title: Empathy

text: Psychopathy is associated with atypical responses to distress cues (e.g. facial and vocal expressions of fear and sadness), including decreased activation of the fusiform and extrastriate cortical regions, which may partly account for impaired recognition of and reduced autonomic responsiveness to expressions of fear, and impairments of empathy. Studies on children with psychopathic tendencies have also shown such associations. The underlying for processing expressions of happiness are functionally intact in psychopaths, although less responsive than in those of controls. The neuroimaging literature is unclear as to whether deficits are specific to particular emotions such as fear. Some fMRI studies report that emotion perception deficits in psychopathy are pervasive across emotions (positives and negatives).


title: Empathy

text: One study on psychopaths found that, under certain circumstances, they could willfully empathize with others, and that their empathic reaction initiated the same way it does for controls. Psychopathic criminals were brain-scanned while watching videos of a person harming another individual. The psychopaths' empathic reaction initiated the same way it did for controls when they were instructed to empathize with the harmed individual, and the area of the brain relating to pain was activated when the psychopaths were asked to imagine how the harmed individual felt. The research suggests psychopaths can switch empathy on at will, which would enable them to be both callous and charming. The team who conducted the study say they do not know how to transform this willful empathy into the spontaneous empathy most people have, though they propose it might be possible to rehabilitate psychopaths by helping them to activate their "empathy switch". Others suggested that it remains unclear whether psychopaths' experience of empathy was the same as that of controls, and also questioned the possibility of devising therapeutic interventions that would make the empathic reactions more automatic.


title: Empathy

text: One problem with the theory that the ability to turn empathy on and off constitutes psychopathy is that such a theory would classify socially sanctioned violence and punishment as psychopathy, as these entail suspending empathy towards certain individuals and/or groups. The attempt to get around this by standardizing tests of psychopathy for cultures with different norms of punishment is criticized in this context for being based on the assumption that people can be classified in discrete cultures while cultural influences are in reality mixed and every person encounters a mosaic of influences. Psychopathy may be an artefact of psychiatry's standardization along imaginary sharp lines between cultures, as opposed to an actual difference in the brain.


title: Empathy

text: Work conducted by Professor Jean Decety with large samples of incarcerated psychopaths offers additional insights. In one study, psychopaths were scanned while viewing video clips depicting people being intentionally hurt. They were also tested on their responses to seeing short videos of facial expressions of pain. The participants in the high-psychopathy group exhibited significantly less activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and periaqueductal gray parts of the brain, but more activity in the striatum and the insula when compared to control participants. In a second study, individuals with psychopathy exhibited a strong response in pain-affective brain regions when taking an imagine-self perspective, but failed to recruit the neural circuits that were activated in controls during an imagine-other perspective—in particular the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala—which may contribute to their lack of empathic concern.


title: Empathy

text: Researchers have investigated whether people who have high levels of psychopathy have sufficient levels of cognitive empathy but lack the ability to use affective empathy. People who score highly on psychopathy measures are less likely to exhibit affective empathy. There was a strong negative correlation, showing that psychopathy and lack of affective empathy correspond strongly. found those who scored highly on the psychopathy scale do not lack in recognising emotion in facial expressions. Therefore, such individuals do not lack in perspective-talking ability but do lack in compassion .


title: Empathy

text: Despite studies suggesting psychopaths have deficits in emotion perception and imagining others in pain, professor Simon Baron-Cohen claims psychopathy is associated with intact cognitive empathy, which would imply an intact ability to read and respond to behaviors, social cues, and what others are feeling. Psychopathy is, however, associated with impairment in the other major component of empathy—affective (emotional) empathy—which includes the ability to feel the suffering and emotions of others (emotional contagion), and those with the condition are therefore not distressed by the suffering of their victims. Such a dissociation of affective and cognitive empathy has been demonstrated for aggressive offenders.


title: Empathy

text: Borderline personality disorder is characterized by extensive behavioral and interpersonal difficulties that arise from emotional and cognitive dysfunction. Dysfunctional social and interpersonal behavior plays a role in the emotionally intense way people with borderline personality disorder react. While individuals with borderline personality disorder may show their emotions excessively, several authors have suggested that they might have a compromised ability to reflect upon mental states (impaired cognitive empathy), as well as an impaired theory of mind. People with borderline personality disorder have been shown to be very good at recognizing emotions in people's faces, suggesting increased empathic capacities. Impaired cognitive empathy (the capacity for understanding another person's experience and perspective) may account for borderline personality disorder individuals' tendency for interpersonal dysfunction, while "hyper-emotional empathy" may account for their emotional over-reactivity. One study confirmed that patients with borderline personality disorder were significantly impaired in cognitive empathy, yet there was no sign of impairment in affective empathy.


title: Empathy

text: One diagnostic criterion of narcissistic personality disorder is a lack of empathy and an unwillingness or inability to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.


title: Empathy

text: Characteristics of schizoid personality disorder include emotional coldness, detachment, and impaired affect corresponding with an inability to be empathic and sensitive towards others.


title: Empathy

text: A study conducted by Jean Decety and colleagues at the University of Chicago demonstrated that subjects with aggressive conduct disorder demonstrate atypical empathic responses when viewing others in pain. Subjects with conduct disorder were at least as responsive as controls to the pain of others but, unlike controls, subjects with conduct disorder showed strong and specific activation of the amygdala and ventral striatum (areas that enable a general arousing effect of reward), yet impaired activation of the neural regions involved in self-regulation and metacognition (including moral reasoning), in addition to diminished processing between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex.


title: Empathy

text: Schizophrenia is characterized by impaired affective empathy, as well as severe cognitive and empathy impairments as measured by the Empathy Quotient (EQ). These empathy impairments are also associated with impairments in social cognitive tasks.


title: Empathy

text: Bipolar individuals have impaired cognitive empathy and theory of mind, but increased affective empathy.<ref name="10.1176/jnp.2009.21.1.59"></ref> Despite cognitive flexibility being impaired, planning behavior is intact. Dysfunctions in the prefrontal cortex could result in the impaired cognitive empathy, since impaired cognitive empathy has been related with neurocognitive task performance involving cognitive flexibility.


title: Empathy

text: Dave Grossman, in his book "", reports on how military training artificially creates depersonalization in soldiers, suppressing empathy and making it easier for them to kill other human beings.


title: Empathy

text: A deadening of empathic response to workmates, customers and the like is one of the three key components of occupational burnout, according to the conceptualisation behind its primary diagnostic instrument, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI).


title: Empathy

text: The term Empathy Deficit Disorder (EDD) has gained popularity online, but it is not a diagnosis under the DSM-5. The term was coined in an article by Douglas LaBier, PhD. In the article, he acknowledges that he "made it up, so you won't find it listed in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" and that his conclusions are derived from personal experience alone. His conclusions have not been validated through clinical studies, nor have studies identified EDD as a separate disorder rather than a symptom associated with previously established diagnoses that do appear in the DSM-5.


title: Empathy

text: Another growing focus of investigation is how empathy manifests in education between teachers and learners. Although there is general agreement that empathy is essential in educational settings, research has found that it is difficult to develop empathy in trainee teachers.


title: Empathy

text: Learning by teaching (LbT) is one method used to teach empathy. Students transmit new content to their classmates, so they have to reflect continuously on those classmates' mental processes. This develops the students' feeling for group reactions and networking. Carl R. Rogers pioneered research in effective psychotherapy and teaching which espoused that empathy coupled with unconditional positive regard or caring for students and authenticity or congruence were the most important traits for a therapist or teacher to have. Other research and meta-analyses corroborated the importance of these person-centered traits.


title: Empathy

text: According to one theory, empathy is one of seven components involved in the effectiveness of intercultural communication. This theory also states that empathy is learnable. However, research also shows that people experience more difficulty empathizing with others who are different from them in characteristics such as status, culture, religion, language, skin colour, gender, and age.


title: Empathy

text: To build intercultural empathy in others, psychologists employ empathy training. US researchers William Weeks, Paul Pedersen, et al. state that people who develop intercultural empathy can interpret experiences or perspectives from more than one worldview. Intercultural empathy can also improve self-awareness and critical awareness of one's own interaction style as conditioned by one's cultural views and promote a view of self-as-process.


title: Empathy

text: An alternative European approach to intercultural leadership considers four main dimensions: Cognitive Leadership, Affective Leadership, Relational leadership, and Emotional Leadership.


title: Empathy

text: The capacity to empathize is a revered trait in society. Empathy is considered a motivating factor for unselfish, prosocial behavior, whereas a lack of empathy is related to antisocial behavior.


title: Empathy

text: Apart from the automatic tendency to recognize the emotions of others, one may also deliberately engage in empathic reasoning. Such empathic engagement helps an individual understand and anticipate the behavior of another. Two general methods have been identified: An individual may mentally simulate fictitious versions of the beliefs, desires, character traits, and context of another individual to see what emotional feelings this provokes. Or, an individual may simulate an emotional feeling and then analyze the environment to discover a suitable reason for the emotional feeling to be appropriate for that specific environment.


title: Empathy

text: An empathizer's own emotional background may affect or distort how they perceive the emotions in others. Societies that promote individualism have lower ability for empathy. The judgments that empathy provides about the emotional states of others are not certain ones. Empathy is a skill that gradually develops throughout life, and which improves the more contact we have with .


title: Empathy

text: Empathizers report finding it easier to take the perspective of another person in a situation when they have experienced a similar situation, and that they experience greater empathic understanding. Research regarding whether similar past experience makes the empathizer more accurate is mixed.


title: Empathy

text: The extent to which a person's emotions are publicly observable, or mutually recognized as such has significant social consequences. Empathic recognition may or may not be welcomed or socially desirable. This is particularly the case when we recognize the emotions that someone has towards us during real time interactions. Based on a metaphorical affinity with touch, philosopher Edith Wyschogrod claims that the proximity entailed by empathy increases the potential vulnerability of either party.


