title: Tennessee Titans

text: In 2003, the Titans introduced an alternate jersey that was light Titans blue with navy outside shoulders and sleeves, which was usually worn with the road blue pants. Until 2007, they wore the jersey twice in each regular-season game (and once in the preseason). They always wore the Titans blue jersey in their annual divisional game against the Houston Texans and for other selected home games which came mostly against a team from the old AFL (American Football League). Their selection in those games was representative of the organization's ties to Houston and the old AFL. On November 19, 2006, the Titans introduced light Titans blue pants, reminiscent of the ones donned by the Oilers, in a game at the Philadelphia Eagles. In December 2006, they combined the Titans blue pants with the Titans blue jersey to create an all Titans blue uniform; Vince Young appeared in this uniform in the cover art for "Madden NFL 08".


title: Tennessee Titans

text: During the 2006 season, the Titans wore seven different uniform combinations, pairing the white jersey with all three sets of pants (white, Titans blue, navy blue), the navy jersey with the white and navy pants, and the Titans blue jersey with navy and Titans blue pants. In a game against the Atlanta Falcons on October 7, 2007, the Titans paired the navy blue jersey with the Titans blue pants for the first time. They also wore the navy blue jerseys with the light blue pants against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team paired the Titans blue jerseys with the white pants for the first time in a home game against the Indianapolis Colts on November 14, 2013. In 2008, the Titans blue jerseys became the regular home uniforms, with the navy blue jerseys being relegated to alternate status but not worn until 2013.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: In 2009, the NFL and the Hall of Fame committee announced that the Titans and the Buffalo Bills would begin the 2009 NFL preseason in the Hall of Fame Game. The game, played at Canton's Pro Football Hall of Fame Field at Fawcett Stadium on August 9, 2009, was nationally televised on NBC. The Titans defeated the Bills by a score of 21–18. In honor of the AFL's 50th anniversary, the Titans wore Oilers' uniforms for this game. Also in 2009, the team honored former quarterback Steve McNair by placing a small, navy blue disc on the back of their helmets with a white number nine inside of it (nine was the number McNair wore during his time with the Oilers/Titans).


title: Tennessee Titans

text: From 2009 to 2012, the Titans did not wear an alternate jersey during any regular season games. It was not until 2013 that the team wore the navy blue jerseys twice in honor of their 15th anniversary as the Titans. The Titans wore white jerseys for all games in 2014, for the exceptions of two preseason home games, in which the team wore their light Titans blue jerseys, and a game against the Houston Texans on October 26, 2014, in which the Titans wore their navy blue uniforms.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: Beginning in 2015, navy blue became the team's primary home jersey color again, marking the first time since 2007 that the Titans wore navy as their primary home jersey, though the team plans to continue wearing white jerseys for early-season hot-weather home games. The light Titans blue jersey, which was the team's primary jersey color from 2008 to 2014, became the team's alternate jersey for a second time.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: On April 4, 2018, the Titans debuted new uniforms at an event attended by over 10,000 fans in downtown Nashville. The uniforms retain the color palette of navy blue, Titans blue and white, with new red and silver elements being introduced. The new helmets are navy blue with one silver sword-shaped stripe through the center and metallic gray facemasks, a change from the previous white helmets with two navy stripes and black facemasks.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: The Titans share rivalries with their three AFC South opponents (Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans, and Indianapolis Colts). They also have historical rivalries with former divisional opponents such as the Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens (formerly the original Cleveland Browns) and Buffalo Bills, and during their time as the Houston Oilers, shared an in-state rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: Since their founding, the Jaguars have been seen from time to time as the Titans' primary rival due to constantly competitive games between the two franchises. The rivalry began back in 1995 when the Titans were still called the Houston Oilers. The rivalry was heated in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to the success of both franchises at the time, including a season in which Jacksonville went 14-2 and Tennessee went 13–3. That season, all three of Jacksonville's losses (including the playoffs) came against the Titans, who went on to play in Super Bowl XXXIV. The rivalry then cooled with both teams experiencing misfortune in the late 2000s to early 2010s, but both teams ended lengthy playoff droughts in 2017.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: The Texans see the Titans as their primary rival due to the Titans' previous history in Houston until their relocation to Tennessee. The Titans dominated the rivalry in the early 2000s, but the series has since evened out in the 2010s.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: From the early 2000s to the late 2010s, the Colts have been very dominant in their rivalry with the Titans since the creation of the AFC South, with quarterbacks Peyton Manning and later Andrew Luck leading the Colts to consistent success against the Titans, though the Titans would find a decent amount of success in the 2000s, and the rest of the division. However, the series has become more even as of late, with the Titans sweeping the Colts in 2017 after 11 straight losses. In the recent years, the rivalry has picked up steam as both the Titans and the Colts have got playoff teams and compete for the AFC South title. In 2018, the Colts defeated the Titans in Nashville the last game of the regular season to clinch the final Wild Card spot, while eliminating Tennessee from playoff contention. In 2020, the Titans came out as the 2020 AFC South champions over the Colts due to tiebreaking measures as both finished 11–5.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: As the Houston Oilers, the team was first in the same division as the Buffalo Bills in the days of the AFL, but were moved to the AFC Central division following the NFL-AFL merger. Even after the Bills and Oilers were placed in separate divisions following the merger, their rivalry remained strong into the 1980s and 1990s with Warren Moon leading the Oilers up against Jim Kelly and the Bills. Two of the most iconic playoff moments in Oilers/Titans history have occurred against the Bills: the Comeback (known as "the Choke" in Houston due to the team's historic collapse against the Bills) and the Music City Miracle, which occurred after the team moved to Nashville to become the Titans. The Bills and Titans were later featured in an "AFL legacy" game in 2009, as part of festivities commemorating the 50th anniversary of the AFL's foundation. Titans owner Bud Adams was fined $250,000 by the league following the 41-17 Titans win in which he obscenely gestured towards the Bills sideline, as he and Bills owner Ralph Wilson had maintained a friendly rivalry and were the last living original AFL owners at that time (Adams and Wilson would die in 2013 and 2014, respectively). Since 2018, the rivalry has heated up again due to the recurrent success of both teams.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: After the move to the AFC Central division, they developed a strong rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers were the Oilers' primary divisional rival and to this date, the Titans have played them more than any other NFL team. The Steelers and Oilers were competitive in the 1970s, facing off in back-to-back AFC championship games towards the end of the decade. The teams both underwent hard times in the 1980s before re-emerging in the 1990s. After the Oilers' move to Tennessee and the re-alignment of the NFL's divisions in 2002, the Steelers-Titans rivalry has cooled somewhat.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: In the late 1990s and early 2000s after becoming the Titans, they had a briefly intense rivalry with the Baltimore Ravens, which flared up again when former Titans quarterback Steve McNair went to the Ravens. Following the realignment of the NFL's divisions in 2002, the rivalry with the Ravens cooled off somewhat, though the Titans have faced off against Baltimore five times in the postseason,<ref name="BAL/TEN Playoff recaps"></ref> most recently in the 2020–21 NFL playoffs, in which they lost to the 5th seeded Ravens 20–13.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: During the Titans' first season in their new stadium, the end zone sections became known as the Flame Pit and fans began wearing headwear resembling flames. Called "Flameheads," the costumes became very prevalent during the Titans' successful years of the early 2000s. Flames in general are heavily tied to the organization because in Greek Mythology, the Titan Prometheus stole fire and gave it to humanity.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: Tennessee's cheerleading squad is called the Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders and represent the team in the NFL. They perform at every home game in Nissan Stadium and regularly do acts with the team's mascot T-Rac. They currently have 28 members, including nine men, with four captains. They perform a variety of dance moves and include high-risk stunts. They also attend several community events in Middle Tennessee. While the franchise was the Houston Oilers, the squad was called the Derrick Dolls.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: T-Rac is the racoon mascot of the Titans, debuting in the team's inaugural preseason home game in August 1999 against the Atlanta Falcons. The racoon is the state animal of Tennessee. T-Rac also appears at every game in Nissan Stadium and does community events all throughout Tennessee. He has also zip-lined from the top of the stadium and rappelled from buildings in downtown Nashville.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: During every home game's 4th quarter, the stadium plays a video of "office linebacker" , performed by Lester Speight, shouting his catchphrase, "the pain train's coming!" This is immediately followed by the playing of "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash, a favorite singer of Nashville.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: After every Titans first down at Nissan Stadium, the jumbotrons play a scene from the movie "300" where the Spartans chant after King Leonidas asks, "What is your profession?" Titans fans simultaneously perform the chant three times, "HA-OOH! HA-OOH! HA-OOH!" The chant debuted in video game form in "Madden NFL 22".


title: Tennessee Titans

text: In 1999, owner Bud Adams established a Titans/Oilers Hall of Fame after the 40th season of the franchise to honor past players and management. It was then changed to Titans Ring of Honor in the 2010s. Bum Phillips, Jeff Fisher, and Floyd Reese are the most recent inductees, each in 2021 (September 26 for Phillips, November 21 for the latter two).


title: Tennessee Titans

text: The flagship radio station of the Titans Radio Network for several years was WKDF 103.3-FM. However WGFX 104.5-FM, the original Tennessee Oilers/Titans Radio flagship station, again serves as the Titans Radio flagship station since the 2010 season. Mike Keith is the team's play-by-play announcer, and former Titans assistant coach Dave McGinnis (head coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2000 to 2003) provides color commentary during games. Previous to McGinnis, former Titans tight end Frank Wycheck provided the color commentary. Larry Stone is also a part of the team, providing injury and scoring updates. The Titans Radio Network is broadcast on some 70 other stations.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: The team had long resisted placing any of its games on Sirius XM Radio. According to the Titans Radio Network, this was because the Titans' contract with Citadel Broadcasting (parent of both WKDF and WGFX) predated the arrival of satellite radio, thus there was no provision for the NFL to reserve satellite-radio rights. In 2011, the Titans were able to extend their agreement with existing radio partners while creating a provision allowing home games to be broadcast on SiriusXM. They were the final team in the NFL to reach such a deal.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: Most preseason games are televised on Nexstar station WKRN-TV, the ABC affiliate in Nashville, along with a weekly Tuesday night coach's show, "The Mike Vrabel Show", formerly known as "Titans on 2". The preseason games are distributed through a network made up of other Nexstar stations throughout the state and several affiliates where Nexstar has no stations.


