title: History of WWE

text: McMahon's focus on entertainment rather than giving his product a legitimate sports feel, the policy that became the concept of sports entertainment, led to great financial success for WWF. During the 1980s, Hulk Hogan would cross over into mainstream prominence presented as an all-American hero. Hogan's time as the face of the WWF would last until he departed from the company in the summer of 1993. Other stars such as "Macho Man" Randy Savage, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, The Ultimate Warrior, The Honky Tonk Man, "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, and others also helped make WWF a financial success in this time period. Jim Duggan won the first Royal Rumble match in 1988. While these talents were recognizable as individuals, some talent became better known for their teamwork as part of tag teams. Stables or groups such as Demolition, Strike Force, The Hart Foundation, The British Bulldogs, The Rockers and The Fabulous Rougeaus helped create a strong tag team division for WWF. Towards the end of the "Golden Age", Bret Hart of the Hart Foundation began to break out on his own as a singles competitor, with his most memorable match early on taking place at SummerSlam in 1992 against "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Hart would eventually capture the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Ric Flair later that year and would win the King of the Ring tournament the following year.


title: History of WWE

text: In 1991, it was reported that Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, Rick Martel, Brian Blair, and Dan Spivey were to testify that they had purchased steroids from WWF physician Dr. George T. Zahorian, who was being charged with the illegal distribution of the drug. Two years later, Vince McMahon was indicted due to his connection to Zahorian, and faced a possible eight-year prison term and a $500,000 fine if convicted. The trial began on July 7, 1994, with the prosecutor, who promised to expose "the dark, corrupt underbelly" of WWF, claimed McMahon distributed steroids "like candy" and pressured wrestlers into taking the drug. Wrestler Nailz testified that McMahon had once said to him: "I strongly suggest you go on the gas". Days later, Hogan admitted that steroid use amongst WWF wrestlers was common, but denied ever being pressured into doing so by McMahon. A week later, McMahon was acquitted of all charges, and was quoted as saying "I'm elated. Just like in wrestling, in the end the good guys always win."


title: History of WWE

text: With business down in 1992 because of bad press from the steroid scandal, Vince McMahon began pushing younger talents into the spotlight over the next several years. By mid-1993, Bret "Hit Man" Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Razor Ramon, Diesel, Lex Luger, Yokozuna, Owen Hart, Crush, Tatanka and others all became the stars of what the WWF eventually branded as the "New Generation". Hulk Hogan would leave the company in the summer of 1993 and Hart would become one of the most popular stars of this period until his departure in 1997.


title: History of WWE

text: Meanwhile, competition between the major wrestling companies increased. In January 1993, WWF created their prime time cable TV program "Monday Night Raw", which aired on the USA Network. In 1994, WCW signed Hulk Hogan and other former WWF stars to multi-year contracts, and in 1995 launched "Monday Nitro" on TNT, to go head to head with "Raw", starting the Monday Night Wars. At WrestleMania X in 1994 a ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon received critical acclaim and was said to be ground breaking and to have revolutionized the concept of ladder matches.


title: History of WWE

text: By mid-1996, with the introduction of the New World Order (nWo), a stable led by former WWF wrestlers Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall (Razor Ramon), and Kevin Nash (Diesel), "Nitro" started a near two years of ratings domination. More talent would eventually leave WWF for WCW including Ted DiBiase, Curt Hennig, reigning WWF Women's Champion Alundra Blayze and The 1-2-3 Kid while Bret Hart decided to stay with the WWF in spite of a lucrative offer by WCW. At in 1997 the first Hell in a Cell match would be held between The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels, which Michaels won after interference from Undertaker's storyline half brother Kane. The Hell in a Cell match has since become one of the most popular gimmick matches in wrestling history.


title: History of WWE

text: In 1997, Vince McMahon responded to WCW's big success by taking the WWF in a different direction with more realistic characters and edgier storylines. Rising stars included the D-Generation X group (consisting of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Rick Rude, X-Pac, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn and Chyna) and Stone Cold Steve Austin, whose rise to popularity began with his 1996 King of the Ring win and famous "Austin 3:16" speech. Despite starting out as a villain, Austin's popularity would start to gradually exceed those of the top fan favorites in the promotion. At Survivor Series on November 9, 1997, WWF debuted the "scratch" logo which would be the company's signature throughout the Attitude Era and on December 15, 1997, Vince McMahon aired a promo on "Raw Is War" addressing the audience on the company embarking on a "more innovative and contemporary campaign", which would advise parent discretion for a younger audience. This same episode also marked the beginning of the scratch logo being officially used for WWF television broadcasts and went into full effect, replacing the New Generation logo.


title: History of WWE

text: In 1997, McMahon also informed Bret Hart that he could no longer afford to pay him what his contract stated, and suggested that he go back to the more lucrative deal that WCW had offered him. Hart signed with WCW, but a behind-the-scenes controversy developed over Hart's final matches, resulting in the Montreal Screwjob. Hart was defending the WWF World Heavyweight Championship against Shawn Michaels at 1997 Survivor Series, when McMahon ordered the referee to award the match and the championship to Michaels as if Hart had submitted. While Hart went on to WCW, McMahon received enormous backlash from the media, wrestlers and fans alike, inspiring him to create the Mr. McMahon character, a villainous extension of his status as a promoter.


title: History of WWE

text: Following Hart's departure, the company implemented a heavy push of popular anti-hero character Stone Cold Steve Austin, whose popularity was rising and was similar to Hulk Hogan's popularity in the 1980s. During an angle involving Mike Tyson at WrestleMania XIV in March 1998, Austin became WWF Champion by beating Shawn Michaels, giving rise to the Austin era and the despotic Mr. McMahon character, which began a long-lasting feud with Austin; this feud would be very important in the WWF turning the tides in the ratings war with rival company WCW. Later in the year, new talent began to emerge for WWF: The Rock, Triple H, Mick Foley, and Kane strengthened WWF's singles division, while stables such as D-Generation X and the Nation of Domination helped the fight against rival company WCW.


title: History of WWE

text: WWF head writer Vince Russo also contributed to the formation of D-Generation X in 1997, The Undertaker vs. Kane feud in 1998, the Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon feud, the rise of The Rock, and Mick Foley's three face pushes during the Attitude Era, which helped put "Raw" ahead of "Nitro" in the ratings. Russo's booking style was often referred to as "Crash TV," which included edgy, controversial storylines involving sexual content, profanity, swerves or unexpected heel turns, and worked shoots in the storylines. As well as short matches, backstage vignettes, shocking angles and levels of depicted violence.


title: History of WWE

text: WWF rebounded in its ratings and popularity, with "Raw Is War" finally beating "Nitro" for the first time in 84 weeks on April 13, 1998. Ratings would continue to rise through 1998 and 1999; a 12-minute match between Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Undertaker drew a 9.5 rating on June 28, 1999. It currently stands as the highest-rated segment in "Raw" history.


title: History of WWE

text: The Attitude Era saw WWF expand its television coverage and its business structure, as well. During the summer of 1999, WWF's parent company, Titan Sports, was renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. (WWFE, Inc. or WWFE), and on October 19, 1999, became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each, and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in October 2000.


title: History of WWE

text: In 1999, WWF launched a secondary program known as "SmackDown!" on the UPN network to compete with WCW's "Thunder". "SmackDown!"s pilot debuted as a special on April 29, 1999. Beginning on August 26, 1999, the WWF program was aired weekly. In 2000, WWF, in collaboration with television network NBC, created XFL, a new professional football league. XFL, however, was a failure, having only lasted a single year before closing its doors.


title: History of WWE

text: Head writer Chris Kreski replaced Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara, who defected to WCW in 1999. Kreski's work was admired for well-planned and detailed storylines, and the transitional period saw feuds and storylines such as the Triple H/Cactus Jack feud, the Triple H/Kurt Angle/Stephanie McMahon love triangle, and a highly successful feud between The Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian, and The Dudley Boyz. At Survivor Series, WWF's top star, Stone Cold Steve Austin, was run over by a car at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan to write him off of television due to a serious neck injury. At SummerSlam in 2000, WWF debuted the highly popular Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match, the inaugural match seeing Edge and Christian defeating The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz for the WWF Tag Team Championship.


title: History of WWE

text: Prior to WrestleMania 2000, the McMahon family had gone into an on-screen rivalry with each other for the first time, setting up the "McMahon in Every Corner" four-way elimination main event between Big Show (managed by Shane McMahon), The Rock (managed by Mr. McMahon), Triple H (managed by Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley), and future WWF Commissioner Mick Foley (managed by Linda McMahon). Triple H won after Mr. McMahon turned on The Rock and thus retained the WWF Championship. This was historically significant as the first time a heel wrestler had won the main event of Wrestlemania.


title: History of WWE

text: Stone Cold Steve Austin would make his return to the company at Unforgiven 2000 and then would make his in-ring return at No Mercy, to gain revenge on Rikishi, who had been revealed as the driver of limousine that had struck Austin at Survivor Series. Austin would go on to win the next year's Royal Rumble match and come out victorious against The Rock for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania X-Seven with help from his former rival, Mr. McMahon, turning into a villain in the process. At this point WWF won the Monday Night Wars against WCW.


title: History of WWE

text: In the Invasion storyline, Shane McMahon (kayfabe) acquired World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in April 2001 and WCW personnel invaded WWF. For the first time since the Monday Night Wars, WWF's purchase of WCW had made a major American inter-promotional feud possible, but the Invasion turned out to be a disappointment to many fans. One main reason would be that many of WCW's big-name stars were still under contract to WCW's old parent company, AOL Time Warner, rather than WCW itself, and their contracts were not included in the purchase of the company. These wrestlers chose to sit out the duration of their contracts and be financially supported by AOL Time Warner rather than work for WWF for a cheaper salary.


