title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: The concerns are further reinforced by the fact that extremist ethnic Macedonian nationalists of the "United Macedonia" movement have expressed irredentist claims to what they refer to as "Aegean Macedonia" (in Greece), "Pirin Macedonia" (in Bulgaria), "Mala Prespa and Golo Brdo" (in Albania), and "Gora and Prohor Pchinski" (in Kosovo and Serbia).


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: Greek Macedonians, Bulgarians, Albanians, and Serbs form the overwhelming majority of the population of each part of the region respectively.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: Schoolbooks and official government publications in the Republic have shown the country as part of an unliberated whole.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: In April 2008, Foreign Minister of Greece Dora Bakoyannis complained about the prime minister Nikola Gruevski appearing in a photograph, by a map of "Greater Macedonia" which included Thessaloniki and a great part of Northern Greece. The complaint was made inside an article published at Wall Street Journal, regarding the NATO ascension talks.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: According to both the official Greek position and various public demonstrations in Greece and the Greek diaspora, the Greek Macedonians feel that their right to self-determination is violated by what they regard as the monopolisation of their name by a neighbouring country.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: The strong regional identity of the Macedonians was emphasised by the Prime Minister of Greece, Kostas Karamanlis, who in January 2007 during a meeting of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg declared that:


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: In Greece, the extreme position on the issue suggested that there must be "no Macedonia in the title" of a neighbouring country.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: More moderate positions suggested that a disambiguating element should be added to the name of the neighbouring state and its people (such as "Vardar", "New", ""Upper" or "North"), so as to illustrate the distinction between not just the two, but all groups of self-identifying Macedonians.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: The contemporary region of Macedonia is a wider region in the Balkan peninsula that spans across several modern states, mainly Greece (Greek Macedonia), Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad province), the Republic of Macedonia, and Albania (around the Ohrid and Prespa lakes). The definite borders of the region are vague, but most contemporary geographers agree on its general location. There are several ethnic groups in this region, mostly living within their respective states, all of which are technically "Macedonians" in the regional sense. The Republic itself has a substantial minority (25.2%) of ethnic Albanians who are "Macedonians" both in the regional sense, and as legal citizens of the Republic. However, in a Balkans where ethnicity rather than nationhood defines peoples' identity, Albanians are never referred to (or refer to themselves) as Macedonians.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: The Greek position suggests that the "monopolisation" of the name by the Republic and its citizens creates semiological confusion with Macedonian Greeks, as it becomes increasingly difficult to disambiguate which "Macedonia", which "Macedonians" and what "Macedonian language" are referred to in each occasion.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: According to a source Bulgarians living in Blagoevgrad province (Bulgarian Macedonia) are reported to not identify themselves with their regional term "Macedonians" (Macedonian Bulgarians), so as not to be confused with the ethnic Macedonians. According to other sources the traditional use of the term "Macedonians" in Bulgaria as a regional designation continues.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: Aromanians are often called "Machedoni" by Romanians, as opposed to the citizens of Macedonia, who are called "Macedoneni". However, most Aromanians do not use designations such as "Machedoni", rather they have a diverse set of self-designations. While some Aromanians self-identify as ethnic Macedonians and Greek Macedonians, particularly those in North Macedonia and Greek Macedonia, only a small number call themselves terms such as "Makedonji" and distinguish themselves from both groups.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: The Greek Macedonians demonstrate a strong regional identity and identify themselves as plain Macedonians, who live in plain Macedonia, speaking a Macedonian dialect of modern Greek.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: According to the government in Skopje, the preservation of the constitutional name, which is also used by many other international organisations, for both domestic and international use is of the utmost importance. The country asserts that it does not lay exclusive claim to the term "Macedonia" either in the geographic or the historic sense. Various demonstrations and protests in the Republic of Macedonia and the ethnic Macedonian diaspora were held to support their view that their right to self-determination is violated by what they regard as the rejection of the name from the international community. The Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences suggests:


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: Ethnic Macedonians claim they are descended from both original indigenous Macedonians and from the Slavic peoples who invaded the region in the 6th-8th century AD, thereby mixing both cultures and traditions.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: Authors and scholars in the Republic of Macedonia criticise Greece for claiming sole ownership of the ancient kingdom, the former arguing that historical sources indicate a significant political and cultural distance between ancient Greeks and Macedonians. By contrast, Greek and international authors and scholars use other data to suggest that ancient Macedonians spoke Greek and identified as Greeks. The ethnic Macedonian claim to continuity with ancient Macedonia is based on the indigenous population having mixed with the Slavic newcomers after their arrival in the 6th and 7th century, and retaining the Macedonian name and Macedonian traditions and culture. The name "Macedonia" continued in use as a geographical and political term throughout the Ancient, Roman, Medieval and Modern eras.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: It is observed that much of today's Greek Macedonia was only fully Hellenised by political and military means in modern times. After the division of Macedonia in 1913, Greece carried out a policy of Hellenisation of the local population, forcing geographical and personal name changes, religious affiliation, and writings of church frescoes and graves to Greek. During the Ioannis Metaxas era, Slavic-speaking Macedonians were deported or tortured for speaking or claiming to be Macedonian, and those with money were fined. Ethnic Macedonians argue that they have a more legitimate claim to the name "Macedonia" than modern Greek Macedonians who descend from the 638,000 Greek refugees who had emigrated from Anatolia, Epirus and Thrace and settled in Greek Macedonia during the early twentieth century.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: The expelled Refugees of the Greek Civil War which consisted of over 28,000 children made up by a significant portion of ethnic Macedonians (possibly the majority) had their citizenship revoked in Greece and the Greek government's actions in seizing citizenship has been "historically been used against people identifying as ethnic Macedonians". Greece eventually softened the law by allowing the return of "all Greeks by genus who during the Civil War of 1946–1949 and because of it have fled abroad as political refugees", although this further denied those who had fled Greece following the Civil War and identified as ethnic Macedonians, refusing any Greek ethnic designation to regain citizenship and resettle in their centuries-old properties. This resulted in many depopulated and devastated villages, especially in Western Macedonia with confiscated properties eventually being given to people from outside of the area. Vlachs and Greeks were given property in the resettlement programme conducted by the Greek Government from the period 1952–1958.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: In the 6th and 7th centuries AD, Slavic people migrated into Roman Macedonia and competed with other populations of Macedonia, although over time adopting the Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Cyrillic script from Cyril and Methodius and Slavic languages have been spoken in the area alongside Greek in the region ever since. In parts of northern Greece, in the regions of Macedonia (Μακεδονία) and Thrace (Θράκη), Slavic languages continue to be spoken by people with a wide range of self-identifications. The actual linguistic classification of the Slavic dialects of Greece is unclear, although most linguists will classify them as either Bulgarian or Macedonian taking into account numerous factors, including the resemblance and mutual intelligibility of each dialect to the standard languages ("abstand"), and the self-identification of the speakers themselves. As however the vast majority of these people have a Greek national identity, linguists will make their decisions based on "abstand" alone. The Slavic-speaking minority of northern Greece can be divided in two main groups: Orthodox Christians and Muslims, primarily the Pomaks of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. The latter has no reported connection to ethnic Macedonians.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: The Christian portion of Greece's Slavic-speaking minority are commonly referred to as "Slavophones" (from the Greek Σλαβόφωνοι - "Slavophōnoi", lit. "Slavic-speakers") or "dopii", which means "locals" or "indigenous" in Greek (from Ancient Greek ἐντόπιος - "entopios", "local"). The vast majority of them espouse a Greek national identity and are bilingual in Greek. They live mostly in the Periphery of Western Macedonia and belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, which in conjunction with the "millet" system of the Ottoman Empire which occupied the region until 1913, may explain their self-identification as Greeks. In the 1951 census, 41,017 people claimed to speak the Slavic language. One unofficial estimate for 2000 puts their number at 1.8% of the Greek population, that is c.200,000.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: This group has received some attention in recent years due to claims from the Republic of Macedonia that these people form an "ethnic Macedonian" minority in Greece. There is indeed a minority within the Slavophone community in Greece which self-identifies as ethnic Macedonian. The Greek Helsinki Monitor estimated that the number of ethnic Macedonians in Greek Macedonia ranged from 10,000 to 30,000 in 1999.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: There is a dispute over the size of this alleged minority, with some Greeks denying it outright, and some ethnic Macedonians inflating the numbers substantially. The Greek Helsinki Monitor reports that, "difficult and therefore risky it is to declare a Macedonian minority identity in such an extremely hostile if not aggressive environment in Greece". There are no official statistics to confirm or deny either claims. The Greek government has thus far refused on the basis that there is no significant community and that the idea of minority status is not popular amongst the (Greek identifying) linguistic community of northern Greece as it would have the effect of them being marginalised.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: A political party promoting this line and claiming rights of what they describe as the "Macedonian minority in Greece"—the Rainbow (Виножито)—was founded in September 1998; it received 2,955 votes in the region of Macedonia in the 2004 elections. However the party has had cases of having its offices ransacked, members being arrested for using bilingual signs written in both Macedonian and Greek and facing violations from the Greek government as ruled by the European Convention on Human Rights.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: The Albanian minority in North Macedonia does not view the name issue as an important problem. In the early 1990s Albanians of the Macedonian republic and wider region strongly opposed the suggestion of "Slavomacedonia" by the Greek side to name the country. For the Albanian community the name "Republic of Macedonia" was interpreted in territorial terms and not as having any particular Slavic associations. As such the Albanian minority held no objections toward references by Macedonian authorities to antiquity and only disagree to usage of Slavic symbols as Macedonia is perceived by them as being historically multiethnic. Albanians have insisted that any new name would have to be ethnically neutral with proposals from them being "Vardar Republic", "Central Balkan Republic" and the classical name Dardania. Prior consultation on the name issue process has been requested by Albanians.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: The name of the modern Macedonian language, as used by its speakers and defined in the constitution of the Republic of Macedonia is "Makedonski jazik" (). The term "Macedonian language" is used by several international bodies, such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization. It is also used by convention in the field of Slavic Studies.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: However, because this language is a South Slavic Indo-European language, and not descended from Ancient Macedonian, which was a Hellenic Indo-European language, several other terms remain in use. Some of the names use the family to which the language belongs to disambiguate it from ancient Macedonian, or from the homonymous dialect of modern Greek; sometimes the autonym "Makedonski" is used in English for the modern Slavic language, with "Macedonian" being reserved for the ancient language.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: Affirmation of the classification of Macedonian as a separate language is an important issue for the ethnic Macedonian self-view. Critics often treat it as a dialect of Bulgarian, due to their close structural affinity and mutual intelligibility in both written and spoken forms; they also point to Macedonian's recent emergence as a separate standard language, and the political motivation behind its promotion in the mid-20th century.


