision to coach in the International Fight League. Shamrock then engaged in a feud with White in the media and ultimately sued the UFC for breach of contract, citing that he had one fight left on his deal that the UFC had to honor. Shamrock ultimately lost his suit against the UFC and was ordered by the court to pay Zuffa's attorney fees, totaling $175,000.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: In early 2007, Shamrock became the coach of the Nevada Lions for the International Fight League (IFL). Roy Nelson, one of Shamrock's fighters, was the reigning IFL Heavyweight Champion when the league was bought out and disbanded.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On March 8 at the "Cage Rage 25", Shamrock fought Robert Berry, but lost in the first round by Technical knockout due to punches. It was announced on August 25 that Shamrock's next opponent would be Kimbo Slice at "Elite XC Saturday Night Fight Special" on October 4, 2008. Shamrock, however, was injured before the match and could not compete for at least 45 days.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Ken Shamrock Productions co-promoted an event with War Gods on February 13, 2009, in which Ken fought in the main event against 6'6, 380 lb. Ross Clifton. Shamrock knocked Clifton down with a right hand and finished him via arm bar from side control in the first round. Shamrock was then scheduled to fight Bobby Lashley, but tested positive for steroids after the Clifton fight and received a one-year suspension. Shamrock's attorney and former manager Rod Donohoo said Shamrock adamantly denied the allegations.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock faced Pedro Rizzo on July 18, 2010, at an event called "Impact Fighting Championships" in Sydney, Australia. Shamrock lost by TKO due to leg kicks. His next fight was against Johnathan Ivey for the USA MMA promotion on October 16, 2010. Shamrock earned a unanimous decision against Ivey, with all three judges scoring the bout 30-27. He then fought Mike Bourke on November 25, 2010, in Durban, South Africa for the King of the Cage promotion. Shamrock knocked Bourke down with a punch but was injured shortly after during a scramble and subsequently lost the bout via TKO (injury) in the first round, as he was unable to continue due to a leg injury.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: Shamrock was scheduled to face Antony Rea at "WEF 46" on April 22, 2011. Ken withdrew from the fight with Rea due to a staph infection. Shamrock was also planning on returning to MMA to take on Ian Freeman for 'The Legends World Title' on July 27 at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster, England. The fight with Freeman was cancelled due to contractual issues on Shamrock's part.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On January 8, 2015, Shamrock announced that he would fight James Quinn in the United Kingdom in a Bare Knuckle Boxing match. The match was set for April 2015, but never took place.


title: Ken Shamrock

text: On February 27, 2015, during "Bellator 134", it was announced that Ken would return to fight Kimbo Slice at Bellator 138 on June 19, 2015. During the fight, Shamrock had managed to take Slice down twice and the second time establish a rear naked choke. Slice refused to tap, however, and eventually wriggled free from the submission and was able catch Shamrock with one of his trademark powerful right hooks resulting in a TKO loss for Shamrock at 2:22 in the first round. The fight was controversial with many believing Ken took a dive.