title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Home's attention was mainly concentrated on the Cold War, where his forcefully expressed anti-communist beliefs were tempered by a pragmatic approach to dealing with the Soviet Union. His first major problem in this sphere was in 1961 when on the orders of the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, the Berlin Wall was erected to stop East Germans escaping to West Germany via West Berlin. Home wrote to his American counterpart, Dean Rusk, "The prevention of East Berliners getting into West Berlin has never been a "casus belli" for us. We are concerned with Western access to Berlin and that is what we must maintain." The governments of West Germany, Britain and the US quickly reached agreement on their joint negotiating position; it remained to persuade President de Gaulle of France to align himself with the allies. During their discussions Macmillan commented that de Gaulle showed "all the rigidity of a poker without its occasional warmth." An agreement was reached, and the allies tacitly recognised that the wall was going to remain in place. The Soviets for their part did not seek to cut off allied access to West Berlin through East German territory.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: The following year the Cuban Missile Crisis threatened to turn the Cold War into a nuclear one. Soviet nuclear missiles were brought to Cuba, provocatively close to the US. The American president, John F Kennedy, insisted that they must be removed, and many thought that the world was on the brink of catastrophe with nuclear exchanges between the two super-powers. Despite a public image of unflappable calm, Macmillan was by nature nervous and highly strung. During the missile crisis, Home, whose calm was genuine and innate, strengthened the Prime Minister's resolve, and encouraged him to back up Kennedy's defiance of Soviet threats of nuclear attack. The Lord Chancellor (Lord Dilhorne), the Attorney General (Sir John Hobson) and the Solicitor General, (Sir Peter Rawlinson) privately gave Home their opinion that the American blockade of Cuba was a breach of international law, but he continued to advocate a policy of strong support for Kennedy. When Khrushchev backed down and removed the Soviet missiles from Cuba, Home commented:


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: The principal landmark of Home's term as Foreign Secretary was also in the sphere of east–west relations: the negotiation and signature of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963. He got on well with his American and Soviet counterparts, Rusk and Andrei Gromyko. The latter wrote that whenever he met Home there were "no sudden, still less brilliant, breakthroughs" but "each meeting left a civilised impression that made the next meeting easier." Gromyko concluded that Home added sharpness to British foreign policy. Gromyko, Home and Rusk signed the treaty in Moscow on 5 August 1963. After the fear provoked internationally by the Cuban Missile Crisis, the ban on nuclear testing in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water was widely welcomed as a step towards ending the cold war. For the British government the good news from Moscow was doubly welcome for drawing attention away from the Profumo affair, a sexual scandal involving a senior minister, which had left Macmillan's administration looking vulnerable.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: In October 1963, just before the Conservative party's annual conference, Macmillan was taken ill with a prostatic obstruction. The condition was at first thought more serious than it turned out to be, and he announced that he would resign as Prime Minister as soon as a successor was appointed. Three senior politicians were considered likely successors, Butler (First Secretary of State), Reginald Maudling (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Lord Hailsham (Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords). "The Times" summed up their support:


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: In the same article, Home was mentioned in passing as "a fourth hypothetical candidate" on whom the party could compromise if necessary.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: It was assumed in the "Times" article, and by other commentators, that if Hailsham (or Home) was a candidate he would have to renounce his peerage. This had been made possible for the first time by recent legislation. The last British Prime Minister to sit in the House of Lords was the third Marquess of Salisbury in 1902. By 1923, having to choose between Baldwin and Lord Curzon, George V decided that "the requirements of the present times" obliged him to appoint a Prime Minister from the Commons. His private secretary recorded that the King "believed he would not be fulfilling his trust were he now to make his selection of Prime Minister from the House of Lords". Similarly, after the resignation of Neville Chamberlain in 1940 there were two likely successors, Churchill and Halifax, but the latter ruled himself out for the premiership on the grounds that his membership of the House of Lords disqualified him. In 1963, therefore, it was well established that the Prime Minister should be a member of the House of Commons. On 10 October Hailsham announced his intention to renounce his viscountcy.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: The "customary processes" once again took place. The usual privacy of the consultations was made impossible because they took place during the party conference, and the potential successors made their bids very publicly. Butler had the advantage of giving the party leader's keynote address to the conference in Macmillan's absence, but was widely thought to have wasted the opportunity by delivering an uninspiring speech. Hailsham put off many potential backers by his extrovert, and some thought vulgar, campaigning. Maudling, like Butler, made a speech that failed to impress the conference. Senior Conservative figures such as Lord Woolton and Selwyn Lloyd urged Home to make himself available for consideration.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Having ruled himself out of the race when the news of Macmillan's illness broke, Home angered at least two of his cabinet colleagues by changing his mind. Macmillan quickly came to the view that Home would be the best choice as his successor, and gave him valuable behind-the-scenes backing. He let it be known that if he recovered he would be willing to serve as a member of a Home cabinet. He had earlier favoured Hailsham, but changed his mind when he learned from Lord Harlech, the British ambassador to the US, that the Kennedy administration was uneasy at the prospect of Hailsham as Prime Minister, and from his chief whip that Hailsham, seen as a right-winger, would alienate moderate voters.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Butler, by contrast, was seen as on the liberal wing of the Conservatives, and his election as leader might split the party. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Dilhorne, conducted a poll of cabinet members, and reported to Macmillan that taking account of first and second preferences there were ten votes for Home, four for Maudling, three for Butler and two for Hailsham.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: The appointment of a Prime Minister remained part of the royal prerogative, on which the monarch had no constitutional duty to consult an outgoing Prime Minister. Nevertheless, Macmillan advised the Queen that he considered Home the right choice. Little of this was known beyond the senior ranks of the party and the royal secretariat. On 18 October "The Times" ran the headline, "The Queen May Send for Mr. Butler Today". "The Daily Telegraph" and "The Financial Times" also predicted that Butler was about to be appointed. The Queen sent for Home the same day. Aware of the divisions within the governing party, she did not appoint him Prime Minister, but invited him to see whether he was able to form a government.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Home's cabinet colleagues Enoch Powell and Iain Macleod, who disapproved of his candidacy, made a last-minute effort to prevent him from taking office by trying to persuade Butler and the other candidates not to take posts in a Home cabinet. Butler, however, believed it to be his duty to serve in the cabinet; he refused to have any part in the conspiracy, and accepted the post of Foreign Secretary. The other candidates followed Butler's lead and only Powell and Macleod held out and refused office under Home. Macleod commented, "One does not expect to have many people with one in the last ditch". On 19 October Home was able to return to Buckingham Palace to kiss hands as Prime Minister. The press was not only wrong-footed by the appointment, but generally highly critical. The pro-Labour "Daily Mirror" said on its front page:


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: "The Times", generally pro-Conservative, had backed Butler, and called it "prodigal" of the party to pass over his many talents. The paper praised Home as "an outstandingly successful Foreign Secretary", but doubted his grasp of domestic affairs, his modernising instincts and his suitability "to carry the Conservative Party through a fierce and probably dirty campaign" at the general election due within a year. "The Guardian", liberal in its political outlook, remarked that Home "does not look like the man to impart force and purpose to his Cabinet and the country" and suggested that he seemed too frail politically to be even a stop-gap. "The Observer", another liberal-minded paper, said, "The overwhelming – and damaging – impression left by the events of the last two weeks is that the Tories have been forced to settle for a second-best. ... The calmness and steadiness which made him a good Foreign Secretary, particularly at times of crisis like Berlin and Cuba, may also be a liability."


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: In January 1964, and in the absence of any other information, Macleod now editor of "The Spectator", used the pretext of a review of a book by Randolph Churchill to publicise his own different and very detailed version of the leadership election. He described the "soundings" of five Tory grandees, four of whom, like Home and Macmillan had been to school at Eton, as a stitch up by an Etonian 'magic circle.' The article received wide publicity convincing Anthony Howard, who later declared himself "deeply affronted ...and never more affronted than when Alec Douglas-Home became leader of the Conservative Party."


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: On 23 October 1963, four days after becoming Prime Minister, Home disclaimed his earldom and associated lesser peerages. Having been made a Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT) in 1962, he was known after stepping down from the Lords as Sir Alec Douglas-Home. The safe Unionist seat of Kinross and West Perthshire was vacant, and Douglas-Home was adopted as his party's candidate. Parliament was due to meet on 24 October after the summer recess, but its return was postponed until 12 November pending the by-election. For twenty days Douglas-Home was Prime Minister while a member of neither house of Parliament, a situation without modern precedent. He won the by-election with a majority of 9,328; the Liberal candidate was in second place and Labour in third.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: The Parliamentary leader of the opposition Labour party, Harold Wilson, attacked the new prime minister as "an elegant anachronism". He asserted that nobody from Douglas-Home's background knew of the problems of ordinary families. In particular, Wilson demanded to know how "a scion of an effete establishment" could lead the technological revolution that Wilson held to be necessary: "This is the counter-revolution ... After half a century of democratic advance, of social revolution, the whole process has ground to a halt with a fourteenth earl!" Douglas-Home dismissed this as inverted snobbery, and observed, "I suppose Mr Wilson, when you come to think of it, is the fourteenth Mr Wilson." He called Wilson "this slick salesman of synthetic science" and the Labour party "the only relic of class consciousness in the country". The opposition retreated, with a statement in the press that "The Labour Party is not interested in the fact that the new prime minister inherited a fourteenth Earldom – he cannot help his antecedents any more than the rest of us."