title: Empathy

text: Some research suggests that people are more able and willing to empathize with those most similar to themselves. In particular, empathy increases with similarities in culture and living conditions. Empathy is more likely to occur between individuals whose interaction is more frequent. In one experiment, researchers gave two groups of men wristbands according to which football team they supported. Each participant received a mild electric shock, then watched another go through the same pain. When the wristbands matched, both : with pain, and empathic pain. If they supported opposing teams, the observer was found to have little empathy.


title: Empathy

text: Psychologist Paul Bloom, author of "Against Empathy", points out that this bias can result in tribalism and violent responses in the name of helping people of the same "tribe" or social group, for example when empathic bias is exploited by demagogues. He proposes "rational compassion" as an alternative; one example is using effective altruism to decide on charitable donations rationally, rather than by relying on emotional responses to images in the media. Empathy can also be exploited by sympathetic beggars. Bloom points to the example of street children in India, who can get many donations because they are adorable but this results in their enslavement by organized crime. Bloom says that though someone might feel better about themselves and when they give to the person in front of them, in some cases they would do less harm and in many cases do more good in the world by giving to an effective charity through an impersonal website.


title: Empathy

text: Bloom believes improper use of empathy and social intelligence can lead to shortsighted actions and parochialism.


title: Empathy

text: Bloom says that although psychopaths have low empathy, the correlation between low empathy and violent behavior as documented in scientific studies is "zero". Other measures are much more predictive of violent behavior, such as lack of self-control. People with Asperger syndrome and autism also have low empathy, but are more often the victim of violent attacks than the perpetrators.


title: Empathy

text: Bloom points out that parents who have too much short-term empathy might create long-term problems for their children, by neglecting discipline, helicopter parenting, or deciding not to get their children vaccinated because of the short-term discomfort. People experiencing too much empathy after a disaster may continue to send donations like canned goods or used clothing even after being asked to stop or send cash instead, and this can make the situation worse by creating the need to dispose of useless donations and taking resources away from helpful activities. Bloom also finds empathy can encourage unethical behavior when it causes people to care more about attractive people than ugly people, or people of one's own race vs. people of a different race. The attractiveness bias can also affect wildlife conservation efforts, increasing the amount of money devoted and laws passed to protect cute and photogenic animals, while taking attention away from species that are more ecologically important.


title: Empathy

text: Excessive empathy can lead to "empathic distress fatigue", especially if it is associated with pathological altruism. The risks are fatigue, occupational burnout, guilt, shame, anxiety, and depression.


title: Empathy

text: Tania Singer says that health care workers and caregivers must be objective regarding the emotions of others. They should not over-invest their own emotions in the other, at the risk of draining away their own resourcefulness. Paul Bloom points out that high-empathy nurses tend to spend less time with their patients, to avoid feeling negative emotions associated with witnessing suffering.


title: Empathy

text: In the 2007 book "The Ethics of Care and Empathy", philosopher Michael Slote introduces a theory of care-based ethics that is grounded in empathy. His claim is that moral motivation does, and should, stem from a basis of empathic response. He claims that our natural reaction to situations of moral significance are explained by empathy. He explains that the limits and obligations of empathy and in turn morality are natural. These natural obligations include a greater empathic and moral obligation to family and friends and to those close to us in time and space. Our moral obligation to such people seems naturally stronger to us than that to strangers at a distance. Slote explains that this is due to the natural process of empathy. He asserts that actions are wrong if and only if they reflect or exhibit a deficiency of fully developed empathic concern for others on the part of the agent.


title: Empathy

text: In phenomenology, empathy describes the experience of something from the other's viewpoint, without confusion between self and other. This the sense of agency. In the most basic sense, this is the experience of the other's body as "my body over there". In most other respects, however, what is experienced is experienced as being the other's experience; in experiencing empathy, what is experienced is not "my" experience, even though "I" experience it. Empathy is also considered to be the condition of intersubjectivity and, as such, the source of the constitution of objectivity.


title: Empathy

text: Some postmodern historians such as Keith Jenkins have debated whether or not it is possible to empathize with people from the past. Jenkins argues that empathy only enjoys such a privileged position in the present because it corresponds harmoniously with the dominant liberal discourse of modern society and can be connected to John Stuart Mill's concept of reciprocal freedom. Jenkins argues the past is a foreign country and as we do not have access to the epistemological conditions of bygone ages we are unable to empathize with those who lived then.


title: Empathy

text: Heinz Kohut introduced the principle of empathy in psychoanalysis. His principle applies to the method of gathering unconscious material.


title: Empathy

text: In the 2009 book "Wired to Care", strategy consultant Dev Patnaik argues that a major flaw in contemporary business practice is a lack of empathy inside large corporations. He states that without empathy people inside companies struggle to make intuitive decisions and often get fooled into believing they understand their business if they have quantitative research to rely upon. He says that companies can create a sense of empathy for customers, pointing to Nike, Harley-Davidson, and IBM as examples of "Open Empathy Organizations". Such companies, he claims, see new opportunities more quickly than competitors, adapt to change more easily, and create workplaces that offer employees a greater sense of mission in their jobs. In the 2011 book "The Empathy Factor", organizational consultant Marie Miyashiro similarly argues for bringing empathy to the workplace, and suggests Nonviolent Communication as an effective mechanism for achieving this. In studies by the Management Research Group, empathy was found to be the strongest predictor of ethical leadership behavior out of 22 competencies in its management model, and empathy was one of the three strongest predictors of senior executive effectiveness. A study by the Center for Creative Leadership found empathy to be positively correlated to job performance among employees as well.


title: Empathy

text: Empathic perspective-taking plays important roles in sustaining cooperation in human societies, as studied by evolutionary game theory. In game theoretical models, indirect reciprocity refers to the mechanism of cooperation based on moral reputations that are assigned to individuals based on their perceived adherence a set of moral rules called social norms. It has been shown that if reputations and individuals disagree on the moral standing of others (for example, because they use different moral evaluation rules or make errors of judgement), then cooperation will not be sustained. However, when individuals have the capacity for empathic perspective-taking, altruistic behavior can once again evolve. Moreover, evolutionary models also revealed that empathic perspective-taking itself can evolve, promoting prosocial behavior in human populations.


title: Empathy

text: Efforts to measure empathy go back to at least the mid-twentieth century. Researchers approach the measurement of empathy from a number of perspectives.


title: Empathy

text: Behavioral measures normally involve raters assessing the presence or absence of certain either behaviors in the subjects they are monitoring. Both verbal and non-verbal behaviors have been captured on video by experimenters such as Truax. Other experimenters, including Mehrabian and Epstein, required subjects to comment upon their own feelings and behaviors, or those of other people involved in the experiment, as indirect ways of signaling their level of empathic functioning to the raters.


title: Empathy

text: Physiological responses tend to be captured by elaborate electronic equipment that has been physically connected to the subject's body. Researchers then draw inferences about that person's empathic reactions from the electronic readings produced.


title: Empathy

text: Bodily or "somatic" measures can be seen as behavioral measures at a micro level. They measure empathy through facial and other non-verbally expressed reactions. Such changes are presumably underpinned by physiological changes brought about by some form of "emotional contagion" or mirroring. These reactions, while they appear to reflect the internal emotional state of the empathizer, could also, if the stimulus incident lasted more than the briefest period, reflect the results of emotional reactions based on cognitions associated with role-taking ("if I were him I would feel...").


title: Empathy

text: Picture or puppet-story indices for empathy have been adopted to enable even very young, pre-school subjects to respond without needing to read questions and write answers. Dependent variables (variables that are monitored for any change by the experimenter) for younger subjects have included self reporting on a seven-point smiley face scale and filmed facial reactions.


title: Empathy

text: In some experiments, subjects are required to watch video scenarios (either staged or authentic) and to make written responses which are then assessed for their levels of empathy; scenarios are sometimes also depicted in printed form.


title: Empathy

text: Measures of empathy also frequently require subjects to self-report upon their own ability or capacity for empathy, using Likert-style numerical responses to a printed questionnaire that may have been designed to reveal the affective, cognitive-affective, or largely cognitive substrates of empathic functioning. Some questionnaires claim to reveal both cognitive and affective substrates. However, a 2019 meta analysis questions the validity of self-report measures of cognitive empathy, finding that such self-report measures have negligibly small correlations with corresponding behavioral measures.


title: Empathy

text: In the field of medicine, a measurement tool for carers is the "Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, Health Professional Version (JSPE-HP)".


title: Empathy

text: The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) is among the oldest published measurement tools still in frequent use (first published in 1983) that provides a multi-dimensional assessment of empathy. It comprises a self-report questionnaire of 28 items, divided into four 7-item scales covering the subdivisions of affective and cognitive empathy described above. More recent self-report tools include The Empathy Quotient (EQ) created by Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright which comprises a self-report questionnaire consisting of 60 items. Another multi-dimensional scale is the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE, first published in 2011).


title: Empathy

text: The Empathic Experience Scale is a 30-item questionnaire that measures empathy from a phenomenological perspective on intersubjectivity, which provides a common basis for the perceptual experience (vicarious experience dimension) and a basic cognitive awareness (intuitive understanding dimension) of others' emotional states.


title: Empathy

text: In a 2016 study by a US research team, self-report data from the Interreactivity Index (see Measurement) were compared across countries. From the surveyed nations, the nations with the five highest empathy scores were (in descending order): Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Denmark, and United Arab Emirates. The lowest scores came from Bulgaria, Poland, Estonia, Venezuela, and Lithuania.