title: Tennessee Titans

text: For regular season games, WTVF, the CBS affiliate for Nashville, airs the most games due to its AFC-centric rights. Fox affiliate WZTV carries home games against NFC opponents (along with select flexed games and "Thursday Night Football"), NBC affiliate WSMV-TV has "Sunday Night Football" broadcasts, and WKRN carries the team's "Monday Night Football" matchups locally.


title: Greg Daniels

text: Gregory Martin Daniels (born June 13, 1963) is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for "Saturday Night Live" and "The Simpsons", adapting "The Office" for the United States, and co-creating "Parks and Recreation" and "King of the Hill". Daniels attended Harvard University, where he befriended and began collaborating with Conan O'Brien. His first writing credit was for "Not Necessarily the News", before he was laid off because of budget cuts.


title: Greg Daniels

text: He joined the writing staff of "The Simpsons" during its fifth season. He wrote several classic episodes, including "Lisa's Wedding", "Bart Sells His Soul", and "22 Short Films About Springfield". He left "The Simpsons" to co-create another long-running animated series, "King of the Hill", with Mike Judge. The show ran thirteen years before its cancellation in 2009. During the run of "King of the Hill" he worked on several other series, including the American version of "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation". In 2016, he was an executive producer on the TBS series "People of Earth". With "The Office" star Steve Carell, Daniels co-created the Netflix comedy series "Space Force". He also created the Amazon science fiction comedy series "Upload".


title: Greg Daniels

text: Daniels is the son of Judy, who worked at the New York Public Library, and Aaron Daniels, who was president of ABC Radio Network. He has stated that he became interested in comedy by watching "Monty Python's Flying Circus" as a child, as well as reading books by humorist S.J. Perelman at age 11. His first joke was a Carnac the Magnificent joke for his father which was later used for "The Office" episode, "The Dundies".


title: Greg Daniels

text: Daniels attended Phillips Exeter Academy and then Harvard University where he wrote for the "Harvard Lampoon" with Conan O'Brien. After graduating in 1985, the two accepted jobs at "Not Necessarily the News", but they were soon fired due to budget cuts.


title: Greg Daniels

text: Daniels and O'Brien met Lorne Michaels in late 1987 and were given a three-week try-out in the "Saturday Night Live" writing staff. While on the staff, Daniels won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program. Daniels left the writing staff in 1990.


title: Greg Daniels

text: Daniels joined the writing staff of "The Simpsons" in 1993. He was hired in the fifth season following the departures of many of the original team of writers. His first day also coincided with O'Brien's last day on the series.


title: Greg Daniels

text: When he initially joined the series, he believed the series had gone past the "glory years" and that he had "missed the boat". In the fifth season, Daniels penned "Homer and Apu", "Secrets of a Successful Marriage", and "The Devil and Homer Simpson" segment of "Treehouse of Horror IV".


title: Greg Daniels

text: Daniels received an Emmy nomination in the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics" category for the song "Who Needs The Kwik-E-Mart?" from "Homer and Apu". For season six, he wrote "Homer Badman", "Lisa's Wedding", and the "Time and Punishment" segment from "Treehouse of Horror V". The latter episode became the third of the series to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. In the seventh season, Daniels wrote "Bart Sells His Soul", which was based on a childhood experience. His final credit for the series was for "22 Short Films About Springfield", which he served as supervising writer alongside show runner Josh Weinstein. They were given the responsibility of linking all the stories together.


title: Greg Daniels

text: Daniels left "The Simpsons" to work on "King of the Hill" alongside Mike Judge. Daniels rewrote the pilot script and created several important characters that did not appear in Judge's first draft (including Luanne and Cotton), as well as some characterization ideas (e.g., making Dale Gribble a conspiracy theorist).


title: Greg Daniels

text: Daniels also took the writers to Texas to do some research with reporter notebooks, a process he would use for "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation". Judge was ultimately so pleased with Daniels' contributions that he chose to credit him as a co-creator, rather than give him the "developer" credit usually reserved for individuals brought on to a pilot written by someone else. During the fifth and sixth seasons, Judge and Daniels became less involved with the show. They eventually focused on the show again, although Daniels steadily became more involved with other projects.


title: Greg Daniels

text: In 2005, Daniels adapted the popular BBC mockumentary series "The Office" for American audiences. The series premiered to mixed reviews, so the writers worked to make it more "optimistic" and make the lead character, Michael Scott, more likable. The second season was significantly better received and it was named the second best TV series of 2006 by James Poniewozik, writing that "Producer Greg Daniels created not a copy but an interpretation that sends up distinctly American work conventions ... with a tone that's more satiric and less mordant. ... The new boss is different from the old boss, and that's fine by me." He gave the acceptance speech at the 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards when the American version of "The Office" won the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, and he received an award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series at the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: Greg Daniels

text: Following the success of "The Office", Ben Silverman asked Daniels to create a spin-off for the series. After considering several ideas, Daniels and co-creator Michael Schur eventually decided that the series would not get a spin-off because Daniels and Schur "couldn't find the right fit". After Amy Poehler agreed to play the lead, they decided their new series would revolve around an optimistic female bureaucrat in small-town government. The premise of "Parks and Recreation" was partly inspired by the portrayal of local politics on the HBO drama series "The Wire", as well as the renewed interest in and optimism about politics stemming from the 2008 United States presidential election. The series initially received mixed reviews, much like "The Office" in the first season, but after a re-approach to its format and tone, the later seasons received critical acclaim. For four years, he split his time between "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation", before eventually returning as full-time showrunner for "The Office" for its ninth and final season.


title: Greg Daniels

text: In 2011, Daniels made a deal with NBC to produce several series for Universal Television. He also developed the British series "Friday Night Dinner" for American audiences. The remake was picked up for a pilot, which was written by Daniels and directed by Ken Kwapis, and featured Allison Janney and Tony Shalhoub as the mother and father. The pilot was eventually not picked up for series. He also teamed with Mindy Kaling and Alan Yang to work on two different animated series for NBC and made a deal to executive produce a new pilot written by "The Office" writer Owen Ellickson and starring "The Office" cast member Craig Robinson. He served as director and executive producer on the TBS series "People of Earth". In January 2019, Netflix announced that he would write and produce a new series called "Space Force" starring Steve Carell, who was the lead in Daniels' previous sitcom "The Office". He created the Amazon original sci-fi series "Upload" which started streaming in May 2020.


title: Greg Daniels

text: Daniels met Susanne Dari Lieberstein while she was Lorne Michaels' assistant at "Saturday Night Live" and they eventually married. She is the sister of Paul Lieberstein, writer for "King of the Hill" and the replacement showrunner of "The Office" for Daniels. Daniels was also the brother-in-law to "The Office" cast member Angela Kinsey until her divorce from "The Office" writer Warren Lieberstein in 2010.


title: Greg Daniels

text: Daniels' work has received mainly positive reception. Out of the six TV series that Daniels has worked on, four of them—"Saturday Night Live", "The Simpsons", "King of the Hill" and "The Office"—were named among "Time" reviewer James Poniewozik's All Time 100 TV Shows. His work on "The Simpsons" has received acclaim from critics and fans. Two of his episodes, "Bart Sells His Soul" and "22 Short Films About Springfield", were listed among the show's creative team's top five favorite episodes in 2003. Series creator Matt Groening and executive producer James L. Brooks have named his episodes among their favorites. Other staff members and several critics have praised his work. His other animated series and his first credit as a creator, "King of the Hill", has received positive reviews as well. "IGN" named it the 27th best animated television series, and the site mainly complimented the series for its subtle character humor.


title: Greg Daniels

text: His next television series, "The Office", ranked as NBC's highest rated show for a majority of its run, according to the Nielsen ratings. The series has also been put on several top series lists by many publications including "Time", BuddyTV, Metacritic, "The Washington Post", and "Paste". His writing credits for the series are often considered the best of the series. Despite its early acclaim, later seasons have received criticism for a dip in quality, notably after Daniels was less involved. Daniels' next series, "Parks and Recreation", has been called "the smartest comedy on TV" by "Entertainment Weekly".


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: The 2022 Elimination Chamber (; known as No Escape in Germany) was the 12th Elimination Chamber professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on Saturday, February 19, 2022, at the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: It was the seventh event that WWE held in Saudi Arabia under a 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030. It was also the first Elimination Chamber event to take place outside of the United States, the first to be held on a Saturday, and the first to air on the livestreaming service Peacock. It was also WWE's first previously-established event to take place in the country.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The event featured two Elimination Chamber matches, one for the men and one for the women; both were for the Raw brand. In the main event, Brock Lesnar won the men's eponymous match to win the WWE Championship, while Bianca Belair won the women's match to earn a Raw Women's Championship match at WrestleMania 38. In other prominent matches, Becky Lynch defeated Lita to retain the Raw Women's Championship, and in the opening bout, Roman Reigns defeated Goldberg to retain SmackDown's Universal Championship.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: Elimination Chamber is a gimmick event first produced by the American promotion WWE in 2010. It has been held every year since, except in 2016, generally in February. The concept of the event is that one or two main event matches are contested inside the Elimination Chamber, either with championships or future opportunities at championships at stake. The 2022 event was the 12th event under the Elimination Chamber chronology and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands. In addition to airing on pay-per-view worldwide and the WWE Network in international markets, it was the first Elimination Chamber to air on Peacock after the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March 2021.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: In early 2018, WWE began a 10-year strategic multiplatform partnership with the General Sports Authority in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program. On January 17, 2022, the seventh event under this partnership was announced as Elimination Chamber, scheduled for Saturday, February 19, 2022, at the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah. It was in turn the first Elimination Chamber event to take place in Saudi Arabia, the first to take place outside of the United States, and the first to be held on a Saturday. It was also WWE's first previously-established event to take place in the country.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: In 2011 and since 2013, the show has been promoted as "No Escape" in Germany as it was feared that the name "Elimination Chamber" may remind people of the gas chambers used during the Holocaust.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