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Douglas-Home inherited from Macmillan a government widely perceived as in decline; Hurd wrote that it was "becalmed in a sea of satire and scandal." Douglas-Home was the target of satirists on BBC television and in "Private Eye" magazine. "Private Eye" persistently referred to him as "Baillie Vass", in allusion to a Scottish bailie. Unlike Wilson, Douglas-Home was not at ease on television, and came across as less spontaneous than his opponent.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: In international affairs, the most dramatic event during Douglas-Home's premiership was the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which happened about a month after the start of his tenure. Douglas-Home broadcast a tribute on television. He had liked and worked well with Kennedy, and did not develop such a satisfactory relationship with Lyndon Johnson. Their governments had a serious disagreement on the question of British trade with Cuba. Under Douglas-Home the colonies of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland gained independence, though this was as a result of negotiations led by Macleod under the Macmillan government.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: In Britain there was economic prosperity; exports "zoomed", according to "The Times", and the economy was growing at an annual rate of four per cent. Douglas-Home made no pretence to economic expertise; he commented that his problems were of two sorts: "The political ones are insoluble and the economic ones are incomprehensible." On another occasion he said, "When I have to read economic documents I have to have a box of matches and start moving them into position to simplify and illustrate the points to myself." He left Maudling in charge at the Treasury, and promoted Heath to a new business and economic portfolio. The latter took the lead in the one substantial piece of domestic legislation of Douglas-Home's premiership, the abolition of resale price maintenance.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: The Resale Prices Bill was introduced to deny manufacturers and suppliers the power to stipulate the prices at which their goods must be sold by the retailer. At the time, up to forty per cent of goods sold in Britain were subject to such price fixing, to the detriment of competition and to the disadvantage of the consumer. Douglas-Home, less instinctively liberal on economic matters than Heath, would probably not have sponsored such a proposal unprompted, but he gave Heath his backing, in the face of opposition from some cabinet colleagues, including Butler, Hailsham and Lloyd, and a substantial number of Conservative backbenchers. They believed the change would benefit supermarkets and other large retailers at the expense of proprietors of small shops. The government was forced to make concessions to avoid defeat. Retail price maintenance would continue to be legal for some goods; these included books, on which it remained in force until market forces led to its abandonment in 1995. Manufacturers and suppliers would also be permitted to refuse to supply any retailer who sold their goods at less than cost price, as a loss leader. The bill had a difficult Parliamentary passage during which the Labour party generally abstained, leaving the Conservatives to vote for or against their own government. The bill received the royal assent in July 1964, but did not become operative until 1965, by which time Douglas-Home, Heath and their colleagues were out of office.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: A plot to kidnap Douglas-Home in April 1964 was foiled by the Prime Minister himself. Two left-wing students from the University of Aberdeen followed him to the house of John and Priscilla Buchan, where he was staying. He was alone at the time and answered the door, where the students told him that they planned to kidnap him. He responded, "I suppose you realise if you do, the Conservatives will win the election by 200 or 300." He gave his intending abductors some beer, and they abandoned their plot.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: The term of the Parliament elected in 1959 was due to expire in October 1964. Parliament was dissolved on 25 September and after three weeks of campaigning the 1964 United Kingdom general election took place on 15 October. Douglas-Home's speeches dealt with the future of the nuclear deterrent, while fears of Britain's relative decline in the world, reflected in chronic balance of payment problems, helped the Labour Party's case. The Conservatives under Douglas-Home did much better than widely predicted, but Labour under Wilson won with a narrow majority. Labour won 317 seats, the Conservatives 304 and the Liberals 9.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: As Leader of the Opposition, Douglas-Home persuaded Macleod and Powell to rejoin the Conservative front bench. Within weeks of the general election Butler retired from politics, accepting the post of Master of Trinity College, Cambridge together with a life peerage. Douglas-Home did not immediately allocate shadow portfolios to his colleagues, but in January 1965 he gave Maudling the foreign affairs brief and Heath became spokesman on Treasury and economic affairs. There was no immediate pressure for Douglas-Home to hand over the leadership to a member of the younger generation, but by early 1965 a new Conservative group called PEST (Pressure for Economic and Social Toryism) had discreetly begun to call for a change. Douglas-Home either did not know, or chose to ignore, the fact that Heath had made a donation to PEST. He decided that the time was coming for him to retire as leader, with Heath as his preferred successor.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Determined that the party should abandon the "customary processes of consultation", which had caused such rancour when he was appointed in 1963, Douglas-Home set up an orderly process of secret balloting by Conservative MPs for the election of his immediate and future successors as party leader. In the interests of impartiality the ballot was organised by the 1922 Committee, the backbench Conservative MPs. Douglas-Home announced his resignation as Conservative leader on 22 July 1965. Three candidates stood in the 1965 Conservative Party leadership election: Heath, Maudling and Powell. Heath won with 150 votes (one of them cast by Douglas-Home) to 133 for Maudling and 15 for Powell.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Douglas-Home accepted the foreign affairs portfolio in Heath's shadow cabinet. Many expected this to be a short-lived appointment, a prelude to Douglas-Home's retirement from politics. It came at a difficult time in British foreign relations: events in the self-governing colony of Rhodesia (formerly Southern Rhodesia), which had been drifting towards crisis for some years, finally erupted into open rebellion against British sovereignty. The predominantly white minority government there opposed an immediate transfer to black majority rule before the colony had achieved sovereign statehood, and in November 1965 it unilaterally declared independence. Douglas-Home won the approval of left-wing Labour MPs such as Wedgwood Benn for his unwavering opposition to the rebel government, and for ignoring those on the right wing of the Conservative party who sympathised with the rebels on racial grounds.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: In 1966 Douglas-Home became president of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which was then the governing body of English and world cricket. The presidency had generally been a largely ceremonial position, but Douglas-Home became embroiled in two controversies, one of them with international implications. This was the so-called "D'Oliveira affair", in which the inclusion of a non-white player in the England team to tour South Africa led to the cancellation of the tour by the apartheid regime in Pretoria. In his account of the affair, the political journalist Peter Oborne criticises Douglas-Home for his vacillating attitude towards South African Prime Minister John Vorster with whom, says Oborne, "he was no more robust than Chamberlain had been with Hitler thirty years earlier". Douglas-Home's advice to the MCC committee not to press the South Africans for advance assurances on D'Oliveira's acceptability, and his optimistic assurances that all would be well, became a matter of much criticism from a group of MCC members led by the Rev David Sheppard. The second controversy was not one of race but of social class. Brian Close was dropped as England captain in favour of Colin Cowdrey. Close was dropped after using delaying tactics when captaining Yorkshire in a county match, but the move was widely seen as biased towards cricketers from the old amateur tradition, which had officially ended in 1963.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Wilson's small majority after the 1964 general election had made the transaction of government business difficult, and in 1966 he called another election in which Labour gained a strong working majority of 96. Some older members of Heath's team, including Lloyd, retired from the front bench, making room for members of the next generation. Heath moved Maudling to the foreign affairs portfolio, and Douglas-Home took over Lloyd's responsibilities as spokesman on Commonwealth relations. Heath was widely seen as ineffective against Wilson, and as the 1970 general election approached there was concern within the party that he would lose, and that Powell would seek to replace him as leader. Maudling and the chief whip, William Whitelaw, believed that if Heath had to resign Douglas-Home would be the safest candidate to keep Powell out. Douglas-Home shared their view that Labour would win the 1970 election, and that Heath might then have to resign, but he declined to commit himself. To the surprise of almost everyone except Heath, the Conservatives won the election, with a majority of 31 seats.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Heath invited Douglas-Home to join the cabinet, taking charge of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. In earlier centuries it had not been exceptional for a former prime minister to serve in the cabinet of a successor, and even in the previous fifty years Arthur Balfour, Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald and Neville Chamberlain had done so. As of 2021, Douglas-Home is the last former premier to have served under a successor. Of Balfour's appointment to Asquith's cabinet in 1916, Lord Rosebery, who had been prime minister in 1894–95, said that having an ex-premier in the cabinet was "a fleeting and dangerous luxury". Thorpe writes that Heath's appointment of Douglas-Home "was not a luxury but an essential buttress to his administration".


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: The Wilson administration had merged the Colonial Office and the Commonwealth Relations Office in 1966 into the Commonwealth Office, which, two years later, was merged with the Foreign Office, to form the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Heath appointed Douglas-Home to head the department, with, once again, a second cabinet minister, this time Anthony Barber, principally responsible, as Heath had been in the 1960s, for negotiations on Britain's joining the EEC. This time, both ministers were in the Commons; Barber's cabinet post was officially Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Within weeks of the election Barber was moved from the FCO to the Treasury to take over as Chancellor from Iain Macleod, who died suddenly on 20 July. Though they had never enjoyed an easy relationship, Douglas-Home recognised his colleague's stature, and felt his loss politically as well as personally. Some commentators have maintained that Macleod's death and replacement by the less substantial figure of Barber fatally undermined the economic success of the Heath government.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Barber was replaced at the FCO by Geoffrey Rippon, who handled the day-to-day negotiations, under the direction of Heath. Douglas-Home, as before, concentrated on east–west and Commonwealth matters. He was in agreement with Heath's policy on the EEC, and did much to persuade doubters on the right wing of the Conservative party of the desirability of Britain's entry. Hurd writes:


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: In east–west relations, Douglas-Home continued his policy of keeping the Soviet Union at bay. In September 1971, after receiving no satisfactory results from negotiations with Gromyko about the flagrant activities of the KGB in Britain, he expelled 105 Soviet diplomats for spying. In addition to the furore arising from this, the Soviets felt that the British government's approach to negotiations on détente in Europe was over-cautious, even sceptical. Gromyko was nonetheless realistic enough to maintain a working relationship with the British government. Within days of the expulsions from London he and Douglas-Home met and discussed the Middle East and disarmament. In this sphere of foreign policy, Douglas-Home was widely judged a success.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: In negotiations on the future of Rhodesia Douglas-Home was less successful. He was instrumental in persuading the rebel leader, Ian Smith, to accept proposals for a transition to African majority rule. Douglas-Home set up an independent commission chaired by a senior British judge, Lord Pearce, to investigate how acceptable the proposals were to majority opinion in Rhodesia. After extensive fieldwork throughout Rhodesia, the commission reported, "We are satisfied on our evidence that the proposals are acceptable to the great majority of Europeans. We are equally satisfied ... that the majority of Africans rejected the proposals. In our opinion the people of Rhodesia as a whole do not regard the proposals as acceptable as a basis for independence." To Douglas-Home's disappointment there was no resolution, and Rhodesia remained a rebel regime long after he left office.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: At the February 1974 general election the Heath government was narrowly defeated. Douglas-Home, then aged 70, stepped down at the second election of that year, called in October by the minority Labour government in the hope of winning a working majority. He returned to the House of Lords at the end of 1974 when he accepted a life peerage, becoming known as "Baron Home of the Hirsel, of Coldstream in the County of Berwick".