title: History of WWE

text: On July 9, 2001, the stars of WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling (acquired by Stephanie McMahon in a related storyline) joined forces, forming "The Alliance" with WCW owner Shane McMahon and the new owner of ECW Stephanie McMahon leading the charge, with the support and influence of original ECW owner Paul Heyman. At Invasion, Stone Cold Steve Austin turned on WWF and helped the Alliance win the Inaugural Brawl. At Survivor Series, WWF finally defeated WCW and ECW in a "Winner Takes All Match" and the angle was concluded. In the aftermath of the Invasion angle, WWF made several major changes to their product. Ric Flair returned to the WWF as "co-owner" of the company, feuding with Vince McMahon. Jerry Lawler returned to the company after a nine-month hiatus, after his replacement on commentary, Paul Heyman, was fired on-screen by Vince McMahon. Several former Alliance stars were absorbed into the regular WWF roster, such as Booker T, The Hurricane, Lance Storm, and Rob Van Dam. At Vengeance 2001, Chris Jericho went on to unify the WCW Championship and WWF Championship, beating both The Rock and Steve Austin on the same night.


title: History of WWE

text: Eventually, Vince McMahon brought back Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall to reunite the nWo at the No Way Out pay-per-view in February 2002. However, Hogan proved to be too popular with nostalgic fans of the Golden Era's "Hulkamania" and soon turned face at WrestleMania X8 after his classic match with The Rock, which The Rock won. With an excess of talent employed as a result of having purchased WCW and ECW, The WWF needed a way to provide exposure for all of its talent. This problem was solved by introducing a "Brand Extension", with the roster split in half and the talent assigned to either Raw or SmackDown! in a mock draft lottery. Wrestlers, commentators and referees became show-exclusive, and the shows were given separate on-screen General Managers and on the March 25, 2002, episode of Raw, the World Wrestling Federation had the first ever WWF draft lottery, which meant the WWF superstars are separated between two brands, Raw and SmackDown!. This became effective from April 1, 2002, on Raw.


title: History of WWE

text: In 2002, the World Wrestling Federation lost a lawsuit initiated by the World Wildlife Fund over the WWF trademark. The World


title: History of WWE

text: Wrestling Federation was forced to rebrand itself and changed its business name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on May 6, 2002. The company also dropped its "WWF Attitude" moniker that same day and shortly thereafter, it eliminated all elements that used the Federation; this affected licensed merchandise such as action figures, video games, and home video releases with its previous logo, which was replaced by a new "scratch" logo with only the letter W. However, the older “Block” logo, which the company was no longer using at the time of the legal dispute and the "World Wrestling Federation" name can be used by WWE when referencing history. During this time, the company launched WWE Studios, which was originally formed as WWE Films.


title: History of WWE

text: On June 24, 2002 episode of "Raw", Vince McMahon officially named the new era "Ruthless Aggression". Later that same year, after WWE Champion Brock Lesnar announced himself exclusive property of the SmackDown! brand and with the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship, all the championships became show-exclusive too. Additionally, both Raw and SmackDown! began to stage individual pay-per-view events featuring only performers from that brand – only the major four pay-per-views Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series remained dual-branded. The practice of single-brand pay-per-view events was abandoned following WrestleMania 23. In effect, Raw and SmackDown were operated as two distinct promotions, with a draft lottery taking place each year to determine which talent was assigned to each brand. This lasted until August 2011, when the rosters were merged and the Brand Extension was quietly phased out.


title: History of WWE

text: After the company transitioned into its Ruthless Aggression era, this period still featured many elements of its predecessor the Attitude Era, including the levels of violence, sex, and profanity, but there was less politically incorrect content, and a further emphasis on wrestling was showcased.


title: History of WWE

text: The two top stars of the Attitude Era, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, eventually left the company in 2003 and 2004 respectively, while newcomers such as Brock Lesnar, who would become the youngest WWE Champion and Randy Orton, who became the youngest World Heavyweight Champion, saw huge success. Triple H would also be featured prominently during this time, winning several of his fourteen world championships, as would The Undertaker, whose WrestleMania win streak started gaining fame. Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, John Cena, Batista, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, and Rob Van Dam were also given main event opportunities and all ended up becoming multiple-time world champions. From mid 2002 to 2003, WWE brought several prominent WCW stars to the company, including Eric Bischoff, Scott Steiner, Goldberg, Kevin Nash and Ric Flair. The Great American Bash, originally a WCW pay-per-view event, made its debut in WWE.


title: History of WWE

text: In August 2002, Shawn Michaels would also return as a wrestler at SummerSlam after a hiatus of over four years. He would achieve great success, and won a World Championship in the first Elimination Chamber match at Survivor Series. The match between Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 21 has been named one of the greatest matches in WWE history. Though Angle won the match, Michaels received praise for his "courageous effort". In 2006, Michaels would reunite with Triple H to once again form the popular 1990s group D-Generation X. They would have major feuds with The Spirit Squad, the McMahon family, and the newly established Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton), which ended prematurely when Triple H suffered a torn quadriceps muscle in 2007.


title: History of WWE

text: Eddie Guerrero, from the famous Mexican Guerrero wrestling family, achieved huge stardom during this period. He gained a large fanbase in 2003 on "SmackDown!", which lead to a rapid increase in his popularity, promoting him to main event status, and he ultimately won his first world championship, the WWE Championship, at No Way Out in 2004, defeating Brock Lesnar in a highly acclaimed match. He remained the top wrestler of the company after winning the WWE title until his untimely death on November 13, 2005. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame the following year. Guerrero's death due to his drug addictions caused WWE to implement the WWE Wellness Policy to prevent wrestlers from taking drugs. The circumstances of his death would provide a medium for his on- and off-screen friend Rey Mysterio to emerge as a major main-eventer and win the 2006 Royal Rumble match and the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 22. Mysterio had begun a rivalry with the villainous nephew of Eddie, Chavo Guerrero, who had cost him the World Heavyweight Championship during a match with King Booker. During the feud Mysterio injured his knees and would be sidelined for the rest of 2006 and most of 2007, halting his main event push. Mysterio returned and defeated Chavo in the 2007 edition of SummerSlam and remained a popular fan-favorite wrestler.


title: History of WWE

text: John Cena was one of the biggest breakout stars of the Ruthless Aggression era. Upon his debut, Cena quickly proved popular due to his "Doctor of Thuganomics" white rapper gimmick on the SmackDown brand, receiving a WWE Championship match against Brock Lesnar in the spring at Backlash in 2003, and had a major feud with The Undertaker during the summer. At WrestleMania 21, he won his first world championship when he defeated John "Bradshaw" Layfield, the WWE Champion at that time. Cena's popularity soared when he was drafted to Raw, where he quickly became the face of WWE, a rise not seen since Austin and Hulk Hogan. Cena's popularity has led to him becoming the all-time record "wish maker" for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, granting over 500 wishes as of August 2017. Cena secured victories over veterans Triple H and Shawn Michaels in the main events of WrestleMania 22 and WrestleMania 23, respectively. A popular wrestler during the period was Bobby Lashley from the ECW brand. Cena would defeat Lashley at The Great American Bash in 2007 in a well-received match, shortly after which Lashley left the WWE. After being sidelined due to a shoulder injury for the latter half of 2007, Cena returned in the 2008 Royal Rumble match, winning the match.


title: History of WWE

text: Triple H, Randy Orton, Ric Flair, and Batista were part of the villainous stable Evolution, who were prominently featured between 2003 and 2005 until their eventual break-up.


title: History of WWE

text: Beginning in early 2005, the popularity of Batista would soar much like Cena's, winning the 2005 Royal Rumble and the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 21 from Triple H. Later in 2005, Batista would go on to defeat Triple H in a highly acclaimed Hell in a Cell match at Vengeance. Although Batista would have major success in the months following his championship win, he would suffer an injury in early 2006 and miss that year's WrestleMania. After returning and eventually winning another world championship, at WrestleMania 23 in 2007, Batista would defend the title against The Undertaker in a classic encounter, though he lost the match. However, Batista defeated The Undertaker at Cyber Sunday. Cena and Batista would not face each other for the first time until SummerSlam in 2008, with Batista winning.


title: History of WWE

text: Randy Orton became a prominent Superstar during this period, becoming the youngest world champion in WWE history at the age of 24, defeating Chris Benoit at the 2004 SummerSlam event. Dubbed "the Legend Killer," he would go on to have feuds with legendary superstars such as The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan, facing them at WrestleMania 21 and the 2006 SummerSlam event, respectively. Along with fellow Superstar Edge, he would form the villainous tag team Rated-RKO and find success in the tag team division. After returning to singles competition Orton became a multi-time WWE Champion. In 2007 Orton begun the famous Cena–Orton rivalry, which lasted until on and off 2014. Orton would also be involved in a lengthy rivalry with former Evolution leader Triple H, defeating him in a Last Man Standing match at No Mercy in 2007 but a year later losing to him in another Last Man Standing match at One Night Stand in 2008.


title: History of WWE

text: Rising star CM Punk made his WWE debut in 2006, wrestling his first main roster match at Survivor Series that year in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series elimination match as part of Team DX in a clean sweep victory over Team Rated-RKO. In 2008, he won the money in the bank briefcase, and on the June 30 episode of "Raw", he cashed it in on the then-World Heavyweight Champion Edge, winning the title. The same night, he had to defend the title against John "Bradshaw" Layfield in the main event, but retained it.


title: History of WWE

text: The final pay-per-view event to receive an adult-oriented rating was The Great American Bash in 2008, where Triple H retained the WWE Championship against Edge in the main event. Following the event, WWE shifted to TV-PG, family-friendly programming.


title: History of WWE

text: The concept for the Money in the Bank match was introduced in March 2005 by Chris Jericho. Jericho pitched the idea on an episode of "Raw" to general manager Eric Bischoff, who liked it and promptly signed it for WrestleMania 21, assigning Jericho, Christian, Chris Benoit, Edge, Shelton Benjamin, and Kane to participate in the match. Edge won this inaugural match, and since, many times the match became a way to help elevate new stars to the main event, with winners such as CM Punk, The Miz, Daniel Bryan, Alberto Del Rio, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose. The match format was originally exclusive to the annual WrestleMania until 2010, when the Money in the Bank pay-per-view debuted. In 2017, Shane McMahon announced the first-ever women's Money in the Bank match, which was won by Carmella.


title: History of WWE

text: By 2004, WWE began reintroducing Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) through content from the ECW video library and a series of books, which included the release of "The Rise and Fall of ECW".