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


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: At the Royal Rumble, Bobby Lashley defeated Brock Lesnar to win the WWE Championship due to Paul Heyman betraying Lesnar. On the following episode of "Raw", it was announced that Lashley would defend the WWE Championship in an Elimination Chamber match at Elimination Chamber. Lesnar then came out and demanded a rematch against Lashley that night as Lashley did not fairly win the title; however, on MVP's advice, Lashley declined. WWE official Adam Pearce then announced that Lesnar would be competing in the Elimination Chamber match. Later, Seth "Freakin" Rollins also announced that he would be one of the participants due to technically winning his match at the Royal Rumble. The final three spots were determined in qualification matches that night: Austin Theory, Riddle, and AJ Styles qualified by defeating Kevin Owens, Raw Tag Team Champion Otis, and Rey Mysterio, respectively.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: Roman Reigns was originally scheduled to face Goldberg for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 36 in April 2020; however, due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic shortly before the event, Reigns pulled out of the match due to his immunocompromised state from past battles with leukaemia. Goldberg faced another challenger at that event who defeated him for the title. Nearly two years later on the February 4, 2022 episode of "SmackDown", with Reigns now as champion after winning the title at Payback in August 2020, Goldberg appeared and challenged Reigns to a match for the Universal Championship at Elimination Chamber, which was made official.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: At Day 1, Drew McIntyre defeated Madcap Moss, who was accompanied by Happy Corbin. Later that night, while McIntyre was interviewed backstage, Corbin and Moss attacked McIntyre, injuring his neck, which was reported to require surgery. At the Royal Rumble, McIntyre made a surprise return from his injury during the Royal Rumble match and eliminated Corbin and Moss, after which, McIntyre attacked Corbin and Moss further with the steel steps following their elimination. On the following "SmackDown", McIntyre stated he would continue to target the two due to them almost ending his career. A rematch between McIntyre and Moss was scheduled for Elimination Chamber. The rematch was then stipulated as a Falls Count Anywhere match.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: On the February 7 episode of "Raw", a women's Elimination Chamber match was scheduled for Elimination Chamber with the winner earning a Raw Women's Championship match at WrestleMania 38. Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley, Doudrop, and Nikki A.S.H. were announced for the match with one spot to be filled. The following week, Belair won a gauntlet match to earn the right to enter the match last. Additionally on that episode, after weeks of therapy sessions after her doll Lily had been destroyed at Extreme Rules in September 2021, Alexa Bliss completed her final session and named herself as the sixth competitor for the match.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: During the Elimination Chamber Kickoff pre-show. Rey Mysterio (accompanied by Dominik Mysterio) faced The Miz. During the match, Miz retrieved a chair, however, Rey performed a Crossbody on Miz. As Miz tried to use the chair again, Dominik thwarted Miz, however, Miz feigned getting attacked by Dominik. This resulted in the referee ejecting Dominik from ringside. In the end, Rey performed a roll-up on Miz to win the match. Following the match, Rey and Dominik performed double 619's on Miz.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: The actual pay-per-view opened with Roman Reigns (accompanied by Paul Heyman) defending the Universal Championship against Goldberg. Reigns cut a quick promo stating that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia must acknowledge Reigns before Goldberg made his entrance. At the start of the match, Reigns threw Goldberg out of the ring. The two fought at ringside where Goldberg threw Reigns into the barricade. Back in the ring, Goldberg performed a Spear on Reigns. As Goldberg attempted a Jackhammer, Reigns countered into a Uranage for a nearfall. Reigns performed a Superman Punch on Goldberg. As Reigns attempted a Spear, Goldberg countered into a Spear of his own. Goldberg attempted another Jackhammer, however, Reigns countered into the guillotine submission hold on Goldberg, who passed out, thus Reigns retained the title.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: Next, the women's Elimination Chamber match was contested where the winner would earn a Raw Women's Championship match at WrestleMania 38. Liv Morgan and Nikki A.S.H. started the match. The third entrant was Doudrop followed by Rhea Ripley. Ripley went after Nikki where both climbed the Chamber wall and fell onto Morgan. Ripley performed a Riptide on Nikki to eliminate her. The fifth entrant was Alexa Bliss. Morgan performed a Sitout Powerbomb on Doudrop to eliminate her. The last entrant was Bianca Belair, who earned the opportunity to enter last by winning a gauntlet match on the preceding episode of "Raw". Belair and Ripley performed double vertical Suplexes on Morgan and Bliss, respectively. Bliss performed Twisted Bliss on Morgan to eliminate her. Belair performed Kiss of Death on Ripley to eliminate her. In the end, Belair performed a Kiss Of Death on Bliss to win the match and earn a Raw Women's Championship match at WrestleMania 38.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: After that, Ronda Rousey and Naomi faced SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair and WWE official Sonya Deville where Rousey had to wrestle with one arm tied behind her back. In the end, Rousey forced Deville to tap out to the arm bar to win the match.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: In the fourth match, Drew McIntyre faced Madcap Moss (accompanied by Happy Corbin) in a Falls Count Anywhere match. In the end, McIntyre performed a Claymore Kick on Moss to win the match.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: Backstage, The Miz was interviewed about his loss during the pre-show where he accused Rey Mysterio of cheating due to help from his son Dominik. Miz said he would find a tag team partner and that it would be a "global superstar".


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: In the penultimate match, Becky Lynch defended the Raw Women's Championship against Lita. Lynch performed a Man Handle Slam on Lita to retain the title.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: Before the main event, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) were scheduled to defend the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar), but The Usos attacked The Viking Raiders before the match could begin, thus the match was called off.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: In the main event, Bobby Lashley defended the WWE Championship against AJ Styles, Brock Lesnar, Riddle, Austin Theory, and Seth "Freakin" Rollins in an Elimination Chamber match. Theory and Rollins started the match. Rollins performed a Buckle Bomb on Theory into Lashley's pod. The impact incapacitated Lashley resulting in medical personnel and referees removing Lashley from the match due to concussion protocol, which was later announced as his elimination (in reality, Lashley had legitimately injured his shoulder prior to the event and the "concussion protocol" was used to write him out of the match). The third entrant was Riddle followed by Styles. The fifth entrant was supposed to be Lashley, however, since Lashley was gone, Lesnar broke through his pod and entered the match. Lesnar performed F5s on Rollins, Styles, and Riddle, respectively, to eliminate them. After a low-blow and DDT from Theory onto Lesnar ended in a near-fall, Lesnar performed an F5 on Theory from the top of a chamber pod. Lesnar then pinned Theory to win the WWE Championship for a seventh time, becoming the first Royal Rumble winner to win a world title before WrestleMania. WWE then confirmed that his WrestleMania match against Universal Champion Roman Reigns would be a Winner Takes All match to unify both the WWE and Universal Championships.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: On the following episode of "Raw", new WWE Champion Brock Lesnar set his sights on facing Universal Champion Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 38. Paul Heyman then interrupted, stating that Lesnar would not make it to WrestleMania as the WWE Champion as he had a scheduled rematch against former champion Bobby Lashley on March 5 at the WWE Live show in Madison Square Garden in New York City, although if Lashley was not cleared from his concussion protocol, Heyman would find another worthy challenger. Lashley was not cleared and was replaced by Austin Theory who Lesnar defeated to retain the title.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: Also on the following "Raw", The Miz stated that he had found a tag team partner to face Rey and Dominik Mysterio at WrestleMania 38. After Miz teased the identity of his partner, the Mysterios interrupted, stating it did not matter who Miz had chosen. The Miz then revealed it was social media personality Logan Paul, after which, both Miz and Paul attacked the Mysterios.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: On the following episode of "SmackDown", Universal Champion Roman Reigns and WWE Champion Brock Lesnar had a contract signing for their Winner Takes All match at WrestleMania 38. During the segment, it was announced that the match would also be a championship unification match, which WWE began billing as "The Biggest WrestleMania Match of All-Time".


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) attacked SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) backstage, stating they wanted their title match since they did not actually get to have their match at Elimination Chamber. They received their championship match the following week where The Usos retained.


title: Elimination Chamber (2022)

text: Also on "SmackDown", Drew McIntyre defeated Madcap Moss in a rematch. McIntyre was then scheduled to face Happy Corbin at WrestleMania 38.


title: The Sweet

text: The Sweet (often shortened to just Sweet), are a British glam rock band that rose to prominence in the 1970s. Their best known line-up consisted of lead vocalist Brian Connolly, bass player Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott, and drummer Mick Tucker. The group were originally called The Sweetshop.


title: The Sweet

text: The band were formed in London in 1968 and achieved their first hit, "Funny Funny", in 1971 after teaming up with songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman and record producer Phil Wainman. During 1971 and 1972, their musical style followed a marked progression from the Archies-like bubblegum style of "Funny Funny" to a Who-influenced hard rock style supplemented by a striking use of high-pitched backing vocals.


title: The Sweet

text: The band first achieved success in the UK charts, with thirteen Top 20 hits during the 1970s alone, with "Block Buster!" (1973) topping the chart, followed by three consecutive number two hits in "Hell Raiser" (1973), "The Ballroom Blitz" (1973) and "Teenage Rampage" (1974). The band turned to a more hard rock style with their mid-career singles, like 1974's "Turn It Down". "Fox on the Run" (1975) also reached number two on the UK charts. These results were topped in West Germany and other countries on the European mainland. They also achieved success and popularity in the US with the top ten hits "Little Willy", "The Ballroom Blitz", "Fox on the Run", and "Love is Like Oxygen".


title: The Sweet

text: The Sweet had their last international success in 1978 with "Love Is Like Oxygen". Connolly left the group in 1979 to start a solo career and the remaining members continued as a trio until disbanding in 1981. From the mid-1980s, Scott, Connolly and Priest each played with their own versions of Sweet at different times. Connolly died in 1997, Tucker in 2002 and Priest in 2020. Andy Scott is still active with his version of the band. Sweet have since sold over 35 million albums worldwide.


title: The Sweet

text: Sweet's origins can be traced back to British soul band Wainwright's Gentlemen. Mark Lay's history of that band states they formed around 1962 and were initially known as Unit 4. Founding members included Chris Wright (vocals), Jan Frewer (bass), with Jim Searle and Alfred Fripp on guitars. Phil Kenton joined on drums as the band changed its name to Wainwright's Gentlemen (due to there being another band known as Unit 4). Managed by Frewer's father, the band performed in the Hayes, Harrow and Wembley area. By 1964 the group was also playing in London, including at the Saint Germain Club on Poland Street.