title: Empathy

text: Researchers Zanna Clay and Frans de Waal studied the socio-emotional development of the bonobo chimpanzee. They focused on the interplay of numerous skills such as empathy-related responding, and how different rearing backgrounds of the juvenile bonobo affected their response to stressful events—events related to themselves (e.g. loss of a fight) as well as stressful events of others. They found that bonobos sought out body contact with one another as a coping mechanism. Bonobos sought out more body contact after watching an event distress other bonobos than after their individually experienced stressful event. Mother-reared bonobos sought out more physical contact than orphaned bonobos after a stressful event happened to another. This finding shows the importance of mother-child attachment and bonding in successful socio-emotional development, such as empathic-like behaviors.


title: Empathy

text: Empathic-like behavior has been observed in chimpanzees in different aspects of their natural behaviors. For example, chimpanzees spontaneously contribute comforting behaviors to victims of aggressive behavior in both natural and unnatural settings, a behavior recognized as consolation. Researchers led by Teresa Romero observed these empathic and sympathetic-like behaviors in chimpanzees in two separate groups. Acts of consolation were observed in both groups. This behavior is found in humans, particularly in human infants. Another similarity found between chimpanzees and humans is that empathic-like responding was disproportionately provided to kin. Although comforting towards non-family chimpanzees was also observed, as with humans, chimpanzees showed the majority of comfort and concern to close/loved ones. Another similarity between chimpanzee and human expression of empathy is that females provided more comfort than males on average. The only exception to this discovery was that high-ranking males showed as much empathy-like behavior as their female counterparts. This is believed to be because of policing-like behavior and the authoritative status of high-ranking male chimpanzees.


title: Empathy

text: Canines have been hypothesized to share empathic-like responding towards human species. Researchers Custance and Mayer put individual dogs in an enclosure with their owner and a stranger. When the participants were talking or humming, the dog showed no behavioral changes; however when the participants were pretending to cry, the dogs oriented their behavior toward the person in distress whether it be the owner or stranger. The dogs approached the participants when crying in a submissive fashion, by sniffing, licking, and nuzzling the distressed person. The dogs did not approach the participants in the usual form of excitement, tail wagging, or panting. Since the dogs did not direct their empathic-like responses only towards their owner, it is hypothesized that dogs generally seek out humans showing distressing body behavior. Although this could suggest that dogs have the cognitive capacity for empathy, it could also mean that domesticated dogs have learned to comfort distressed humans through generations of being rewarded for that specific behavior.


title: Empathy

text: When witnessing chicks in distress, domesticated hens ("Gallus gallus domesticus") show emotional and physiological responding. Researchers Edgar, Paul, and Nicol found that in conditions where the chick was susceptible to danger, the mother hen's heart rate increased, it sounded vocal alarms, it decreased its personal preening, and its body temperature increased. This responding happened whether or not the chick felt as if it were in danger. Mother hens experienced stress-induced hyperthermia only when the chick's behavior correlated with the perceived threat. Animal maternal behavior may be perceived as empathy, however, .


title: Empathy

text: Humans can empathize with other species. One study of a sample of organisms showed that the strength of human empathic perceptions (and compassionate reactions) toward an organism is negatively correlated with how long ago our species' had a common ancestor. In other words, the more phylogenetically close a species is to us, the more likely we are to feel empathy and compassion towards it.


title: Empathy

text: The power of empathy has become a frequent ability in fiction, specifically in that of superhero media. Users, known as "empaths," have the ability to sense/feel the emotions and bodily sensations of others and, in some cases, influence or control them.


title: Empathy

text: Although sometimes a specific power held by users such as Marvel Comics character Empath, the power has also been frequently linked to that of telepathy such as in the case of Jean Grey.


title: Empathy

text: The rebooted television series "Charmed" sees the character Maggie Vera as a witch with the power of empathy. Her powers later expand to allow her to control the emotions of others as well as occasionally concentrate emotion into pure energy. In Season 4 she learns to replicate people's powers by empathically understanding them.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Miroslav Josef Klose (, ; born 9 June 1978) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Austrian Bundesliga club Rheindorf Altach. A striker, Klose is the all-time top scorer for Germany and holds the record for the most goals scored in FIFA World Cups.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Starting his career at FC 08 Homburg, Klose played in the Bundesliga for Kaiserslautern before becoming one of the most prolific scorers in the league with Werder Bremen, where he was awarded the German Footballer of the Year in 2006 and also named to the "kicker" Bundesliga Team of the Season in 2004–05 and 2005–06. His performances saw him move to giants Bayern Munich in 2007. During his time at Bayern, Klose won the 2007–08 and 2009–10 league titles. In 2011, Klose moved to Serie A club Lazio, where he won the 2012–13 Coppa Italia and eventually finished his playing career in 2016 after five years at the club.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose is best known for his performances with the German national team. He was part of the squad that won the 2014 World Cup, having previously finished second (2002) and third (2006, 2010) in the competition; he finished as runner-up with Germany at UEFA Euro 2008 and joint-third place at UEFA Euro 2012. He holds the record for the most goals scored in FIFA World Cup tournaments, having scored five goals in his debut World Cup in 2002 and having won the Golden Boot at the 2006 World Cup in Germany by again scoring five times. He also scored four times in the 2010 World Cup and twice at the 2014 World Cup, in the latter tournament overtaking Brazil's Ronaldo's then-record of 15 goals to top the all-time list. He retired from the national team in August 2014, shortly after Germany's victory at the 2014 World Cup.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose was born on 9 June 1978 in the Silesian city of Opole, Poland. Both of his parents were professional athletes. His father, Josef Klose, was also a professional footballer who played for Odra Opole before leaving Poland in 1978 to play for French club Auxerre. His mother, Barbara Jeż, was a member of the Poland women's national handball team. Josef Klose was an "Aussiedler" whose family had remained behind when Silesia was ceded to Poland after World War II. In 1986, then eight-year-old Miroslav joined his father in Kusel, West Germany, knowing only two words of German. Klose developed his footballing skill and passion with local club SG Blaubach-Diedelkopf, which at the time was in the West-German seventh division. He was also an apprentice carpenter.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose and his wife Sylwia have twin sons, Luan and Noah. In a 2007 interview with "Der Spiegel", he stated that at home, he and his wife speak Polish to their children, who learn German in school. Klose relinquished Polish citizenship at age 18, opting to keep his German passport.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: In 1998, Klose's professional career began at age 20 with a switch to the reserves at former Bundesliga outfit FC Homburg. Twelve months later, he moved to 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He played for the second team and made his first appearance in the Bundesliga in April 2000. He scored 16 goals in the 2001–02 season and was shy of only two goals to become the top scorer.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: In March 2004, Klose signed a four-year contract with Werder Bremen for a €5 million ($6.2 million) transfer fee. He made his league debut on 6 August 2004 as a substitute for Paraguayan striker Nelson Valdez in a 1–0 home win against Schalke 04. On 29 August 2004, Klose scored his first goal, an equaliser, but the Bremen team lost 2–1 at home against VfL Wolfsburg.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 7 June 2007, Klose confirmed that he would leave Werder Bremen for Bayern Munich either before the 2007–08 season or upon the expiration of his contract with the Bremen team at the end of the 2007–08 season.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 26 June 2007, Bayern Munich club president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed his team had reached an agreement with Werder Bremen regarding the transfer of Klose. Klose completed his medical with Bayern on 28 June 2007 before signing a four-year contract.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose won the first major honours of his club career at the end of his first season with Bayern, as they won the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal in 2007–08. In 2010, he won the 2010 DFL-Supercup, scoring a goal in the 81st minute.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 7 June 2011, with his contract about to expire, Klose did not reach an agreement with Bayern, thus leaving the club at the end of the 2010–11 season. He had scored one Bundesliga goal in 20 matches in his final season.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose signed a three-year contract with Italian Serie A club Lazio on 9 June 2011. He scored his first goal for Lazio in the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League play-offs and also assisted four other goals. Lazio won that match 6–0 and won the play-off 9–1 on aggregate against Rabotnički. On 9 September 2011, he made his Serie A debut in a 2–2 draw against Milan and scored a goal in the 12th minute, which was the first Serie A goal of the season. Despite having been at the club for only a few months, Lazio coach Edoardo Reja underlined his importance to the team. On 16 October 2011, Klose scored in the 93rd minute to win the Rome derby against Roma for Lazio, 2–1. However, the occasion was tainted by a small section of radical Lazio fans holding a sign adapted from a motto used by the Nazis. The sign read "Klose mit uns", which means "Klose with us". It was intended by those fans as praise for Klose; however, the Nazis used the motto "God with us" and the Lazio fans' sign featured the S's in the same font as the logo of Adolf Hitler's "Schutzstaffel" (SS). Klose had explicitly condemned the sign, saying, "[P]olitics should stay out of the stadium."