title: History of WWE

text: On May 26, 2006, WWE officially announced the relaunch of the franchise with its own show on NBC Universal's Sci Fi Channel, later to be known as Syfy, starting June 13, 2006. Despite initial concerns that professional wrestling would not be accepted by Sci Fi Channel's demographic, network President Bonnie Hammer stated that she believed ECW would fit the channel's theme of "stretching the imagination".


title: History of WWE

text: On June 13, Paul Heyman, former ECW owner and newly appointed figurehead for the ECW brand, recommissioned the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to be the brand's world championship and awarded it to Rob Van Dam as a result of winning the WWE Championship at One Night Stand 2006. Under the WWE banner, ECW was presented in a modernized style to that when it was an independent promotion and was produced following the same format of the other brands, with match rules, such as count outs and disqualifications, being standard. Matches featuring the ruleset of the ECW promotion were classified as being contested under "Extreme Rules" and were only fought when specified otherwise. The brand would continue to operate until February 16, 2010, when the brand was rendered defunct.


title: History of WWE

text: In the summer of 2008, WWE began distancing itself from the edgier content of years past, going with a more conservative approach. On July 22, 2008, all WWE programming transitioned to a PG television rating, with the 2008 SummerSlam event being the first pay-per-view event held under PG ratings. Although the "SmackDown"-brand TV shows were always held under TV-PG ratings since inception in 1999, in 2008, "Raw" TV shows, which were broadcast in TV-14 ratings, started to be broadcast under TV-PG ratings. While fans would dub this the "PG Era" early on, references from wrestlers themselves would come later such as Triple H in his "Thy Kingdom Come" documentary and Natalya on an episode of "Table for 3". Another most notable example was that John Cena's famous finishing move, the "F-U", was renamed "Attitude Adjustment". Intentionally blading, which was common until then, became forbidden in the WWE. John Cena remained the top star of the company during this era. New superstars Sheamus and Alberto del Rio also registered notable success during this period, winning the WWE Championship in the years 2009 and 2011, respectively. Also in 2009, D-Generation X reunited and would win the unified WWE tag team titles from Chris Jericho and The Big Show in a . A rivalry between straight edge CM Punk and drug addict Jeff Hardy in 2009 over Hardy's real-life drug addiction issues received critical acclaim, and after Punk forced Hardy to storyline quit the WWE, Punk would form the villainous stable Straight Edge Society that would feud with fan-favorite Rey Mysterio throughout 2010.


title: History of WWE

text: At WrestleMania XXVI in 2010, veteran wrestler Shawn Michaels retired following a loss to The Undertaker. In August 2011, WWE began to phase out the brand extension when they gave Raw the tagline "SuperShow", meaning wrestlers could appear on both Raw and SmackDown. The year 2011 saw a highly acclaimed feud between the company's two most high-profile superstars at that point, John Cena and CM Punk. Their match at Money in the Bank on July 17, 2011, was named one of the greatest matches in WWE history. Punk, who had become a top star during the summer of 2011 due to his infamous "pipe bomb" promo, would hold the WWE Championship for 434 days before losing to The Rock in 2013 at the 2013 Royal Rumble, a reign recognized by WWE as the sixth-longest championship reign of all time and the longest in 25 years. The Rock defended the championship until he was defeated by John Cena at WrestleMania 29 in a rematch from their bout the previous year. Popular stable The Shield was prominently featured during this period. On December 15, 2013, the World Heavyweight Championship and WWE Championship were unified in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match between John Cena and Randy Orton, which Orton won and the unified championship was briefly called the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but would soon be renamed as just the WWE Championship.


title: History of WWE

text: On February 23, 2010, WWE launched a new program on Syfy called "NXT". The premise of the show was a reality-like show which saw eight new stars (Rookies) being mentored by Superstars from the main roster (Pros), and ran for just over three months, with the last episode of the first season being on June 1, 2010. The winner of the season was Wade Barrett, mentored by Chris Jericho. Six days after the end of the first season, the rookies, now calling themselves The Nexus, interfered in the "Raw" main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking both competitors and the announcing team, before dismantling the ring area and surrounding equipment. During the segment, Daniel Bryan strangled ring announcer Justin Roberts with the announcer's own tie, which WWE reportedly felt was too violent for their family-friendly programming. As a consequence, WWE announced via their official website four days later that Bryan had been (legitimately) released from his contract. Bryan was later rehired due to fans' outrage over his firing and joined Team WWE against Team Nexus in the 2010 SummerSlam event in a 7-on-7 elimination tag team match, which Team WWE won. "NXT" lasted for a further three complete seasons, which were won respectively by Kaval, Kaitlyn, and Johnny Curtis. A fifth season, dubbed "NXT Redemption", featuring former "NXT" participants, never announced a winner and quietly ended with Derrick Bateman being the sole remaining participant. Eventually, the show morphed into both a television show and WWE's new official development territory, replacing Florida Championship Wrestling, and is permanently located at Full Sail University.


title: History of WWE

text: In 2013, Daniel Bryan became one of the most popular wrestlers in the company. On several occasions, fans would begin hijacking segments in which Bryan was either not involved in, or involved only secondarily, with his "Yes!" chant. The night after the 2014 Royal Rumble, CM Punk quit WWE due to feeling mistreated by officials within the company, while also dealing with a misdiagnosed staph infection. Meanwhile, fan outrage over the misuse of Bryan's character resulted in an unplanned change for the WrestleMania XXX main event. On the March 24, 2014 episode of "Raw", Bryan's rival at the time, Triple H, dubbed this point in WWE as "The Reality Era". Bryan would eventually be inserted into the main event of WrestleMania, defeating Randy Orton and Batista in a critically acclaimed triple threat match, and capture the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the process. Also at WrestleMania XXX, The Undertaker was defeated for the first time at the event by Brock Lesnar, following 21 consecutive victories dating back to 1991. Lesnar would then defeat John Cena at SummerSlam to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. This was seen as the end of Cena's position as the face of WWE, a position Cena had held since 2005. Lesnar would go on to be featured as the most dominant wrestler of this era. The introduction of the WWE Network and the WWE Performance Center were also major breakthroughs during this period. On a "Stone Cold Podcast" episode that aired on the WWE Network in 2015, Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin both stated that "kayfabe has died" in modern WWE. Triple H also acknowledged that fans nowadays are more knowledgeable about the behind-the-scenes workings of WWE, as well as have more influence on the company than ever before.


title: History of WWE

text: The Triple Threat match at the 2015 Royal Rumble event between Seth Rollins, John Cena, and Brock Lesnar received critical acclaim and was widely recognized as one of the best the match of the year. The WWE United States Championship Open Challenge match between the Champion John Cena and challenger Cesaro on the July 6, 2015 edition of Raw was also widely praised as one of the best matches in "Raw" history and was awarded the Slammy award for the best US title open challenge match by the WWE.


title: History of WWE

text: WCW legend Sting, who had previously been dubbed the "greatest wrestler to never wrestle in WWE", made his debut at the 2014 Survivor Series and had his first-ever match in WWE at WrestleMania 31 against Triple H, a match he would lose. Also at WrestleMania 31, Seth Rollins became the first person to cash in a Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania when he did so during the main event match between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns for the WWE Championship, with Rollins successfully winning the title. The event has since then been famously dubbed "the heist of the century" in the WWE.


title: History of WWE

text: WrestleMania 32 in Arlington, Texas (billed as Dallas) garnered the largest crowd to ever attend a WWE event, surpassing a disputed 100,000 attendees. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Triple H to capture the WWE World Heavyweight Championship despite a segment of the WWE fans pushing back on Reigns' push from the company in the lead-up. The Authority officially disbanded on May 1, 2016.


title: History of WWE

text: The 2016 Payback event, held on May 1, 2016, was billed as the start of a "New Era". In the main event, Roman Reigns would retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against AJ Styles. Reigns would go on to be prominently featured throughout this era. Later in May 2016, WWE announced that a roster split, similar to the one in 2002, would take place beginning in July. The three former members of The Shield - Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins - have been heavily featured since the start of the New Era, with all three men exchanging the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Money in the Bank in June 2016.


title: History of WWE

text: While the now renamed WWE World Championship would be moved to the SmackDown brand, the new WWE Universal Championship was introduced for the Raw brand, with Finn Bálor becoming the inaugural champion.


title: History of WWE

text: The Divas division was rebranded as the Women's division and the company introduced a new WWE Women's Championship and retired the former Divas Championship. Female Superstars also began receiving more air time for their matches, and begun receiving as much spotlight as male superstars, thus the "New era" has been credited as being the start of the "women's evolution." On the Raw-branded Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event in 2016, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks made history being in the first WWE pay-per-view event main-evented by women and participating in the first-ever women's Hell in a Cell match. Women started to participate in matches that, before then, were male-only, like the Money in the Bank, Royal Rumble, and Elimination Chamber. On October 28, 2018, WWE held their first all-women pay per view, WWE Evolution, which saw a highly acclaimed last woman standing match between Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, which Lynch won. At this point, Becky Lynch started referring to herself as "The Man", becoming one of the most popular stars. This culminated at WrestleMania 35, where three women, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, and Ronda Rousey main-evented the PPV, with Becky Lynch winning the match. This would be the first time in history that WrestleMania would be main evented by women.


title: History of WWE

text: In another notable occurrence at WrestleMania 35, Kofi Kingston became the first African born WWE Champion by defeating Daniel Bryan at the event.


title: History of WWE

text: At , popular WCW gimmick match the WarGames match made its return after 17 years when The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish) defeated The Authors of Pain (Akam, Rezar and Roderick Strong) and SAni†Y (Alexander Wolfe, Eric Young, and Killian Dain) in a well received WarGames match.


title: History of WWE

text: WWE would also go on to establish Braun Strowman as one of the biggest superstars of the company in 2017 after he attacked and injured Reigns during an interview on "Raw". Strowman went on to beat down other wrestlers on the roster and have a decisive victory over Reigns at Payback on April 30. Top wrestler John Cena became a part-timer around this time and lost to Roman Reigns in what is considered as a "passing the torch match" at No Mercy. Popular stable The New Day would also register notable success, becoming a record 11-time tag team champions in the company under the Freebird rule. The New Day and The Shield faced off at the 2017 Survivor Series event, a match the Shield won. Shield member Dean Ambrose left the WWE in 2019.