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Between 1977 and 1989 Home was Governor of I Zingari, the nomadic cricket team. In retirement he published three books: "The Way The Wind Blows" (1976), described by Hurd as "a good-natured autobiography, with perhaps more anecdotes than insights", "Border Reflections" (1979), and his correspondence with his grandson Matthew Darby, "Letters to a Grandson" (1983). In the 1980s Home increasingly spent his time in Scotland, with his family. He was a keen fisherman and enjoyed shooting. Hurd writes that "there was no sudden moment when he abandoned politics", rather that "his interventions became fewer and fewer". His last speech in the House of Lords was in 1989, when he spoke against Hurd's proposals for prosecuting war criminals living in Britain: "After such a lapse of time justice might not be seen to be done. It would be dangerous to rely on memories of events that occurred so long ago. It was too late to reopen the issue." His withdrawal from public affairs became more marked after the death of his wife in 1990, after 54 years of marriage.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: In 1936 Douglas-Home married Elizabeth Alington; her father, Cyril Alington, had been Dunglass's headmaster at Eton, and was from 1933 Dean of Durham. The service was at Durham Cathedral, conducted by Alington together with William Temple, Archbishop of York and Hensley Henson, Bishop of Durham. In addition to the large number of aristocratic guests, the household and estate staffs of the Douglas-Home properties at Douglas Castle and the Hirsel were invited. There were four children of the marriage: Caroline, Meriel, Diana and David. The latter was Home's heir, who became the 15th Earl of Home in 1995.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Douglas-Home died at the Hirsel in October 1995 when he was 92, four months after the death of his parliamentary opponent Harold Wilson. Home was buried in Lennel churchyard, Coldstream.


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Home's premiership was short and not conspicuous for radical innovation. Hurd remarks, "He was not capable of Macmillan's flights of imagination", but he was an effective practical politician. At the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Foreign Office he played an important role in helping to manage Britain's transition from imperial power to European partner. Both Thorpe and Hurd quote a memo that Macmillan wrote in 1963, intended to help the Queen choose his successor:


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Douglas Hurd, once Home's private secretary, and many years later his successor (after seven intermediate holders of the post) as Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, wrote this personal comment: "The three most courteous men I knew in politics were Lord Home, King Hussein of Jordan, and President Nelson Mandela. All three had ease of birth, in the sense that they never needed to worry about who they themselves were and so had more time to concern themselves with the feelings of others."


title: Alec Douglas-Home

text: Although some in the Conservative party agreed with Wilson (and Jo Grimond, the Liberal leader) that the Conservatives would have won the 1964 election if Butler had been prime minister, "The Times" observed, "it should not be overlooked that in October 1963 Home took over a Government whose morale was shattered and whose standing in the opinion polls was abysmal. A year later Labour won the general election, with an overall majority of only four seats. That [Home] recovered so much ground in so short a time was in itself an achievement." Looking back across Home's career, "The Times" considered that his reputation rested not on his brief premiership, but on his two spells as Foreign Secretary: "He brought to the office ... his capacity for straight talking, for toughness towards the Soviet Union and for firmness (sometimes interpreted as a lack of sympathy) towards the countries of Africa and Asia. But he brought something else as well: an unusual degree of international respect."


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: Adrienne Eliza Bailon-Houghton (née Bailon () ; born October 24, 1983) is an American television personality, singer, and actress. She is a former member of the girl groups 3LW and The Cheetah Girls. From 2013 to 2022, Bailon was a co-host of the daytime talk show "The Real"; for which she has since won a Daytime Emmy Award.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: As an actress, Bailon appeared in "The Cheetah Girls" films, "Coach Carter" and "All You've Got". She has guest starred in numerous television series including "That's So Raven" (a role she reprises in the spin-off series "Raven's Home"), and "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody". In 2013, Bailon became the first Latina host of a daytime talk show in the US. She also competed in "The Masked Singer" in 2019 as the Flamingo, finishing in third place.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: Bailon was born to a Puerto Rican mother, Nilda Alicea and an Ecuadorian father, Freddie Bailón, on October 24, 1983. She grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Bailon has an older sister, Claudette. She attended PS 110-The Monitor in Brooklyn and the High School for Health Professions and Human Services, but did not pursue a career in the medical field because of her musical endeavors. Bailon commented "I really wanted to be an Obstetrician! I wanted to bring babies into the world..." Bailon was discovered by Latin pop singer Ricky Martin in October 1999 while she was performing in a church choir at Madison Square Garden. Martin asked for the four best singers in the group, and Bailon was one of the four elected by Martin to perform as back-up singers as part of his Livin' la Vida Loca Tour concert show later that night.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: Following the performance, Bailon became a member of the girl group 3LW. Bailon stated that she was spotted by a producer while on a field trip to Beth Israel, and was later offered a slot in the female trio. Bailon said "... coming from very humble beginnings in the projects of the Lower East Side and not having any "Hollywood" connections... It did not seem realistic. I sang in church, acted in all the church and school plays... So when the opportunity came to join a girl group I was ready!"


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: The group was signed to Epic Records. Kiely Williams and Naturi Naughton were the other two members of the group, and work on their debut album began in 1999. In 1999, the original line-up of 3LW formed. Their first single, "No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)", was released in the fall of 2000. "No More" was a chart success, and was followed by "Playas Gon' Play" in early 2001. The group's self-titled debut album, "3LW" was released on November 14, 2000. The album went on to be certified platinum by the RIAA, selling 1.3 million copies in the United States.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: In the summer of 2001, the group embarked on the MTV "Total Request Live" tour along with Destiny's Child, Dream, Nelly, Eve, and Jessica Simpson. In 2001, 3LW recorded a song with various artists including Michael Jackson, Usher, Beyoncé, Luther Vandross, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey in response to the 9/11 attacks called "What More Can I Give". In late 2001, they collaborated with Lil' Romeo and Nick Cannon for "Parents Just Don't Understand" on the "" soundtrack.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: 3LW spent the first half of 2002 in the studio, recording an album tentatively titled "Same Game, Different Rules". The album and its intended lead single "Uh Oh" were presented to the label, who felt it did not have enough urban radio appeal. The tracks from "Same Game, Different Rules" were leaked to the Internet in MP3 format, and Epic considered dropping the girls. A fan support campaign for 3LW, named "Never Let Go of 3LW" after their song "Never Let Go" spread to the radio, and the act was retained, despite the album loss. Recording a new set of tracks, the group returned in the summer of 2002 with the P. Diddy-produced single "I Do (Wanna Get Close To You)", featuring Loon. That same summer, the group performed a concert special on Nickelodeon titled "Live on Sunset". By August, the group was set to release its newest LP, "A Girl Can Mack", when member Naughton left the group for good after heated arguments. "A Girl Can Mack"s release date was pushed back a month,but sales were still disappointing debuting at No. 15 on the "Billboard" 200 with a disappointing 53,000 copies sold in the first week. Approaching the time that the group was ready to deliver their second album, Naturi Naughton announced that she was no longer a member of the group. Naughton alleged she had had a number of conflicts and arguments with Bailon, Williams, and their management, which led to a heated argument in August 2002 involving an altercation. Not long after, Naughton claimed she had been forced out of the group.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: Williams and Bailon continued as a duo while using the "3LW" name, causing the press to jokingly refer to them as "2LW". According to a cover story for the October 2002 issue of "Sister 2 Sister" magazine, Kiely & Adrienne said they received death threats and that they had to beef up security. The departure of Naturi greatly affected the group's popularity and album sales. After the second single released from the album, "Neva Get Enuf", underperformed, auditions were held across the country for a new third member. Jessica Benson made the cut and joined 3LW in early 2003. Without Benson, the group might have had to split due to "bankruptcy". Jessica's first performance was on "Live with Regis & Kelly", followed by a performance on "Soul Train". In fall 2003, 3LW departed from Epic, signing with Jermaine Dupri's So So Def label. The group then began working on their fourth studio album.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: While working on the album, both Bailon and Williams signed on to star in the Disney Channel film "The Cheetah Girls". They starred as two of four members of a female girl group named after the film, with Raven-Symoné and Sabrina Bryan portraying the final two members. The film was released in August 2003 and was a ratings success. "The Cheetah Girls" soundtrack debuted at No. 33 on the "Billboard" 200 and was later certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA. Bailon had a supporting role on Disney Channel's "That's So Raven" which she played Alana. In 2005, she starred in "Coach Carter" as Dominique, her first theatrically released film. Walt Disney Records soon created a real-life girl group, composed of Adrienne, Kiely, and Sabrina. Raven was offered a spot in the group but declined, opting to focus on her solo career and her television series "That's So Raven". The trio began working on their first studio album, later revealed to be a Christmas album. The album, titled "Cheetah-licious Christmas", was released that year, and they soon left Walt Disney and signed to Hollywood Records in 2006. Bailon then starred in the MTV film "All You've Got", along with R&B singer Ciara. It was released on DVD in May 2006 and premiered on MTV.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: The Cheetah Girls later returned to film the sequel "The Cheetah Girls 2". It premiered on August 25, 2006, and brought a total of 8.1 million viewers, becoming the highest-rated Disney Channel original movie and beating the premiere of the first of the "High School Musical" films. The soundtrack was released on August 15, 2006, debuted at No. 5 on the charts and was certified platinum by the end of the year. The Cheetah Girls began work on their second studio album in January 2006. "We'll be making a real album, not a soundtrack", Bailon said. The Cheetah Girls' second single from "The Cheetah Girls 2" soundtrack, "Strut", considered their most successful single, was their highest-peaking single to date, peaking at No. 53 on the Billboard charts. Bailon sung lead vocals and ad-libs. Their debut album "TCG" was released on September 25, 2007, and featured the single "Fuego", which charted on Hot Dance Club Play's chart and had its video played in heavy rotation on Disney Channel and MTV Tr3s.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: 3LW's fourth studio album was originally called "Phoenix Rising", but was renamed "Point of No Return". The lead-off single, "Feelin' You", was added on radio stations July 12, 2006. The album was supposed to be released later that year but was pushed back to a 2007 release because of Adrienne and Kiely's involvement with Disney's Cheetah Girls franchise, and eventually fell off the release schedule. The album delays were caused by image conflicts between both groups. As a result, the album was never released. In early 2007, Bailon stated in "Girls Life" magazine that 3LW was on hold because of the Cheetah Girls project. However, rumors were finally put to rest by Bailon in an interview with Jonathon Jackson in 2008 when Bailon confirmed that 3LW officially disbanded after they were removed from the So So Def roster. Bailon and Williams decided to then pursue the Cheetah Girls franchise full-time.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: In 2008, work on the third film in the Cheetah Girls franchise, titled "" was in works. According to Disney, the plot would involve the Cheetah Girls going to India to star in a Bollywood production. The film was shot in India. It premiered to over 6.2 million viewers, and reached 7 million viewers in its final half-hour. This still failed to meet the ratings of the first two and was the series' lowest-rated premiere. In the UK, its premiere night scored 412,000 on Disney Channel UK, making it No. 1 of the week, and received 182,000 on Disney Channel UK +1, also No. 1 on that channel for the week, totalling 594,000. Bailon recorded two solo songs for the film's , "What If" and "Stand Up".