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 10 December 2011, Klose scored twice and assisted one for Lazio in an away game against Lecce, including an 87-minute goal that gave Lazio a 3–2 victory.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 2 September 2012, Klose scored his first Serie A goal of the season, scoring a brace in Lazio's 3–0 home win against Palermo. On 26 September, Klose accidentally scored a goal with his hand against Napoli for Lazio, unseen by the referee. However, Klose informed the referee and asked that the goal be discounted. The referee then reversed the decision and the goal was discounted.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 2 December, Klose scored his ninth goal of the season, securing a 2–1 victory over Parma, lifting Lazio into fourth place in Serie A. Two weeks later, on 15 December, he scored a late goal to send his side to a 1–0 victory over second-placed Internazionale, reducing the gap between the two sides in the league table to one point. On 5 May 2013, he scored five goals against Bologna before being substituted for Louis Saha in the 68th minute. It was the first time since the 1984–85 season that a player scored five goals in the same game in Serie A.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 26 May, Klose won the Coppa Italia, beating Lazio's city rivals Roma 1–0. It was the sixth time in Lazio's history and the first time in the history of the tournament there was a Lazio–Roma derby in the final.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose started the season by playing in the 2013 Supercoppa Italiana against Juventus, which ended in a 4–0 loss at the Stadio Olimpico. Klose started the league season by playing 83 minutes in the team's opening league match of the season, a 2–1 home win against Udinese. He scored his first goal of the season on 31 August in a 4–1 away defeat to Juventus. He scored his second league goal of the season on 28 October during the 2–0 home victory against Cagliari.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose played his first match of the Serie A season against Milan, in which Lazio was defeated 3–1. He scored three goals and set up two other goals in the first half of the season in 16 appearances in Serie A. He also scored one goal and set up another for Lazio against Bassano in the only 2014–15 Coppa Italia match he played before the winter break. They went on to win the match 7–0. In the second half of the season, he scored 10 goals and set up 5 in 18 appearances, ending the season with 13 goals and 7 assists in Serie A, along with 3 goals and 2 assists in the Coppa Italia in 6 appearances.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 15 May, Klose scored his final goal for Lazio from a penalty on his final appearance for the club, the final matchday of the 2015–16 Serie A season. The game ended in a 4–2 home loss to Fiorentina. With his 64th goal for Lazio, he equalled Goran Pandev as the club's highest non-Italian goalscorer of all-time, and ended his Lazio career as the club's seventh-highest all-time goalscorer.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose's consistency as a goal-scorer in his first Bundesliga season at 1. FC Kaiserslautern earned him attention. In January 2001, then-head coach of the Poland national team, Jerzy Engel, travelled to Germany to persuade Klose to choose to represent Poland. This request was declined by Klose, who said, "I have a German passport, and if things are still running this way, I have a chance to play for Rudi Völler." Klose's hopes were justified, as he would soon score for Germany.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: In an interview given to "Przegląd Sportowy" on 9 June 2008, Klose stated the decision to play for Germany instead of Poland was not an easy one, and if Polish officials had been faster, he would be playing for Poland. Further, he added he does not regret the choice, as with Germany he has won medals in the World Cup tournaments.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose's international debut came on 24 March 2001 in a 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Albania; in the 73rd minute, Germany head coach Rudi Völler put him in as a substitute. Two minutes from time, he headed home the winner in a 2–1 victory for Germany, and celebrated with a front-flip. Four days later, in his second match, Klose helped Germany temporarily lead their qualification group, as he came on in the 67th minute and scored in the 3–2 win against Greece in the 82nd minute, making it two crucial goals in only 33 minutes on the pitch. Two hat-tricks against Israel and Austria in friendlies prior to the upcoming World Cup were enough to establish him in Germany's starting line-up for the tournament.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose came to international prominence at the 2002 World Cup in Korea–Japan with five headed goals for Germany, finishing as the joint second-highest goalscorer alongside Rivaldo. Klose also became the first player to score five headers in a FIFA World Cup, and he celebrated two of his goals with his trademark front-flip, earning him the nickname ""Salto"-Klose" (German: "Salto" = somersault). His goal tally included a hat-trick in Germany's 8–0 hammering of Saudi Arabia, as well as one goal each against the Republic of Ireland and Cameroon.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose participated in UEFA Euro 2004 and came on as a substitute in two matches, against Latvia and the Czech Republic, but was not completely fit, since he had just recovered from a knee injury. He was not able to score and Germany was eliminated after the first round.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: In the opening match of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Klose scored two close-range goals in a 4–2 win over Costa Rica, and added a similar brace in the final group game to defeat Ecuador 3–0 and make Germany the group winners.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose scored an 80th-minute headed equaliser against Argentina in the quarter-finals, and Germany won the resulting penalty shootout. With five goals, he finished as the top scorer of the tournament, taking home the FIFA World Cup Golden Boot.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: At Euro 2008, Klose started the opening group stage match against Poland and assisted Lukas Podolski's two goals in a 2–0 victory. He played the remaining two group games against Croatia and Austria with no goals of his own. He finally broke his duck during the knockout stages, scoring for Germany in the quarter-final and the semi-final against Portugal and Turkey respectively. In both matches, he scored Germany's second goal, and both games were won 3–2. However, Klose was unable to score during the final against Spain, which Germany lost 1–0.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose was selected in Germany's final 23-man squad for the third successive World Cup campaign. On 13 June, Klose scored the second goal against Australia in their opening group match, which ended in a 4–0 victory. This goal put him level in World Cup goals with his former national team coach, Jürgen Klinsmann. However, Klose was sent off in the 37th minute of Germany's match against Serbia for amassing his second yellow-card foul of the match, and did not play the match against Ghana because of his expulsion.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose opened the scoring in the round of 16 match against England on 27 June 2010 with his 12th World Cup goal, equalling Pelé for fourth on the all-time list, and also notching up his 50th international goal in his 99th international game, as Germany won the match 4–1.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose made his 100th international appearance in the quarter-final match against Argentina, becoming only the sixth German player to reach the landmark. He then scored the second and fourth goals against Argentina (Germany winning 4–0), pulling him level with Gerd Müller's all-time German World Cup goalscoring record.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: During the Euro 2012 qualifiers, Klose scored at least one goal in every single game he played, striking against all of Germany's opponents: Belgium, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Austria. Gaining only six caps during the qualification campaign, he scored nine goals and provided two assists, making him Europe's second-most-successful striker for this period behind Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who scored 12 times in 8 matches. At the end of the qualifying campaign, Klose had achieved 21 assists and 63 goals while playing for Germany, trailing Gerd Müller's German goalscoring record by five (albeit playing almost twice as many internationals compared to Müller).


title: Miroslav Klose

text: At the tournament, Klose came off the bench in all three of Germany's Group B games, but failed to score a goal. In the quarter-final game against Greece, Klose started the match and scored Germany's third goal in a 4–2 win. Klose again had to come off the bench in the semi-final against Italy, but failed to add to his goal tally as Germany were eliminated with a 2–1 loss.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Prior to the tournament, Klose said the 2014 World Cup would be his final one for Germany, stating he wanted one more shot at trying to win the World Cup and having done that, he was content. On 6 June 2014, in Germany's final friendly before the World Cup against Armenia, Klose scored his 69th international goal, thus breaking Gerd Müller's record of 68 goals and becoming Germany's record goalscorer.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Klose scored his record-equalling 15th World Cup goal to help Germany to a 2–2 draw against Ghana on 21 June 2014, after entering the game as a 69th minute substitute for Mario Götze (who had scored Germany's first goal) with his team trailing 2–1. This tied him with the Brazilian player Ronaldo. With this goal, Klose became the third player in history to score in four different World Cups. On 8 July, Klose scored a record 16th World Cup goal in the 23rd minute against Brazil in the semi-finals, his second goal of the 2014 World Cup. That goal gave Germany a 2–0 lead "en route" to a 7–1 win over Brazil, and Klose surpassed Ronaldo's previous record of 15 World Cup goals. Klose set another record by becoming the first player to appear in four consecutive World Cup semi-finals. Klose started in the World Cup final against Argentina and played until the 88th minute, when he was substituted for Mario Götze. Götze would score the 113th-minute goal which gave Germany a 1–0 victory over Argentina, earning Germany's fourth World Cup title overall and first as a reunited country. Klose announced his retirement from international football one month after the final.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 1 November 2016, Klose was hired to become part of the coaching staff of the German national team. Klose said, "I celebrated my greatest successes with the national team and it was a wonderful and unforgettable time. That's why I'm delighted to return to the DFB. In the past few months, I have thought a lot about continuing my playing career, but also about pursuing other avenues, namely becoming a coach."


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 11 May 2018, Bayern Munich named Klose as their coach for the U-17 team. Klose signed a two-year contract until the end of June 2020.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 7 May 2020, Klose signed a one-year contract to become the first-team assistant manager under Hansi Flick. He left Bayern Munich in May 2021.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: On 17 June 2022, it was announced that Klose would take over as head coach of Austrian Bundesliga club Rheindorf Altach.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: A prolific goalscorer, Klose was a large and powerful striker who was known in particular for his ability in the air as a centre-forward, due to his strength, timing, elevation and heading accuracy, as well as his finishing ability. In his prime, he was also a quick player who was known for his turn of pace, movement, and positional sense in the penalty area, which enabled him to lose his markers and get on the end of crosses. In addition to his physical attributes, he possessed good technique and hold-up play with his back to goal, and was capable of creating space for other players, or setting-up goals for teammates in addition to scoring them himself, due to his tactical intelligence and ability to interpret the game. He was also known for his dedication and correct behaviour on the pitch.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Earlier in his career, Klose was known for his acrobatic goalscoring celebrations, which included mid-air somersaults.


title: Miroslav Klose

text: Throughout his career, Klose often stood out for his fair play and honesty in addition to his skill and goalscoring as a footballer. On 30 April 2005, while playing for Werder Bremen, Klose refused to accept a penalty given against Arminia Bielefeld as he felt the decision was incorrect. He was later given a fair play award for his actions, although he had mixed feelings about the award, stating, "It's a big honour for me to receive this award, but I am also a bit irritated. For me, it was something you should always do. I would do it again – always."


title: Miroslav Klose

text: At the end of September 2012, Klose scored a goal using his hand for Lazio against Napoli. He admitted this to the referee, who took back his decision to award the goal, spared Klose from a yellow card and shook his hand. Later that year, he was once again given a fair play award for his actions by the German Football Association, later commenting, "The referee asked me if I had touched the ball with my hand and it was not a problem for me to answer 'yes'. There are many youngsters who watch football on TV and we are role models for them." In 2016, he was given the Sport Ethics Award for his honesty at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and subsequently added regarding the incident, "Napoli? For me it was easy, it's my character. We need to set an example, ... If I can even help out the referees, I will do so willingly."