title: Macedonia naming dispute

text: The origins of the ancient Macedonian language are currently debated. It is as yet undetermined whether it was a Greek dialect which was part of or closely related to the Doric and/or Aeolic dialects, a sibling language of ancient Greek forming a "Hellenic" (i.e. Greco-Macedonian) supergroup, or an Indo-European language which was a close cousin to Greek and also related to Thracian and Phrygian languages. The scientific community generally agrees that, although some sources are available (e.g. Hesychius' lexicon, Pella curse tablet) there is no decisive evidence for supporting any of these hypotheses. The surviving public and private inscriptions found in Macedonia indicate that the written language in ancient Macedonia was Ancient Greek. Attic Greek, a form of the Greek language, eventually supplanted the ancient Macedonian entirely in Macedonia from the 5th Century BC, and it became extinct during the first few centuries AD. Attic Greek evolved into Koine Greek, then into Byzantine Greek and later into modern Greek.


title: Al Davis

text: Allen Davis (July 4, 1929 – October 8, 2011) was an American football coach and executive. He was the principal owner and general manager of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) for 39 years, from 1972 until his death in 2011. Prior to becoming the principal owner of the Raiders, he served as the team's head coach from 1963 to 1965 and part owner from 1966 to 1971, assuming both positions while the Raiders were part of the American Football League (AFL). He also served as the commissioner of the AFL in 1966.


title: Al Davis

text: Known for his motto "Just win, baby", the Raiders became one of the NFL's most successful and popular teams under Davis' management. The franchise enjoyed their greatest successes during the 1970s and 1980s where they were perennial playoff contenders and won three Super Bowl titles. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis was active in civil rights, refusing to allow the Raiders to play in any city where black and white players had to stay in separate hotels. He was the first NFL owner in the modern era to hire a black head coach (Art Shell), the first to hire a female chief executive (Amy Trask), and the second NFL owner to hire a Latino head coach (Tom Flores). He remains the only executive in NFL history to be an assistant coach, head coach, general manager, commissioner, and owner.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, to a Jewish family. Davis' father, Louis Davis, worked in a variety of trades in Massachusetts; having found some success in the garment manufacturing field, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1934 with his wife, Rose, and their two sons, Jerry and Allen. Louis Davis rented a sixth-floor walkup for his family off Utica Avenue, became very successful in the garment trade, and put his two sons through college before seeking a more comfortable dwelling in Atlantic Beach, New York. Although there are a number of stories of Louis Davis backing his younger son in anything so long as the boy did not get caught or back down from a confrontation, most of these stories derive from Al Davis. Childhood friends depicted him as more of a talker than a fighter, though very good with his mouth. Young Al's sport of choice was basketball, and he gained a reputation of a hard player, if not the most skillful. As a boy, he was determined to play for Coach Al Badain at Erasmus Hall High School, passing up the opportunity to attend school closer to his house. Although he was only a reserve on the Erasmus team, and did not play much, Davis studied Badain's coaching techniques, and felt he learned much from him—in the 1980s, with Badain ill and in need, Davis brought his elderly former coach to the West Coast to witness his Raiders in the Super Bowl, and paid the man's debts.


title: Al Davis

text: Despite Davis's slight role on his high school team, Raiders media guides later published descriptions of Davis which depicted him as a schoolboy star, only to have the claims scaled back—slightly—in future editions after reporters investigated the matter. His lack of football playing experience (he did play football for his high school fraternity) made him one of the few to be a head coach in the NFL or AFL despite never having played even for the high school varsity.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis graduated from high school in January 1947, immediately enrolling at Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio at age 17. The school had recruited Davis, though it did not extend him a scholarship. He spent a semester there, occupying himself with baseball and plans to transfer to a higher-profile school. In mid-1947, he transferred to Syracuse University. Although Davis repeatedly tried out for the various varsity teams, the height of his athletic career at Syracuse was warming the bench for the junior varsity baseball team. Frustrated by this, he briefly transferred to Hartwick College, also in New York State, in 1948, but soon returned to Syracuse. Despite Davis's lack of athletic success, he commonly mingled with varsity athletes, many of whom assumed he was also one but on another team. Unsuccessful in his efforts to join the men's basketball team, Davis became interested in football strategy, and haunted the football team's practices until asked to leave by the head coach, suspicious of Davis for taking notes. Davis also took the academic courses in football strategy given by the assistant coaches, and ordinarily attended only by players.


title: Al Davis

text: In job hunting, he would introduce himself as "Davis from Syracuse", likely intentionally from confusion with George Davis, star halfback for the school's football team. Turned down at Hofstra University and by Bill Altenberg, athletic director at Adelphi University (both on Long Island), he approached Adelphi's president. What went on between the two men is not known—his biographer Mark Ribowsky suggests Davis used a combination of "bluff and con," but a half hour after Altenberg dismissed Davis from his office, he received a call from the president that he had a new freshman football coach.


title: Al Davis

text: In 1952, with his student deferral ended upon receipt of his master's degree, Davis was inducted into the United States Army. He quickly secured a place attached to a public relations unit near Syracuse, and set about obtaining a place on one of the coaching staff for the military's football teams. General Stanley Scott of Fort Belvoir, Virginia, obtained Davis's services in 1953 as football coach for his post's football squad. At the time, military football was taken very seriously; the teams were well-stocked with drafted college stars, and often scrimmaged National Football League (NFL) teams. Davis coached Fort Belvoir, just south of Washington, D.C., to a record of eight wins, two losses, and one tie (8–2–1), missing a chance to play in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego because of a final-game loss to the nearby Quantico Marine Base. As a private first class, he was often coaching players of a higher rank, including officers. Near the end of 1952, he was called to testify before a congressional committee investigating whether athletes were being coddled in the military. Although most of Davis's team was sent to Korea, he remained at Fort Belvoir until his discharge in 1954. While coaching in the army, Davis sold scouting information about his players to NFL teams. One NFL executive who contacted Davis was Pete Rozelle of the Los Angeles Rams, but as Rozelle had been allocated no money, Davis gave him no information.


title: Al Davis

text: After his military service, Davis married his fiancée, Carol Sagal, in a Brooklyn synagogue; the couple established a first home in Atlantic Beach, near Al Davis's parents. Davis worked for a year as a freelance scout for the Baltimore Colts of the NFL. He had considerable knowledge of the players he had had on his roster or coached against, and advised the Colts which players to offer contracts to or draft as they returned to civilian life. Davis cultivated the Colts' head coach, Weeb Ewbank, hoping Ewbank's connections would lead to a coaching job for Davis, and these efforts paid off in January 1955, when Davis was hired by The Citadel in South Carolina as an assistant to first-year head coach John Sauer. In contrast to the glory won by its alumni in war, the South Carolina military academy's football team had lost every game the previous season, and previous head coach John McMillan was dismissed after two seasons. Davis stated, in his interview, that he would be able to persuade small-town boys from the Northeast to attend The Citadel, which often had difficulty in recruiting star players because of its regimented lifestyle. He was successful in his recruiting, though not all remained past the first training camp, at Parris Island Marine base.