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: In November 2008, Williams confirmed in an interview with "In Touch Weekly" that the group had officially disbanded to pursue solo careers in both acting and singing. Bailon and Bryan later confirmed the statement. As of 2012, the group is still disbanded, though all three members have stated they are "open" to working with one another again.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: Following the breakup of the Cheetah Girls, Bailon was signed to Island Def Jam Records and began working on her debut studio album. First confirmed in a radio interview in New York City, Bailon later confirmed the news on her official Twitter stating "For everyone who wasn't in [New York] – I officially announced I have signed a solo deal with Island Def Jam! So happy I'm finally able to tell you guys..." Bailon began working on her debut album shortly after signing with the label. Her first official musical release were the songs "Uncontrollable" and "Big Spender", both of which were featured on the "Confessions of a Shopaholic" film soundtrack, released in 2009. The soundtrack featured songs from numerous artists, including Lady Gaga and the Pussycat Dolls. Later that year, she was featured in the Ghostface Killah song "I'll Be That", featured on his eighth studio album "".


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: Starting in 2007, Bailon began dating Rob Kardashian, the brother of Kim Kardashian. While dating Rob, Bailon appeared in a total of eight episodes of the reality series "Keeping Up with the Kardashians", appearing as Rob's girlfriend. The show saw Bailon and Kardashian get tattoos with one another, among other aspects of their relationship. The couple officially split in 2009. On the breakup, Bailon stated "You know they say opposites attract. I’m a real New Yorker [...] Sometimes I think the things that matter to us were different." Though the reasoning was not announced at the time of the breakup, it was later revealed that Rob had cheated on Bailon during their relationship, which was the ultimate reason they broke up. At the end of 2008, Bailon appeared on MTV New Year's show from Times Square, in advance promotion of her upcoming afternoon hosting on the channel. In 2009, Bailon hosted the programming block "New Afternoons on MTV", relocating to New York City for the job. That same year, she co-hosted "MTV News Presents: Top 9 of '09", the year-end MTV New Year's programming live from inside and outside MTV Studios in Times Square. In 2012, Bailon announced that she was taking part in the reality show "", which would revolve around Bailon and friend Julissa Bermudez. Bailon said of the show's premise, "The show follows us wanting to take our careers to the next level, coming back to New York City, where we’re originally from [...] to take our careers to that next level." The show premiered on June 3, 2012 and has been a ratings success for Style Network. Bailon later appeared in the music video for Pitbull's "Give Me Everything".


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: On November 1, 2012, Bailon appeared as the co-host of "The Pepsi Pre-show Live" alongside Jesse Giddings and Jim Cantiello, a podcast that was sponsored by Pepsi, and broadcast through "The X Factor (U.S. TV series)" website one hour before every episode in the live rounds of the show. Also in 2012, Bailon separated from Island Def Jam due to creative differences. Bailon portrayed Katalina Santiago in the film, "The Coalition", which was released on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2013. Bailon starred in the ABC Family movie, "", on April 21, 2013. It featured Bailon singing the Madonna classic,"Like A Virgin" with Sara Paxton and Chelsea Kane. Other songs Bailon sang in the film include a song entitled "Everlasting Love", alongside Paxton, Kane, and Drew Seeley.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: She appeared in the film "I'm in Love with a Church Girl", which was released in October 2013. In 2014, Bailon became be the host of a competition show called "Nail'd It!" on Oxygen. The show was canceled after one season.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: From 2013 to 2022, Bailon served as one of the co-hosts of the syndicated daytime talk show "The Real" originally alongside Tamar Braxton, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, and Tamera Mowry, which premiered on July 15, 2013. Following a trial summer run during 2013 on the Fox Television Stations group, it was picked up to series the following year. Bailon became the first Latina host of a daytime talk show in the US. In 2018, Bailon and her co-hosts won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host for their work.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: In 2015, she made a cameo on the series "Being Mary Jane". On November 17, 2017, Bailon released her debut solo album "New Tradiciones", a Christmas album with both English and Spanish songs. "New Tradiciones" would quickly reach number 1 on the Latin charts. In November 2018, Bailon launched a jewelry line named XIXI.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: After lasting twelve episodes to the season finale and placing third in the competition, Bailon was revealed to be "Flamingo" in the second season of "The Masked Singer". She also owns a vegan handbag line named La Voûte.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: In 2022, she returns to the role of Alana on the fifth season of the "That's So Raven"'s sequel series "Raven's Home", where she is now Bayside High School's principal.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: On January 26, 2015, Bailon announced on "The Real" the reason why she had not released her debut solo album at that point. She stated that she was "scared to fail" and that she did not like the sound of her own voice because executives at Disney praised the fact that she sounded "so young". Bailon expressed that when she got her solo record deal at Def Jam, things didn't go the way she expected.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: Bailon is an Evangelical. When asked "Do you relate with "I'm in Love with a Church Girl" and not get involve with the sins and craziness that Hollywood is all about?", she replied, "I think I've definitely tried. No one is left without a sin. Everyone in their own different ways. Never judge one person's sins to be greater and lesser than your own. One thing I'm so grateful for was my foundation in faith. It kept me away from a lot of things like drugs that I never had an interest. I always had my faith in God. My relationship with God helped me to get along not to get caught up in those things.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: Bailon dated Rob Kardashian, from 2007 until 2009, after which it was revealed that they broke up because he cheated on her.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: On February 5, 2015, Bailon announced via Instagram and on an episode of "The Real", that she was engaged to her boyfriend of six years, music executive at Jay-Z's Roc Nation label, Lenny Santiago. In September 2015, the couple split and they called off their engagement.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: Bailon got engaged to musician Israel Houghton on August 12, 2016 in Paris after six months of dating. They were married in Paris on November 11, 2016. Bailon became the step-mother to Israel's four children from his first marriage.


title: Adrienne Bailon

text: On August 5, 2022, the couple welcomed their first child and son together, Ever James, who was born via surrogate.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: Injustice is a 2021 American adult animated superhero film based on the 2013 , developed by NetherRealm Studios and based on characters from DC Comics. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment, and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, it is the 43rd installment in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies (DCUAOM) line. The film is directed by Matt Peters from a story by Ernie Altbacker and stars Justin Hartley and Anson Mount as Superman and Batman, respectively. The film, set in a separate continuity from the main DC Universe, follows Superman’s descent into madness after being tricked by Joker into killing his pregnant wife Lois Lane and detonating a nuclear weapon that destroys Metropolis. As Superman transforms the Earth into a police state to enforce global peace, Batman forms an underground resistance to oppose Superman and his allies.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: The film was announced in May 2021, with Altbacker writing the script. The film adapts elements from both the "Injustice" video game and its (primarily the "Year One" arc), but tells an original narrative which diverges from the source materials. The film received generally mixed reviews from critics, who praised its animation and voice acting performances, but criticized its rushed plot and deviation from the source material.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: On Earth-22, Joker and Harley Quinn kill Jimmy Olsen, kidnap a pregnant Lois Lane, and steal a nuclear weapon, which they connect to a heart rate monitor surgically attached to Lois' heart. Upon hearing of Lois' capture, Batman calls in all Justice League members to find her. The Flash finds the Scarecrow dead in his lab and his supply of Fear Toxin missing, before being killed by a trap laid by Joker.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: Lois’s husband Superman eventually finds Joker and Harley hiding on a submarine, but is attacked by Doomsday upon confronting them, and proceeds to punch the monster into space. As the other heroes arrive and apprehend the Joker and Harley, Batman realizes that they have mixed the Fear Toxin with Kryptonite, and used it to make Superman hallucinate that he is fighting Doomsday; in reality, he has beaten Lois to death. Batman tries to warn Superman, but it is too late; Lois' heartbeat stops, causing the nuke to detonate, destroying Metropolis and killing 11 million people.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: Under Batman's interrogation, Joker reveals that he had grown tired of their losing battle and sought to try and corrupt Superman instead. Moments later, Superman crashes the interrogation. Acting out of grief and rage at the loss of his wife, unborn child and his city, Superman brutally kills Joker.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: While Green Arrow takes Harley to his hideout to protect her from Superman's wrath, Superman reveals his identity before the United Nations and announces his intentions to bring peace to Earth, by force if necessary. The Justice League is left divided over Superman's actions; some members, such as Wonder Woman, support his new methods, while others, like Batman, keep their no-killing vow. Other heroes, such as Aquaman and Shazam, refuse to choose sides and leave the League.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: Meanwhile, the United States government becomes concerned that Superman will interfere in their operations, and have Mirror Master kidnap Jonathan Kent as leverage against him. Superman begins to question his actions, but Wonder Woman reassures him that he is doing the right thing and offers to help him find Jonathan. Confronting Mirror Master, Wonder Woman learns Jonathan's whereabouts and takes his belt, which Superman uses to find and rescue his father. Elsewhere, Batman confronts the President and warns him that Superman will kill him if he finds out that he ordered Jonathan's capture.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: Later, Superman visits Batman in the Batcave to make peace, but they get into an argument over their ideological views and Batman refuses to join Superman. While trying to stop Superman from relocating Arkham Asylum inmates to a more secure facility, Batman and Nightwing are shocked to discover that Robin has joined Superman. Harley, who has escaped from Green Arrow and decided to become a hero, releases the inmates, forcing Batman and Superman to temporarily put their differences aside to fight them. During the battle, Robin lashes out in anger and accidentally kills Nightwing. After learning about the incident from Superman, Catwoman comforts Batman. Meanwhile, Nightwing meets Rama Kushna in the afterlife, who transforms him into Deadwing.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: While Superman allies with Ra's al Ghul, Batman forms an underground resistance and makes plans to steal a red sun cannon from the Fortress of Solitude. During the break-in, Ra's kills the Atom and destroys the cannon, Superman overpowers Captain Atom, and Jonathan, whom Superman had been keeping safe at the Fortress, is accidentally killed by one of Green Arrow's arrows, causing a grief-stricken Superman to murder him in revenge. After Superman transforms the Earth into a police state using surveillance drones, Batman has Plastic Man break Mister Terrific out of prison and leaks video footage of Superman killing a group of partying teenagers inspired by Joker to ruin his public image.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: In response, Superman dispatches Amazo to enforce global peace, but the android quickly turns violent as Ra's had secretly programmed it to kill Superman. Amazo, who is able to replicate Superman's powers, kills Hawkman and Cyborg, but Batman and his allies arrive and help Superman and Wonder Woman destroy the android. Meanwhile, Robin, having had a change of heart, duels and defeats Ra's with Deadwing's help.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: Despite their aid, Superman prepares to have the insurgents arrested and incapacitates Wonder Woman after she turns on him, but is confronted by Superman from Earth-One, who was brought into this universe by Mr. Terrific. Earth-22 Superman defeats his counterpart as the latter was holding back, but surrenders after being met with Lois from Earth-9, who lost her Superman after becoming pregnant with his child, and she reminds Earth-22's that life is sacred. Realizing how far he has fallen, Superman willingly agrees to be imprisoned. Although unsure of what will happen next, Batman makes preparations to rebuild the world and his life with Catwoman.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: In June 2021, an animated film based on the 2013 video game "" was announced. The voice cast for the film was announced the following month on July 21.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: Unlike the games, which are Rated T from the ESRB, the film is Rated R for Bloody Violence, making it the first R-Rated movie based on a T-Rated video games series since "Tekken". The film was released on October 19, 2021 on Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD and in digital format. The DVD was exclusively released for Walmart stores. On October 9, the entire film was leaked online, ten days before its planned release date.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: The Blu-ray includes the featurette titled "Adventures in Storytelling: Injustice – Crisis and Conflict", where the filmmakers discuss the production and themes of the movie, in addition to both parts of the animated "Justice League" TV show's episode "Injustice for All".