title: WrestleMania 37

text: WrestleMania 37 was the 37th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place as a two-night event on April 10 and 11, 2021, at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Following the merger of the WWE Network under Peacock in the United States in March 2021, WrestleMania 37 became the first major WWE event for which U.S. subscribers could only livestream the event via Peacock. WWE Hall of Famers Hulk Hogan and Titus O'Neil served as the hosts of the event.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: The event was originally scheduled to take place on March 28, 2021, at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California; however, due to COVID-19 restrictions in California, WWE rescheduled and moved the event to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, which was the originally planned venue for WrestleMania 36 before the pandemic forced the event to be relocated and held behind closed doors at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida—in August 2020, Florida loosened its COVID-19 restrictions. As a result, the event marked the first time WWE had ticketed fans in attendance for an event during the COVID-19 pandemic, though to a limited capacity; the last WWE event to have ticketed fans was "NXT" on March 11, 2020, just before pandemic-related restrictions took effect. With the limited capacity, WWE claimed to have sold out of all available tickets and had an attendance of 25,675 spectators for each night, totaling 51,350 combined; however, this was disputed, with the actual number of tickets sold and the actual attendance number being around 20% lower than WWE's claimed numbers for both nights.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: The card comprised 14 matches that were evenly divided between the two nights and unlike previous years, there were no matches contested on either night's Kickoff pre-show. In the main event for Night 1, Bianca Belair defeated Sasha Banks to win the SmackDown Women's Championship. This was the first time two African Americans headlined WrestleMania, as well as the second time women headlined the event after WrestleMania 35. Other prominent matches saw singer Bad Bunny and Damian Priest defeat The Miz and John Morrison, and in the opening bout, which was a main match for Raw, Bobby Lashley defeated Drew McIntyre by technical submission to retain the WWE Championship. In the main event for Night 2, which was SmackDown's main match, Roman Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan and Edge in a triple threat match to retain the Universal Championship. In other prominent match, Rhea Ripley defeated Asuka to win the Raw Women's Championship. Natalya and Tamina became the first women at this event to ever compete in two separate matches at a single WrestleMania.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: This was the first WrestleMania since 2002 to not feature John Cena in any capacity; the first since 2012 to not feature Brock Lesnar; and the first since 1988 to not feature Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, or Triple H as in-ring competitors (though Triple H, in his capacity as a real-life executive for the company, appeared at the beginning of Night 1 to welcome fans back). It was also the first WrestleMania since 2010 to feature WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon onscreen, when he opened the event to welcome fans back to WrestleMania and to their first in-person WWE event in over a year.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: WrestleMania is considered WWE's flagship pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event, having first been held in 1985. It is the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". WrestleMania is ranked the sixth most valuable sports brand in the world by Forbes, and has been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. WrestleMania 37 featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions—unlike WrestleMania 36, it did not feature the NXT brand. "Save Your Tears" by The Weeknd, "Head Up High" by Fitz, and "All The Gold" by def rebel were the official theme songs for the event. WWE Hall of Famers Hulk Hogan and Titus O'Neil served as the hosts of WrestleMania 37.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: WrestleMania 37 was originally to be held in the city of Inglewood, California at SoFi Stadium on March 28, 2021, marketed as "WrestleMania Hollywood". It would have been the first since WrestleMania 21 to be held in Greater Los Angeles, and the seventh held in the state of California (after 2, VII, XII, 2000, 21, and 31). However, on January 16, WWE officially confirmed that WrestleMania 37 would be held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida—the originally planned venue for WrestleMania 36—as a two-night event on April 10 and 11, 2021. It was the fifth WrestleMania to be held in the state of Florida (after XXIV, XXVIII, 33, and 36). WrestleMania 37 adopted much of the pirate-themed marketing originally used for WrestleMania 36, including having a similar logo. It was also the first WWE event to have ticketed fans in attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tickets were originally to go on sale on March 16, but were delayed. Pre-sale tickets were then available on March 18 before tickets went on sale the following day. Individual tickets for each night, as well as two-night bundle packages, were made available, with a maximum capacity of 25,000 spectators for each night.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE suspended its touring arena shows in mid-March 2020, and moved its weekly broadcasts for the Raw and SmackDown brands, as well as pay-per-views, to their WWE Performance Center training facility in Orlando, Florida, with no outside spectators and only essential staff present. This included WrestleMania 36, which was the first pay-per-view to be affected by the pandemic. NXT continued to broadcast from Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, but with similar limitations. In late August, WWE moved its programming for Raw and SmackDown to Orlando's Amway Center in a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome to display a virtual audience on LED displays around the ring, but still without outside spectators. In October, NXT moved to the Performance Center in a similar setup dubbed the Capitol Wrestling Center (which includes a small live audience), while in December, the ThunderDome relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: In October 2020, it was reported by the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" that WWE was relocating WrestleMania 37 to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida as the state of the pandemic in California made it unlikely that the event could be held with in-person spectators on the originally scheduled date. By contrast, Florida officially removed capacity limits for sporting events in late August, but local sports organizations continued to voluntarily limit their capacity in accordance with CDC guidance. Rival promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) held tapings with spectators at Jacksonville's Daily's Place since late August 2020 at 15% of the venue's capacity. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL) began admitting fans to their games at Raymond James Stadium in October, with a maximum capacity of 25%, while Super Bowl LV was hosted by the stadium on February 7, 2021, with an official attendance of 24,835 spectators.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: On January 16, 2021, WWE announced that WrestleMania 37 would take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, and like WrestleMania 36, would be a two-night event, held on April 10 and 11, 2021. WWE also confirmed that SoFi Stadium would instead host WrestleMania 39 in 2023, as 2022's WrestleMania 38 was scheduled for AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Mayor of Tampa Jane Castor stated that the event would be "in true WWE fashion, the perfect comeback story and marks a clear indication that our beautiful city is poised to bounce back stronger than ever." Mayor of Inglewood James T. Butts Jr. welcomed WWE's decision to allow Tampa to "have their rightful WrestleMania moment". In an interview with "TMZ Sports" on January 19, WWE's Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon affirmed WWE's plan to have live fans in attendance at WrestleMania 37, stating that "hopefully, this will be the first opportunity for us to have our fans back in attendance". She also said that they would be watching how the NFL handled hosting the Super Bowl to learn logistically what does and does not work.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: In February, the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" reported that WWE were planning to cap attendance at 30,000 spectators for each night, but later reported that the promotion were hoping for 45,000, if it could be approved by the city of Tampa. On March 17, the "Tampa Bay Times" confirmed that the capacity for each night would be 25,000 spectators and that attendees would be separated by pods with physical distancing in place. They also confirmed that the stadium would administer temperature checks and wellness screenings, that masks would be required and they would have free masks available, and any transactions would be paperless.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: The pandemic also resulted in the absence of John Cena, who although had focused heavily on his acting career since 2016, he had wrestled or appeared at every WrestleMania since WrestleMania XIX in 2003. Cena had been reported to wrestle or at least appear at WrestleMania 37, but due to his filming schedule for the HBO Max series "Peacemaker", which was shooting in Canada, it made it logistically impossible for him to travel to Florida, as upon his return to Canada, he would have had to quarantine for two weeks, which would have shut down production on the series. Two other big names that were absent at the event were Brock Lesnar and Goldberg. Lesnar last appeared at WrestleMania 36 and his contract expired in August 2020, and while it was believed that WWE would try to negotiate a new deal for Lesnar, there were no plans for him to appear at WrestleMania 37 by February 2021. Goldberg, who still had one more match on his contract for the year, had been briefly discussed to wrestle at the event, but by February, he was ultimately left out of any plans.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: WrestleMania 37 was available on traditional pay-per-view. Additionally, on January 25, 2021, WWE announced that the streaming service Peacock would become the exclusive distributor of the WWE Network in the United States as part of a new agreement with NBCUniversal, which airs "Monday Night Raw" and "NXT" on the USA Network. On March 18, the WWE Network became a premium channel on Peacock, with premium subscribers to the service receiving access to the WWE Network at no additional cost. WrestleMania 37 was the first WrestleMania produced under this new agreement. After a brief transitional period, the standalone version of the WWE Network in the U.S. shut down on April 4, with future events only available via Peacock's WWE Network channel and traditional PPV. These changes did not impact the WWE Network outside of the U.S., which maintain the standalone service distributed by WWE and its existing partners. Following the event, WWE stated that WrestleMania 37 was Peacock's most-viewed live event to date, although they did not specify exact numbers.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: As part of the WrestleMania festivities during the week of the event, WWE held a number of events throughout the week. WrestleMania 37 Week began with the April 5 episode of "Raw". The 2021 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony then aired the following night on April 6. WWE's NXT brand held their major event, , on April 7 and 8, while a special episode of "NXT UK" called "Prelude" also aired midday on April 8. On April 9, the night before WrestleMania 37 Night 1, WWE aired a special "WrestleMania Edition" of "SmackDown". The episode featured the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, which was won by Jey Uso and was previously held at WrestleMania itself (with the exception of WrestleMania 36, in which the match was canceled due to concerns over the pandemic). The SmackDown Tag Team Championship was also defended on the episode in a fatal four-way match where Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode retained. Early on April 11, WWE Network premiered a new episode of Stone Cold Steve Austin's "Broken Skull Sessions" podcast, which featured AEW's Chris Jericho for the first time on WWE programming in nearly three years. The week was capped off by the "Raw" after WrestleMania on Monday April 12, and then finally, "NXT" began airing in its new Tuesday night slot.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: As is tradition at WrestleMania, celebrities from the entertainment field took part in the event in various capacities. Pop singer Bebe Rexha performed "America the Beautiful" prior to the show on Night 1, while country singer Ashland Craft did the same for Night 2. Two celebrities were directly involved in matches at the event. Rapper Bad Bunny wrestled in a tag team match, teaming with Damian Priest against The Miz and John Morrison on Night 1, while YouTube personality, actor, and boxer Logan Paul was the guest cornerman for Sami Zayn in his match against Kevin Owens on Night 2. Additionally, two musical artists performed the entrance themes for wrestlers' entrances live on Night 2. Singer Ash Costello from the rock band New Year's Day played Rhea Ripley's entrance theme, "Brutality," for Ripley's entrance for her Raw Women's Championship match against defending champion Asuka, while rapper Wale did the same for Big E and his entrance theme "Feel The Power" for his Intercontinental Championship defense against Apollo Crews.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: The event included fourteen matches that were evenly divided between the two nights. The matches resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, "Monday Night Raw" and "Friday Night SmackDown".