title: Al Davis

text: During games, Davis was stationed in the press box, calling plays which were generally run by Sauer without modification. The Citadel unexpectedly began the season by winning five of its first six games, though it lost the next three to end the season 5–4. Davis received much credit for his role in The Citadel's success, though losing Sauer's regard through too-aggressive self-promotion. The 1956 season was less successful, as the team finished 3–5–1. Sauer resigned at the end of the season; Davis unsuccessfully sought the head coaching position and then resigned; Ribowsky records that there were allegations of payments and other benefits to players in violation of NCAA rules; he also states that Davis pressured professors to change grades to keep student-athletes eligible to play football. By the time he left The Citadel, Davis had already arranged his next job, at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis was an effective recruiter as a USC assistant coach, bringing one prospect, Angelo Coia to the Los Angeles Coliseum at night, and as the lights were slowly turned off, asked the student to imagine himself playing there before 100,000 people. Coia played for USC and later worked for the Raider front office. When Davis arrived, USC was on NCAA probation for allowing alumni to surreptitiously give money to players, and had not been permitted to play in a bowl game after the 1956 season; these sanctions hampered Davis's first two seasons at USC, 1957 and 1958, during which the team posted a combined 5-14-1 record. The head coach, Don Clark, came to rely heavily on Davis. Clark and Davis hoped that 1959 would bring a conference championship and the chance to play in the Rose Bowl, but in April 1959 USC was sanctioned by the NCAA again, this time for inducing recruits signed by other schools into breaking their letters of intent. Not allowed to play on television, USC won its first eight games before losing to UCLA and Notre Dame. Despite the defeats, the team was Pacific Coast Conference champions, but because of the sanctions could not play in the Rose Bowl. Clark resigned after the season; although Davis put in for the position, it went to another assistant, John McKay, who did not keep Davis on his staff.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis had met Los Angeles Rams coach Sid Gillman in Atlantic City at a coaching clinic; the NFL coach had been impressed that Davis had sat in the front row, taken copious notes, and had asked many questions afterwards. Gillman was fired after the 1959 season, but was quickly hired by the Los Angeles Chargers of the startup American Football League (AFL) for their debut 1960 season. He hired Davis as backfield coach on a coaching staff which included future hall of famer Chuck Noll as well as future AFL head coach and NFL general manager Jack Faulkner. Gillman later stated that he hired Davis for his success both as a coach and as a recruiter, and because "Al had that knack of telling people what they wanted to hear. He was very persuasive."


title: Al Davis

text: The AFL's rules were crafted to encourage wide-open, high-scoring football. In later years, much to Gillman's anger, Davis hinted that he had designed the Chargers' offense, or at least deserved partial credit. The team initially proved successful, winning the AFL Western Division in 1960 and 1961, though losing each time in the AFL Championship Game to the Houston Oilers. Due to financial losses sustained by drawing small crowds to the huge Los Angeles Coliseum, the team moved to San Diego in 1961. In 1962, however, the team won only four of fourteen games.


title: Al Davis

text: One player whom Davis recommended to the Chargers, and then secured, was wide receiver Lance Alworth of Arkansas, who was a first-round selection of NFL San Francisco 49ers in the 1962 NFL Draft. Unwilling to give the 49ers a chance to sign him, Davis raced onto the field at the conclusion of Alworth's final college game and signed him to a contract under the goalpost as 49ers head coach Red Hickey watched helplessly from the stands. Davis later stated, "I knew it wasn't safe to let Alworth go to the dressing room." In 1978, Davis was selected by Alworth to introduce him at his induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.


title: Al Davis

text: Early in the 1962 season, Davis spoke with Oakland Raiders owner F. Wayne Valley about their head coaching job. However, Davis was not then interested. After the team's disastrous 1962 season, in which it lost its first 13 games before defeating a Boston Patriots team demoralized from having just been eliminated from playoff contention, Valley sought to replace head coach Red Conkright.


title: Al Davis

text: A number of names were rumored to be in contention for the Raiders head coaching job, from Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi to Lou Agase, former coach of the Canadian Football League Toronto Argonauts. On January 1, 1963, Davis met with Valley and the other Raiders general partner, Ed McGah. According to witnesses present at the negotiations, Davis did not have a high opinion of Valley and McGah, indicating during their absence that they did not know the right questions to ask. They offered him a one-year contract as head coach. He declined, insisting on a multi-year deal as both head coach and general manager, with complete control over football operations. They settled on three years at a salary of $20,000 per annum. According to Davis biographer Ira Simmons, the date that Davis came to Oakland, January 18, 1963, "was probably one of the three or four most important dates in AFL history. Maybe NFL history too." Valley later stated, "we needed someone who wanted to win so badly, he would do anything. Everywhere I went, people told me what a son of a bitch Al Davis was, so I figured he must be doing something right."


title: Al Davis

text: The Raiders team had been a late addition to the original AFL in 1960; the franchise had been awarded when the owners of the AFL Minnesota team had been induced to join the NFL instead. While it inherited the departed Minnesota team's draft picks, it had little else. The franchise, originally nicknamed the Señors (changed to Raiders after columnists raised objections) was not established until the other AFL teams had had the opportunity to sign players and coaches, a handicap which contributed to it being the only team to post a losing record in each of the AFL's first three seasons. The University of California refused to let it play at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, and no other facility in the East Bay was suitable even for temporary use, forcing it to play its first two seasons at Kezar Stadium and Candlestick Park, both located across the bay in San Francisco.


title: Al Davis

text: Valley and his group purchased the Raiders in 1961. Valley and his partners used the threat of leaving to induce city officials to construct Frank Youell Field, a temporary facility in downtown Oakland next to the Nimitz Freeway which held about 15,000 people, the use of which was shared with high schools. Planning for a larger stadium — what became the Oakland Coliseum — began, but there was no guarantee that it would ever be built.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis immediately began to try to build the Raiders into a championship team, both on the field and in the front office. Many Raiders players and front-office employees were dismissed. Since their first season, the Raiders had used hand-me-down black and gold uniforms from the University of the Pacific in Stockton. Davis had been impressed by the black uniforms of the football players at West Point, which he felt made them look larger. Soon after he arrived, the Raiders adopted their now-iconic silver and black motif. The Raiders' offices were on an open mezzanine overlooking a downtown Oakland hotel lobby; Davis got Valley to move them to more private facilities. With no agreement between the AFL and NFL, drafted players often went to the higher bidder. Davis could not hope to outbid the NFL and drafted players with remaining college eligibility, hoping to sign them once they finished their careers. Thus, his hopes of success for 1963 rested on what trades he could make, and in signing players cut by other teams.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis's methods of acquiring these players caused other teams' executives to regard him with respect and caution. He acquired All-AFL guard Bob Mischak from the New York Jets for Dan Ficca without telling Jets coach/general manager Weeb Ewbank that Ficca would not be released from his military service until after the season began. Wide receiver Art Powell had played out his contract with New York and become a free agent, and had apparently been signed by the Buffalo Bills. Davis learned that the Powell contract had been made before the season ended, and thus constituted tampering. He signed Powell himself, and the Bills did not contest it.


title: Al Davis

text: Gillman's Chargers teams had used high-powered offenses. Davis sought to increase their power. From the opening of training camp, he sought to motivate his players, using techniques he had learned in the military. From the start, players saw phrases like "commitment to excellence" and, on schedules next to the time of games, "We go to war!" In the season opener, at Houston's Jeppesen Stadium against the Oilers, the two-touchdown underdog Raiders won, 24–13, then came home to defeat the Bills 35–17. A home loss to the Patriots was next, followed by an East Coast road trip on which the Raiders lost all three games. To growing excitement in Oakland, the Raiders did not lose the rest of the season, finishing 10–4, a game behind the division champion Chargers, whom the Raiders defeated twice. Davis was voted AFL Coach of the Year. The 1963 Oakland Raiders were the only pro football team to improve its record by nine victories under the 14-game schedule.


title: Al Davis

text: By the end of its sixth season in 1965, the American Football League had overcome its initial status of bare-bones survivor to become a significant rival to the NFL. With a television contract with NBC and major stadiums constructed or being built, the AFL could afford to compete on equal terms for players with the NFL. Not all AFL owners sought a merger — Jets owner Sonny Werblin, for example, felt that with brand-new Shea Stadium and the young star Joe Namath at quarterback, his team could compete on equal terms with the crosstown NFL Giants, then playing at Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx. However, most AFL owners wanted to be a part of the older, better-established NFL, whose owners feared continued escalation of player salaries.


title: Al Davis

text: While the AFL owners liked the league's first commissioner, Joe Foss, they had little confidence in his abilities at a time for struggle between the two leagues, and Foss resigned on April 7, 1966. Davis, 36, was voted in as commissioner the following day, and took the job with Valley's agreement, hired as a fighter who would win the war with the NFL. The owners, led by Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, felt that Davis could put pressure on the NFL and force a favorable settlement. His biographer, Glenn Dickey, notes that Davis was deceived by the owners, "He thought he had been hired to win the war with the NFL. In fact, the owners only wanted to force a peace. They were quietly negotiating a merger while Davis was fighting a war."