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: "Injustice" received mixed reviews. Criticism was leveled at the unceremonious character deaths, poor character development, unfaithfulness to the source material and overstuffed plot. Some reviewers, however, praised the voice acting and animation.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: The film debuted at the third position on the "NPD Videoscan First Alert" weekly rankings for overall home media sales and Blu-ray sales in the United States. According to "The Numbers", it sold 43,317 Blu-ray units and 7,568 DVD units in its first week of release for a revenue of $1.16 million. It also ranked fifth on both Google Play and Vudu's VOD charts. In the United Kingdom, it debuted at the tenth rank on the Official Film Chart.


title: Injustice (2021 film)

text: In the second week of its release in the United States, "Injustice" fell to the fifth rank on the Blu-ray sales chart and eighth rank in overall disc sales. At the end of October, it ranked tenth in overall disc sales during the month. The film re-entered Google Play's top 10 films chart in its third week, ranking fifth, falling to the tenth rank in the following week.


title: Jollibee

text: Jollibee is a Filipino chain of fast food restaurants owned by Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC). As of December 2021, JFC had a total of about 1,500 Jollibee outlets worldwide, with restaurants in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, East Asia (Hong Kong, Macau), North America, and Europe (Spain, Italy, UK).


title: Jollibee

text: In 1975, Tony Tan Caktiong and his family opened a Magnolia ice cream parlor in Cubao, Quezon City. The outlet later began offering hot meals and sandwiches upon request from customers. When the food items became more popular than ice cream, the family decided to convert the ice cream parlor into a fast food restaurant, which became the first Jollibee outlet in 1978. Management consultant Manuel C. Lumba advised the family on the change in strategy. Jollibee was initially named "Jolibe", but changed its name to "Jollibee".


title: Jollibee

text: The company that would be managing the fast food chain, Jollibee Foods Corporation, was incorporated in January 1978. By the end of that year, there were seven branches in Metro Manila. The first franchised outlet of Jollibee opened in Santa Cruz, Manila in 1979.


title: Jollibee

text: Jollibee experienced rapid growth. It was able to withstand the entry of McDonald's in the Philippines in 1981 by focusing on the specific tastes of the Filipino market, which differed from the American fast food company. The first provincial Jollibee outlet opened in Barangay Dau of Mabalacat, Pampanga. The first Jollibee store overseas, in Taiwan, opened in 1986 but is now closed. Jollibee continued to expand and set up outlets both within the country and abroad. In 1995, Jollibee introduced the Burger Steak to its menu. In 2021 Jollibee announced that they plan to open 509 stores in the US and Canada.


title: Jollibee

text: Among the establishment's best sellers are the Yumburger, the house hamburger first introduced during their early days of operation; the Chickenjoy, a fried chicken meal introduced in the 1980s which comes in both regular and spicy versions; and Jolly Spaghetti, a Filipino sweet-style interpretation of spaghetti, which is being advertised as "the meatiest, cheesiest spaghetti". (The Jolly Spaghetti resembles that of Italian spaghetti, with its blanket of ragù, but under the ground beef are pieces of hot dog and ham.)


title: Jollibee

text: Outside the Philippines, key products such as its chicken, spaghetti, and burgers are sold overseas but also offers localized products in its international markets such as chili chicken in Vietnam and nasi lemak in Brunei. In the Philippines, Jollibee serves Coca-Cola products for its beverages; in overseas markets, the chain serves Pepsi products.


title: Jollibee

text: The Chickenjoy, a key product of Jollibee is a breaded crispy fried chicken meal. The meal can be ordered in a number of different options from their menu. Examples include in by itself, with rice and gravy, with fries, with buttered corn, or with spaghetti.


title: Jollibee

text: The Yumburger (also spelled as Yum Burger, or Yum!) is a hamburger sold by Jollibee and one of the fast food chain's signature products. The Yumburger was among the initial food items sold by Jollibee and was their first flagship product.


title: Jollibee

text: In 2017, a new edition called the Aloha Yumburger was introduced. The hamburger contains a beef patty topped with mayonnaise. The burger can be bought at different prices, depending on the size.


title: Jollibee

text: In 1998, the burger was introduced in the United States, which also garnered the attention of other countries such as Singapore, Italy, and Qatar. In 2017, the company re-launched the Aloha Yumburger, and in 2018 the Yumburger was introduced in Manhattan and London, with advertising focused on the double Yumburger. The burger was also introduced in Edmonton, Canada.


title: Jollibee

text: In 2017, an advertising video on YouTube about the Yumburger went viral in the Philippines. A 2019 Yumburger commercial about love on Father's Day later spawned some memes.


title: Jollibee

text: Merchandise depicting the Yumburger was released in 2018 as a collectible toy set with the Jolly Kiddie Meal.


title: Jollibee

text: In "The Daily Telegraph", Michael Deacon described the Yumburger as "a slim, floppy, somewhat damp hamburger slathered with a strangely sweet mayo" in his three-star review of a Jollibee location in London.


title: Jollibee

text: Jollibee is owned by the Jollibee Foods Corporation which is based in Pasig, Philippines. JFC has been open to franchising since 1979 with over 1000 Jollibee outlets being operated by franchisees. JFC also owns other fast food brands in the Philippines such as Chowking, Greenwich Pizza, Red Ribbon Bakeshop, Mang Inasal, and Burger King Philippines.


title: Jollibee

text: Jollibee started with five branches in 1978. The JFC has Jollibee branches outside the Philippines in locations in other countries in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, the Middle East, North America, and Italy.


title: Jollibee

text: As of May 2019, Jollibee operates over 1,300 stores, 1,150 of which are in the Philippines, its country of origin, and 234 are situated in foreign markets.


title: Jollibee

text: In North America, Jollibee has presence in Canada and the United States. The first Jollibee outlet in North America opened in the United States in Daly City, California on June 13, 1998. In 2016, Jollibee opened a restaurant on Ellice Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba, marking the company's first location in Canada.


title: Jollibee

text: Jollibee first entered Europe in 2018 with the opening of a branch in Milan, Italy. London, United Kingdom became the second location in Europe when it opened on October 20, 2018.


title: Jollibee

text: They also had branches in Taiwan, and Mainland China. The first branch in Taiwan, opened in 1986, was the first branch overseas. Jollibee launched its first branch in Dubai in 1995 but it was later closed. It returned to the Dubai market in mid-2015 and currently operates 16 franchises across the United Arab Emirates. Due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the chain was forced to withdraw its operation in Malaysia and Indonesia. After a 21-year absence, Jollibee returned its operation in Malaysia after the commencement of its Kota Kinabalu outlet in December 2018. In 2013, they opened their first branch in Singapore, and have since opened five branches.


title: Jollibee

text: With at least a branch in Guam, it also had a larger presence in Oceania. It had branches in the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands and in Papua New Guinea.


title: Jollibee

text: Outside the Philippines, Jollibee's primary customers are different per country or region. In the Middle East, Jollibee's primary market are the Overseas Filipino Workers while in Vietnam it is the local population. Vietnam has more than a hundred outlets in 2019, or majority of its outlets outside the Philippines.