title: The Sweet

text: In January 1964 the band came fifth in a national beat group contest, with finals held at the Lyceum Strand on 4 May 1964. Highlights of the show were presented on BBC1 by Alan Freeman. Chris Wright left the line-up in late 1964 and was replaced by Ian Gillan. A female vocalist named Ann Cully soon joined the band. Mick Tucker, from Ruislip, joined on drums replacing Phil Kenton. The band recorded a number of tracks including a cover of the Coasters-Hollies hit "Ain't That Just Like Me", which was probably recorded at Jackson Sound Studios in Rickmansworth. The track includes Gillan on vocals, Tucker on drums and, according to band bassist Jan Frewer, is thought to have been recorded in 1965. Gillan quit in May 1965 to join Episode Six, and later, Deep Purple. Cully remained as vocalist before departing some time later. Gillan's and Cully's eventual replacement, in late 1966, was Scots-born vocalist Brian Connolly, who hailed more recently from Harefield. Tony Hall had joined on saxophone and vocals and when Fripp left he was replaced by Gordon Fairminer. Fairminer's position was eventually assumed by Frank Torpey (born Frank Edward Torpey, 30 April 1945, Kilburn, North West London) - a schoolfriend of Tucker's who had just left West London group The Tribe (aka The Dream). Torpey only lasted a few months, and in late 1967 Robin Box (born 19 June 1944) took his place. Searle, regarded by many as the most talented musically, disappeared from the scene. Tucker and Connolly remained with Wainwright's Gentlemen until January 1968. Tucker was replaced by Roger Hills. When the Gentlemen eventually broke up, Hills and Box joined White Plains who eventually scored a big hit with "My Baby Loves Lovin'".


title: The Sweet

text: In January 1968 Connolly and Tucker formed a new band calling themselves The Sweetshop. They recruited bass guitarist and vocalist Steve Priest from a local band called The Army. Priest had previously played with mid-'60s band the Countdowns who had been produced and recorded by Joe Meek. Frank Torpey was again recruited to play guitar. The quartet made its public debut at the Pavilion in Hemel Hempstead on 9 March 1968 and they gradually developed a following. They were managed by Paul Nicholas, who later went on to star in "Hair". Nicholas worked with record producer Phil Wainman at Mellin Music Publishing who was sufficiently impressed to record them. This led to a contract with Fontana Records. Just weeks before their debut release an unrelated artist released a single under the name Sweetshop, so the band abbreviated their moniker to Sweet. "Slow Motion" (July 1968), produced by Wainman, failed to chart. Owing to its rarity now sells for several hundred pounds when auctioned. Sweet were released from the recording contract and Frank Torpey left after a further year of fruitless toil. In his autobiography "Are You Ready Steve", Priest said that Gordon Fairminer was approached to play for them when Torpey decided to leave Sweet after a gig at Playhouse Theatre Walton-on-Thames on 5 July 1969 but turned the job down as he wanted to concentrate on other interests."


title: The Sweet

text: Guitarist Mick Stewart joined in 1969. Stewart had some rock pedigree, having previously worked with The (Ealing) Redcaps and Simon Scott & The All-Nite Workers in the mid-1960s. In late 1965, that band became The Phil Wainman Set when the future Sweet producer joined on drums and the group cut some singles with Errol Dixon. In early 1966, Stewart left and later worked with Johnny Kidd & The Pirates.


title: The Sweet

text: Sweet signed a new record contract with EMI's Parlophone label. Three bubblegum pop singles were released: "Lollipop Man" (September 1969), "All You'll Ever Get from Me" (January 1970), and a cover version of the Archies' "Get on the Line" (June 1970), all of which failed to chart. Stewart then quit, and was not replaced for some time. Connolly and Tucker had a chance meeting with Wainman, who was now producing, and knew of two aspiring songwriters, Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who were looking for a group to sing some demos they had written. Connolly, Priest, and Tucker provided the vocals on a track called "Funny Funny" which featured Pip Williams on guitar, John Roberts on bass, and Wainman on drums. The latter began offering the track to various recording companies. The band held auditions for a replacement guitarist and settled on Welsh-born Andy Scott. He had most recently been playing with Mike McCartney (brother of Paul) in the Scaffold. As a member of the Elastic Band, he had played guitar on two singles for Decca, "Think of You Baby" and "Do Unto Others". He also appeared on the band's lone album release, "Expansions on Life", and on some recordings by the Scaffold. The band rehearsed for a number of weeks before Scott made his live debut with Sweet on 26 September 1970 at the Windsor Ballroom in Redcar.


title: The Sweet

text: Sweet initially attempted to combine diverse musical influences, including the Monkees and 1960s bubblegum pop groups such as the Archies, with more heavy rock-oriented groups such as the Who. Sweet adopted the rich vocal harmony style of the Hollies, with distorted guitars and a heavy rhythm section. This fusion of pop and hard rock would remain a central trademark of Sweet's music and prefigured the glam metal of a few years later.


title: The Sweet

text: Sweet's initial album appearance was on the budget label Music for Pleasure as part of a compilation called "Gimme Dat Ding", released in December 1970. Sweet had one side of the record; the Pipkins (whose sole hit, "Gimme Dat Ding", gave the LP its name) had the other. Sweet's contribution consisted of the A- and B-sides of the band's three Parlophone singles. Andy Scott appears in the album cover shot, even though he did not play on any of the recordings.


title: The Sweet

text: Sweet made their UK television debut in December 1970 on a pop show called "Lift Off", performing the song "Funny Funny". A management deal was signed with the aforementioned songwriting team of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Phil Wainman resumed his collaboration with Sweet, as executive producer. This management deal also included a worldwide record contract with RCA Records, the U.S. excepted: in the United States and Canada Bell Records issued the group's music until late 1973, followed by Capitol Records.


title: The Sweet

text: In March 1971 RCA issued "Funny Funny", written by Chinn and Chapman, which became the group's first international hit, climbing to the Top 20 on many of the world's charts. EMI reissued their 1970 single "All You'll Ever Get from Me" (May 1971) and it again failed to chart. Their next RCA release "Co-Co" (June 1971) went to number two in the U.K. and their follow up single, "Alexander Graham Bell" (October 1971), only went to No. 33. These tracks still featured session musicians on the instruments with the quartet providing only the vocals.


title: The Sweet

text: Sweet's first full LP album, "Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be", was released in November 1971. A collection of the band's recent singles supplemented by some new Chinn/Chapman tunes (including "Chop Chop" and "Tom Tom Turnaround") and pop covers (such as the Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream" and the Supremes' "Reflections"), the album, recorded at Nova Studios in London, was produced by Phil Wainman and engineered by Richard Dodd and Eric Holland. It was not a serious contender on the charts.


title: The Sweet

text: February 1972 saw the release of "Poppa Joe", which reached number 1 in Finland and peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. The next two singles of that year, "Little Willy" and "Wig-Wam Bam", both reached No. 4 in the UK. "Little Willy" peaked at No. 3 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 after a re-issue in 1973, thus becoming the group's biggest American hit. Although "Wig-Wam Bam" remained largely true to the style of Sweet's previous recordings, the vocals and guitars had a harder, more rock-oriented sound, largely because it was the first Chinn-Chapman single on which only members of Sweet played the instruments. In January 1973 "Block Buster!" became Sweet's first single to reach number 1 on the UK chart, remaining there for five consecutive weeks. After their next single "Hell Raiser" was released in May and reached number 2 in the U.K., Sweet's U.S. label, Bell, released the group's first American album "The Sweet" in July 1973.


title: The Sweet

text: To promote their singles, Sweet made numerous appearances on U.K. and European TV shows such as "Top of the Pops" and "Supersonic". In one performance of "Block Buster!" on "Top of the Pops" Christmas edition, Priest aroused complaints after he appeared replete in a German military uniform, Hitler moustache and displaying a swastika armband. The band also capitalised on the glam rock explosion, rivalling Gary Glitter, T. Rex, Queen, Slade, and Wizzard for outrageous stage clothing.


title: The Sweet

text: Despite Sweet's success, the relationship with their management was becoming increasingly tense. While they had developed a large fan-base among teenagers, Sweet were not happy with their 'bubblegum' image. Sweet had always composed their own heavy-rock songs on the B-sides of their singles to contrast with the bubblegum A-sides which were composed by Chinn and Chapman. During this time, Sweet's live performances consisted of B-sides, album tracks, and various medleys of rock and roll classics; they avoided older novelty hits like "Funny Funny" and "Poppa Joe". A 1973 performance at the Palace Theatre and Grand Hall in Kilmarnock ended in Sweet being bottled off stage; the disorder was attributed by some (including Steve Priest) to Sweet's lipstick and eye-shadow look, and by others to the audience being unfamiliar with the concert set (the 1999 CD release "Live at the Rainbow 1973" documents a live show from this period). The incident would be immortalised in the hit "The Ballroom Blitz" (September 1973). In the meantime, Sweet's chart success continued, showing particular strength in the UK, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and Australia. By the end of 1973, the band's name evolved from "The Sweet" to "Sweet". The change would be reflected in all of their releases from 1974 onward.


title: The Sweet

text: By 1974, Sweet had grown tired of the management team of Chinn and Chapman, who wrote the group's major hits and cultivated the band's glam rock image. The group and producer Phil Wainman, assisted by engineer Peter Coleman, recorded the album "Sweet Fanny Adams", which was released in April 1974. Sweet's technical proficiency was demonstrated for the first time on self-penned hard rock tracks such as "Sweet F.A." and "Set Me Free". Sweet also adopted a more conventional hard rock sound and appearance. "Sweet Fanny Adams" also featured compressed high-pitched backing vocal harmonies, which was a trend that continued on all of Sweet's albums.


title: The Sweet

text: During sessions for the album, Brian Connolly was injured in a fight in Staines High Street. His throat was badly injured and his ability to sing severely limited. Priest and Scott filled in on lead vocals on some tracks ("No You Don't", "Into The Night" and "Restless") and Connolly, under treatment from a Harley Street specialist, managed to complete the album. The band did not publicise the incident and told the press that subsequent cancelled shows were due to Connolly having a throat infection. This incident reportedly permanently compromised Connolly's singing ability, with his range diminished.