title: Al Davis

text: According to sportswriter Ken Rappoport in his history of the AFL, "Davis had a plan, and, considering the football genius the man would become, no one should have been surprised that it would work—brilliantly." Davis's target in the war was the NFL's quarterbacks, arranging for AFL teams to sign star players, such as Roman Gabriel of the Rams, who would be free agents after 1966 although that season had not yet begun. Gabriel, with his AFL contract to begin in 1967, received an immediate $100,000 bonus. The signing of 49ers quarterback John Brodie was announced by Davis and the AFL. These transactions increased the financial pressure on the NFL's weaker franchises, which faced the prospect of losing their best players in a year, or greatly increasing their labor costs. A merger agreement was announced on June 8 and Davis was greatly displeased with the agreement on two fronts. It required the Jets and Raiders to pay indemnities to the Giants and 49ers for establishing teams within their exclusive territories, and it also put him out of a job: the merger agreement immediately abolished the post of AFL commissioner. Pete Rozelle would continue in his post as NFL commissioner under the merger agreement. Davis had hoped to be named commissioner if any merger was reached; the result increased what already had become a dislike of Rozelle.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis resigned as commissioner on July 25, 1966. AFL owners wanted Davis to continue serving as AFL "President." AFL owners had explicitly agreed that the office of AFL President would be subservient to that of the NFL Commissioner, and Davis flatly refused to consider serving as a subordinate to Rozelle. Eventually, Milt Woodard (who was assistant commissioner under Foss) agreed to serve as President of the AFL.


title: Al Davis

text: After resigning as AFL commissioner, Davis formed a holding company, A.D. Football, Inc. and returned to his old club as one of three general partners, along with Wayne Valley and Ed McGah. He owned a 10% stake in the team, and was also named head of football operations. From this day onward, Davis was operating head of the franchise; Valley and McGah largely left the Raiders in Davis' hands.


title: Al Davis

text: On the field, the team Davis had assembled and coached steadily improved. With John Rauch (Davis's hand-picked successor) as head coach, the Raiders won the 1967 AFL Championship, defeating the Houston Oilers 40–7. The win earned the team a trip to Super Bowl II, where they were beaten 33–14 by Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers. The following two years, the Raiders again won Western Division titles, only to lose the AFL Championship to the eventual Super Bowl winners—the New York Jets (1968) and Kansas City Chiefs (1969).


title: Al Davis

text: In 1969, John Madden became the team's sixth head coach, and under him, the Raiders became one of the most successful franchises in the NFL, winning six division titles during the 1970s. In 1970, the AFL-NFL merger took place and the Raiders joined the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the newly merged NFL. The first post-merger season saw the Raiders win the AFC West with an 8–4–2 record and go all the way to the conference championship, where they lost to the Colts. Despite another 8–4–2 season in 1971, the Raiders failed to win the division or achieve a playoff berth.


title: Al Davis

text: In 1972, while managing general partner Valley was attending the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Davis drafted a revised partnership agreement that made him the new managing general partner, with near-absolute control over team operations. McGah signed the agreement. Since two of the team's three general partners had voted in favor of the agreement, it was binding under California partnership law at the time. Valley sued to overturn the agreement once he returned to the country but was unsuccessful. Valley sold his interest in 1976 and from that point none of the other partners played any role in the team's operations, despite the fact that Davis did not acquire a majority interest in the Raiders until 2005, when he bought the shares held by McGah's family (McGah died in 1983). At the time of his death, Davis owned about 67% of the team.


title: Al Davis

text: In addition to serving as owner, Davis effectively served as his own general manager until his death — longer than any football operations chief in the league at the time. When he died, he was one of three NFL owners who had the title or powers of general manager, the others being Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and Mike Brown of the Cincinnati Bengals. Davis was long recognized as one of the most hands-on owners in professional sports and reportedly had more authority over day-to-day operations than any other owner in the league.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis was known throughout the league as a maverick and dressed the part. By the time he had taken complete control of the Raiders, he had assumed his classic image—slicked-back hair in a 1950s-style ducktail, dark sunglasses, tracksuits and Brooklyn-tinged speech ("the Raiduhs").


title: Al Davis

text: With Davis in control, the Raiders became one of the most successful teams in all of professional sports. From 1967 to 1985, the team won 13 division championships, one AFL championship (1967), three Super Bowls (XI, XV and XVIII) and made 15 playoff appearances. Though the Raiders have fallen on hard times in recent years, going 37–91 from 2003 to 2010, they are one of only five teams to play in the Super Bowl in four different decades, the others being the Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, New York Giants and Denver Broncos.


title: Al Davis

text: In 1992, Davis was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a Team and League Administrator and was presented by John Madden. Davis was chosen by a record nine Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees to present them at the Canton, Ohio ceremony: Lance Alworth, Jim Otto, George Blanda, Willie Brown, Gene Upshaw, Fred Biletnikoff, Art Shell, Ted Hendricks and Madden.


title: Al Davis

text: In 2007, Davis sold a minority stake in the Raiders for $150 million and said that he would not retire until he won two more Super Bowls or died.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis' generosity was legendary when it came to helping former players in need, although he routinely did so without fanfare. His philosophy was: once a Raider, always a Raider.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis was long considered one of the most controversial owners in the NFL and was involved in multiple lawsuits involving Los Angeles, Oakland, Irwindale and the NFL. In 1980, he attempted to move the Raiders to Los Angeles but was blocked by a court injunction. In response, Davis filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL and his team won the Super Bowl. In June 1982 a federal district court ruled in Davis' favor and the team relocated to Los Angeles for the 1982 NFL season. When the upstart United States Football League filed its antitrust suit in 1986, Davis was the only NFL owner who sided with the USFL.


title: Al Davis

text: In 1995, after being unable to secure a new stadium in the Los Angeles area and when a proposed move to Sacramento that involved Davis taking ownership of the Sacramento Kings fell apart, Davis moved the team back to Oakland then sued the NFL, claiming the league sabotaged the team's effort to build a stadium at Hollywood Park in Inglewood by not doing enough to help the team move from the antiquated Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to a new stadium complete with luxury suites. The NFL won a verdict in 2001, but Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Richard Hubbell ordered a new trial amid accusations that one juror was biased against the team and Davis and that another juror committed misconduct. A state appeals court later overturned that decision. The case was thrown out in 2007 when the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the verdict against the Raiders stood. This was the last of several lawsuits the Raiders had outstanding against the league and its stadium landlords.


title: Al Davis

text: In the mid-1990s, Davis sued the NFL on behalf of the Raiders, claiming the Raiders had exclusive rights to the Los Angeles market, even though the Raiders were in Oakland. Davis and the Raiders lost the lawsuit.


title: Al Davis

text: In 2007, NFL Films chose the feud between Davis and the NFL/Pete Rozelle as their number 1 greatest feud in NFL history on the NFL Network's Top Ten Feuds, citing almost a half-century of animosity between Davis and the league. Some believe that the root of Davis' animosity towards the NFL and his former co-owners in the AFL was the surreptitious way they pushed the AFL-NFL merger behind his back.


title: Al Davis

text: The feud was most recently chronicled in "Al Davis vs. the NFL", a documentary on the feud between Davis and Rozelle first broadcast by ESPN on February 4, 2021, as part of its "30 for 30" series. The film's narrative structure uses reconstructions of Davis and Rozelle to "tell" its story, using deepfake technology and extensive content from the NFL Films archives.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis introduced the Raiders' signature colors silver and black in 1963 in a unilateral move as head coach and general manager. In 1966 as AFL Commissioner, Davis initiated a bidding war with the NFL over players. But it was his return to Oakland in 1967 that allowed him to reach his true calling. That season Davis made a number of roster moves, including landing Buffalo Bills quarterback Daryle Lamonica, a backup for starter Jack Kemp on two AFL champion Bills teams. Another move at first thought to be desperate was the signing of former Houston Oilers QB George Blanda, who was already 39 but was still a very solid placekicker, and had played on the first AFL champion teams with Houston, as well as for the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Colts before that. Davis identified Blanda as a mentor for Lamonica as well as a solid special teams man despite his advanced age. That year, he also drafted guard Gene Upshaw, who would become the cornerstone of the Oakland offensive line well into the 1980s. Lamonica propelled the Raiders to a 13–1 won-loss record in the 1967–68 season, and they coasted to the league championship with a 40–7 victory over Houston, although they were defeated easily by the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl II. Oakland under Davis would go on to win the two remaining AFL Western Division titles before the 1970 AFL–NFL merger.