title: Jollibee

text: Jollibee is a large anthropomorphic bee mascot dressed in a red blazer, shirt, and chef's hat, and was introduced in 1980. During the mascot's conception, Mickey Mouse of Disney was made as the benchmark for Jollibee's design. The mascot was designed to epitomize Filipino optimism. Tony Tan, chairman and founder has compared the mascot's character to the Filipino working folk reasoning that the bee "hops around and produces sweet things for life, and is happy even though it is busy".


title: Jollibee

text: Other mascots were also made for the Jollibee fast-food chain, some of them featured in "Jollitown", a children's show aired in the Philippines.


title: Jollibee

text: On April 13, 2008, a children's television program called "Jollitown" was launched. The timing was chosen to highlight Jollibee's 30th anniversary. Jollibee and his friends: Yum the scientist, Twirlie the star performer, Hetty the cheerleader and Popo the gym coach were the stars of the show, which aired Sundays, 9:30 a.m. or 8:00 on GMA Network. On July 17, 2011, "Jollitown" moved to ABS-CBN for its fourth and fifth season, airing Sundays at 9 am. On July 20, 2013, the show moved back to GMA Network for "The Jollitown Kids Show" or "Jollitown" Season 6 until it ended on October 12, having run for almost five years.


title: Jollibee

text: In November 2018, the 23 original Kwentong Jollibee videos on its YouTube channel reached a total of 64 million views. After nearly two years the total views had risen to 405 million, with 567 thousand subscribers, in July 2020.


title: Naughty Dog

text: Naughty Dog, LLC (formerly JAM Software, Inc.) is an American first-party video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin in 1984, the studio was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2001. Gavin and Rubin produced a sequence of progressively more successful games, including "Rings of Power" and "Way of the Warrior" in the early 1990s. The latter game prompted Universal Interactive Studios to sign the duo to a three-title contract and fund the expansion of the company.


title: Naughty Dog

text: After designer and producer Mark Cerny convinced Naughty Dog to create a character-based platform game that would use the 3D capabilities of the new systems, Naughty Dog created "Crash Bandicoot" for the PlayStation in 1996. Naughty Dog developed three "Crash Bandicoot" games over the next several years. After developing "Crash Team Racing", the company began working on "" for the PlayStation 2.


title: Naughty Dog

text: In 2004, Rubin, who had become the company's president, left the company to work on a new project, "Iron and the Maiden". In addition to their inhouse game team, Naughty Dog is also home to the ICE Team, one of PlayStation Studios's central technology groups. The company's first PlayStation 3 game, "", was released in 2007, followed by several sequels and spin-off titles. This lasted until Naughty Dog announced a new intellectual property for the PlayStation 3, "The Last of Us", which was in development by a secondary team at the studio and released to critical acclaim in 2013. A sequel, "The Last of Us Part II" for PlayStation 4, was released by Naughty Dog in 2020 to similar acclaim, though the narrative polarized critics and audiences.


title: Naughty Dog

text: Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin met as pre-teens in 1982 at a weekend Hebrew school in Virginia. After they discovered a mutual interest in computers and video games, they began regularly discussing programming, game development, and game piracy during class. Having experimented with Lisp and C++, Rubin and Gavin teamed up with a friend, Mike Goyet, and founded JAM Software in 1984. The acronym "JAM" stood for "Jason, Andy and Mike"; however, when Goyet became disinterested in the work and did not contribute to JAM's operations, Rubin and Gavin bought back his share of the company (about ) within months and the acronym was redefined as "Jason and Andy's Magic". Rubin and Gavin chose to create software for the Apple II and decided to create a skiing game for their second title. During production of the game, Gavin accidentally copied bootleg games over the only copy of the skiing game they had. Rubin then created a new skiing game called "Ski Crazed" (originally titled "Ski Stud") within the weekend. Because the game played slowly, Gavin reprogrammed the game to play quicker. The game was later picked up and published by Baudville, who bought the game from Jam Software for $250. "Ski Crazed" sold more than 1,000 copies. Rubin and Gavin created an Apple IIGS graphic adventure game titled "Dream Zone", which was released in 1988 and ported to the Atari ST, Amiga and personal computer.


title: Naughty Dog

text: In 1989, Rubin and Gavin released a game titled "Keef the Thief", which was published by Electronic Arts for the Apple IIGS, Amiga and IBM PC Compatible. To make a fresh start and to dissolve their relationship with Baudville, Rubin and Gavin renamed Jam Software as "Naughty Dog" on September 9, 1989. Naughty Dog also created and developed "Rings of Power", which was published by Electronic Arts for the Sega Genesis in 1991. Rubin and Gavin were joined on the title by programmer Vijay Pande, who would later become better known for orchestrating the distributed computing disease researching project known as Folding@home at Stanford University.


title: Naughty Dog

text: In 1994, Rubin and Gavin produced the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer title "Way of the Warrior" and presented it to Mark Cerny of Universal Interactive Studios. Cerny was pleased with "Way of the Warrior" and signed Naughty Dog on to Universal Interactive Studios for three additional games. Rubin and Gavin devised a plan to create a three-dimensional action-platform game. Because the player would be forced to constantly look at the character's rear, the game was jokingly codenamed "Sonic's Ass Game".


title: Naughty Dog

text: Production of the game began in 1994, during which Naughty Dog expanded its number of employees and invented a development tool called Game Oriented Object Lisp, to create the characters and gameplay. Cartoonists Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson were recruited to create the characters of the game, which resulted in the titular character Crash Bandicoot. After 14 months of development, the game was shown to Sony Computer Entertainment, who then signed on to publish the game. "Crash Bandicoot" was shown to the public for the first time at E3 and went on to become one of the highest-selling titles for the PlayStation console, selling over 6.8 million copies.


title: Naughty Dog

text: Naughty Dog continued to develop two more "Crash Bandicoot" games, with a spin-off "Crash Team Racing" kart racing game. By then the studio was looking to develop games for Sony and not be constrained by Universal Interactive. Since Universal held the rights to the "Crash Bandicoot" series, Naughty Dog could not develop future games in its own right. The studio would be bought out by Sony in 2001 to avoid a repeat while it focused on developing the first game of the "Jak and Daxter" series. The "Jak and Daxter" games met similar success as the "Crash Bandicoot" games. During the development of "Jak 3" and "" games, Rubin and Gavin slowly transitioned Evan Wells and Stephen White to become co-presidents of Naughty Dog by the time the founders left the studio. White was replaced by Christophe Balestra after a year.


title: Naughty Dog

text: In 2007, Naughty Dog began work on the "Uncharted" series, and made their first approach to realistic worlds and characters, in contrast to their "Crash Bandicoot" and "Jak and Daxter" series, which featured fantastical worlds set in a fictional setting. The "Uncharted" franchise has been praised for its cinematic quality and technical proficiency, and has sold nearly 17 million copies worldwide as of April 2012.


title: Naughty Dog

text: During the 2011 Spike TV Video Game Awards, Naughty Dog unveiled a new intellectual property, "The Last of Us", described as a "post-apocalyptic third-person action-adventure game", following the plight of a teenage girl, Ellie, and her adult protector, Joel, in a post-apocalyptic United States overrun with humans infected with a disease reminiscent of the infection caused by "Cordyceps unilateralis". "The Last of Us" received universal acclaim upon release. In 2012 and 2013, Naughty Dog teamed with Mass Media Inc. to release the "Jak and Daxter Collection". It contains high-definition ports of the original PlayStation 2 trilogy and was released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita respectively.


title: Naughty Dog

text: On November 23, 2013, Corrinne Yu, principal engine architect at Microsoft's "Halo 4" developer 343 Industries, announced that she had joined Naughty Dog. On December 7, 2013, during the first edition of Spike's VGX award show, Naughty Dog won the Studio of the Year award for its work on "The Last of Us". On March 4, 2014, "Uncharted" lead writer Amy Hennig left the studio, with "Uncharted 3" director Justin Richmond and "The Last of Us" lead artist Nate Wells leaving soon after. Later, it was revealed that "The Last of Us" would be released on the PlayStation 4 as a remastered version.


title: Naughty Dog

text: In March 2017, Balestra announced that he would retire his role as co-president on April 3, 2017, after working at the company for fifteen years. Evan Wells remains in his role as president. In September 2017, game director Bruce Straley announced his departure from Naughty Dog, stating that he "found [his] energy focusing in other directions" following a sabbatical. Creative director Neil Druckmann was promoted to vice president in March 2018.


title: Naughty Dog

text: In October 2017, former environment artist David Ballard claimed that he suffered a mental breakdown after experiencing sexual harassment by a senior team member while working at Naughty Dog in late 2015, stating that he informed PlayStation's HR department and the following day was terminated from his position and offered $20,000 to remain silent regarding the allegations, which he declined. Naughty Dog responded to the allegations with a statement declaring that it had "not found any evidence of having received allegations from Mr. Ballard that he was harassed in any way".


title: Naughty Dog

text: Neil Druckmann was promoted to co-president alongside Evan Wells on December 4, 2020; Alison Mori, formerly the director of operations, and Christian Gyrling, the former co-director of programming, were promoted to co-vice presidents in his place. On October 4, 2021, director of communications Arne Meyer announced that he had been promoted to co-vice president. In July 2022, Josh Scherr announced his departure from Naughty Dog after 21 years with the company.


title: Naughty Dog

text: As a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, Naughty Dog is best known for developing games for the PlayStation consoles, including the "Crash Bandicoot" series for the original PlayStation, "Jak and Daxter" on PlayStation 2, and "Uncharted" and "The Last of Us" on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Before this, they also developed games including "Dream Zone", "Keef the Thief", "Rings of Power" and "Way of the Warrior".


title: Naughty Dog

text: Naughty Dog is known for its unique way of handling game development, as the studio does not have a producer in either of their teams. The work culture at Naughty Dog is very different from many other studios; there is less middle-management; the studio's lead effects artist, Keith Guerrette, said: "It comes with a lot of pros and cons but I think it definitely is one of our biggest strengths. Looking around at the rest of the industry, and this is something that we do talk about quite a bit, the companies that are doing really innovative, cool things are all the ones that don't have the management, like the business side, directly injected into the company. Sony's put us in this fantastic situation where we don't have any producers; we don't have any interactions with Sony corporate at all on the development." Naughty Dog has also complete freedom in basically every aspect of game design, and that also means that Sony Computer Entertainment, the parent company, does not prevent the studio from any implementation of game elements.