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Immediately following WrestleMania XXVII in April 2011, Edge, who at the time held the now-defunct World Heavyweight Championship, was forced to retire and relinquish his title due to a severe neck injury; Edge was then inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012. After nine years and two neck surgeries, Edge made his return as a surprise entrant at the 2020 Royal Rumble, making it to the final three. The following year, Edge declared his participation for the 2021 Royal Rumble, vowing to win the men's Royal Rumble match so he could go to WrestleMania 37 and become a world champion again, as he had never lost his world title. At the event on January 31, Edge entered the match at number one and went on to win as a Raw wrestler and earned himself a world championship match of his choice at WrestleMania 37. Over the next week, Edge appeared on "Raw", "NXT", and "SmackDown", confronting each brand's world champion, but stated he would wait until after Elimination Chamber to make his decision. After SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns retained his title against Daniel Bryan at the event, Edge appeared and performed a Spear on Reigns. He then pointed to the WrestleMania sign, indicating that Edge had chosen to challenge Reigns for the Universal Championship, which was later confirmed. This came after Reigns demanded Edge to choose him, and after Reigns attacked Edge with a Spear on the February 19 episode of "SmackDown". However, Bryan also pursued Reigns for another championship match, mocking Reigns for defending the title against him immediately after Bryan had won SmackDown's Elimination Chamber match. At Fastlane, Bryan faced Reigns for the championship once again, with Edge acting as the special guest enforcer; Reigns won the match after Edge attacked both men with a steel chair. On the March 26 episode of "SmackDown", WWE official Adam Pearce scheduled Reigns to defend the Universal Championship against Bryan and Edge in a triple threat match at WrestleMania.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: At the Royal Rumble, SmackDown's Bianca Belair won the women's Royal Rumble match to earn herself a women's world championship match of her choice at WrestleMania 37. Belair discussed facing the three brands' champions over the next few weeks, but had primarily gotten involved in segments with SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks. Although Banks complimented Belair, she claimed that Belair was not the best as she did not have the SmackDown Women's Championship, playing off Belair's "EST" gimmick. On the February 26 episode of "SmackDown", Belair decided that she would challenge Banks for the SmackDown Women's Championship at WrestleMania 37.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: At Elimination Chamber, Drew McIntyre won Raw's Elimination Chamber match to retain the WWE Championship. Following the match, however McIntyre was brutally attacked by Bobby Lashley, allowing The Miz to cash-in his Money in the Bank contract and win the title. As part of an agreement that Miz made with Lashley's Hurt Business manager MVP, Miz was scheduled to defend the championship against Lashley, who defeated Miz in a Lumberjack match to win the title on the March 1 episode of "Raw". On the March 15 episode, Lashley claimed that he destroyed McIntyre at Elimination Chamber and would do it again at WrestleMania 37, confirming that Lashley would defend the title against McIntyre at the event. McIntyre came out and congratulated Lashley on becoming champion, noting how they both had a long road to winning the WWE Championship—16 years for Lashley and 17 years for McIntyre. However, McIntyre mocked Lashley, as McIntyre first won the championship at WrestleMania 36 by defeating Brock Lesnar, whereas Lashley won the championship by making an underhanded deal and defeating Miz on an episode of "Raw". McIntyre then declared that he would win back the championship at WrestleMania. The following week, McIntyre defeated The Hurt Business' Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin in a handicap match, barring Alexander and Benjamin from ringside during the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Incensed at being left out of Raw's Elimination Chamber match, Braun Strowman took issue with WWE officials Shane McMahon and Adam Pearce. After a failed attempt to rectify things with Strowman, Shane then began to insult Strowman's intelligence. Strowman then challenged Shane to a match on the March 15 episode of "Raw". The match, however, never officially started and the two instead brawled with Shane calling Strowman stupid. This led to a match being scheduled between the two at Fastlane. This match also did not take place due to Shane injuring his knee while training; he selected Elias as his replacement to face Strowman, who defeated Elias. The following night on "Raw", Shane, along with Elias and Jaxson Ryker, continued to taunt Strowman, who came out and defeated Elias in a rematch. Following the match, Shane attacked Strowman with his crutch, revealing that Shane had feigned his injury. Shane then retreated, after which Strowman challenged Shane to a match at WrestleMania 37 and Shane accepted. The following week, Strowman chose a Steel Cage match as the stipulation.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: At the Royal Rumble, The Miz attempted to persuade rapper Bad Bunny, who had performed his song "Booker T" at the event, to a deal to become a WWE superstar under his tutelage; however, Bad Bunny rejected the offer. Later during the Royal Rumble match, as Miz made his entrance, he destroyed Bad Bunny's DJ equipment. An irate Bad Bunny came out and distracted Miz, allowing Damian Priest to eliminate him. The following night on "Raw", Bad Bunny was a guest on "Miz TV." Miz apologized for his actions and Bad Bunny accepted the apology but did not apologize for his own actions. Bad Bunny then stated that one of his dreams was to become a WWE wrestler, which Miz again claimed he could help him with, but was again rejected. Bad Bunny then stated the only reason he was there was for his friend Priest, who made his Raw debut and defeated Miz in a match. Over the next few weeks, Miz and his tag team partner John Morrison continued to constantly taunt Bad Bunny. On the March 23 episode of "Raw", Miz challenged Bad Bunny to a match at WrestleMania 37. Following Miz's match, Bad Bunny attacked Miz and accepted. However, after Miz and Morrison vandalized Bad Bunny's US$3 million Bugatti and attacked Bad Bunny on the April 5 episode, the stipulation of the match was changed as Priest and Bad Bunny challenged Miz and Morrison to a tag team match that Miz and Morrison accepted.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: At in December 2020, Randy Orton defeated "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt in a Firefly Inferno match. After the match, Orton doused The Fiend's lifeless body in gasoline and set him on fire. Following this incident, Alexa Bliss, who had aligned with The Fiend months earlier, began to haunt Orton on a weekly basis, including causing him to lose multiple matches. On the March 15 episode of "Raw", Bliss challenged Orton to an intergender match at Fastlane, and Orton accepted in the hopes of ridding Bliss from his life. At Fastlane, Bliss defeated Orton, thanks to the return of The Fiend, who appeared very grotesque with charred skin. The following night on "Raw", Orton attempted to summon The Fiend. Bliss appeared on the stage holding a jack-in-the-box signaling the return of The Fiend, after which the lights went out. When they returned, The Fiend was standing in the ring. Orton performed an RKO on The Fiend, after which Bliss walked to the ring to taunt Orton. The Fiend then rose to his feet and attacked Orton with a Sister Abigail. Bliss then pointed to the WrestleMania sign, signaling a challenge, which was later confirmed.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: After failing to defeat Big E for the Intercontinental Championship in January, Apollo Crews turned heel and began to embrace his royal Nigerian roots, including speaking with a Nigerian accent. On the February 19 episode of "SmackDown", after Crews' loss against Shinsuke Nakamura where Big E was on commentary, Crews attacked Nakamura after the match. Big E aided Nakamura, however Crews attacked Big E with the steel steps, taking him out of action for a couple of weeks. At Fastlane, Big E defeated Crews to retain the title once again, after which Crews viciously attacked Big E. On the March 26 episode of "SmackDown", Crews pinned Big E in a six-man tag team match. Another match between the two for the title was subsequently set for WrestleMania 37. The following week, Crews changed the stipulation of the match to a Nigerian Drum Fight.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Both nights included a one-hour pre-show. "WrestleMania 37 Kickoff – Night 1" previewed the matches for the first night's match card, while "WrestleMania 37 Kickoff – Night 2" did the same for the second night. Unlike the previous events, neither pre-show included any matches. Both pre-shows aired on Peacock/WWE Network, and on WWE's social media platforms. The pre-show panel included host Kayla Braxton — joined by Jerry Lawler, Booker T, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, and Peter Rosenberg, as well as guest Sonya Deville.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: The actual pay-per-view opened with WWE chairman and chief executive officer Vince McMahon welcoming the fans in attendance back to WrestleMania, and back to a WWE event in over a year. This was then followed by Bebe Rexha performing "America the Beautiful." Shortly after, the event was put on hold for over 30 minutes due to inclement weather, marking the first-ever weather delay in WrestleMania history. During this time, various wrestlers were interviewed about their respective matches. The event eventually resumed with hosts Hulk Hogan and Titus O'Neil coming out to hype up the crowd.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: In the first match, Bobby Lashley (accompanied by MVP) defended the WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre. In the closing moments, McIntyre performed three Future Shock DDTs on Lashley for a nearfall. As McIntyre attempted for the Claymore Kick, MVP distracted McIntyre and Lashley took advantage to counter McIntyre and apply the Hurt Lock. McIntyre was able to momentarily ease up the maneuver, however Lashley locked it in securely on McIntyre, who passed out, thus retaining the title by technical submission.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Next, a Tag Team Turmoil match was contested where the winners would face Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship on Night 2. The team of Lana and Naomi, and the team of Billie Kay and Carmella started the match. Kay and Carmella worked together, and eliminated Lana and Naomi with an assisted pinfall on Naomi. The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan and Ruby Riott) entered next. The Riott Squad quickly eliminated Kay and Carmella with a Gutbuster/Back Stomp combination on Kay. Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose entered next. Brooke and Rose were eliminated after Morgan pinned Brooke with an inside cradle. The final team to enter was Natalya and Tamina. In the end, Tamina performed a Superfly Splash on Riott to win the match thus securing the championship match on Night 2.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: After that, Cesaro faced Seth Rollins. As Rollins went for The Stomp, Cesaro countered with the Cesaro Swing and locked in The Sharpshooter, however Rollins countered. Cesaro performed a Neutralizer on Rollins for a nearfall. As Cesaro attempted another Neutralizer, Rollins countered into the Pedigree for a nearfall. As Rollins went for another Stomp, Cesaro caught Rollins in mid-air with an uppercut. Cesaro then spun Rollins with the UFO and the Cesaro Swing before performing a second Neutralizer on Rollins to win the match.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: In the fourth match, The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods), who were introduced by former stablemate Big E, defended the Raw Tag Team Championship against AJ Styles and Omos, which was Omos' in-ring debut after having served as Styles' bodyguard for several months. Early on in the match, Kingston and Woods neutralized Styles to prevent him from tagging in Omos. Styles eventually tagged in Omos, who dominated Kingston and Woods. In the end, Styles performed the Phenomenal Forearm on Woods, and Omos performed a Powerbomb on Kingston and pinned him with one foot to win the title. This win made Styles WWE's 32nd Triple Crown Champion and 22nd Grand Slam Champion, as well as the only wrestler to win the Grand Slam in both WWE and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (now known as Impact Wrestling).