title: History of WWE

text: WrestleMania 36 became the first WrestleMania to be taped with no attendance, as opposed to airing live, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was shown on two nights of April 4 and April 5 respectively. In the main event of Night 1, The Undertaker defeated AJ Styles in a Boneyard match, which was well-praised, and later in November 2020 confirmed to be Undertaker's final match. In the main event of Night 2, Drew McIntyre defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship in a match critically panned for its short length. Despite having no attendance due to the circumstances, WrestleMania 36 was the most-viewed event in WWE history, with a record 967 million views combining both nights across the company's digital and social platforms.


title: History of WWE

text: On July 2, 2020, the WWE had purchased rival turned partnered-wrestling promotion Evolve and acquired all their wrestling talents and rights.


title: History of WWE

text: Bobby Lashley who left WWE in 2007 came back to WWE after a decade in 2018 and in 2021 won the WWE Championship and defeated Drew McIntyre at night 1 of WrestleMania 37 to retain the title. Bianca Belair became a dominant star in the women's division in 2021, after she won the 2021 Women's Royal Rumble match and defeated Sasha Banks in the main event of night 1 of WrestleMania 37 to win the SmackDown Women's Championship. On the April 30, 2021 episode of WWE SmackDown fan-favorite wrestler Daniel Bryan lost to Roman Reigns in a championship vs. career match for the Universal Championship and subsequently left the WWE. In July 2021 top star Bray Wyatt was released by the WWE. WWE NXT was revamped with major changes to "NXT 2.0" starting from the September 14, 2021.


title: History of WWE

text: At Night 1 of WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, veteran Stone Cold Steve Austin came out of retirement after 19 years for a one time only match defeating Kevin Owens. The following night on Night 2 of WrestleMania 38 in the main event Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match for the WWE Championship and WWE Universal Championship, becoming the first wrestler ever to hold both titles at the same time.


title: History of WWE

text: Money in the Bank (2022) on July 2, 2022; was the final WWE pay-per-view event held under the leadership of Vince McMahon. 20 days after the event on July 22, 2022 Vince McMahon retired.


title: History of WWE

text: In 2021, WWE announced that NBCUniversal Television and Streaming had acquired the exclusive U.S. distribution rights to WWE Network, and that the service would be folded into the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service Peacock on March 18, 2021, ahead of the 2021 Fastlane event. Existing and future WWE Network content started to be hosted by a branded channel within the Peacock service starting with Fastlane, with the full service included as part of the paid Peacock Premium tier (which features a wider array of television, film, and sports programming), and a selection of WWE Network content (such as E! reality shows "Total Divas" and "Total Bellas") available within its free tier. WWE committed to produce a "signature documentary" for the service annually beginning in 2022. After a transitional period, the standalone WWE Network ceased operations in the United States on April 4, 2021. Not all content was available at launch, as the service's library is being audited to meet NBCUniversal standards and practices Due to Peacock's heavy censorship policy, the company began to achieve much criticism among the fans and critics alike, especially after Peacock's removal of some of the contents that were considered iconic moments of the Attitude Era that were deemed inappropriate by Peacock, these archived contents would no longer be available under any of WWE's authorized platforms. Peacock would also gain extensive control over WWE's newer contents making them more family-friendly and politically correct. Amdist the criticisms, in April 2021 WWE executive Triple H defended WWE's move to Peacock. After numerous technical difficulties in viewing Money in the Bank via Peacock in July 2021, several fans and critics called for WWE to cancel their partnership with Peacock.


title: History of WWE

text: On June 17, 2022, amidst an investigation by WWE's Board of Directors into reported "hush money" paid to a former employee by Vince McMahon following an affair, Mr. McMahon stepped down as chairman and CEO of WWE and was replaced by his daughter, Stephanie McMahon, as the interim chairwoman and CEO of WWE. Despite the change Vince McMahon came out on WWE SmackDown that night opening the show with a brief speech, the highlights of which "then, now, forever and most importantly together" was quoted by various news media as Vince letting people know that he is still in creative control from behind the scenes. On July 22, 2022 Vince McMahon officially announced his retirement on Twitter, saying, "At 77, time for me to retire. Thank you, WWE Universe. Then. Now. Forever. Together." Following Vince's retirement announcement, Stephanie McMahon was officially named chairwoman while she and Nick Khan were named Co-CEO of WWE. Triple H would take over as head of creative, while resuming his position as Executive Vice President of Talent Relations. Commentators have highlighted the significance of McMahon's retirement, saying that it marks the start of a new period in WWE's history. The 2022 SummerSlam event held on July 30, 2022 was the first WWE pay-per-view event to be held under the leadership of Stephanie McMahon and Triple H.


title: History of WWE

text: On August 18, 2022; WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels was promoted to WWE Vice President of Talent Development Creative. On September 6, 2022 WWE announces Paul 'Triple H' Levesque's promotion to Chief Content Officer. In October 2022 at Extreme Rules; Bray Wyatt made his return to WWE after the main event match in which Matt Riddle defeated Seth Rollins in a Fight Pit match.


title: History of WWE

text: On May 23, 1999, Owen Hart fell to his death in Kansas City, Missouri during the Over the Edge pay-per-view event. Hart was in the process of being lowered via harness and grapple line into the ring from the rafters of Kemper Arena for a booked Intercontinental Championship match against The Godfather. In keeping with his Blue Blazer's new "buffoonish superhero" character, he was to begin a dramatic entrance, being lowered to just above ring level, at which time he would act "entangled", then release himself from the safety harness and fall flat on his face for comedic effect—this necessitated the use of a quick release mechanism. It was an elaboration on a Blue Blazer stunt done previously on the "Sunday Night Heat" before Survivor Series in 1998.


title: History of WWE

text: While being lowered into the ring, Hart fell 78 feet (24 m), landing chest-first on the top rope (approximately a foot from the nearest turnbuckle), throwing him into the ring.


title: History of WWE

text: Hart had performed the stunt only a few times before. Hart's widow Martha has suggested that, by moving around to get comfortable with both the harness and his cape on, Hart unintentionally triggered an early release. Television viewers did not see the incident. Moments after the fall, a pre-taped vignette was being shown on the pay-per-view broadcast as well as on the monitors in the darkened arena. Afterward, while Hart was being worked on by medical personnel inside the ring, the live event's broadcast showed only the audience. Meanwhile, WWF television announcer Jim Ross repeatedly told those watching live on pay-per-view that what had just transpired was not a wrestling angle or storyline and that Hart was hurt badly, emphasizing the seriousness of the situation.


title: History of WWE

text: Hart was transported to Truman Medical Center in Kansas City. While several attempts to revive him were made, he died from his injuries; some believe he died in the ring. The cause of death was later revealed to be internal bleeding from blunt force trauma.


title: History of WWE

text: The Legends program began informally with the return of the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony in 2004, held annually during WrestleMania weekends. The introduction of WWE 24/7, WWE's on-demand television service, the WWE Network, WWE's over-the-top streaming service and the success of career retrospective home video releases such as "The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection", "Roddy Piper: Born to Controversy", and "Brian Pillman: Loose Cannon" have ingrained WWE's modern product with a sense of heritage, and allows a new generation of wrestling fans to witness matches and events they may only previously have heard of. WWE will also offer a select group of former or retired WWE wrestlers, billing them publicly as "WWE Legends", contracts to make periodic appearances—either on WWE TV or for promotional events—and to serve as "Ambassadors" (public representatives/spokespeople) for the company.


title: History of WWE

text: On June 25, 2007, the Fayette County Police notified WWE around 4:15 p.m., informing them that they had discovered three bodies of Chris, Nancy, and their seven-year-old son Daniel Benoit at their home in Fayette County, Georgia, and the house was now ruled as a "major crime scene". WWE canceled the scheduled three-hour-long live Raw show on June 25 (which, coincidentally, was supposed to be a scripted memorial for the Mr. McMahon character), and replaced the broadcast version with a tribute to his life and career, featuring past matches, segments from the Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story DVD, and comments from wrestlers and announcers from the Raw, SmackDown! and the now-defunct ECW brands. Shortly after the program aired, many of the aired comments were posted on WWE.com. It was not until the program was nearly over that reports surfaced that police were working under the belief that Benoit murdered his wife and son before killing himself over a three-day period.


title: History of WWE

text: The next night, after some of the details of the deaths became available, the company aired a recorded statement by its chairman Vince McMahon before their ECW broadcast:


title: History of WWE

text: Following the double-murder suicide committed by Chris Benoit, the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform began investigating WWE regarding their Wellness policy. After Benoit's death, the WWE began to tone down the violence, swearing and sexual content of their product. Furthermore, after further deaths among WWE wrestlers were found (including Benoit's) to have been caused by chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which was an emerging study in brain injuries in sport, WWE legitimately banned chair shots to the head.


title: History of WWE

text: In January 2008, WWE began broadcasting in high-definition, beginning with the January 21 episode of "Raw", while the 2008 Royal Rumble was the first pay-per-view event presented in HD.


title: History of WWE

text: On November 19, 2008, WWE officially launched their online social network, WWE Universe. It opened in April as "WWE Fan Nation", and adopted the name "WWE Universe" a few months later. The website was similar to MySpace, with blogs, forums, photos, videos, and other features. Despite a heightened popularity the site was shut down on January 1, 2011, and has since replaced with WWE InterAction. Since closing down their social media website, WWE has created accounts on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tout, and Instagram, with executive vice president of digital media Perkins Miller stating that "social media is going to transform our company".


title: History of WWE

text: In July 2012, WWE made an investment of $5 million into Tout, and a month later released an official app. In 2013, WWE's main Twitter account was cited as one of the top 25 most engaged brands on the website. In 2014, WWE launched "WWE SuperCard", a trading card app game, which was downloaded 1.5 million times in the first week of its launch.