title: The Sweet

text: No previous singles appeared on the album, and none were released, except in Japan, New Zealand and Australia, where "Peppermint Twist/Rebel Rouser", apparently released by their record company without their knowledge, gained a No. 1 chart position in the latter. "Sweet Fanny Adams" would be Sweet's only non-compilation release to break the UK Albums Chart Top 40.


title: The Sweet

text: Sweet were invited by Pete Townshend to support the Who, who were playing at Charlton Athletic's football ground, The Valley in June 1974. However, Connolly's badly bruised throat kept them from fulfilling the role. Sweet had frequently cited the Who as being one of their main influences and played a medley of their tracks in their live set for many years.


title: The Sweet

text: Their third album, "Desolation Boulevard", was released later in 1974, six months after "Sweet Fanny Adams". By that stage, producer Phil Wainman had moved on and the album was produced by Mike Chapman. It was recorded in a mere six days and featured a rawer "live" sound. One track, "The Man with the Golden Arm", written by Elmer Bernstein and Sylvia Fine for the 1955 Frank Sinatra movie of the same name, featured drummer Mick Tucker performing an 8 and half minute solo (although this was not included in the U.S. release). This had been a staple of the band's live performance for years. The first single from the LP, the heavy-melodic "The Six Teens" (July 1974), was a Top 10 hit in the U.K. and still part of the amazing unbroken string of No. 1's in Denmark. However, the subsequent single release, "Turn It Down" (November 1974), reached only No. 41 on the U.K. chart and No. 2 in Denmark. "Turn It Down" received minimal airplay on UK radio and was banned by some radio stations because of certain lyrical content - "God-awful sound" and "For God sakes, turn it down" - which were deemed "unsuitable for family listening." The band resumed playing live shows nearly a full six months after Connolly's throat injury, with band and critics noting a rougher edge to his voice and a reduced range. The album also featured a group composition, "Fox On The Run", which was to be re-recorded months later.


title: The Sweet

text: The U.S. version of "Desolation Boulevard" was different from the U.K. version and included several songs from "Sweet Fanny Adams" in addition to the "Ballroom Blitz" and "Fox on the Run" singles (both of which peaked at No. 5 in the US). Side One of the album contained all Chapman-Chinn penned songs, while Side Two featured songs written and produced by Sweet.


title: The Sweet

text: In 1975 Sweet went back into the studio to re-arrange and record a more pop-oriented version of the track "Fox on the Run". Sweet's first self-written and produced single, "Fox on the Run" was released worldwide in March 1975 and became their biggest selling hit, reaching number one in Australia, Germany, Denmark, and South Africa, number two in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, and the Netherlands, and number three in Austria and Switzerland. In Australia, it not only made it to the top of the charts, it also became the biggest selling single of that year. The song reached number two in Canada and number five in the U.S. The release of this track marked the end of the formal Chinn-Chapman working relationship and the band stressed it was now fully self-sufficient as writers and producers.


title: The Sweet

text: The following single release, "Action" (July 1975), peaked at number 15 in the UK. Now confident in their own songwriting and production abilities, Sweet spent the latter half of 1975 in Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany, where they recorded the "Give Us A Wink" album with German sound engineer Reinhold Mack, who later recorded with Electric Light Orchestra and co-produced Queen. The new album release was deferred until 1976 so as not to stifle the chart success "Desolation Boulevard" was enjoying, peaking at number 25 in the US and number 5 in Canada.


title: The Sweet

text: With "Give Us a Wink" being held over, RCA issued a double album in Europe, "Strung Up", in November. It contained one live disc, recorded in London in December 1973, and one disc compiling previously released singles (plus an unused track by Chinn and Chapman – "I Wanna Be Committed"). At the end of the year, Andy Scott released his first solo single, "Lady Starlight" b/w "Where D'Ya Go". Tucker played drums on both tracks.


title: The Sweet

text: January 1976 saw the release of the single "The Lies In Your Eyes", which made the Top 10 in Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Australia, but only reached No. 35 on the U.K. charts. Sweet's first album to be fully produced and written by themselves, "Give Us A Wink", was released in March 1976. A third single from the album, "4th of July", was issued in Australia.


title: The Sweet

text: By this time, Sweet strove to build on their growing popularity in America with a schedule of more than fifty headline concert dates. Even though "Give Us A Wink"s release was imminent, the band's set essentially promoted the US version of "Desolation Boulevard" plus the new US hit single "Action". During an appearance at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in California on 24 March, Sweet played "All Right Now" with Ritchie Blackmore as a tribute to mark the death of Free guitarist Paul Kossoff, who was to have supported Sweet with his band Back Street Crawler. The US tour was not financially successful, with small audiences at many venues leading to the final half-dozen or so dates to be cancelled. Following the end of the tour, the band went on to Scandinavia and Germany. The band also spent a week at the Who's Ramport Studios in Battersea demoing material for a new album before abandoning that project and playing eight dates in Japan. By the end of the Japanese shows Connolly's extremely hoarse singing voice was manifest evidence of the demands of constant touring and the enduring after-effects of his 1974 assault.


title: The Sweet

text: Between October 1976 and January 1977, Sweet wrote and recorded new material at Kingsway Recorders and Audio International London studios for their next album. An advance single from the album, "Lost Angels", was only a hit in Germany, Austria and Sweden. A new album, "Off the Record", was released in April. The next single from the album, "Fever of Love", represented the band heading in a somewhat more Europop hard rock direction, once again charting in Germany, Austria and Sweden, while reaching number 10 in South Africa. On this album, Sweet again worked with "Give Us A Wink" engineer Louis Austin, who would later engineer Def Leppard's "On Through The Night" 1980 début album. The band cancelled a US tour with emerging US rockers Aerosmith, did not play any live dates in support of the album and, in fact, did not play a single concert for the whole of 1977.


title: The Sweet

text: Sweet left RCA in 1977 and signed a new deal with Polydor though it would not come into force until later in the year. Sweet's manager David Walker, from Handle Artists, negotiated the move which was reputed to be worth around £750,000. In the United States, Canada, and Japan, Capitol had issued Sweet's albums since 1974 and would continue to do so through to 1980.


title: The Sweet

text: The first Polydor album, "Level Headed" (January 1978), found Sweet experimenting by combining rock and classical sounds ""a-la clavesin"", an approach similar to Electric Light Orchestra's, and featured the single "Love Is Like Oxygen". Largely recorded during 1977 at Château d'Hérouville near Paris, France after a 30-day writing session at Clearwell Castle in the Forest Of Dean UK, the album represented a new musical direction, largely abandoning hard-rock for a more melodic pop style, interspersed with ballads accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra. The ballad, "Lettres D'Amour", featured a duet between Connolly and Stevie Lange (who would emerge as lead singer with the group Night in 1979).


title: The Sweet

text: With the addition of session and touring musicians keyboardist Gary Moberley and guitarist Nico Ramsden, Sweet undertook a short European and Scandinavian tour followed by a single British concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon on 24 February 1978. However, "Love Is Like Oxygen" (January 1978) was their last U.K., U.S., and German Top 10 hit. Scott was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for co-composing the song. One more single from the album, "California Nights" (May 1978), featuring Steve Priest as the lead vocalist, peaked at number 23 on the German chart.


title: The Sweet

text: Between March and May 1978 Sweet extensively toured the US, as a support act for Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. The tour included a disastrous date in Birmingham, Alabama on 3 May, during which visiting Capitol Records executives in the audience saw Brian Connolly give a drunken and incoherent performance that terminated early in the set with his collapse on stage, leaving the rest of the group to play on without him. The band returned briefly to Britain before resuming the second leg of their US tour in late May supporting other acts, including Foghat and Alice Cooper. Concluding the US tour in early July 1978, Brian's alcoholism and estrangement from the group was steadily becoming a greater issue.


title: The Sweet

text: In late October, having spent further time at Clearwell Castle to write for their next album, Sweet arrived at The Town House studio in Shepherd's Bush, London to complete and record, "Cut Above the Rest" (April 1979). Due to tensions between various members attributed to Connolly's health and diminishing status with the group, his long-time friend and fellow founding member, Mick Tucker, was tasked to produce Connolly's vocals. It was felt Tucker would extract a better performance than Scott from Connolly. A number of tracks were recorded featuring Connolly. However, these efforts were deemed unsatisfactory and Brian left the band on 2 November 1978.


title: The Sweet

text: On 23 February 1979, Brian Connolly's departure from Sweet was formally announced by manager David Walker. Publicly, Connolly was said to be pursuing a solo career with an interest in recording country rock.


title: The Sweet

text: Sweet continued as a trio with Priest assuming the lion's share of lead vocals, though Scott and Tucker were also active in that role. The first single release for the trio was "Call Me". Guest keyboard player Gary Moberley continued to augment the group on stage. Guitarist Ray McRiner joined their touring line-up in 1979, with a small tour with Journey in the eastern United States and Cheap Trick in Texas in the spring and summer of '79 to support "Cut Above The Rest" (which was released in April 1979). McRiner would also contribute the songs "Too Much Talking" and the single "Give The Lady Some Respect" to the next Sweet album, "Waters Edge" (August 1980), which was recorded in Canada. In the US, "Waters Edge" was titled "Sweet VI". It featured the singles "Sixties Man" and "Give The Lady Some Respect". Tragedy befell Mick Tucker when his wife Pauline drowned in the bath at their home on 26 December 1979. The band withdrew from live work for all of 1980.


title: The Sweet

text: One more studio album, "Identity Crisis", was recorded during 1980–81 but was only released in West Germany and Mexico. Sweet undertook a short tour of the UK and performed their last live show at Glasgow University on 20 March 1981. Steve Priest then returned to the United States, where he had been living since late 1979. When Polydor released "Identity Crisis" in October 1982, the original Sweet had been disbanded for almost a year.