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Next, Braun Strowman faced Shane McMahon in a Steel Cage match. Before Strowman could enter the cage, Elias and Jaxson Ryker attacked Strowman's leg with steel chairs. McMahon obtained the steel chair and constantly attacked Strowman with it as the match started. McMahon performed the Coast to Coast on Strowman for a nearfall. Elias and Ryker tried to interfere once again, however Strowman knocked them off the cage. McMahon obtained a toolbox and struck Strowman with it. As McMahon was climbing out of the cage, Strowman caught him, pulled apart a side of the cage, and pulled McMahon back inside the cage. Strowman then threw McMahon off the top of the cage. In the end, Strowman performed the Running Powerslam on McMahon to win the match.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: In the penultimate match, Bad Bunny and Damian Priest faced the Miz and John Morrison. The Miz dominated Bad Bunny to prevent him from tagging in Priest. Bad Bunny eventually tagged in Priest. Bad Bunny and Priest performed a Falcon Arrow on the Miz and Morrison simultaneously. Outside the ring, Bad Bunny performed a Crossbody on the Miz and Morrison. The Miz performed the Skull Crushing Finale on Priest only for Bad Bunny to break up the pin attempt. Outside the ring, Bad Bunny performed a Canadian Destroyer on Morrison. In the end, Bad Bunny and Priest performed an Electric Chair Drop/Crossbody combination on the Miz, and Bad Bunny pinned Miz to win the match.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: In the main event, Sasha Banks defended the SmackDown Women's Championship against Bianca Belair. This was also the first time two African-American wrestlers headlined a WrestleMania. During the match, Belair attempted a 450 Splash on Banks; however, Banks raised her knees to block the maneuver. As Banks applied the Bank Statement, Belair reached the ropes to void the submission. Belair eventually performed the 450 Splash on Banks for a nearfall. In the closing moments, Belair became more aggressive and whipped Banks with her ponytail before performing a Kiss of Death on Banks to win the title.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: The actual pay-per-view opened with Ashland Craft performing "America the Beautiful." Hosts Hulk Hogan and Titus O'Neil came out in pirate outfits to hype the crowd.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: The first match saw Randy Orton face The Fiend. Before the Fiend made his entrance, a short video clip was shown where the Fiend became healed and returned to his original unburnt Fiend attire, though with an altered top. Then, Alexa Bliss came out and turned the handle of a giant jack-in-the-box at ringside and the Fiend emerged from the box. The Fiend leapt off the box onto Orton and the match began. The Fiend applied the Mandible Claw twice on Orton, however Orton escaped both times. As the Fiend attempted a Sister Abigail, pyro erupted from the turnbuckles and Bliss, who was perched atop the jack-in-the-box, distracted the Fiend with black liquid oozing down her face. This allowed Orton to perform the RKO on the Fiend to win the match. After the match, the Fiend stared at Bliss. The lights then went out and when they illuminated, the Fiend and Bliss were gone.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Next, Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defended the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against Natalya and Tamina. Tamina performed a Samoan Drop on Baszler for a nearfall. Jax performed a Crossbody onto Natalya and Tamina, however she landed awkwardly on her knee. As Tamina attempted for the Superfly Splash, Jax moved out of the way. In the end, Natalya attempted to apply the Sharpshooter on Jax, unaware that Baszler was the legal partner. Baszler then applied the Kirifuda Clutch on Natalya, who passed out, to retain the title by technical submission.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: After that, Sami Zayn faced Kevin Owens with Logan Paul at ringside for Zayn. Owens immediately performed the Pop-Up Powerbomb on Zayn. Zayn performed a Brainbuster to Owens on the ring apron. Zayn performed the Blue Thunder Bomb on Owens for a nearfall. In the end, Owens performed a Fisherman's Suplex on Zayn off the second rope. Zayn performed the Helluva Kick on Owens, and as Zayn attempted another Helluva Kick, Owens countered and performed two Superkicks and a Stunner on Zayn to win the match. Following the match, Paul attempted to congratulate Owens on his victory which enraged Zayn. Zayn then got into an altercation with Paul, who then shoved him in the ring. Paul then raised Owens' hand in celebration, after which Owens performed a Stunner on Paul.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: In the fourth match, Riddle defended the United States Championship against Sheamus. In the end, as Riddle was performing a moonsault, Sheamus caught him in midair with a Brogue Kick, which busted Riddle's mouth open, allowing Sheamus to pin Riddle and win the title.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: A pre-taped advertisement then aired showing Triple H confronting Bad Bunny. Triple H thanked Bad Bunny and congratulated him on his performance during Night 1. He then stated it was time for Bad Bunny to return to his music career, thus announcing Bad Bunny's 2022 concert tour.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Next, Big E defended the Intercontinental Championship against Apollo Crews in the first-ever Nigerian Drum Fight, which was a No Holds Barred match with African drums surrounding the ring that could also be used as weapons. Big E and Crews immediately retrieved kendo sticks and attacked each other with them. In the end, as Crews attempted a Frog Splash, Big E moved out of the way, sending Crews through a table. Big E performed the Big Ending on Crews, only for a mysterious large man (formerly known as Dabba Kato) to emerge from through the crowd and perform a Chokeslam on Big E, allowing Crews to pin him and win the title.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: In the penultimate match, Asuka defended the Raw Women's Championship against Rhea Ripley. In the end, Asuka performed a DDT on Ripley off the apron to the ringside floor. In the ring, Asuka applied the Asuka Lock on Ripley, however Ripley was able to escape. Ripley performed the Riptide on Asuka to win the title.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Hosts Hulk Hogan and Titus O'Neil then came out to thank the fans. They were interrupted by Bayley, who claimed that she was tired of being disrespected by the legends. Recent WWE Hall of Fame inductees The Bella Twins (Brie Bella and Nikki Bella) then came out, attacked Bayley and sent her rolling down the ramp.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: In the main event, Roman Reigns (accompanied by Paul Heyman and Jey Uso) defended the Universal Championship against Edge and Daniel Bryan. During the match, Jey interfered and attacked both Edge and Bryan with superkicks. Edge then performed the Edgecution on Jey onto the steel steps, taking Jey out for the majority of the match. Bryan performed a running knee on Edge. Edge locked Reigns in the crossface and Bryan simultaneously locked Reigns in the Yes! Lock. Both Edge and Bryan broke each other's submissions by headbutting each other. Edge performed a spear on Reigns, only for Bryan to pull the referee out of the ring. Edge obtained steel chairs and performed the Con-Chair-To on Bryan. In the closing moments, Jey returned and attacked Edge. After Edge performed a spear on Jey, Reigns intercepted Edge with his own Spear. Reigns then performed the Con-Chair-To on Edge and then laid Edge's body across Bryan's and pinned both at the same time to retain the title, as well as becoming the fifth and final heel to date to win the main event of Wrestlemania.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: After The Fiend's loss against Randy Orton at the event, various personalities like UFC's Daniel Cormier, John Cena Sr., Booker T, Erick Rowan, and Mark Madden showed support to Bray Wyatt and criticized his booking treatment in WWE.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter rated Cesaro vs. Rollins and Belair vs. Banks 4 stars, the highest rated matches on Night 1. The highest rated match of Night 2 was the main event triple threat match, which received 4.5 stars out of 5. Asuka vs. Ripley received 3.75 out of 5 stars, the US Title match received 4 stars out of 5, and the Intercontinental Title match was rated 3 out of 5 stars. Wyatt vs. Orton received criticism and a -1 star rating, making it the lowest rated match across both nights.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: According to WWE, the event accumulated a record 1.1 billion video views across their various video and social media channels, marking a 14% increase year-over-year. WWE content also garnered a record 115 million engagement on social media during the week of WrestleMania, a 102% increase. In addition, on-site merchandise sales were said to be the highest per capita in WWE history.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: During both nights of the event, WWE claimed that they had sold out of all available tickets, which were capped at 25,000 per night; however, the company claimed an attendance of 25,675 spectators for each night, totaling 51,350 combined. These numbers were disputed. According to records from the Tampa Sports Authority, which maintains Raymond James Stadium, the first night actually sold 20,172 tickets, while the second night sold 20,634 for an actual total of 40,806 tickets sold, both to fans and scalpers. The actual attendance was also lower than the number of tickets sold. For the first night, there were 17,946 spectators while the second night had 18,501, totaling an actual attendance of 36,447 spectators combined. In a conference call in February 2017, Vince McMahon admitted that the company inflates these numbers and includes the venue's personnel as well as WWE personnel in their claimed numbers. Despite the inflated numbers, the event grossed $6.2 million in revenue for WWE.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: After being hosted at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida since December 11, 2020, the WWE ThunderDome was relocated to the Yuengling Center in Tampa. The following night's "Raw" was the first broadcast of WWE programming produced from the ThunderDome at the Yuengling Center. This relocation was due to the start of the Tampa Bay Rays' 2021 season, as Tropicana Field is their home venue. WWE then returned to live touring in mid-July.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: On the following night's "Raw", MVP declared that no one could defeat Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship. Drew McIntyre then interrupted and wanted another opportunity at Lashley, promising to take out Lashley with a Claymore Kick as he was unable to do it at WrestleMania due to a distraction from MVP. Braun Strowman and Randy Orton then interrupted and stated their respective cases to challenge for the title; Orton's for defeating The Fiend, putting that rivalry behind him and allowing him to focus on pursuing the WWE Championship, and Strowman's for defeating Shane McMahon in a Steel Cage match. WWE official Adam Pearce came out and scheduled a triple threat match between McIntyre, Strowman, and Orton with the winner facing Lashley for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania Backlash, which McIntyre won. Strowman, however, defeated McIntyre on the April 26 episode, thus he was added to the championship match, making it a triple threat match.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Also on "Raw", new Raw Women's Champion Rhea Ripley defended the title against Asuka in a rematch. The match ended in a no-contest after interference from a returning Charlotte Flair, who attacked Asuka. Prior to the match, Flair, who was absent from TV for the past month, returned that night after missing her first WrestleMania; she first competed at WrestleMania 32 in April 2016 and had competed at the event every year since. On the May 3 episode, another rematch between Ripley and Asuka for the Raw Women's Championship was scheduled for WrestleMania Backlash. Additionally, WWE official Sonya Deville allowed Flair a chance to present a proposal. After hearing Flair's case, Deville added Flair to the championship match to make it a triple threat match.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: During a segment of "Alexa's Playground", Alexa Bliss explained her actions at WrestleMania 37. Bliss stated that, before meeting the Fiend, she had been lost, and that the Fiend had nurtured her and taught her everything he knew, however he then went away after Randy Orton burned him alive. After months of attempting to bring him back, she realized that she did not need him anymore. Bliss then introduced her new friend, a demonic looking doll named Lilly. Bray Wyatt's cheery normal-self also made his return in a "Firefly Fun House" segment. He stated it was good to be back with his true friends and he was looking forward to a new start. This would in turn be Wyatt's final appearance in WWE until he returned at the 2022 Extreme Rules event, as after being absent for the next few months, he was released from his contract on July 31.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: The Miz hosted a segment of "Miz TV" along with John Morrison, which also saw the return of Miz's wife Maryse to WWE programming, who last appeared in December 2019. Miz bragged and claimed that he turned Bad Bunny into a WWE superstar. Damian Priest interrupted and praised Bad Bunny and then challenged Miz and Morrison to a handicap match. Priest lost the match after Miz pinned him with a rollup and used the ropes as leverage while Maryse also assisted. This ultimately led to a match between Priest and Miz at WrestleMania Backlash.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Backstage, WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler were re-watching and laughing at Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose's entrance at WrestleMania 37 where Rose had slipped and fell. Jax and Baszler were confronted by Brooke and Rose. Jax handled the situation herself while Baszler departed, resulting in Rose slapping Jax and Brooke assisted Rose in shoving her to the ground. The two teams later competed in a non-title match. During the match, Jax slipped on the ring apron twice prompting Brooke and Rose to laugh at Jax. Brooke and Rose took a countout loss to not deal with Jax's anger.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: After new United States Champion Sheamus was absent on the "Raw" after WrestleMania, he appeared the following week. Sheamus declared that he was a fighting champion and he would issue an open challenge for the title every week, or whenever he felt like it. Humberto Carrillo then came out to answer the challenge, however Sheamus attacked Carillo before the match could start.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: After taking a vacation to celebrate their win, new Raw Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Omos made their first post-WrestleMania appearance on the May 3 episode of "Raw". The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) received a rematch for the championship that night. Styles and Omos defeated The New Day to retain the title.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: On the following "SmackDown", Universal Champion Roman Reigns, along with Paul Heyman and Jey Uso, boasted about retaining his championship over Edge and Daniel Bryan. Reigns was then interrupted by Cesaro, who had a stare down with Reigns, and glanced at the Universal Championship. However, before Cesaro could speak, Reigns, Jey, and Heyman left the ring and departed backstage. Later backstage, Cesaro confronted Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville about facing Reigns that night, even as a non-title match. However, instead of Reigns, Cesaro faced Jey in the main event, which ended by disqualification when Seth Rollins interfered and attacked Cesaro, proclaiming that their rivalry was not over. The following week, instead of giving Cesaro a title match, Reigns gave Bryan one final opportunity at the title with the added stipulation that if Bryan lost, he would leave the SmackDown brand. Bryan agreed and the match occurred on the April 30 episode where Reigns retained, Bryan left WWE shortly after the match. After being absent since WrestleMania 37, Edge made his return to "SmackDown" on the June 25 episode and attacked Reigns and Jimmy Uso, who had since returned from injury. Edge was then granted a rematch for the Universal Championship at Money in the Bank, this time as a one-on-one match that he was originally supposed to have at WrestleMania; however, Reigns retained.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: On the May 7 episode of "SmackDown", Cesaro faced and defeated Seth Rollins in a rematch to earn a Universal Championship match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania Backlash. Cesaro was unsuccessful in winning the title, and was attacked by Rollins after the match. They had another rematch at Hell in a Cell that Rollins won. The two had one further match on the July 9 episode of "SmackDown" where Rollins again defeated Cesaro, which was also a qualifying match for the men's Money in the Bank ladder match.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Also on the following episode of "SmackDown", The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford, the latter of whom is Bianca Belair's real-life husband) threw Belair a victory party for winning the SmackDown Women's Championship. During the party, Belair thanked Sasha Banks for making history at the event. Backstage, a furious Banks was interviewed only to storm off the set. Later, Bayley declared that she would be Belair's next challenger, which was scheduled for WrestleMania Backlash. After her brief appearance on the "SmackDown" after WrestleMania 37, Sasha Banks took time off but made her return during the July 30 episode, saving Belair from an attack by Carmella and Zelina Vega, who each wanted to challenge Belair for the title. Banks and Belair then teamed up and defeated Carmella and Vega, but after the match, Banks turned on and attacked Belair. A rematch between Banks and Belair for the title was scheduled for SummerSlam.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: Sami Zayn claimed that he lost to Kevin Owens at WrestleMania because he was distracted wondering if Logan Paul was okay. Zayn then called out Owens for a rematch, which was accepted by Owens, who defeated Zayn by count-out after Zayn retreated from the ring. Following the match, Owens chased Zayn and brought him back to the ring, after which Owens performed a Stunner on Zayn. After several weeks of Zayn being a hindrance to Owens, the two had another rematch at Hell in a Cell where Zayn won. The two had one further match on the July 2 episode of "SmackDown", where Owens defeated Zayn in a Last Man Standing match, which was also a qualifying match for the men's Money in the Bank ladder match.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: New Intercontinental Champion Apollo Crews boasted about winning the championship. He introduced his new ally, Commander Azeez, who helped him win the title. Crews stated that Azeez was a former member of the Nigerian Elite Army and he would have given Big E a rematch for the title that night, however Big E was absent. Big E received a rematch against Crews for the title on the April 30 episode only for the match to end via disqualification after Azeez interfered and attacked Big E.