title: History of WWE

text: In September 2011, WWE officially announced plans to launch the WWE Network in time for WrestleMania XXVIII. WWE's official website featured a countdown clock that would have expired on April 1, 2012 however, the clock was quietly removed, and the network did not launch as advertised.


title: History of WWE

text: At the Consumer Electronics Show on January 8, 2014, WWE announced the WWE Network would launch on February 24, 2014, in the United States. WWE called the network "the first-ever 24/7 streaming network". On February 27, 2014, the WWE Network aired its first live event, NXT Arrival, which featured three championship matches and a well-received match between Cesaro and Sami Zayn.


title: History of WWE

text: Despite #CancelWWENetwork trending on social media in early 2015 after angry fans were upset with the booking of the 2015 Royal Rumble match, the trend did not prevent the Network from its continued growth, reaching 1 million subscribers the very same week.


title: History of WWE

text: Starting in October 2012, WWE formed a partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to promote breast cancer awareness. As part of the campaign, WWE adorned their sets with pink ribbons, put up a pink middle rope on the ring, filmed numerous PSAs, and sold special John Cena "Rise Above Cancer" merchandise. All of these efforts culminated in a donation from WWE of $1 million, which was presented to Susan G. Komen representatives in an in-ring ceremony during the October 29, 2012 episode of "Raw". The campaign continued every year since, but caused controversy as the foundation has been accused of pinkwashing.


title: History of WWE

text: Throughout the late 2010s, WWE became embroiled in scandals concerning the company allowing certain employees to harass others, such as Bill Demott and John "Bradshaw" Layfield. According to multiple sources including Dave Meltzer's "Wrestling Observer", hazing is something which is encouraged by the higher ups in the company and has been going on since the company's inception.


title: History of WWE

text: In March 2020, WWE began to be impacted by the American onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The March 11 episode of NXT was filmed without spectators at the WWE Performance Center facility in Orlando, as three of the four major sports leagues had announced two days earlier that they would close locker rooms to the media as a precautionary measure. As other sports cancellations and postponements were being announced, WWE officially announced on March 12 that its weekly programs, beginning with the following night's episode of "SmackDown", would be filmed at the Performance Center with no spectators and only essential staff present. Major pay per view events including WrestleMania 36 have been aired taped without any attendance as opposed to being aired live. "NXT" has continued to air from Full Sail University, but under similar restrictions. The highly advertised aired taped in June 2020, however certain WWE officials were used as part of a very limited crowd for the event.


title: History of WWE

text: Live broadcasts returned on April 13, with the existing arrangements continuing; WWE stated to ESPN.com that "we believe it is now more important than ever to provide people with a diversion from these hard times", and that the company's programming "bring[s] families together and deliver a sense of hope, determination and perseverance". It was subsequently reported that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had deemed WWE a business critical to the state's economy, and had added an exception under the state's stay-at-home order for employees of a "professional sports and media production" that is closed to the public and has a national audience. The decision was met with criticism from media outlets, with several media outlets pointing out that DeSantis' actions happened on the same day a pro-Donald Trump political action committee led Linda McMahon, who was previously a part of Trump's cabinet, pledged to spend $18.5 million in advertising in Florida, and that, also on the same day, Vince McMahon was named part of an advisory group created by Trump to devise a strategy in re-launching US economy.


title: History of WWE

text: On April 15, WWE announced a series of cuts and layoffs in response to the pandemic, including releasing a number of personnel. WWE executives also took a pay cut, and the company has also suspended construction on its new headquarters for at least six months. The firings released significant backlash with both fans; with "Business Insider" calling them "livid." Both fans and several media outlets pointed out that while WWE claimed that these actions were "necessary due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic". The WWE also claimed to have "substantial financial resources. Available cash and debt capacity currently total approximately $0.5 billion". DeSantis' claimed WWE was "essential", which meant that the company's revenues loss would be limited. Beginning in August, WWE moved its events to a new virtual crowd and arena staging, a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome. The ThunderDome allowed fans to attend events virtually for free and be seen on the nearly 1,000 LED boards within the arena. WrestleMania 37, held in April 2021, would be WWE's first major event to be held outside of the ThunderDome and with live fans allowed back in the arena, though to a limited capacity, with the tagline "Back in Business!", the event being held over two nights with a disputed combined attendance of 51,350 people.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: Clean is a 2021 American action thriller film directed by Paul Solet and starring Adrien Brody, who also produced and wrote the film.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: In Utica, New York, a garbage truck driver nicknamed “Clean” is a garbage collector in a decaying urban residential neighborhood filled with criminals. During his job, he collects usable parts and after work, he salvages, repairs, and sells them to a thrift shop owned by one of his acquaintances. Since divorcing his wife, Clean has lived alone in a workshop while his daughter has long since died. He is always haunted and tortured by the memories of what happened to his beloved daughter and the crimes he had committed in the past. He prepared a meal the next morning for his neighbor, a teenage girl named Dianda, who is living with her grandmother.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: Meanwhile, a man named Michael is waiting for his son, Mikey, outside the prison gates. As Michael was about to go and meet his son, Mikey is instead picked up by his friends and drives away with them. Annoyed with Mikey’s behavior, he decided to let it slide.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: While picking up trash in the evening near a seafood restaurant owned by Michael, Clean notices Michael and his armed goons are in the middle of a drug trafficking deal which they smuggle through the fish’s body from China. However, Clean continued to do his job as usual. Michael is upset that the Chinese suppliers have shorted him five pouches of cocaine, totalling 200 grams.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: The next morning, Clean sees Dianda walking down the street and was told that her school bus no longer operates in her area due to service cuts. He offers to drive Dianda to school. After sending her to school, Clean dropped off a bike at Dianda’s house that belonged to his daughter. However, Dianda’s grandmother, Ethel, came out and asked why Clean was so concerned about her. Clean replied he did it to save himself from the guilt that always tormented him. Following this, Ethel tells him that he’s a nice guy. But Clean responded back that he’s not.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: At Michael’s restaurant, he beats one of his Chinese partners to death for shorting him on the cocaine. Mikey, who saw his father’s actions was silent in horror by his father’s cruelty. That evening, Clean notices the blood and the glasses of Michael’s partner that he brutally murdered while emptying the trash container. As he empties the container, Michael suddenly appears behind him and apologizes for the stench. He tries to offer some money for Clean, but Clean refuses and continues doing his job.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: The next day, Clean’s car breaks down in a bad neighborhood. While looking for the problem, a group of thugs chase a man past Clean into an alley. Clean follows them into the alley when suddenly one of the thugs appears behind him and knocks him out with a baseball bat. Clean wakes up in a hospital and was told a doctor to take prescribed medication, but Clean refuses and chose to go straight home.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: The next day while on paid leave, Clean drives by and sees Dianda hanging with some thugs. He tells her that it’s getting late and go home. Dianda coldly replies he’s not her father to order her around. The thugs get confrontational and order Clean to leave. However, Dianda finally agrees with Clean’s request to avoid an argument.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: At Michael's home, Michael gets into a heated argument with his son at dinner for hanging out with his friends instead of helping him running a drug business. Mikey then threatens him with a knife and decided to run away from home.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: Clean works to cleanup an abandoned building and finds a large pipe wrench inside. He finds Dianda being force-fed drugs and alcohol by the thugs. The thugs set up a phone to record what they're doing. Clean beats the thugs with the pipe wrench and takes Dianda back to her grandmother's home. One of the thugs is Michael’s son.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: The next morning, Michael stands over Mikey at home. He is told that Mikey needs surgery or he might never speak again, but Michael refuses so Mikey can learn a lesson from his disobedience. Michael watches the recording from the prior night, revealing Clean’s identity. He orders Frank, a corrupt police officer, to kill Dianda and her grandmother first and bring Clean alive.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: Clean attempts to leave the city with Dianda and Ethel, but notices that he’s being followed. While being pulled over, he recognizes the police officer as one who has been bribed by Michael. He speeds off but his car starts breaking down although he manages to evade the police. They then stop at a bowling alley and diner. Dianda escorts her grandmother to use the restroom while Clean looks around the parking a lot for a vehicle to steal. Some of Michael’s henchmen notice his car and enter the diner. They chase Dianda and Ethel to the back rooms of the building. Clean intercepts them and kills each one in brutal hand-to-hand combat.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: After stopping at a motel for the night, Ethel blames Clean for putting them in danger and for not being able to return home. Clean vows to make things right and returns to the neighborhood. He returns to his residence to collect the money that he had to buy weapons from his friend’s thrift shop and prepares for his fight with Michael.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: At Michael’s residence, Frank gets a call from one of his fellow officers. He learns that Clean was a feared professional assassin known as “The Grim Reaper” who disappeared years ago. After his daughter died he decided to quit and secluded himself in the city. Clean calls Michael and warns him that he knows his address and that he is coming for him. Clean uses his salvage skills to improvise a silencer for a pump shotgun he saws the stock of made of various auto and other parts. Michael prepares all his men to deal with Clean.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: Clean crashes the garbage truck into Michael’s home and gets into a shootout with Michael’s men, killing them effortlessly. As Clean looks for Michael, he is surprised by Michael and is beaten by him. Clean turns the fight around and is about to kill Michael when Mikey appears from his room armed with a gun. Michael thinks his son will kill Clean, but Mikey empties the weapon into his father. Mikey then attempts to shoot Clean but is out of ammo.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: Some time after the fight, Dianda’s neighborhood has now been freed from the criminal activities as more kids have come out to play in the street. While pedaling down the street, Dianda notices a garbage truck approaching and smiles.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: On September 1, 2021, it was announced that IFC Films acquired North American distribution rights to the film. It was released in theaters on January 28, 2022. In April 2022, IFC Films signed an output deal with AMC+. The film was released on the streaming service on May 6, 2022.


title: Clean (2021 film)

text: Nick Schager of "Variety" gave the film a negative review and wrote, "Obvious and derivative in borderline-shameless fashion, it’s a B-movie knock-off with little originality and even less flair." Andrew Mack of Screen Anarchy gave the film a positive review and wrote that Brody and Solet "made a compact vision of the Man With a Past type thriller and given it more emotional heft than most of its predecessors combined".