title: Al Davis

text: During the first years of the new league format Oakland was a dominant franchise, winning the AFC West Division every year except 1971, and was kept out of the Super Bowls between 1970 and 1975 only by phenomenal Baltimore Colts, Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers teams. Indeed, during the nine-year span from 1967 through 1975, the Raiders were eliminated by the team that won the Super Bowl on seven occasions (Green Bay in Super Bowl II at the end of the 1967 season, Super Bowl III champion New York in the 1968 AFL Championship Game, Super Bowl IV champion Kansas City in the 1969 AFL Championship Game, Super Bowl V champion Baltimore in the 1970 AFC Championship, Super Bowl VIII champion Miami in the 1973 AFC Championship Game, and Super Bowl IX and X champion Pittsburgh in the 1974 and 1975 AFC Championship Games). Finally, in 1976, the Raiders won their first title in Super Bowl XI under Davis's homegrown head coach John Madden. From 1970 to 1981 Oakland was able to reach the AFC Championship Game seven out of eleven years, and won two Super Bowls. They also captured additional division titles in that span.


title: Al Davis

text: In the 1980 offseason, star quarterback Ken Stabler attempted to renegotiate his contract with the Raiders. A veteran “gunslinger”, Stabler had won the Raiders' only title until then and had been a mainstay since his 1968 signing with the team as a protégé of Lamonica. Davis angered much of the Raider community by dealing him to the Oilers for quarterback Dan Pastorini, a trade many regarded as selfishly seeking revenge while strengthening the team's top AFC rival. Pastorini was injured in week 5, and the starting role fell to his backup, Jim Plunkett. The former Heisman Trophy winning but little achieved professional led the Raiders to a first-place tie with San Diego for the best AFC West record and the wild card spot for their first playoff appearance since 1977. The Raiders defeated Stabler and the Oilers 27–7 in the AFC wild card game and subsequently became the third second-place team to play in the Super Bowl, joining the 1969 Kansas City Chiefs and the 1975 Dallas Cowboys. They defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 27–10 in Super Bowl XV, enabling them to become the very first wild-card team to ever win the Super Bowl. Davis had been a preseason goat in Oakland for the Stabler deal. The Raiders won the AFC semifinal game over the Browns 14–12 at Cleveland in one of the most exciting games, with a key interception of a Brian Sipe pass sealing victory in the freezing cold by Lake Erie. Then they defeated San Diego 34–27 on the road on their march to victory in Super Bowl XV in New Orleans.


title: Al Davis

text: Marcus Allen, the most valuable player in the Raiders' Super Bowl XVIII victory, was ordered benched by Davis for two years following a contract dispute. Davis only commented, "He was a cancer on the team." Allen said that Davis "told me he was going to get me." He added that "I think he's tried to ruin the later part of my career. He's trying to stop me from going to the Hall of Fame. They don't want me to play." Davis called Allen's charges "fraudulent", and then-Raiders coach Art Shell said only he decided who plays. The Raiders released Allen in 1992, and he played the last five years of his 16-year, Hall of Fame career with the Kansas City Chiefs.


title: Al Davis

text: On February 18, 2002, Davis dealt his head coach Jon Gruden to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in exchange for Tampa Bay's 2002 and 2003 first-round draft picks, 2002 and 2004 second-round draft picks, and $8 million in cash. His replacement, Bill Callahan, led Oakland to an 11–5 record and their third consecutive division championship. The Raiders reached Super Bowl XXXVII, where they faced Gruden, who led Tampa Bay to its first Super Bowl berth. The Buccaneers won in a 48–21 blowout, in a matchup that was termed the "Gruden Bowl". Seventeen years later, Gruden returned to the Raiders as head coach in 2018 after seven years with the Buccaneers and nine years with ESPN, though he would be fired in 2021 as a result of emails leaked of Gruden making racist and sexist comments.


title: Al Davis

text: Although it was not apparent at the time, the Raiders' loss in the Super Bowl would be Davis' last hurrah. The Raiders would never have another winning season under his ownership, suffering consecutive losing seasons from 2003 to 2010—the longest drought in franchise history. This included double-digit loss record seasons in seven consecutive years from 2003 to 2009. The team cycled through multiple head coaches. Their 2007 first overall draft pick, quarterback JaMarcus Russell, was called "the biggest draft flop in NFL history" by FoxSports.com. Davis was largely blamed, and his motto of "Just win, baby!" was mocked by many. Russell was released by the Raiders in May 2010 and never played another down in the NFL.


title: Al Davis

text: The 2011 Raiders' record was 2–2 at Davis' death. The day after his death, the Raiders defeated the Houston Texans 25–20 on a final play interception by safety Michael Huff in the end zone. The Raiders finished the season with a record of 8–8 and missed the playoffs, after starting the season 7–4.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis breached several civil rights and diversity barriers during his career with the Raiders. In 1963, the Raiders were scheduled to play a preseason game in Mobile, Alabama. In protest of Alabama's segregation laws, Davis refused to allow the game to be played there and demanded the game be moved to Oakland. He also refused to allow the players to travel to cities to play games where the black and white players would have to stay in separate hotels.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis was the first NFL owner to hire an African American head coach, Art Shell, and a female chief executive, Amy Trask. He also hired Tom Flores, the second Latino head coach in the league.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis died, aged 82, in his suite at the Hilton Hotel Oakland Airport at 2:45 a.m. PDT on October 8, 2011, in Oakland, California. Nine days later, a private service and funeral was held for Davis, who was interred at Chapel of the Chimes. In the days following the funeral, The Associated Press obtained information pertaining to Davis' death. The death certificate, issued by Alameda County, disclosed Davis had died from "an abnormal heart rhythm, congestive heart failure and a heart muscle disease". Davis had previously undergone heart surgery in 1996. Davis was also afflicted with skin cancer and had undergone throat surgery in the days preceding his death.


title: Al Davis

text: There was an outpouring of support and grief in the wake of Davis' death. John Madden, who had remained close to Davis since their first meeting in 1966, lamented, "You don't replace a guy like that. No way. No damn way. You look at the things he's done that no one ever did before, being a scout, assistant coach, head coach, general manager, commissioner and owner." The Sunday following his death, the Oakland Raiders adorned their helmets with a sticker which read "Al" in Davis' memory. A league-wide moment of silence was also observed. Despite the widespread remembrance of his accomplishments, Davis' position as a controversial figure lives on as part of his legacy. Sportswriter Rick Reilly was particularly adamant that the questionable personnel decisions Davis made later in his career and his arrogant, brash personality should not be forgotten amidst sportswriters' praise of him as an innovative owner.


title: Al Davis

text: Davis was survived by his wife, Carol, and their only child, Mark, a graduate of California State University, Chico. Mark assumed his father's old title of managing general partner of the Raiders and with his mother owns the majority of the team. Both Mark and Carol represent the Raiders in owners' meetings. Carol suffered a serious heart attack in 1979 and was hospitalized for three weeks but was able to make a complete recovery.


title: Al Davis

text: Al Davis' mother Rose had lived to age 103. She died in 2001, having outlived her husband Lou by 40 years.


title: Al Davis

text: The day after Davis' death, the Raiders played the Houston Texans. Oakland was leading the game, 25–20, late in the fourth quarter. On the final play of the game, Raider free safety Michael Huff intercepted Texan quarterback Matt Schaub in the end zone to preserve the victory. The Raiders had only 10 defensive players on the field for the play. The play was referred to as the "Divine Interception" with media speculating that Davis was the 11th player on the field in spirit. Raiders coach Hue Jackson said Al Davis "had his hand on that ball." Jackson was highly emotional in victory, as well as Davis's son Mark Davis. Jackson said, "One thing coach [Davis] always taught me was he said: 'Hue, don't believe in plays. Believe in players and eventually the players will make plays for you.' And that's what I did. I could just hear him saying that to me the whole time. Believe in your players and not the plays." "We know he's looking down on us right now," Hue said. "This win is for him. I appreciate everything he's done for this organization. He's never gone in our eyes. We'll never let him go. He's with us."


title: Al Davis

text: There are currently two such torches: the original torch is a gas-operated torch that was brought out on game days at the Oakland Coliseum, and was lit by a former Raiders player or coach prior to each Raider home game. That individual would then also sign the back or one of the side panels of the torch.