title: The Sweet

text: Andy Scott and Mick Tucker organised their own version of Sweet with Paul Mario Day (ex-Iron Maiden, More, Wildfire) on lead vocals, Phil Lanzon (ex-Grand Prix) on keyboards and Mal McNulty on bass. The band performed at the Marquee Club in London in February 1986, with the shows recorded and gaining release a few years later, bolstered by four new studio tracks including a cover of the Motown standard "Reach Out I'll Be There". This line-up also toured Australian and New Zealand pubs and clubs for more than three months in 1985 and for a similar period again in 1986. Singer Paul Day ended up marrying the band's Australian tour guide and relocating downunder. He continued with Sweet commuting back and forth to Europe for the group's tours until this proved to be too cumbersome. He departed in late 1988. As McNulty moved into the front man spot, Jeff Brown came in to take over bass early in 1989. Lanzon too went back and forth between Sweet and Uriah Heep during 1986-1988 before Heep's schedule grew too busy. Malcolm Pearson and then Ian Gibbons (who had played with The Kinks and The Records) both filled in for Lanzon until Steve Mann (Liar, Lionheart, McAuley Schenker Group) arrived in December 1989.


title: The Sweet

text: Tucker departed after a show in Lochau, Austria, on 5 May 1991. He later was diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia. Three drummers, Andy Hoyler, Bobby Andersen and Bruce Bisland (Weapon, Wildfire, Praying Mantis), provided short-term relief before Bodo Schopf (McAuley Schenker Group) took over. They recorded an album during this period, simply titled "A". Before the band embarked on the supporting tour for "A" in 1992, Bodo left and Bisland returned as permanent percussionist. Scott changed the band's name to 'Andy Scott's Sweet' after Tucker's departure but truncated it to simply 'The Sweet' once again after Tucker's death in 2002.


title: The Sweet

text: Mal McNulty, now lead vocalist, departed in 1994, though he would return briefly that year to fill in for Jeff Brown on bass (as he would again in 1995 as lead singer for a few dates while Rocky Newton subbed on bass). Sweet's former keyboard men Gary Moberley and Ian Gibbons also did fill-in jaunts with the group that year, as did Chris Goulstone. Chad Brown (ex-Lionheart; no relation to Jeff) was the new front man. "Glitz Blitz and Hitz", a new studio album of re-recorded Sweet hits, was released during this period.


title: The Sweet

text: In 1996 Mann left to take a job in television and Gibbons came back for a short time before Steve Grant (ex-The Animals) became the permanent keyboardist. When Chad Brown quit in 1998 after developing a throat infection, Jeff Brown assumed lead vocals and bass duties. After this, the band was stable again for the next five years.


title: The Sweet

text: The mid-2000s would bring further confusing shake-ups and rotations. Tony O'Hora (ex-Onslaught, Praying Mantis) replaced Brown as lead vocalist in 2003. Ian Gibbons came back for a third stint as fill-in keyboardist in June 2005 for a gig in the Faroe Islands. O'Hora decided to split to take a teaching job in late 2005. Grant then jumped from keyboards to lead vocals and bass as Phil Lanzon returned on keyboards for a tour of Russia and Germany in October/November. New singer Mark Thompson Smith (ex-Praying Mantis) joined in November 2005 for some Swedish gigs, while Jo Burt (ex-Black Sabbath) was temporary bass player. Tony Mills (ex-Shy) was slated to be Sweet's new singer in early 2006 but failed to work out and left after six shows in Denmark. At this point, O'Hora came back as fill in front man and then Grant did another turn himself as the singer/bassist (Steve Mann depped on keyboards) until the group finally landed a new permanent front man when Peter Lincoln (ex-Sailor) arrived in July 2006. The line-up then consisted of Scott, Bisland, Grant and Lincoln.


title: The Sweet

text: Scott produced the Suzi Quatro album "Back to the Drive", released in February 2006. March 2006 saw the U.S. release of his band's album "Sweetlife".


title: The Sweet

text: In 2007 the group played in Germany, Belgium, Austria and Italy. In May of that year, the band played in Porto Alegre and Curitiba, Brazil, their first and only South American shows. The tour was called the 'Sweet Fanny Adams Tour'.


title: The Sweet

text: The band toured again in March 2008 under the name 'Sweet Fanny Adams Revisited Tour'. In May and June, Scott's Sweet were part of the "Glitz Blitz & 70s Hitz" tour of the UK alongside The Rubettes and Showaddywaddy.


title: The Sweet

text: In March and April 2010, Scott was absent from a couple of gigs due to ill health and Martin Mickels stood in. Scott revealed later that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and was treated at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. After a course of treatment and rest, he was back to full touring fitness. In 2010 the band played at venues in Europe and back at Bilston in October.


title: The Sweet

text: In March 2011 there was a short tour of Australia, Regal Theatre - Perth, and Clipsal 500, Adelaide with the Doobie Brothers. Also in 2011, Tony O'Hora came back to the group, this time as keyboardist, after Grant departed.


title: The Sweet

text: In March 2012 the band released a new album "New York Connection". Recorded in England, it comprised 11 cover versions, including the 2011 single "Join Together" and one revamped original recording; the 1972 B-side "New York Connection". All the covers either featured 'bits and pieces' of Sweet hits or other artist songs, such as a "new version of the Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop" [which] shared space with samples from ‘Ballroom Blitz,’ and a take on Hello’s "New York Groove" (made famous in the US by Ace Frehley) featured a sample from Jay-Z’s "Empire State Of Mind" along with other Sweet references."


title: The Sweet

text: On the eve of their March 2012 "Join Together" tour of Australia, the band undertook an acoustic performance of three tracks, "New York Groove-Empire State of Mind", "Blockbuster" and "Peppermint Twist", in front of a live audience at ABC Radio Studios in East Perth. Shows in Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Geelong, Melbourne and Sydney featured tracks from the new album for the first time.


title: The Sweet

text: Paul Manzi joined Sweet on their 2014 Australian tour, replacing Tony O'Hora who was absent for personal reasons. Manzi played guitar, keyboard and undertook lead vocals on "Set Me Free" and "AC-DC" as the band performed shows in regional centres, including outback Western Australia, Darwin and far-north Queensland, NSW and Victoria during February and March. The band, with O'Hora back in the ranks, returned to Australia in September 2014 as the headlining act for "Rock The Boat 4". This was a cruise aboard the ship Rhapsody of the Seas which departed Sydney and took in New Caledonia and Vanuatu. The band played two gigs and various members guested with Australian veteran performers including Brian Cadd and Russell Morris and members of AC/DC, The Angels, Rose Tattoo and Skyhooks.


title: The Sweet

text: In June 2015 it was revealed that the band were going on an extensive tour of the UK in late 2015 and that this tour would probably be their last.


title: The Sweet

text: For the 2015 summer tour dates, Paul Manzi returned to sub for Peter Lincoln who left this online message to the fans: "There have been a few rumours going around this weekend, so . . . just to say that I am alive and well! The short explanation for my absence is that I need to rest my voice for a few weeks. We are lucky that our good friend Paul Manzi is able to step in, and Tony knows the role of bass player/singer, so the shows can go ahead, and they will be great! I look forward to being back on stage very soon."


title: The Sweet

text: Pete Lincoln duly resumed his role in the band and they continued with extensive live dates, known as the "Finale" tour in Germany.


title: The Sweet

text: In 2017 after Andy undertook a successful Australian visit with Suzi Quatro and Don Powell in the side outfit known as QSP, Sweet was again booked for an extensive European tour. In the years following both Tony O'Hora and Pete Lincoln departed the band. Paul Manzi returned as permanent lead vocalist, quitting the popular outfit Cats in Space to do so. Lee Small joined as bassist and backing vocalist. Former guitarist and keyboard player Steve Mann joined for a handful of shows as a special guest. During the COVID-19 pandemic the band recorded a new album of old tracks entitled Isolation Boulevard.


title: The Sweet

text: In 1984 Brian Connolly formed a new version of the Sweet without any of the other original members. Despite recurring ill health, Connolly toured the UK and Europe with his band, "Brian Connolly's Sweet", which was then renamed to "New Sweet". His most successful concerts were in West Germany, before and after reunification.


title: The Sweet

text: During 1987, Connolly met up again with Frank Torpey. Torpey later explained in interviews Connolly was trying to get a German recording deal. The two got on very well and Torpey subsequently invited Connolly to go into the recording studio with him, as an informal project. After much trepidation, Connolly turned up and the track "Sharontina" was recorded. This recording would not be released until 1998, appearing on Frank Torpey's album "Sweeter".


title: The Sweet

text: By July 1990, plans were made for Connolly and his band to tour Australia in November. During the long flight to Australia, Connolly's health had suffered and he was hospitalised in Adelaide Hospital, allegedly for dehydration and related problems. The rest of the band played a show in Adelaide without him. After being released from the hospital, Connolly joined the other band members in Melbourne for a gig at the Pier Hotel, in Frankston. After several other shows, including one at the Dingley Powerhouse, Connolly and his band played a final date at Melbourne's Greek Theatre. It was felt Connolly's health was sufficient reason for the tour not to be extended, and some of the planned dates were abandoned. Connolly went back to England and his band appeared on The Bob Downe Christmas show on 18 December 1990.


title: The Sweet

text: During the early 1990s, Connolly played the European "oldies" circuit and occasional outdoor festivals in Europe with his band. On 22 March 1992, a heavy duty tape recorder was stolen from the band's van whilst at a gig in the Bristol Hippodrome with Mud. It contained demos of four new songs, totalling about 20 mixes.


title: The Sweet

text: Legal problems were going on in the background over the use of the Sweet name between Connolly and Andy Scott. Both parties agreed to distinguish their group's names to help promoters and fans. The New Sweet went back to being called Brian Connolly's Sweet and Andy Scott's version became Andy Scott's Sweet.


title: The Sweet

text: In 1994, Connolly and his band played in Dubai. He appeared at the Galleria Theatre, Hyatt Regency. He also performed in Bahrain.


title: The Sweet

text: By this time Connolly had healed the differences with Steve Priest and Mick Tucker, and was invited to the wedding of Priest's eldest daughter, Lisa. At the private function, for which Priest specially flew back to England, Priest and Connolly performed together.


title: The Sweet

text: In 1995, Connolly released a new album entitled "Let's Go". His partner Jean, whom he had met a few years earlier, gave birth to a son. Connolly also performed in Switzerland that year.