title: Escape (Journey album)

text: Escape (stylized as E5C4P3 on the album cover) is the seventh studio album by American rock band Journey, released on July 31, 1981 by Columbia Records. It topped the American "Billboard" 200 chart and features four hit "Billboard" Hot 100 singles – "Don't Stop Believin'" ( 9), "Who's Crying Now" (no. 4), "Still They Ride" (no. 19) and "Open Arms" (no. 2) – plus rock radio staple "Stone in Love". In July 2021, it was certified diamond by the RIAA, making it the band's most successful studio album and second most successful album overall behind "Greatest Hits".


title: Escape (Journey album)

text: "Escape" was the band's first album with keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who replaced founding keyboardist Gregg Rolie after he left the band at the end of 1980. The album was co-produced by former Lynyrd Skynyrd sound technician Kevin Elson and one-time Queen engineer Mike Stone, who also engineered the album.


title: Escape (Journey album)

text: Mike DeGagne of AllMusic retrospectively awarded "Escape" four-and-a-half stars out of five, writing, "The songs are timeless, and as a whole, they have a way of rekindling the innocence of youthful romance and the rebelliousness of growing up, built from heartfelt songwriting and sturdy musicianship." Colin Larkin awarded the album four out of five stars in the 2002 edition of the Virgin "Encyclopedia of Popular Music". Contemporary "Rolling Stone" reviews were less favorable. The first review of 1981 by Deborah Frost marked Journey as heavy metal posers and the music in the album as easily playable by any session musician. In the 2004 edition of their album guide, "Rolling Stone" awarded the album two-and-a-half stars out of five, which was nonetheless an improvement from Dave Marsh's one star rating in the 1983 edition of the publication.


title: Escape (Journey album)

text: In 1988, "Kerrang!" readers voted "Escape" the greatest AOR album of all time―"Classic Rock" expressed the same opinion in 2008. In 1989, "Kerrang!" ranked "Escape" number 32 in "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". A 2000 Virgin poll saw the album voted the 24th greatest heavy metal/alternative rock album of all time. In 2001, "Classic Rock" ranked the album 22 in "The 100 Greatest Rock Albums of All Time". In 2006, the same publication included it in their "200 Greatest Albums of the 80s", as one of the twenty greatest albums of 1981. "Q" magazine ranked "Escape" 15th among its "Records it's OK to Love" in 2006.


title: Escape (Journey album)

text: "Cash Box" described "Still They Ride" as a "bluesy lament" with a "sad, almost mournful" vocal, "doleful acoustic piano work" and "crying guitar notes."


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Spanish names are the traditional way of identifying, and the official way of registering, a person in Spain. They comprise a given name (simple or composite) and two surnames (the first surname of each parent). Traditionally, the first surname is the father's first surname, and the second is the mother's. Since 1999, the order of the surnames in a family is decided when registering the first child, but the traditional order is nearly universally chosen (99.53% of the time).


title: Spanish naming customs

text: The practice is to use one given name and the first surname generally (e.g. "Miguel de Unamuno" for Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo); the complete name is reserved for legal, formal and documentary matters. Both surnames are sometimes systematically used when the first surname is very common (e.g., Federico García Lorca, Pablo Ruiz Picasso or José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero) to get a more distinguishable name. In these cases, it is even common to use only the second surname, as in "Lorca", "Picasso" or "Zapatero". This does not affect alphabetization: "Lorca", the Spanish poet, must be alphabetized in an index under "García Lorca", not "Lorca" or "García".


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Currently in Spain, people bear a single or composite given name ("nombre" in Spanish) and two surnames ("apellidos" in Spanish).


title: Spanish naming customs

text: A composite given name comprises two (or more) single names; for example "Juan Pablo" is considered not to be a first and a second forename, but a single composite forename.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: The two surnames refer to each of the parental families. Traditionally, a person's first surname is the father's first surname ("apellido paterno"), while their second surname is the mother's first surname ("apellido materno"). For example, if a man named "Eduardo Fernández Garrido" marries a woman named "María Dolores Martínez Ruiz" (note that women do not change their name with marriage) and they have a child named "José", there are several legal options, but their child would most usually be known as "José Fernández Martínez".


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Spanish gender equality law has allowed surname transposition since 1999, subject to the condition that every sibling must bear the same surname order recorded in the "Registro Civil" (civil registry), but there have been legal exceptions. Since 2013, if the parents of a child were unable to agree on the order of surnames, an official would decide which is to come first, with the paternal name being the default option. The only requirement is that every son and daughter must have the same order of the surnames, so they cannot change it separately. Since June 2017, adopting the paternal name first is no longer the standard method, and parents are required to sign an agreement wherein the name order is expressed explicitly. The law also grants a person the option, upon reaching adulthood, of reversing the order of their surnames. However, this legislation only applies to Spanish citizens; people of other nationalities are issued the surname indicated by the laws of their original country.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: For example, a person's name might be "Juan Pablo Fernández de Calderón García-Iglesias", consisting of a forename ("Juan Pablo"), a paternal surname ("Fernández de Calderón"), and a maternal surname ("García-Iglesias").


title: Spanish naming customs

text: There are times when it is impossible, by inspection of a name, to correctly analyse it. For example, the writer Sebastià Juan Arbó was alphabetised wrongly by the Library of Congress for many years under ""Arbó"", assuming that "Sebastià" and "Juan" were both given names. However, "Juan" was actually his first surname.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Resolving questions like this, which typically involve very common names (""Juan"" is rarely a surname), often requires the consultation of the person involved or legal documents pertaining to them.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: A man named "José Antonio Gómez Iglesias" would normally be addressed as either "señor Gómez" or "señor Gómez Iglesias" instead of "señor Iglesias", because "Gómez" is his first surname. Furthermore, Mr. Gómez might be informally addressed as


title: Spanish naming customs

text: It is not unusual, when the first surname is very common, like "García" in the example above, for a person to be referred to formally using both family names, or casually by their second surname only. For example, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (elected President of the Spanish Government in the 2004 and 2008 general elections) is often called simply Zapatero, the name he inherited from his mother's family since Rodríguez is a common surname and may be ambiguous. The same occurs with another former Spanish Socialist leader, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, with the poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca, and with the painter Pablo Ruiz Picasso. As these people's paternal surnames are very common, they are often referred to by their maternal surnames (Rubalcaba, Lorca, Picasso). It would nonetheless be a mistake to index Rodríguez Zapatero under Z or García Lorca under L. (Picasso, who spent most of his adult life in France, is normally indexed under "P".)


title: Spanish naming customs

text: In an English-speaking environment, Spanish-named people sometimes hyphenate their surnames to avoid Anglophone confusion or to fill in forms with only one space provided for the last name: for example, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, is named "Ocasio-Cortez" because her parents' surnames are Ocasio-Roman and Ocasio-Cortez (née Cortez). She has publicly corrected people who referred to her as "Cortez" rather than "Ocasio-Cortez."


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Parents choose their child's given name, which must be recorded in the "Registro Civil" (Civil Registry) to establish his or her legal identity. With few restrictions, parents can now choose any name; common sources of names are the parents' taste, honouring a relative, the General Roman Calendar "nomina" (nominal register), and traditional Spanish names. Legislation in Spain under Franco dictatorship legally limited cultural naming customs to only Christian (Jesus, Mary, saints) and typical Spanish names (Álvaro, Jimena, etc.). Although the first part of a composite forename generally reflects the gender of the child, the second personal name need not (e.g. José María Aznar). At present, the only naming limitation is the dignity of the child, who cannot be given an insulting name. Similar limitations applied against diminutive, familiar, and colloquial variants not recognized as names proper, and "those that lead to confusion regarding sex";


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Girls are often named "María", honouring the Virgin Mary, by appending either a shrine, place, or religious-concept suffix-name to "María". In daily life, such women omit the "Mary of the ..." nominal prefix, and use the suffix portion of their composite names as their public, rather than legal, identity. Hence, women with Marian names such as "María de los Ángeles" (Mary of the Angels), "María del Pilar" (Mary of the Pillar), and "María de la Luz" (Mary of the Light), are normally addressed as "Ángeles" (Angels), "Pilar" (Pillar), and "Luz" (Light); however, each might be addressed as "María". Nicknames such as "Maricarmen" for "María del Carmen", "Marisol" for "María (de la) Soledad" ("Our Lady of Solitude", the Virgin Mary), "Dolores" or "Lola" for "María de los Dolores" ("Our Lady of Sorrows"), "Mercedes" or "Merche" for "María de las Mercedes" ("Our Lady of the Gifts"), etc. are often used. Also, parents can simply name a girl "María", or "Mari" without a suffix portion.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: It is not unusual for a boy's formal name to include "María", preceded by a masculine name, e.g. José María Aznar (Joseph Mary Aznar) or Juan María Vicencio de Ripperdá (John Mary Vicencio de Ripperdá). Equivalently, a girl can be formally named "María José" (Mary Joseph), e.g. skier María José Rienda, and informally named "Marijose", "Mariajo", "Majo", "Ajo", "Marisé" or even "José" in honor of St. Joseph. "María" as a masculine name is often abbreviated in writing as "M." (José M. Aznar), "Ma." (José Ma. Aznar), or "M.ª" (José M.ª Morelos). It is unusual for any names other than the religiously significant "María" and "José" to be used in this way except for the name "Jesús" that is also very common and can be used as ""Jesús"" or ""Jesús María"" for a boy and ""María Jesús"" for a girl, and can be abbreviated as ""Sus"", ""Chus"" and other nicknames.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: The "Registro Civil" (Civil Registry) officially records a child's identity as composed of a forename (simple or composite) and the two surnames; however, a child can be religiously baptized with several forenames, e.g. Felipe Juan Froilán de Todos los Santos. Until the 1960s, it was customary to baptize children with three forenames: the first was the main and the only one used by the child; if parents agreed, one of the other two was the name of the day's saint. Nowadays, baptizing with three or more forenames is usually a royal and noble family practice.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: In Spain, upon marrying, one does not change one's surname. In some instances, such as high society meetings, the partner's surname can be added after the person's surnames using the preposition "de" (of). An example would be a "Leocadia Blanco Álvarez", married to a "Pedro Pérez Montilla", may be addressed as "Leocadia Blanco de Pérez" or as "Leocadia Blanco Álvarez de Pérez". This format is not used in everyday settings and has no legal value. Similarly, a widow may be identified using the abbreviation "vda." for "viuda" ("widow" in Spanish), as in "Leocadia Blanco vda. de Pérez".