title: Al Davis

text: When the team relocated to Las Vegas in 2020, the torch from the Coliseum was moved to and placed in front of the team's new headquarters in Henderson, Nevada, with the player-signed side and back panels being put on display at Allegiant Stadium, where an tall torch (that rises above the main concourse) was built. The Allegiant Stadium Al Davis Memorial Torch is the largest 3D printed object in the world.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Traditionalist conservatism, often known as classical conservatism, is a political and social philosophy that emphasizes the importance of transcendent moral principles, allegedly manifested through certain natural laws to which society should adhere prudently. Traditionalist conservatism is based on Edmund Burke's political views. Traditionalists value social ties and the preservation of ancestral institutions above what they see as excessive individualism.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: The concepts of custom, convention, and tradition are heavily emphasized in traditionalist conservatism. Theoretical reason is regarded as of secondary importance to practical reason. The state is also viewed as a social endeavor with spiritual and organic characteristics. Traditionalists think that any change spontaneously arises from the community's traditions rather than as a consequence of deliberate, reasoned thought. Leadership, authority, and hierarchy are seen as natural to humans. Traditionalism arose in Europe throughout the 18th century, mostly as a reaction to the chaos of the English and French Revolutions. Traditionalist conservatism began to establish itself as an intellectual and political force in the mid-20th century.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: A number of traditionalist conservatives embrace high church Christianity (e.g., T. S. Eliot, an Anglo-Catholic; Russell Kirk, a Roman Catholic). Another traditionalist who has stated his faith tradition publicly is Caleb Stegall, an evangelical Protestant. A number of conservative mainline Protestants are also traditionalists, such as Peter Hitchens and Roger Scruton, and some traditionalists are Jewish, such as the late Will Herberg, Irving Louis Horowitz, Mordecai Roshwald, and Paul Gottfried.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Natural law is championed by Thomas Aquinas, called eternal law, in the Summa Theologiae, he reaffirms the principle of noncontradiction as being ("the same thing cannot be affirmed and denied at the same time"), Bonum precept is the first principle of that which precedes one's actions ("good is to be done and pursued and evil avoided"). The account of Medieval Christian philosophy is the appreciation of the concept of the Summum bonum or "highest good". It is only through the silent contemplation that someone is able to achieve the idea of the good. The rest of natural law was first developed somewhat in Aristotle's work, also was referenced and affirmed in the works by Cicero, and it has been developed by the Christian Albert the Great.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Traditionalists think that tradition and custom should guide man and his worldview, as their names imply. Each generation inherits its ancestors' experience and culture, which man is able to transmit down to his offspring through custom and precedent. Edmund Burke, often recognized as the father of contemporary conservatism, noted that "the individual is foolish, but the species is wise."


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: This conservatism, it has been argued, is based on living tradition rather than abstract political thinking. Some have drawn a distinction between pragmatic conservatism and rational conservatism, which holds that a community with a hierarchy of power is most conducive to human happiness. Returning to pragmatic conservatism, according to Kekes, "tradition represents for conservatives a continuum enmeshing the individual and social, and is immune to reasoned critique."


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Traditionalist conservatives believe that human society is essentially hierarchical (i.e., it always involves various interdependent inequalities, degrees, and classes) and that political structures that recognize this fact prove the most just, thriving, and generally beneficial. Hierarchy allows for the preservation of the whole community simultaneously, instead of protecting one part at the expense of the others.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: The countryside, as well as the values associated with it, are greatly valued (sometimes even being romanticized as in pastoral poetry). Agrarian ideals (such as conserving small family farms, open land, natural resource conservation, and land stewardship) are important to certain traditionalists' conception of rural life.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Traditionalists defend classical Western civilization and value an education informed by the texts of the Roman and Medieval eras. Similarly, traditionalists are classicists who revere high culture in all of its manifestations (e.g. literature, music, architecture, art and theatre).


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Traditionalists consider patriotism a core principle, described as a sense of devotion to one's homeland, in contrast to nationalists, who value the role of the state or nation over the local or regional community. Traditionalist conservatives believe that allegiance to a family, local community, or region is more important than any political commitment. Traditionalists prioritize subsidiarity and community closeness above the larger state, preferring the civil society of Burke's "little platoons" to the expanded state. Alternatively, nationalism can lead to jingoism, which sees the state as apart from the local community and family structure rather than as a product of both.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Edmund Burke, an Anglo-Irish Whig statesman and philosopher whose political principles were rooted in moral natural law and the Western heritage, founded traditionalist conservatism. Burke believed in prescriptive rights, which he considered to be "God-given". He argued for what he called "ordered liberty" (best reflected in the unwritten law of the British constitutional monarchy). He also fought for universal ideals that were supported by institutions such as the church, the family, and the state. He was a fierce critic of the principles behind the French Revolution, and in 1790, his observations on its excesses and radicalism were collected in "Reflections on the Revolution in France". In "Reflections", Burke called for the constitutional enactment of specific, concrete rights and warned that abstract rights could be easily abused to justify tyranny. American social critic and historian Russell Kirk wrote: "The "Reflections" burns with all the wrath and anguish of a prophet who saw the traditions of Christendom and the fabric of civil society dissolving before his eyes."


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Burke's influence was felt by later intellectuals and authors in both Britain and continental Europe. The English Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth and Robert Southey, as well as Scottish Romantic author Sir Walter Scott, and the counter-revolutionary writers François-René de Chateaubriand, Louis de Bonald and Joseph de Maistre were all affected by his ideas. Burke's legacy was best represented in the United States by the Federalist Party and its leaders, such as President John Adams and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Edmund Burke describes conservatism as an "approach to human affairs which mistrusts both "a priori" reasoning and revolution, preferring to put its trust in experience and in the gradual improvement of tried and tested arrangements."


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Three cultural conservatives and skeptics of material development, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Carlyle, and John Henry Newman, were staunch supporters of Burke's classical conservatism.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: According to conservative scholar Peter Viereck, Coleridge and his colleague and fellow poet William Wordsworth began as followers of the French Revolution and the radical utopianism it engendered. Their collection of poems, "Lyrical Ballads", published in 1798, however, rejected the Enlightenment notion of reason triumphing over faith and tradition. Later works by Coleridge, such as "Lay Sermons" (1816), "Biographia Literaria" (1817) and "Aids to Reflection" (1825), defended traditional conservative positions on hierarchy and organic society, criticism of materialism and the merchant class, and the need for "inner growth" that is rooted in a traditional and religious culture. Coleridge was a strong supporter of social institutions and an outspoken opponent of Jeremy Bentham and his utilitarian theory.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Thomas Carlyle, a writer, historian, and essayist, was an early traditionalist thinker, defending medieval ideals such as aristocracy, hierarchy, organic society, and class unity against communism and "laissez-faire" capitalism's "cash nexus." The "cash nexus," according to Carlyle, occurs when social interactions are reduced to economic gain. Carlyle, a lover of the poor, claimed that mobs, plutocrats, anarchists, communists, socialists, liberals, and others were threatening the fabric of British society by exploiting them and perpetuating class animosity. A devotee of Germanic culture and Romanticism, Carlyle is best known for his works, "Sartor Resartus" (1833–1834) and "Past and Present" (1843).


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: The Oxford Movement, a religious movement aimed at restoring Anglicanism's Catholic nature, gave the Church of England a "catholic rebirth" in the mid-19th century. The Tractarians (so named for the publication of their "Tracts for the Times") criticized theological liberalism while preserving "dogma, ritual, poetry, [and] tradition," led by John Keble, Edward Pusey, and John Henry Newman. Newman (who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1845 and was later made a Cardinal and a canonized saint) and the Tractarians, like Coleridge and Carlyle, were critical of material progress, or the idea that money, prosperity, and economic gain constituted the totality of human existence.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Culture and the arts were also important to British traditionalist conservatives, and two of the most prominent defenders of tradition in culture and the arts were Matthew Arnold and John Ruskin.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: A poet and cultural commentator, Matthew Arnold is most recognized for his poems and literary, social, and religious criticism. His book "Culture and Anarchy" (1869) criticized Victorian middle-class norms (Arnold referred to middle class tastes in literature as "philistinism") and advocated a return to ancient literature. Arnold was likewise skeptical of the plutocratic grasping at socioeconomic issues that had been denounced by Coleridge, Carlyle, and the Oxford Movement. Arnold was a vehement critic of the Liberal Party and its Nonconformist base. He mocked Liberal efforts to disestablish the Anglican Church in Ireland, establish a Catholic university there, allow dissenters to be buried in Church of England cemeteries, demand temperance, and ignore the need to improve middle class members rather than impose their unreasonable beliefs on society. Education was essential, and by that, Arnold meant a close reading and attachment to the cultural classics, coupled with critical reflection. He feared anarchy—the fragmentation of life into isolated facts that is caused by dangerous educational panaceas that emerge from materialistic and utilitarian philosophies. He was appalled at the shamelessness of the sensationalistic new journalism of the sort he witnessed on his tour of the United States in 1888. He prophesied, "If one were searching for the best means to efface and kill in a whole nation the discipline of self-respect, the feeling for what is elevated, he could do no better than take the American newspapers."