title: Naughty Dog

text: Naughty Dog is home to the ICE Team, one of Sony's World Wide Studios central technology groups. The term "ICE" originally stands for "Initiative for a Common Engine" which describes the original purpose of the studio. The ICE Team focuses on creating core graphics technologies for Sony's worldwide first party published titles, including low level game engine components, graphics processing pipelines, supporting tools, and graphics profiling and debugging tools. The ICE Team also supports third party developers with a suite of engine components, and a graphics analysis, profiling, and debugging tool for the RSX. Both enable developers to get better performance out of PlayStation hardware.


title: Naughty Dog

text: Naughty Dog won the Studio of the Year award at the 2013 VGX, the 2013 Golden Joystick Awards, and the 2020 Golden Joystick Awards.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: Agatupu Rodney Anoai (October 2, 1966 – October 23, 2000) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled under the ring name Yokozuna, a reference to the highest rank in professional sumo wrestling in Japan. He was a two-time world champion.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: Although the Yokozuna character was portrayed as a champion sumo wrestler, Anoai never competed as an actual "sumotori". Though he wrestled as a representative of Japan, in real life he was a Samoan American and was accordingly billed as hailing from Polynesia. However, he was managed by the Japanese character Mr. Fuji (in reality a Japanese American) who would follow Anoai to the ring with a wooden bucket of salt while waving a Japanese flag.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: In the WWF, Anoai was a two-time WWF World Heavyweight Champion and two-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Owen Hart), as well as the winner of the 1993 Royal Rumble. He was the first wrestler of Samoan descent to hold the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, as well as the first Royal Rumble winner who (as a result of a direct stipulation) received a WWF world championship title shot at WrestleMania. He defeated WWE Hall of Famers Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan, in consecutive pay-per-view victories in the main event of WrestleMania IX and the 1993 King of the Ring, to win his two WWF World Heavyweight Championships, and also headlined WrestleMania X against Hart. He was the third-fastest newcomer (after Brock Lesnar and Sheamus) to win the WWF/E Championship after his debut. He was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: Anoai's career in professional wrestling began as he grew up in a family full of wrestlers, the Anoaʻi family. His uncles were The Wild Samoans, Afa and Sika, who trained him from an early age in the family business. Anoaʻi took on the name of the "Great Kokina" while wrestling overseas in Japan. He also spent some time in Mexico, learning the craft and gaining the experience necessary to be a star in the sport. He made a one-off appearance for Jim Crockett Promotions on August 12, 1987, facing Ron Simmons at a house show. His first major exposure in the United States came in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) as "Kokina Maximus". Wrestling as a Samoan superstar, he was managed by Sheik Adnan El Kassey. He was billed as the biggest Samoan wrestler ever and given credit for breaking Greg Gagne's leg and ending his career.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: In 1992, Anoai was contacted by Vince McMahon of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and offered a roster spot along with The Samoans (Fatu and Samoan Savage). On an August 17, 1992, episode of "Prime Time Wrestling" the Samoans (soon to be the Headshrinkers) made their debut. Commentator Gorilla Monsoon made mention of another, larger Samoan that they would soon be seeing in the WWF. Anoa'i would make his initial debut as Kokina in an untelevised match on September 1, 1992, at a "WWF Superstars" taping in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Wrestling as Kokina, he defeated Ron Neal. This would be the only time that Anoa'i wrestled under his former gimmick. Shortly after he was offered a new gimmick: Yokozuna.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: Managed by Mr. Fuji, Yokozuna debuted on the October 31, 1992 edition of "Superstars" with his then new gimmick of a stereotypical sumo wrestler, who competed under the Japanese flag; though the WWF tactfully acknowledged his Samoan roots. He wore a "mawashi" as part of his ring attire, but wore long tights underneath the loincloth, something that Vince McMahon and Yokozuna's own cousin Rikishi later felt wasn't needed and that he should've worn the traditional "mawashi" without the tights to expose his buttocks. (Something Rikishi himself would later do.) He made his pay-per-view debut at Survivor Series, easily defeating the much smaller Virgil with his huge weight advantage. Yokozuna's career soon took off, and he headed into 1993's Royal Rumble, where he was billed as a potential favorite. He eliminated Randy Savage to win the Royal Rumble match, cementing his movement towards main event status. Yokozuna was a competitor in the first-ever match in "Monday Night Raw" history, defeating the much smaller Koko B. Ware with his signature finisher, the Banzai Drop. Soon after, Yokozuna was challenged by American patriot "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, who aimed to be the first man who could knock Yokozuna off his feet (this was taped before Randy Savage knocked down Yokozuna at the Royal Rumble). On the February 6, 1993, airing of "Superstars", Duggan succeeded in knocking Yokozuna down, only for Yokozuna to then sneak attack Duggan with a bucket of salt Mr. Fuji had brought to the ring, and crush him with four Banzai Drops, the fourth being with the American flag draped over Duggan. Afterwards, Duggan was suffering from (kayfabe) internal bleeding. On the May 10, 1993, edition of "Monday Night Raw", Yokozuna served as one of the lumberjacks in a match between Duggan and Shawn Michaels for the Intercontinental Championship. Duggan, upon seeing Yokozuna, immediately charged at him and knocked him off his feet again; late in the match, after Bam Bam Bigelow distracted Duggan, Michaels attacked the challenger from behind and threw him out of the ring to where Yokozuna was standing. Yokozuna knocked Duggan to the floor and nailed him with a leg drop, then rolled his unconscious body back into the ring as payback for the earlier attack.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: At WrestleMania IX, Yokozuna wrestled against Bret Hart for the WWF Championship. Hart had the match won with Yokozuna about to submit to the Sharpshooter, when Mr. Fuji threw salt into the champion's face. Blinded, Hart was then pinned by Yokozuna, who won the WWF Championship.<ref name="WrestleMania 9 – Yokozuna vs Hart/Hogan vs Yokozuna"></ref> As he and Mr. Fuji celebrated, Hulk Hogan came to the ring to help Hart and was challenged by Mr Fuji to take on the champion for his newly won crown. After Fuji accidentally threw salt in Yokozuna's eyes, Hogan came through with the win and captured his fifth WWF Championship. At the time, Yokozuna held the record for the second shortest time (after Ric Flair) to win the WWF Championship after his debut, with 173 days (currently, Yokozuna holds the fourth shortest time, after Flair, Sheamus and Brock Lesnar). At King of the Ring, Yokozuna, whose weight had already increased from to , challenged Hogan for the title. Hogan seemed to have the match won, but a photographer, planted at ringside among a legitimate Japanese wrestling press group, shot a blast of fire into Hogan's face. This allowed Yokozuna to take Hogan out with a leg drop and regain the WWF Championship, after which Yokozuna proceeded to hit Hogan with the Banzai Drop in the corner. Soon after, Hogan left the WWF to pursue other interests, which left Yokozuna and Fuji to claim that they had ended "Hulkamania" (to wit, that would be Hogan's last appearance in the WWF for nine years). To celebrate, he held a "Bodyslam Competition" aboard the , a decommissioned aircraft carrier, on Independence Day. Many wrestlers and athletes alike tried to slam Yokozuna, with no success. As Yokozuna thought that there would be no one left to challenge him, Lex Luger flew in by helicopter, stepped forward, and slammed him on the deck. Commentator Bobby Heenan claimed Luger's move was a hiptoss, not a bodyslam, as Yokozuna was running at Luger, but the slam was ruled legitimate. This made Luger the next major challenger to Yokozuna's title.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: At SummerSlam, Yokozuna, now weighing in at , and the newly reborn patriot Luger fought it out for the WWF Championship. Luger took control late in the match, scoring on Yokozuna with a bodyslam and flying forearm. Luger had metal plates put into his arm following an injury from a motorcycle accident, making it a formidable weapon (it was stipulated that Luger had to wear a protective pad over it, but it was torn off in the course of the match) and Yokozuna was knocked out of the ring, unconscious, and lost via count-out. The title did not change hands, but the match's result made it seem like Luger had a chance against his gigantic foe. The contract Luger had signed for the match, as orchestrated by Yokozuna's new spokesman and advisor James E. Cornette, stated that if he did not win the championship, he would not get another shot at the title. Yokozuna and Luger continued to feud until Survivor Series, where each chose a team of allies for an elimination match. The match was billed as an All-Americans (Lex Luger, The Undertaker and Steiner Brothers) vs. Foreign Fanatics (Yokozuna, Quebecer Jacques, Ludvig Borga and Crush) contest.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: Yokozuna's next challenger was The Undertaker. The two first squared off against each other as parts of their respective teams at Survivor Series. Prior to the match starting, the two stood nose-to-nose as a tease to the crowd as to the possibility of those two facing each other. The Undertaker, however, was not tagged into the match until after it was just him and Luger on the American Team. When the Undertaker entered, he beat down on Ludvig Borga but was knocked down by Yokozuna. Yokozuna then gave the Undertaker a Banzai Drop, but the Undertaker sat up when Yokozuna went for a second Banzai Drop. The two then brawled