title: Spanish naming customs

text: In the generational transmission of surnames, the paternal surname's precedence eventually eliminates the maternal surnames from the family lineage. Contemporary law (1999) allows the maternal surname to be given precedence, but most people observe the traditional paternal–maternal surname order. Therefore, the daughter and son of "Ángela López Sáenz" and "Tomás Portillo Blanco" are usually called "Laura Portillo López" and "Pedro Portillo López" but could also be called "Laura López Portillo" and "Pedro López Portillo". The two surnames of all siblings must be in the same order when recorded in the "Registro Civil". Spanish naming customs include the orthographic option of conjoining the surnames with the conjunction particle "y", or "e" before a name starting with 'I', 'Hi' or 'Y', (both meaning "and") (e.g., "José Ortega y Gasset", "Tomás Portillo y Blanco", or "Eduardo Dato e Iradier"), following an antiquated aristocratic usage.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Patrilineal surname transmission was not always the norm in Spanish-speaking societies. Prior to the mid-eighteenth century, when the current paternal-maternal surname combination norm was adopted, Hispanophone societies often practiced matrilineal surname transmission, giving children the maternal surname and occasionally giving children a grandparent's surname (borne by neither parent) for prestige – being perceived as gentry – and profit, flattering the matriarch or the patriarch in hope of inheriting land. A more recent example can be found in the name of "Francisco de Asís Franco y Martínez-Bordiú" (born 1954), who took first the name of his mother, Carmen Franco, rather than that his father, Cristóbal Martínez-Bordiú, 10th Marquis of Villaverde, in order to perpetuate the family name of his maternal grandfather, the "Caudillo" Francisco Franco.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Not every surname is a single word; such conjoining usage is common with doubled surnames (maternal-paternal), ancestral composite surnames bequeathed to the following generations – especially when the paternal surname is socially undistinguished. "José María Álvarez del Manzano y López del Hierro" is an example, his name comprising the composite single name "José María" and two composite surnames, "Álvarez del Manzano" and "López del Hierro". Other examples derive from church place-names such as San José. When a person bears doubled surnames, the means of disambiguation is to insert "y" between the paternal and maternal surnames.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: In case of illegitimacy – when the child's father either is unknown or refuses to recognize his child legally – the child bears both of the mother's surnames, which may be interchanged.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Occasionally, a person with a common paternal surname and an uncommon maternal surname becomes widely known by the maternal surname. Some examples include the artist Pablo Ruiz Picasso, the poet Federico García Lorca, and the politician José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. With a similar effect, the foreign paternal surname of the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Hughes Galeano (his father was British) is usually omitted. (As a boy, however, he occasionally signed his name as "Eduardo Gius", using a Hispanicised approximation of the English pronunciation of "Hughes".) Such use of the second last name by itself is colloquial, however, and may not be applied in legal contexts.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Also rarely, a person may become widely known by both surnames, with an example being a tennis player Arantxa Sánchez Vicario – whereas her older brothers Emilio and Javier, also professional tennis players, are mainly known only by the paternal surname of Sánchez in everyday life, although they would "formally" be addressed as "Sánchez Vicario".


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Where Basque and Romance cultures have linguistically long coexisted, the surnames denote the father's name and the (family) house or town/village. Thus the Romance patronymic and the place-name are conjoined with the prepositional particle "de" ("from"+"provenance"). For example, in the name "José Ignacio López de Arriortúa", the composite surname "López de Arriortúa" is a single surname, despite "Arriortúa" being the original family name. This can lead to confusion because the Spanish "López" and the Basque "Arriortúa" are discrete surnames in Spanish and Basque respectively. This pattern was also in use in other Basque districts, but was phased out in most of the Basque-speaking areas and only remained in place across lands of heavy Romance influence, i.e. some central areas of Navarre and most of Álava. To a lesser extent, this pattern has been also present in Castile, where Basque-Castilian bilingualism was common in northern and eastern areas up to the 13th century.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: A notable example of this system was "Joaquina Sánchez de Samaniego y Fernández de Tejada", with both paternal and maternal surnames coming from this system, joined with a "y" ("and").


title: Spanish naming customs

text: In Spanish, the preposition particle "de" ("of") is used as a conjunction in two surname spelling styles, and to disambiguate a surname. The first style is in patronymic and toponymic surname spelling formulæ, e.g. "Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba", "Pedro López de Ayala", and "Vasco Núñez de Balboa", as in many "conquistador" names.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: The spellings of surnames containing the prepositional particle "de" are written in lower-case when they follow the name, thus "José Manuel de la Rúa" ("of the street") and "Cunegunda de la Torre" ("of the tower"), otherwise the upper-case spellings "doctor De la Rúa" and "señora De la Torre" are used.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Bearing the "de" particle does not necessarily denote a noble family, especially in eastern Castile, Alava, and western Navarre, the "de" usually applied to the place-name (town or village) from which the person and his or her ancestors originated. This differs from another practice established in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, i.e. the usage of "de" following the one's own name as a way of denoting the bearer's noble heritage to avoid the misperception that he or she is either a Jew or a Moor. In that time, many people, regardless of their true origins, used the particle, e.g. "Miguel de Cervantes", "Lope de Vega", etc.; moreover, following that fashion a high noble such as "Francisco Sandoval Rojas" called himself "Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas". During the eighteenth century, the Spanish nobility fully embraced the French custom of using "de" as a nobility identifier, however, commoners also bore the "de" particle, which made the "de" usages unclear; thus, nobility was emphasised with the surname's lineage.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: In the sixteenth century, the Spanish adopted the copulative conjunction "y" ("and") to distinguish a person's surnames; thus the Andalusian Baroque writer Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561–1627), the Aragonese painter Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828), the Andalusian artist Pablo Diego Ruiz y Picasso (1881–1973), and the Madrilenian liberal philosopher José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955). In Hispanic America, this spelling convention was common to clergymen (e.g. Salvadoran Bishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez), and sanctioned by the "Ley de Registro Civil" (Civil Registry Law) of 1870, requiring birth certificates indicating the paternal and maternal surnames conjoined with "y" – thus, "Felipe González y Márquez" and "José María Aznar y López" are the respective true names of the Spanish politicians Felipe González Márquez and José María Aznar López; however, unlike in Catalan, the Spanish usage is infrequent. In the Philippines, "y" and its associated usages are retained only in formal state documents such as police records, but is otherwise dropped in favour of a more American-influenced naming order.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: The conjunction "y" avoids denominational confusion when the paternal surname might appear to be a (first) name: without it, the physiologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal might appear to be named "Santiago Ramón" (composite) and surnamed "Cajal", likewise the jurist "Francisco Tomás y Valiente", and the cleric "Vicente Enrique y Tarancón". Without the conjunction, the footballer Rafael Martín Vázquez, when referred to by his surnames "Martín Vázquez" mistakenly appears to be forenamed "Martín" rather than "Rafael", whilst, to his annoyance, the linguist Fernando Lázaro Carreter occasionally was addressed as "Don Lázaro", rather than as "Don Fernando" (Lázaro can be either forename or surname).


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Moreover, when the maternal surname begins with an "i" vowel sound, written with either the vowel "I" ("Ibarra"), the vowel "Y" ("Ybarra" archaic spelling) or the combination "Hi" + consonant ("Higueras"), Spanish euphony substitutes "e" in place of "y", thus the example of the Spanish statesman "Eduardo Dato e Iradier" (1856–1921).


title: Spanish naming customs

text: To communicate a person's social identity, Spanish naming customs provide orthographic means, such as suffix-letter abbreviations, surname spellings, and place names, which denote and connote the person's place in society.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: p. (father of): A man named like his son, has the choice to use the lower-case suffix p. (denoting "padre", father) to his surname. An example of this is: "José Luis Lorena, p." , who distinguishes from his son "José Luis Lorena"; the English analogue is "Sr." ("senior").


title: Spanish naming customs

text: h. (son of): A man named like his father, might append the lower-case suffix h. (denoting "hijo", son) to his surname, thus distinguishing himself, "Juan Gómez Marcos, h.", from his father, "Juan Gómez Marcos"; the English analogue is "Jr." ("junior").


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Following the Visigothic invasion of the Iberian peninsula, the local population adopted to a large extent a patronymic naming system: the suffix "-icī" (a Latin genitive meaning "son of") would be attached to the name of a man's father. This suffix gradually evolved into different local forms, depending on the language. For example, the son of Fernando would be called:


title: Spanish naming customs

text: This system was most common in, but not limited to, the central region of Castile. Bare surnames, i.e. the father's name without the suffix -itz/-ez/-is/-es, can also be found, and are especially common in Catalonia. This said, mass migration in the 20th century has led to a certain leveling off of such regional differences.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: In Catalan speaking areas the suffixed surname "Ferrandis" is most common in the South (the Valencian Country) while in the North (Catalonia) the bare surname "Ferran" is more common. Furthermore, language contact led to the creation of multiple hybrid forms, as evidenced by the multiple Catalano-Castillan surnames, found especially in the Valencian Country: "Fernàndez", "Fernandis", "Fernàndiz", "Ferrandez", "Ferràniz", "Ferranis", etc.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Not every similar surname is patronymic. Due to the letters "z" and "s" being pronounced alike in Latin American dialects of Spanish, many non-patronymic surnames with an "-es" have come to be written with an "-ez". In Hispano-American Spanish, the "-ez" spellings of "Chávez" (Hugo Chávez), "Cortez" (Alberto Cortez) and "Valdez" (Nelson Valdez) are not patronymic surnames, but simply variant spellings of the Iberian Spanish spelling with "-es", as in the names of Manuel Chaves, Hernán Cortés and Víctor Valdés. For more on the "-z" surnames in Spanish see Influences on the Spanish language.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Anonymous abandoned children were a problem for civil registrars to name. Some such children were named after the town where they were found (toponymic surname). Because most were reared in church orphanages, some were also given the surnames "Iglesia" or "Iglesias" (church[es]) and "Cruz" (cross). "Blanco" (with the meaning "blank", rather than "white") was another option. A toponymic first surname might have been followed by "Iglesia(s)" or "Cruz" as a second surname.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Nameless children were sometimes given the surname "Expósito"/"Expósita" (from Latin "exposĭtus", "exposed", meaning "abandoned child"), which marked them, and their descendants, as of a low caste or social class. Due to this, in 1921 Spanish law started to allow holders of the surname "Expósito" to legally change their surname. In the Catalan language, the surname "Deulofeu" ("made by God") was often given out to these children, which is similar to "De Dios" ("from God") in Castilian.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Furthermore, in Aragón abandoned children would receive the surname "Gracia" ("grace") or "de Gracia," because they were thought to survive by the grace of God.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: In Spain, foreign immigrants retain use of their cultural naming customs, but upon becoming Spanish citizens, they are legally obliged to assume Spanish-style names (one forename and two surnames). If the naturalised citizen is from a one-surname culture, their current surname is either doubled, or their mother's maiden name is adopted. For example, a Briton with the name "Sarah Jane Smith" could become either "Sarah Jane Smith Smith" or "Sarah Jane Smith Jones" upon acquiring Spanish citizenship. Formally, Spanish naming customs would also mean that the forename "Sarah" and middle name "Jane" would be treated as a compound forename: "Sarah Jane".


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Historically, flamenco artists seldom used their proper names. According to the flamenco guitarist Juan Serrano, this was because flamenco was considered disreputable and they did not want to embarrass their families:


title: Spanish naming customs

text: This tradition has persisted to the present day, even though Flamenco is now legitimate. Sometimes the artistic name consists of the home town appended to the first name (Manolo Sanlúcar, Ramón de Algeciras); but many, perhaps most, of such names are more eccentric: Pepe de la Matrona (because his mother was a midwife); Perico del Lunar (because he had a mole); Tomatito (son of a father known as "Tomate" (tomato) because of his red face); Sabicas (because of his childhood passion for green beans, from "niño de las habicas"); Paco de Lucía, born Francisco ("Paco") Gustavo Sánchez Gomes, was known from infancy after his Portuguese mother, Lucía Gomes (de Lucía = [son] of Lucía). And many more. However, when referring to these artists by their noms de plume, it makes no sense to shorten their name to the qualifier, as in "Lucía" or "de Lucía"; Paco, or perhaps "el de Lucía", are the only options.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Many Spanish names can be shortened into hypocoristic, affectionate "child-talk" forms using a diminutive suffix, especially -ito and -cito (masculine) and -ita and -cita (feminine). Sometimes longer than the person's name, a nickname is usually derived via linguistic rules. However, in contrast to English use, hypocoristic names in Spanish are only used to address a person in a very familiar environment – the only exception being when the hypocoristic is an artistic name (e.g. Nacho Duato born Juan Ignacio Duato). The common English practice of using a nickname in the press or media, or even on business cards (such as Bill Gates instead of William Gates), is not accepted in Spanish, being considered excessively colloquial. The usages vary by country and region; these are some usual names and their nicknames:


title: Spanish naming customs

text: The official recognition of Spain's other written languages – Catalan, Basque, and Galician – legally allowed the autonomous communities to re-establish their vernacular social identity, including the legal use of personal names in the local languages and written traditions – banned since 1938 – sometimes via the re-spelling of names from Castilian Spanish to their original languages.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: The Basque-speaking territories (the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre) follow Spanish naming customs (given names + two family names, the two family names being usually the father's and the mother's).


title: Spanish naming customs

text: The given names are officially in one language (Basque or Spanish) but often people use a translated or shortened version. A bilingual Basque-Spanish speaker will not necessarily bear a Basque name, and a monolingual Spanish speaker can use a Basque name or a Basque hypocoristic of an official Spanish name; e.g. a "Francisco" (official Spanish name) may be known as "Patxi" (Basque hypocoristic).


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Some Basque-language names and surnames are foreign transliterations into the Basque tongue, e.g. "Ander" (English: "Andrew"; Spanish: "Andrés"), "Mikel" (English: "Michael"; Spanish: "Miguel"), or "Ane" (English: "Anne"; Spanish: "Ana"). In some cases, the name's original-language denotation is translated to Basque, e.g., "Zutoia" and "Zedarri" denote the Spanish "Pilar" (English: "Pillar"). Moreover, some originally Basque names, such as "Xabier" and "Eneko" (English "Xavier" and "Inigo") have been transliterated into Spanish ("Javier" and "Íñigo").


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Recently, Basque names without a direct equivalent in other languages have become popular, e.g. "Aitor" (a legendary patriarch), "Hodei" ("cloud"), "Iker" ("to investigate"), and "Amaia" ("the end"). Some Basque names without a direct Spanish meaning, are unique to the Basque language, for instance, "Eneko", "Garikoitz", "Urtzi". Basque names, rather than Spanish names, are preponderant in the Basque Country, countering the Spanish-name imposition of the Franco régime requiring people being given only Spanish names at birth. After Franco's death and the restoration of democracy in Spain, many Basque adults changed their Spanish names to the Basque equivalent, e.g. from "Miguel" to "Mikel".


title: Spanish naming customs

text: A source for modern Basque names is Sabino Arana's "Deun-Ixendegi Euzkotarra" ("Basque saint-name collection", published in 1910). Instead of the traditional Basque adaptations of Romance names, he proposed others he made up and that in his opinion were truer to the originals and adapted better to the Basque phonology. For example, his brother Luis became "Koldobika", from Frankish "Hlodwig". The traditionals "Peru" (from Spanish "Pedro"), "Pello" or "Piarres" (from French "Pierre"), all meaning "Peter", became "Kepa" from Aramaic כיפא (Kepha). He believed that the suffix "-[n]e" was inherently feminine, and new names like "Nekane" ("pain"+"ne", "Dolores") or "Garbiñe" ("clean"+"ne", "Immaculate [Conception]") are frequent among Basque females.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Basque surnames usually denote the patronymic house of the bearer; e.g. "Etxebarria" – "the new house", from "etxe" (house) + "barri" (new) + "a" (the), denotes "related to a so-named farmhouse"; in the same way, "Garaikoetxea" – "the house in the heights", "garai" ("height") + "etxe" ("house") + "a" (the). Sometimes, surnames denote not the house itself but a characteristic of the place, e.g. "Saratxaga" – "willow-place", from "saratze" ("willow") + "-aga" ("place of"); "Loyola", from "loi" ("mud") + "ola" ("iron smithery"); "Arriortua" – "stone orchard", from "harri" ("stone") + "ortua" ("orchard"). Before the 20th century all Basque men were considered nobles (indeed, some Basque surnames, e.g. "Irujo" or "Medoza", were related to some of the oldest Spanish noble families), and many of them used their status to emigrate with privileges to other regions of the Spanish Empire, especially the Americas, due to which some Basque surnames became common to the Spanish-American world; e.g. "Mendoza" – "cold mountain", from "mendi" ("mountain" + "hotza" ("cold"); "Salazar" – "old hall", from "sala" ("hall") + "zahar" ("old"). Until 1978, Spanish was the single official language of the Spanish civil registries and Basque surnames had to be registered according to the Spanish phonetical rules (for example, the Spanish "ch" sound merges the Basque "ts", "tx", and "tz", and someone whose surname in Standard Basque would be "Krutxaga" would have to write it as "Cruchaga", letter "k" also not being used in Spanish). Although the democratic restoration ended this policy, allowing surnames to be officially changed into their Basque phonology, there still are many people who hold Spanish-written Basque surnames, even in the same family: a father born before 1978 would be surnamed "Echepare" and his children, "Etxepare". This policy even changed the usual pronunciation of some Basque surnames. For instance, in Basque, the letter "z" maintained a sibilant "s"-like sound, while Spanish changed it; thus, a surname such as ""Zabala"" should be properly read similar to "sabala" (), although in Spanish, because the "z" denotes a "th" sound (), it would be read as "Tha-bala" (). However, since the letter "z" exists in Spanish, the registries did not force the Zabalas to transliterate their surname.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: In the Basque provinces of Biscay and Gipuzkoa, it was uncommon to take a surname from the place (town or village) where one resided, unless one was a foundling; in general, people bearing surnames such as "Bilbao" (after the Basque city of Bilbao) are descendants of foundlings. However, in the Basque province of Alava and, to a lesser extent, in Navarre, it was common to add one's birth village to the surname using the Spanish particle "de" to denote a "toponymic", particularly when the surname was a common one; for instance, someone whose surname was "Lopez" and whose family was originally from the valley of "Ayala" could employ "Lopez de Ayala" as a surname. This latter practice is also common in Castile.


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Basque compound surnames are relatively common, and were created with two discrete surnames, e.g. "Elorduizapaterietxe" – "Elordui" + "Zapaterietxe", a practice denoting family allegiances or the equal importance of both families. This custom sometimes conduced to incredibly long surnames, for compound surnames could be used to create others; for example, the longest surname recorded in Spain is Basque, "Burionagonatotoricagageazcoechea", formed by "Buriona"+ "Gonatar" + "Totorika" + "Beazcoetxea".


title: Spanish naming customs

text: Finally, the nationalist leader Sabino Arana pioneered a naming custom of transposing the name-surname order to what he thought was the proper Basque language syntax order; e.g. the woman named "Miren Zabala" would be referred to as "Zabala'taŕ Miren" – the surname first, plus the "-tar" suffix denoting "from a place", and then the name. Thus, "Zabala'taŕ Miren" means "Miren, of the Zabala family". The change in the order is effected because in the Basque tongue, declined words (such as "Zabala'taŕ") that apply to a noun are uttered before the noun itself; another example of this would be his pen name, "Arana ta Goiri'taŕ Sabin". This Basque naming custom was used in nationalist literature, not in formal, official documents wherein the Castilian naming convention is observed.