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: One of the issues that traditionalist conservatives have often emphasized is that capitalism is just as suspect as the classical liberalism that gave birth to it. Cultural and artistic critic John Ruskin, a medievalist who considered himself a "Christian communist" and cared much about standards in culture, the arts, and society, continued this tradition. The Industrial Revolution, according to Ruskin (and all 19th-century cultural conservatives), had caused dislocation, rootlessness, and vast urbanization of the poor. He wrote "The Stones of Venice" (1851–1853), a work of art criticism that attacked the Classical heritage while upholding Gothic art and architecture. "The Seven Lamps of Architecture" and "Unto This Last" (1860) were two of his other masterpieces.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Burke, Coleridge, Carlyle, Newman, and other traditionalist conservatives' beliefs were distilled into former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli's politics and ideology. When he was younger, Disraeli was an outspoken opponent of middle-class capitalism and the Manchester liberals' industrial policies (the Reform Bill and the Corn Laws). In order to ameliorate the suffering of the urban poor in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, Disraeli proposed "one-nation conservatism," in which a coalition of aristocrats and commoners would band together to counter the liberal middle class's influence. This new coalition would be a way to interact with disenfranchised people while also rooting them in old conservative principles. Disraeli's ideas (especially his critique of utilitarianism) were popularized in the "Young England" movement and in books like "Vindication of the English Constitution" (1835), "The Radical Tory" (1837), and his "social novels," "Coningsby" (1844) and "Sybil" (1845). His one-nation conservatism was revived a few years later in Lord Randolph Churchill's Tory democracy and in the early 21st century in British philosopher Phillip Blond's Red Tory thesis.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: In the early 20th century, traditionalist conservatism found its defenders through the efforts of Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton and other proponents of the socioeconomic system they advocated: distributism. Originating in the papal encyclical "Rerum novarum", distributism employed the concept of subsidiarity as a "third way" solution to the twin evils of communism and capitalism. It favors local economies, small business, the agrarian way of life and craftsmen and artists. Traditional communities akin to those found in the Middle Ages were advocated in books like Belloc's "The Servile State" (1912), "Economics for Helen" (1924), and "An Essay on the Restoration of Property" (1936), and Chesterton's "The Outline of Sanity" (1926), while big business and big government were condemned. Distributist views were accepted in the United States by the journalist Herbert Agar and Catholic activist Dorothy Day as well as through the influence of the German-born British economist E. F. Schumacher, and were comparable to Wilhelm Roepke's work.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: T. S. Eliot was a staunch supporter of Western culture and traditional Christianity. Eliot was a political reactionary who used literary modernism to achieve traditionalist goals. Following in the footsteps of Edmund Burke, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, G. K. Chesterton, and Hilaire Belloc, he wrote "After Strange Gods" (1934), and "Notes towards the Definition of Culture" (1948). At Harvard University, where he was educated by Irving Babbitt and George Santayana, Eliot was acquainted with Allen Tate and Russell Kirk.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: T. S. Eliot praised Christopher Dawson as the most potent intellectual influence in Britain, and he was a prominent player in 20th-century traditionalism. The belief that religion was at the center of all civilization, especially Western culture, was central to his work, and his books reflected this view, notably "The Age of Gods" (1928), "Religion and Culture" (1948), and "Religion and the Rise of Western Culture" (1950). Dawson, a contributor to Eliot's "Criterion", believed that religion and culture were crucial to rebuilding the West after World War II in the aftermath of fascism and the advent of communism.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Roger Scruton, a British philosopher, was a self-described traditionalist and conservative. One of his most well-known books, "The Meaning of Conservatism" (1980), is on foreign policy, animal rights, arts and culture, and philosophy. Scruton was a member of the American Enterprise Institute, the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, the Trinity Forum, and the Center for European Renewal. "Modern Age", "National Review", "The American Spectator", "The New Criterion", and "City Journal" were among the many publications for which he wrote.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Phillip Blond, a British philosopher, has recently gained notoriety as a proponent of traditionalist philosophy, specifically progressive conservatism, or Red Toryism. Blond believes that Red Toryism would rejuvenate British conservatism and society by combining civic communitarianism, localism, and traditional values. He has formed a think tank, ResPublica.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: The oldest traditionalist publication in the United Kingdom is "The Salisbury Review", which was founded by British philosopher Roger Scruton. The "Salisbury Review"s current managing editor is Merrie Cave.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: A group of traditionalist MPs known as the Cornerstone Group was created in 2005 within the British Conservative Party. The Cornerstone Group represents "faith, flag, and family" and stands for traditional values. Edward Leigh and John Henry Hayes are two notable members.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: The Edmund Burke Foundation is a traditionalist educational foundation established in the Netherlands and is modeled after the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. It was created by traditionalists such as academic Andreas Kinneging and journalist Bart Jan Spruyt as a think tank. The Center for European Renewal is linked with it.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: In 2007, a number of leading traditionalist scholars from Europe, as well as representatives of the Edmund Burke Foundation and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, created the Center for European Renewal, which is designed to be the European version of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: The Federalists had no ties to European-style nobility, royalty, or organized churches when it came to "classical conservatism." John Adams was one of the first champions of a traditional social order.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: The Whig Party had an approach that mirrored Burkean conservatism in the post-Revolutionary era. Rufus Choate argued that lawyers were the guardians and preservers of the Constitution. In the antebellum period, George Ticknor and Edward Everett were the "Guardians of Civilization." Orestes Brownson examined how America satisfies Catholic tradition and Western civilization.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: An intellectual branch of early-20th-century conservatism was known as New Humanism. The Southern Agrarians, or Fugitives, were another group of traditionalist conservatives. In 1930, some of the Fugitives published "I'll Take My Stand", which applied agrarian standards to politics and economics.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Following WWII, the initial stirrings of a "traditionalist movement" emerged. Certain conservative scholars and writers garnered the attention of the popular press. Russell Kirk's "The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot", an expansion of his PhD dissertation written in Scotland, was the book that defined the traditionalist school. Kirk was an independent scholar, writer, critic, and man of letters. He was friends with William F. Buckley, Jr., a "National Review" columnist, editor, and syndicated columnist. When Barry Goldwater combated the Republican Party's Eastern Establishment in 1964, Kirk backed him in the primaries and campaigned for him. After Goldwater's defeat, the New Right reunited in the late 1970s and found a new leader in Ronald Reagan.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: The Trinity Forum, Ellis Sandoz's Eric Voegelin Institute and the Eric Voegelin Society, the Conservative Institute's New Centurion Program, the T. S. Eliot Society, the Malcolm Muggeridge Society, and the Free Enterprise Institute's Center for the American Idea are all traditionalist groups. The Wilbur Foundation is a prominent supporter of traditionalist activities, particularly the Russell Kirk Center.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Literary traditionalists are frequently associated with political conservatives and the right-wing, whilst experimental works and the avant-garde are frequently associated with progressives and the left-wing. John Barth, a postmodern writer and literary theorist, said: "I confess to missing, in apprentice seminars in the later 1970s and the 1980s, that lively Make-It-New spirit of the Buffalo Sixties. A roomful of young traditionalists can be as depressing as a roomful of young Republicans."


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Russell Lowell, W. H. Mallock, Robert Frost and T. S. Eliot are among the literary figures covered in Russell Kirk's "The Conservative Mind" (1953). The writings of Rudyard Kipling and Phyllis McGinley are presented as instances of literary traditionalism in Kirk's "The Conservative Reader" (1982). Kirk was also a well-known author of spooky and suspense fiction with a Gothic flavor. Ray Bradbury and Madeleine L'Engle both praised novels such as "Old House of Fear", "A Creature of the Twilight," and "Lord of the Hollow Dark" as well as short stories such as "Lex Talionis", "Lost Lake", "Beyond the Stumps", "Ex Tenebris," and "Fate's Purse." Kirk was also close friends with a number of 20th-century literary heavyweights, including T. S. Eliot, Roy Campbell, Wyndham Lewis, Ray Bradbury, Madeleine L'Engle, Fernando Sánchez Dragó, and Flannery O'Connor, all of whom wrote conservative poetry or fiction.


title: Traditionalist conservatism

text: Evelyn Waugh, the British novelist and traditionalist Catholic, is often considered a traditionalist conservative.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: The Shield was a professional wrestling stable in WWE that consisted of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins. Their original characters were mercenaries for CM Punk; however, they quickly became mainstay main-event names.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: The group debuted on November 18, 2012 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view. The Shield was a dominant force in six-man tag team matches with an undefeated televised streak lasting from December 2012 to May 2013, during which they scored a victory at WrestleMania 29. In May 2013 at Extreme Rules, all three members of The Shield won a championship, with Ambrose winning the United States Championship while Rollins and Reigns captured the WWE Tag Team Championship. Rollins and Reigns were WWE Tag Team Champions until October 2013, and Ambrose was United States Champion until May 2014, which was a record reign for the WWE version of the championship. As a Shield member, Reigns gained prominence by setting and equaling elimination records at the 2013 Survivor Series and the 2014 Royal Rumble events.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: The Shield at various points served as hired guns for CM Punk and The Authority while later going on to face their former employers in separate feuds. They wrestled in the main event of numerous "Raw" and "SmackDown" television shows and headlined one pay-per-view, the 2014 Payback event, which was their final match as a trio until 2017. Rollins left the group on June 2, when he attacked Ambrose and Reigns with a chair and sided with The Authority. Ambrose and Reigns went on their own ways as singles wrestlers later that month, marking the end of The Shield.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: Following the group's dissolution, each member of The Shield went on to become a world champion. All three reigned as WWE World Heavyweight Champion within a three-minute span at the end of the 2016 Money in the Bank event: Rollins defeated Reigns for the championship and then Ambrose cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase (which he won earlier that night) on Rollins to win the title.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: In the lead-up to the 2017 SummerSlam event, Ambrose and Rollins reunited and captured the Raw Tag Team Championship from Cesaro and Sheamus. Then on the October 9 episode of "Raw", the trio reunited to feud with The Miz, Cesaro and Sheamus. In December 2017, the team dissolved once again after Ambrose suffered an injury. Following Ambrose's return from injury the previous week, The Shield reunited once again on August 20, 2018 episode of "Raw" to prevent Braun Strowman from cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on Reigns. However, in October that same year, The Shield disbanded following Reigns' hiatus over his leukemia rediagnosis and Ambrose's betrayal towards Rollins. After Reigns returned in February 2019 and announced that his leukemia was in remission, the trio reunited and won the main event match of Fastlane that same month. Although this was promoted as The Shield's final match together, they reunited at the special event The Shield's Final Chapter, Ambrose's final WWE match due to not renewing his contract.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: The Shield has from the beginning of their existence voiced their intentions to fight what they perceived as "injustice". They were also known for their black ring attire (including protective vests) with each member having their own style, their tendency to approach the ring through the live audience and their trademark promos, which were recorded from a first-person perspective using a handheld camcorder. They were a group which possessed teamwork and a willingness to sacrifice themselves as an individual for the good of the team, which achieved victories by overwhelming opponents with superior numbers after incapacitating their teammates. The Shield referred to WWE as their "yard" during their speeches and were nicknamed as "The Hounds of Justice".