title: The Sweet

text: On 2 November 1996 British TV Network Channel 4 aired a programme "Don't Leave Me This Way", which examined Connolly's time as a pop star with the Sweet, the subsequent decline in the band's popularity, and its impact on Connolly and the other band members. The show revealed Connolly's ill health but also that he was continuing with his concert dates at Butlins. Connolly and his band had appeared at Butlins a number of times on tour during the early 1990s.


title: The Sweet

text: Connolly's final concert was at the Bristol Hippodrome on 5 December 1996, with Slade II and John Rossall's Glitter Band Experience.


title: The Sweet

text: In January 2008, Steve Priest assembled his own version of the Sweet in Los Angeles. He enlisted a guitarist Stuart Smith and L.A. native Richie Onori, Smith's bandmate in Heaven & Earth, was brought in on drums. The keyboard spot was manned by ex-Crow and World Classic Rockers alumni Stevie Stewart. Front-man and vocalist Joe Retta was brought in to round out the line-up.


title: The Sweet

text: After an initial appearance on L.A. rock station 95.5 KLOS's popular Mark & Brian radio programme, the "Are You Ready Steve?" tour kicked off at the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood on 12 June 2008. The band spent the next several months playing festivals and gigs throughout the U.S. and Canada, including Moondance Jam in Walker, Minnesota; headlining at the Rock N Resort Music Festival in North Lawrence, Ohio (near Canal Fulton); London, Ontario's Rock the Park; another headlining gig at Peterborough's Festival of Lights; the Common Ground Festival in Lansing, Michigan; and a benefit concert for victims of California's wildfires at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California.


title: The Sweet

text: In January 2009, the Sweet presented at the concert industry's Pollstar Awards, and also played a short set at the Nokia Theatre where the event was held, marking the first time in the ceremony's history that a band performed at the show. In addition to local gigs at the House of Blues on L.A.'s Sunset Strip and Universal CityWalk, 2009 saw the band return to Canada for sold-out shows at the Mae Wilson Theater and Casino Regina, as well as the Nakusp Music Fest and Rockin' the Fields of Minnedosa in Minnedosa, Manitoba. U.S. festivals have included Minnesota's Halfway Jam, Rockin' the Rivers in Montana (with Pat Travers and Peter Frampton), and two late-summer shows at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.


title: The Sweet

text: The new band recorded a cover version of the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride", which was included on Cleopatra Records' "Abbey Road", a Fab Four tribute CD that was released on 24 March 2009.


title: The Sweet

text: A preview of the band's new CD "Live in America", which was recorded live at the Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa in Cabazon, California on 30 August 2008, was featured on KLOS's "Front Row" programme on 12 April 2009. The CD, which was first sold at shows and via the band's on-line store, was released worldwide in an exclusive deal with Amazon.com on 21 July 2009. The release has garnered favourable reviews from The Rock n Roll Report, Classic Rock Revisited and Hard Rock Haven, among others.


title: The Sweet

text: In April 2010, the band released its first single on iTunes: an updated, hard rock version of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There." Performances on the 2010 summer tour included the Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival in Richardson, Texas; Las Vegas, Nevada's Fremont Street Experience; Rock N' America in Oklahoma City, OK; Summer Jam in Des Moines, Iowa; Jack FM's Fifth Show at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Los Angeles; an appearance at the Hard Rock Hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi; and the inaugural edition of the Thunder Mountain Rock Festival in Sawyer, North Dakota.


title: The Sweet

text: On 11 November 2010, it was announced that in May 2011 "Steve Priest's Sweet" had been booked to perform at a handful of European dates, but the gigs ultimately had to be cancelled in late January 2011 after it was learned that one of the promoters was a suspected swindler wanted by British law enforcement officials. As of February 2011, fans who purchased pre-sale tickets were still in the process of working through the administrative channels with PayPal and various banks and credit card issuers in order to try to reclaim their funds.


title: The Sweet

text: The band and their European fans then also got re-united quicker than thought, when the band got booked by a befriended female Belgian promoter. Two east German gigs, 27 and 28 May 2011, so in Borna and in Schwarzenberg Steve Priest's Sweet hit the European grounds. After more than 30 years, Steve Priest got a warm welcome back in Europe.


title: The Sweet

text: As of 12 August 2012, Stuart Smith resigned from the guitar post in order to dedicate more time to his "Heaven & Earth" project.


title: The Sweet

text: Beginning with the band's October 2012 appearance at the Festival Internacional Chihuahua in Mexico, Los Angeles-based guitarist Ricky Z. teamed up with Steve Priest and company for their live performances. In February 2013, this lineup returned to Casino Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada. Tour dates played in summer 2013 included Riverfest in Watertown, Wisconsin, the St. Clair, MI Riverfest, several additional dates in Canada, and a reprise of their appearances at both Moondance Jam in Walker, MN and Rockin' the Rivers in Three Forks, Montana. The band made some rare appearances on the U.S. east coast in July 2013, including a performance with David Johansen of the New York Dolls at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey. Singer Joe Retta was unavailable for these dates due to a scheduling conflict, so Tribe of Gypsies frontman Chas West, who has played with Jason Bonham's band and has experience subbing in such well-known bands as Foreigner, Lynch Mob and Diamond Head, stepped in to man the microphone for a series of shows in New York, New Jersey and Maryland.


title: The Sweet

text: On 27 August 2014, Steve Priest announced on the band's Facebook page that guitarist Mitch Perry had been tapped for the guitar slot. Most recently on tour with Lita Ford, Mitch's other credentials included his work with Michael Schenker Group, Asia Featuring John Payne, Edgar Winter, Billy Sheehan and David Lee Roth His first live appearance with Sweet was at the Rock the River festival in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on 23 August 2014.


title: The Sweet

text: 22 December 2017 saw the launch of the 50th anniversary tour at the Whisky a Go Go on L.A.'s Sunset Strip and the introduction of new singer Paul Zablidowski AKA "Paulie Z" former lead singer and guitarist of ZO2, children's band "The Z Brothers" and star of IFC show Z-Rock. Recently known as the host for local show "Ultimate Jam Night." Z replaced Joe Retta, who had served as the frontman for the Los Angeles incarnation of Sweet since its formation in 2008. Priest died on 4 June 2020.


title: The Sweet

text: Steve Priest was asked to join Tucker and Scott for the 1985 Australian tour, but declined at the last moment.


title: The Sweet

text: Mike Chapman contacted Connolly, Priest, Scott, and Tucker in 1988, offering to finance a recording session in Los Angeles. As he remembers: "I met them at the airport and Andy and Mick came off the plane. I said, 'Where's Brian?' They said, 'Oh, he's coming.' All the people had come off the plane by now. Then this little old man hobbled towards us. He was shaking, and had a ghostly white face. I thought, 'Oh, Jesus Christ.' It was horrifying." Reworked studio versions of "Action" and "The Ballroom Blitz" were recorded, but it became clear that Connolly's voice and physical health had made Sweet's original member comeback too difficult to promote commercially. Consequently, the reunion attempt was aborted.


title: The Sweet

text: In 1990 this line-up was again reunited for the promotion of a music documentary entitled "Sweet's Ballroom Blitz". This UK video release, which contained UK television performances from the 1970s and current-day interviews, was released at Tower Records, London. Sweet was interviewed by Power Hour, Super Channel, and spoke of a possible reunion.


title: The Sweet

text: Brian Connolly died at the age of 51 on 9 February 1997, from liver failure and repeated heart attacks, attributed to his abuse of alcohol in the 1970s and early 1980s. Mick Tucker died on 14 February 2002 from leukemia, at the age of 54. On 4 June 2020 it was announced that Steve Priest had died. It left Andy Scott as the sole living member of Sweet's 'classic lineup'.


title: The Sweet

text: Two versions of The Sweet were active with original members: "Andy Scott's Sweet", who frequently tour across Europe as Sweet and makes occasional sojourns to other markets including regular visits to Australia, and "Steve Priest's Sweet" who toured the US and Canada.


title: The Sweet

text: On 28 April 2009, Shout! Factory released a two-disc, career-spanning greatest hits album called "". It received a four-star (out of five) rating in "Rolling Stone".


title: The Sweet

text: In an October 2012 appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live", Axl Rose, lead singer of Guns N' Roses, referenced Sweet as one of his favourite bands growing up along with fellow British band Queen.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: In 2018, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) began implementing internationalized country code top-level domains, consisting of language-native characters when displayed in an end-user application. Creation and delegation of ccTLDs is described in RFC 1591, corresponding to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes. While gTLDs have to obey international regulations, ccTLDs are subjected to requirements that are determined by each country’s domain name regulation corporation. With over 150 million domain name registrations today or as of 2022, ccTLDs make up about 40% of the total domain name industry.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: Country code extension applications began in 1985. The registered country code extensions in that year included .us (United States), .uk (United Kingdom) and .il (Israel). The registered country code extensions in 1986 included .au (Australia), .de (Germany), .fi (Finland), .fr (France), .is (Iceland), .jp (Japan), .kr (South Korea), .nl (Netherlands) and .se (Sweden). The registered country code extensions in 1987 included .nz (New Zealand), .ch (Switzerland) and .ca (Canada). The registered country code extensions in 1988 included .ie (Ireland) .it (Italy), .es (Spain) and .pt (Portugal). In the 1990s, .cn (People’s Republic of China) and .ru (Russian Federation) were first registered.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: There are 308 delegated ccTLDs. The .cn, .tk, .de, .uk, .nl and .ru ccTLDs contain the highest number of domains. The .jp, .kr, .ca, .pl, .gr, .cz, .hu, .au, .fr, .it, .es and .us ccTLDs do not contain as many domains as other ccTLDs. The top ten ccTLDs account for more than five-eighths of registered ccTLD domains. There were about 153 million ccTLD domains registered at the end of March 2022.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: IANA is responsible for determining an appropriate trustee for each ccTLD. Administration and control are then delegated to that trustee, which is responsible for the policies and operation of the domain. The current delegation can be determined from IANA's list of ccTLDs. Individual ccTLDs may have varying requirements and fees for registering subdomains. There may be a local-presence requirement (for instance, citizenship or other connection to the ccTLD), as, for example, the American (us), Japanese (jp), Canadian (ca), French (fr) and German (de) domains, or registration may be open.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: The first registered ccTLD was .us, which was registered in 1985. Later ccTLDs registered in that year included .uk and .il. Then, .au, .de, .fi, .fr, .is, .jp, .kr, .nl and .se were also registered in 1986. In 1987, .nz, .ch and .ca were registered. Later on, in 1988, .ie, .it, .es and .pt were also registered.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: As of 20 May 2017, there were 255 country-code top-level domains, purely in the Latin alphabet, using two-character codes. The number was 316 , with the addition of internationalized domains. The number is 308 .