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: outside, where Yokozuna seemed to be completely over-matched. They were both eliminated by double-count-out. Eventually, Yokozuna was forced to accept a Casket match with the Undertaker. The match occurred at Royal Rumble, where all the odds looked to be in the Undertaker's favor. However, after a lengthy match, Mr. Fuji called out the troops, bringing a dozen heel wrestlers out to aid Yokozuna in attacking the Undertaker. After a lot of struggle (as well as damaging the Undertaker's "magic" urn), the group managed to shove the Undertaker into the casket, giving the win to Yokozuna. As they celebrated afterwards, however, a mysterious figure appeared on the Titantron, looking like the Undertaker inside the casket. He opened his eyes and said the Undertaker would not rest in peace; he then disappeared in a smoke and light show, rising to the top of the Titantron and seemingly levitating all the way to the arena ceiling. He then vanished. This storyline was used to allow the Undertaker to rest for several months to recover from lingering real-life injuries.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: In the 1994 Royal Rumble match, the last two competitors, Lex Luger and Bret Hart, fought and eliminated each other simultaneously. Since the winner of the Royal Rumble was to become the number one contender to Yokozuna's title, it was decided that both wrestlers would get a shot at the title at WrestleMania X. By virtue of winning a coin toss, Luger got to wrestle Yokozuna first at the event. The winner of that match would go on to face Bret Hart later in the evening with the title on the line. To obviate the risk of outside interference, both title matches were scheduled to have special guest referees. Mr. Perfect was the special guest referee for the Luger/Yokozuna bout. Luger seemed to have the match well in hand and had knocked out Yokozuna with a running forearm smash in the middle of the ring. He also knocked out Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette, who tried to enter the ring. However, when Luger went for the pin, Perfect occupied himself with the unconscious Fuji and Cornette who were still lying on the ring apron. When Luger got angry and pushed Mr. Perfect, he was disqualified, thus making Yokozuna the first villainous champion to successfully defend the WWF Championship at a WrestleMania. Later in the night, Yokozuna defended the championship again, this time against the former champion Bret "Hitman" Hart, who had lost earlier in the night to his brother Owen Hart. For this match, Roddy Piper was the special referee. When Cornette tried to interfere to break a pinfall, Piper decked him. At the end of the match, Yokozuna seemed ready to hit his finishing maneuver, the Banzai Drop, when he lost his balance and took a fall from the ropes. Hart got the pinfall victory, finally taking the title away from the long-running champion who reigned for 280 days. Afterwards on television, Cornette would blame the fall on a concussion suffered from Luger's forearm plate.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: After dropping the belt, Yokozuna's main event status began to fade away. He briefly tagged with Crush, another Mr. Fuji charge. In May 1994, on a "Monday Night Raw" episode, Yokozuna was challenged by Earthquake to an actual sumo match. On May 16, 1994, Earthquake beat Yokozuna in the only (worked) sumo match until WrestleMania 21, between The Big Show and an actual "yokozuna", Akebono. At King of the Ring 1994, Yokozuna and Crush failed to win the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu). Yokozuna then had to deal with the "rebirth" of the Undertaker, who immediately came after the foe who had taken him out of action. The two met in another casket match at the Survivor Series, this time with actor/karate expert Chuck Norris as the special enforcer to keep the other heel wrestlers away from ringside. Without their help (although Irwin R. Schyster did successfully interfere on Yokozuna's behalf), Yokozuna could not win and eventually ended up locked inside the casket. Yokozuna continued to wrestle briefly before taking some time off to increase his already huge weight advantage.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: In April 1995, Owen Hart began promising that he would have a great tag team partner to face off against The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart) at WrestleMania XI for the WWF Tag Team Championship. At WrestleMania, Yokozuna, now weighing in at , was revealed as his partner, and the team managed to defeat the Gunns and win the WWF Tag Team Championship. Following the match, Jim Cornette stated, "Michael Jordan's back and so is Yokozuna", in reference to Jordan's . The two would remain champions for several months, defending against teams like the Allied Powers (Lex Luger and Davey Boy Smith), the Smoking Gunns, and others.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: At In Your House 3 on September 24, 1995, Yokozuna teamed up with Davey Boy Smith to take on Shawn Michaels and Diesel (the back story being that Hart was with his wife as she gave birth to one of their children) with Diesel's WWF Championship, Shawn Michaels' Intercontinental Championship and Hart and Yokozuna's Tag Team Championship on the line. During the match, Hart came to the ring, only to be pinned by Diesel. The next day, due to protests from the team and the legal help of Clarence Mason, President Gorilla Monsoon reluctantly returned the belts to Yokozuna and Hart, since Hart was not an official part of the match. Their second reign was shorter, as the Smoking Gunns defeated them that night for the belts.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: Yokozuna, by now weighing in at , had little continued success in 1996. He competed in the 1996 Royal Rumble match, managing to eliminate Bob Backlund, King Mabel, and Swat Team member #2 before being tossed out by Shawn Michaels, the eventual winner. Although Cornette had tried to make peace between him and new acquisition Vader, many observers felt Yokozuna was being relegated. After several run-ins, Yokozuna left Cornette and began a short stint as a fan favorite. He spoke English to the fans, had Mr. Fuji wave an American flag during his matches, and challenged Vader to numerous matches. It was during this feud that Yokozuna teamed up with Ahmed Johnson and Jake Roberts in a six-man tag-team match at WrestleMania XII, facing off with Vader, Owen Hart and British Bulldog. The feud took a painful turn a couple weeks later (April 8), when Vader jumped on Yokozuna's leg, (kayfabe) breaking it. The splash was shown on television as a leg break, in reality it was performed to allow Yokozuna to take some time off to lose weight. However, instead of a stretcher, a real forklift had to be brought to carry Yokozuna out on that edition of RAW. It was the only way to move a man of Yokozuna's size.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: Yokozuna returned at to wrestle Vader. During the event, a severe thunderstorm in the area caused the pay-per-view broadcast feed to blackout. In one of the matches not broadcast, Yokozuna defeated Vader. The event was rescheduled two days later, in which the matches that were previously blacked-out took place again. In the rematch, Vader defeated Yokozuna. He appeared at "Free for All" just before SummerSlam, facing off against Stone Cold Steve Austin. Yokozuna took the advantage near the end of the match, but when he went for the Banzai Drop, the rope broke under his weight, sending him crashing back down. Austin attained the victory.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: The next night on "Raw", Yokozuna faced then WWF Champion Shawn Michaels for the title, teasing turning heel again. Despite using his big size, Yokozuna lost the match to Michaels. He made his final WWF appearance at the 1996 Survivor Series, still going after Vader, however he only briefly entered the match illegally and it ended with all remaining wrestlers being disqualified. For a second time, Yokozuna went to his home in Los Angeles to lose weight through exercise and dieting, being replaced by other wrestlers on a late November tour of the United Kingdom. Despite dropping a reported , he still could not lose enough to satisfy the WWF officials, and was not medically cleared to wrestle in some states because of his physical condition. Yokozuna was unable to pass a physical required for professional wrestlers by the New York State Athletic Commission.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: Yokozuna was officially released from the WWF in May 1998, a decision that came directly from Vince McMahon due to his weight issues. Jim Ross later commented that Yokozuna knew the release was coming and that it was also due to potential heart issues related to his weight and, following the unexpected death of Brian Pillman seven months previously due to an undiagnosed heart issue, the WWF didn't want to take the liability of letting Yokozuna perform with heart issues.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: After his WWF career ended, he performed for various independent promotions. In 1998, he wrestled for Maryland Championship Wrestling. The last major appearance for Yokozuna was at October 1999's Heroes of Wrestling pay-per-view. At an estimated 760 lb (345 kg), he had not only gained the weight that he had lost, but admitted he was intentionally getting bigger, with a goal weight between 850 (386 kg) and 900 lb (408 kg), so that he would set a new record for the heaviest professional wrestler ever. At the pay-per-view event, Yokozuna was scheduled to take on King Kong Bundy in one of the event's two featured matches. However, Jake Roberts, who was scheduled to face Jim Neidhart in the other main event match, came to the ring for his match intoxicated and in no condition to wrestle. The promoters made a last-minute change and ordered Yokozuna to team with Roberts against Bundy and Neidhart, and Yokozuna's team lost.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: Anoai was a member of the Anoaʻi wrestling family: Roman Reigns, Rikishi, Samu, Rosey, Manu, Umaga, and The Rock were among his cousins, The Usos were his first cousins once-removed and Afa and Sika were his uncles. He had two children, Justin and Keilani.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: On October 23, 2000, three weeks after his 34th birthday, Anoai died from pulmonary edema in his room at the Moat House Hotel on Paradise Street in Liverpool while on a wrestling tour of the UK for All Star Wrestling. At the time, it was widely reported that he died of heart failure or a heart attack, but this was later found to be incorrect due to his lungs showing severe signs of fluid blockage.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: The Yokozuna Memorial Show was held in Allentown, Pennsylvania in November 2001, shortly after the first anniversary of Anoaʻi's death. It was presented by the independent promotion World Xtreme Wrestling, although matches included wrestlers from multiple promotions.


title: Yokozuna (wrestler)

text: On March 31, 2012, Yokozuna was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his cousins, The Usos and Rikishi.


title: Swizz Beatz

text: Kasseem Daoud Dean (born September 13, 1978), known professionally as Swizz Beatz, is an American record producer, rapper, disc jockey (DJ) and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, Dean embarked on his musical career as a DJ. At the age of 18, he started to gain recognition in the hip hop industry through his family's record label, Ruff Ryders, as well as his friendship and work with East Coast rapper DMX. Working with DMX as his producer, DJ and hype man, helped Dean gain prominence as a high-profile personality in hip hop.


title: Swizz Beatz

text: Dean later found a protégé in Philadelphia-based rapper Cassidy, whose success helped the launch of his own label imprint, Full Surface, in 2001. He went on to sign multiple artists to the label, including Eve, Mashonda and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, among others. Dean went on to release two albums under the label; the first was a compilation, titled "Swizz Beatz Presents G.H.E.T.T.O. Stories", released in 2002, and later his debut studio album, "One Man Band Man" in 2007. In November 2018, Dean released his second album, "Poison". Alongside fellow musician Timbaland, Dean is known for creating the popular webcast series "Verzuz" in 2020.


title: Swizz Beatz

text: Dean has produced several hit singles for a number of prominent artists across different music genres, such as hip hop, pop, soul, rock and R&B. With a career spanning over two decades, his catalog includes "Ruff Ryders' Anthem", "Party Up (Up in Here)" (DMX), "Gotta Man" (Eve), "Jigga My Nigga", "Girl's Best Friend" (Jay-Z), "Upgrade U", "Check on It", "Ring the Alarm" (Beyoncé), "Good Times" (Styles P), "Bring 'Em Out", "Swing Ya Rag" (T.I.), "Hotel", "I'm a Hustla" (Cassidy), "Touch It" (Busta Rhymes), "Ultralight Beam" (Kanye West), and more.