title: WrestleMania 37

text: After Natalya and Tamina failed to defeat WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, Natalya faced Baszler on "SmackDown" where Natalya was victorious. After the match, Jax attempted to attack Natalya, only for Tamina to attack Jax. On the April 30 episode, Natalya and Tamina defeated Jax and Baszler in a non-title match. This win earned Natalya and Tamina another title match, which occurred the following week where they defeated Jax and Baszler to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.


title: Mule

text: The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two possible first-generation hybrids between them, the mule is easier to obtain and more common than the hinny, which is the offspring of a female donkey (a jenny) and a male horse (a stallion).


title: Mule

text: Mules vary widely in size, and may be of any color. They are more patient, hardier and longer-lived than horses, and are perceived as less obstinate and more intelligent than donkeys.


title: Mule

text: A female mule that has oestrus cycles, and which could thus in theory carry a foetus, is called a "molly" or "Molly mule", though the term is sometimes used to refer to female mules in general. A male mule is properly called a "horse mule", though often called a "john mule", which is the correct term for a gelded mule. A young male mule is called a "mule colt", and a young female is called a "mule filly".


title: Mule

text: Breeding of mules became possible only when the range of the domestic horse, which originated in Central Asia in about , extended into that of the domestic ass, which originated in north-eastern Africa. This overlap probably occurred in Anatolia and Mesopotamia in Western Asia, and mules were bred there before .