title: Country code top-level domain

text: However, some of these are effectively unused. In particular, the ccTLDs for the Norwegian dependency Bouvet Island (codice_1) and the designation Svalbard and Jan Mayen (codice_2) do exist in DNS, but no subdomains have been assigned, and it is Norid policy to not assign any at present. Two French territories—codice_3 (Saint Barthélemy) and codice_4 (Saint Martin)— await local assignment by France's government.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: The code codice_5, although eligible as ccTLD for Western Sahara, has never been assigned and does not exist in DNS. Only one subdomain is still registered in codice_6 (ISO 3166-1 for the United Kingdom), and no new registrations are being accepted for it. Sites in the United Kingdom generally use codice_7 (see below).


title: Country code top-level domain

text: The former .um ccTLD for the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands was removed in April 2008. Under RFC 1591 rules, .um is eligible as a ccTLD on request by the relevant governmental agency and local Internet user community.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: Several ASCII ccTLDs are in use that are not ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes. Some of these codes were specified in older versions of the ISO list.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: ccTLDs may be removed if that country ceases to exist. There are three ccTLDs that have been deleted after the corresponding 2-letter code was withdrawn from ISO 3166-1: codice_20 (for Czechoslovakia), codice_21 (for Zaire) and codice_22 (for East Timor). There may be a significant delay between withdrawal from ISO 3166-1 and deletion from the DNS; for example, ZR ceased to be an ISO 3166-1 code in 1997, but the codice_21 ccTLD was not deleted until 2001. Other ccTLDs corresponding to obsolete ISO 3166-1 codes have not yet been deleted. In some cases they may never be deleted due to the amount of disruption this would cause for a heavily used ccTLD. In particular, the Soviet Union's ccTLD codice_12 remains in use more than twenty years after SU was removed from ISO 3166-1.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: The historical country codes codice_25 for the German Democratic Republic and codice_26 for South Yemen were eligible for a ccTLD, but not allocated; see also codice_27 and codice_28.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: The temporary reassignment of country code codice_20 (Serbia and Montenegro) until its split into codice_30 and codice_31 (Serbia and Montenegro, respectively) led to some controversies about the stability of ISO 3166-1 country codes, resulting in a second edition of ISO 3166-1 in 2007 with a guarantee that retired codes will not be reassigned for at least 50 years, and the replacement of RFC 3066 by RFC 4646 for country codes used in language tags in 2006.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: The previous ISO 3166-1 code for Yugoslavia, YU, was removed by ISO on 23 July 2003, but the codice_32 ccTLD remained in operation. Finally, after a two-year transition to Serbian codice_30 and Montenegrin codice_31, the .yu domain was phased out in March 2010.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: Australia was originally assigned the codice_35 country code, which was later changed to codice_36 with the codice_37 domains moved to codice_38.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: An internationalized country code top-level domain (IDN ccTLD) is a top-level domain with a specially encoded domain name that is displayed in an end user application, such as a web browser, in its native language script or a non-alphabetic writing system, such as Latin script (.us, .uk and .br), Indic script (.) and Korean script (.), etc. IDN ccTLDs are an application of the internationalized domain name (IDN) system to top-level Internet domains assigned to countries, including the United Kingdom, or independent geographic regions.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: ICANN started to accept applications for IDN ccTLDs in November 2009, and installed the first set into the Domain Names System in May 2010. The first set was a group of Arabic names for the countries of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. By May 2010, 21 countries had submitted applications to ICANN, representing 11 languages.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: ICANN requires all potential international TLDs to use at least one letter that does not resemble a Latin letter, or have at least three letters, in an effort to avoid IDN homograph attacks. Nor shall the international domain name look like another domain name, even if they have different alphabets. Between Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, for example, this could happen.


title: Country code top-level domain

text: Generic Country Code Top-Level Domain or gccTLD refers to those TLDs which are technically "non-restricted ccTLDs" but used like traditional generic TLDs (gTLDs) rather than "country"-targeted ones. Most of the gccTLDs are primarily used as domain hacks:


title: Country code top-level domain

text: Lenient registration restrictions on certain ccTLDs have resulted in various domain hacks. Domain names such as codice_39, codice_40, codice_41 and codice_42 form well-known English phrases, whereas others combine the second-level domain and ccTLD to form one word or one title, creating domains such as codice_43 of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (codice_44), codice_45 of Belgium (codice_46), codice_47 of the United States (codice_48), and codice_49 of Tonga (codice_50). The codice_51 domain of Colombia has been cited since 2010 as a potential competitor to generic TLDs for commercial use, because it may be an abbreviation for "company".


title: Country code top-level domain

text: Some ccTLDs may also be used for typosquatting. The domain "cm" of Cameroon has generated interest due to the possibility that people might miss typing the letter "o" for sites in the "com".


title: Country code top-level domain

text: Some of the world's smallest countries and non-sovereign or colonial entities with their own country codes have opened their TLDs for worldwide commercial use, some of them free like .tk.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: The Black Sea Fleet (, "Chernomorskiy flot") is the fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea Fleet, along with other Russian ground and air forces on the Crimean Peninsula, are subordinate to the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: The fleet traces its history to its founding by Prince Potemkin on May 13, 1783. The Russian SFSR inherited the fleet in 1918; with the founding of the Soviet Union in 1922, it became part of the Soviet Navy. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Black Sea Fleet was partitioned between the Russian Federation and Ukraine in 1997, with Russia receiving title to 82% of the vessels.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: The Black Sea Fleet has its official primary headquarters and facilities in Sevastopol, which Russia illegally took from Ukraine, along with the rest of Crimea, in 2014. The rest of the fleet's facilities are based in locations on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, including Krasnodar Krai, Rostov Oblast and Crimea. The appointment of the commander, Admiral Viktor Sokolov, was announced on August 16, 2022.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: The Black Sea Fleet is considered to have been founded by Prince Potemkin on May 13, 1783, together with its principal base, the city of Sevastopol. Formerly commanded by such legendary admirals as Dmitry Senyavin and Pavel Nakhimov, it is a fleet of enormous historical and political importance for Russia. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 Russian control over Crimea was confirmed and Russian naval forces under the command of Admiral Fyodor Ushakov defeated the


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: Turkish fleet at the Battle of Kerch Strait in 1790, preventing the Turks from landing a force in Crimea.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: During the French Revolutionary Wars, the Black Sea Fleet was initially deployed under the command of Admiral Ushakov, in conjunction with the Turks, against French forces during the Siege of Corfu. The victory led to the establishment of the Septinsular Republic with the island of Corfu then serving as a base for Russian naval units in the Mediterranean operating against the French.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: Turkey, encouraged by the French, went to war with Russia in the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812. The Russian fleet (deploying from the Baltic, but joining some vessels of the Black Sea Fleet already in the Mediterranean prior to the outbreak of war) under the command of Admiral Dmitry Senyavin played an instrumental role in this conflict securing victories at both the Battle of the Dardanelles (1807) and the Battle of Athos.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: After the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, the Russians, together with the British and French, intervened in the Greek War of Independence defeating the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Navarino in 1827 and helping to secure Greek independence (though once again, the Russian fleet was compelled to deploy from the Baltic). Turkish closure of the Dardanelles Straits then sparked a renewed Russo-Turkish conflict from 1828 to 1829 which led to the Russians gaining further territory along the eastern Black Sea.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: The restriction imposed on the Black Sea Fleet by Turkish control of the Straits was influential in motivating Russia from time-to-time to attempt to secure control of the passage, which became a recurrent theme in Russian policy. From 1841 onward the Russian fleet was formally confined to the Black Sea by the London Straits Convention.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: However, within the Black Sea itself, the Turks found themselves at a naval disadvantage in relation to the Russian Black Sea Fleet. In 1853, the Black Sea Fleet destroyed Turkish naval forces at the Battle of Sinop after the Turks had declared war on Russia. Nevertheless, during the ensuing Crimean War, the Russians were placed on the defensive and the allies were able to land their forces in Crimea and, ultimately, capture Sevastopol.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: As a result of the Crimean War, one provision of the 1856 Treaty of Paris was that the Black Sea was to be a demilitarized zone similar to the Island of Åland in the Baltic Sea. This hampered the Russians during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 and in the aftermath of that conflict, Russia moved to reconstitute its naval strength and fortifications in the Black Sea.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: The Black Sea Fleet would play an instrumental political role in the 1905 Russian Revolution with the crew of the battleship revolting in 1905 soon after the Navy's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. The revolt acquired a symbolic character in the lead up to the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and after, as portrayed in the 1925 film by Sergei Eisenstein, "Battleship Potemkin". Lenin wrote that the "Potemkin" uprising had had a huge importance in terms of being the first attempt at creating the nucleus of a revolutionary army.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: During World War I, there were a number of encounters between the Russian and Ottoman navies in the Black Sea. The Ottomans initially had the advantage due to having under their command the German battlecruiser , but after the two modern Russian dreadnoughts and had been built in Mykolaiv, the Russians took command of the sea until the Russian government collapsed in November 1917. German submarines of the Constantinople Flotilla and Turkish light forces would continue to raid and harass Russian shipping until the war's end.


title: Black Sea Fleet

text: In 1918, some elements of the fleet were interned by the Central Powers as a result of their advance into South Russia. In the April Crimea operation, the goal of both Ukrainians and Germans was to get control over the Black Sea Fleet, anchored in Sevastopol. Former Chief of Staff Mikhail Sablin raised the colours of the Ukrainian National Republic on 29 April 1918, and moved a portion of the Ukrainian fleet (two battleships and fourteen destroyers) to Novorossiysk in order to save it from capture by the Germans.