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: While out of character, the group has credited trainer/producer Joey Mercury as a mentor. The group were originally supposed to wear turtlenecks and carry riot shields, but changed their attire before their debut. CM Punk later claimed to have come up with the idea of The Shield, which he proposed were to be his storyline protectors and consisting of Ambrose, Rollins and Kassius Ohno—Punk described "their guy", Reigns, replacing Ohno, who had been rejected by Triple H. WWE Spanish announcer Marcelo Rodríguez named the group for Ambrose, Reigns and Rollins "The Shield" on November 19, 2012, one day after the Survivor Series event.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: Ambrose, Reigns, and then-reigning NXT Champion Seth Rollins debuted at Survivor Series on November 18, interfering in the triple threat main event between CM Punk, John Cena and Ryback for the WWE Championship, allowing Punk to pin Cena to retain the title. On the November 26 episode of "Raw", the group identified themselves as "The Shield" and vowed to rally against "injustices". Despite claiming that they were not working for either Punk or his manager Paul Heyman, over the next few weeks on both "Raw" and "SmackDown" they routinely emerged from the crowd to attack Punk's adversaries. They also attacked Randy Orton after he defeated Brad Maddox, who was the referee who helped Punk defeat Ryback during their Hell in a Cell match at the previous Hell in a Cell event for the WWE Championship. This led to The Shield's debut match at on December 16, where they defeated Ryback and Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: After TLC, despite continuing to attack Punk's and Maddox's adversaries such as Ric Flair, Brodus Clay and Sheamus, The Shield soon expanded their ambushes to other wrestlers, such as Mick Foley, Tommy Dreamer and Ricardo Rodriguez. The Shield's attacks were also used to write off wrestlers from television via injury angles, such as Randy Orton and Sin Cara, who were already suffering from legitimate injuries.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: On the January 2, 2013 episode of "NXT" (which was taped on December 6, 2012), The Shield made their first appearance as a group in NXT, where Rollins was the inaugural NXT Champion. Rollins defended his title against Corey Graves, but Ambrose and Reigns attacked Graves to cause a disqualification so that Rollins retained his title. After the match, The Shield then fended off the entire NXT locker room, but retreated from Big E Langston. On the January 9 episode of "NXT" (which was taped on the same date as the previous episode), Rollins lost the NXT Championship to Langston in a No Disqualification match after the NXT locker room neutralized the interference of the other Shield members.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: On the January 7 episode of "Raw", The Shield once again aided CM Punk by attacking Ryback during their Tables, Ladders and Chairs match for the WWE Championship, which resulted in Punk retaining the title. On the January 21 episode of "Raw", The Shield attacked The Rock, Punk's WWE Championship contender at the Royal Rumble, resulting in Mr. McMahon declaring that their interference in the title match would result in Punk being stripped of the championship. Four days later on "SmackDown", Punk denied an alliance with The Shield before calling them out and informing them that he did not want them to interfere in his upcoming title match. However, during Punk's title match at the Royal Rumble on January 27, during a blackout, The Rock was attacked by The Shield in the darkness and when the lights came back on, he had been put through the announce table, leading to Punk pinning The Rock and retaining the championship; the match, however, was immediately restarted by McMahon with The Rock winning the WWE Championship. The following night on "Raw", it was revealed through footage played by McMahon that Punk's manager Paul Heyman had been paying The Shield and Brad Maddox to work for him all along.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: On the January 28 episode of "Raw", The Shield attacked John Cena, as well as Sheamus and Ryback when they attempted to save Cena. The next week on "Raw", Maddox called out The Shield and revealed that he was the one who had given McMahon the footage showing that they were working for Heyman, thus prompting The Shield to attack Maddox until they were forced to retreat. The Shield justified their attacks due to a "decade of injustice" caused by Cena. This set up a six-man tag team match on February 17 at Elimination Chamber, which The Shield won. They continued their feud against Sheamus, having several matches against him, including a six-man tag team at WrestleMania 29 where The Shield defeated Sheamus, Randy Orton and Big Show.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: On the April 8 episode of "Raw", The Shield attempted to attack The Undertaker, but were forced to retreat by Team Hell No. This led to a match where The Shield defeated the combination of The Brothers of Destruction and Team Hell No (Undertaker, Kane and Bryan) on the April 22 episode of "Raw". On the April 26 episode of "SmackDown", Ambrose made his singles debut against The Undertaker and lost via submission, but after the match The Shield attacked Undertaker. Ambrose then started a feud with United States Champion Kofi Kingston, winning the title at Extreme Rules. At the same event, Rollins and Reigns defeated Team Hell No to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: From May to August, The Shield defended their championships against several opponents. Ambrose faced Kingston, Kane, and Rob Van Dam while Rollins and Reigns faced Team Hell No, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton, The Usos. On the June 14 episode of "SmackDown", The Shield's unpinned/unsubmitted streak in televised six-man tag team matches came to an end at the hands of Team Hell No and Randy Orton, when Bryan submitted Rollins.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: On the August 19 episode of "Raw", The Shield began working for chief operating officer Triple H and aiding WWE Champion and "the face of WWE" Randy Orton against his rival Daniel Bryan, while also attacking wrestlers like Big Show and Dolph Ziggler for speaking out against Triple H's regime. At Night of Champions on September 15, The Shield had successful title defenses when Ambrose defeated Ziggler while Rollins and Reigns defeated The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil).


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: At Battleground on October 6, after being kayfabe fired, Cody Rhodes and Goldust earned their jobs back by beating Rollins and Reigns in a non-title match. On the September 23 episode of "Raw", The Shield lost an eleven-on-three handicap elimination match. On the October 14 episode of "Raw", Reigns and Rollins lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to the Rhodes brothers in a No Disqualification match after interference from Big Show. On the October 16 episode of "Main Event", Ambrose again successfully retained the United States Championship against Ziggler. At Hell in a Cell on October 27, Rollins and Reigns lost a triple threat tag team match for the WWE Tag Team Championship against the Rhodes Brothers and The Usos, while Ambrose retained the championship after a countout loss to Big E Langston.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: The first seeds of dissension were sown in The Shield (especially between Ambrose and Reigns) with Ambrose's boasting of being the only member left with a championship, but from then on Ambrose was frequently pinned during The Shield's matches. At Survivor Series on November 24, The Shield teamed with The Real Americans (Antonio Cesaro and Jack Swagger) to defeat the team of Rey Mysterio, the Rhodes Brothers and The Usos in a Survivor Series elimination tag team match, with Ambrose being the first man eliminated.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: In late November, they started a feud with CM Punk, leading to a handicap match between Punk and The Shield at on December 15, which Punk won after capitalizing on The Shield's lack of co-ordination after Ambrose was accidentally speared by Reigns. WWE originally planned to break up The Shield after the match, but they asked to remain together due to their lack of experience as singles wrestlers.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: Going into 2014, Punk's taunts increased tension between The Shield members, and Reigns emerged as the only Shield member to defeat Punk in a singles match on the January 6 episode of "Raw", albeit with a distraction from Ambrose. All three members of The Shield competed in the 2014 Royal Rumble match, during which Ambrose tried to eliminate Reigns, who retaliated by eliminating both Ambrose and Rollins.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: On the January 27, episode of "Raw", The Shield faced the team of Daniel Bryan, John Cena and Sheamus in a six-man tag team qualifying match for the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but lost by disqualification after The Wyatt Family interfered. The Shield vowed revenge, so a match was set up between The Shield and The Wyatt Family. Meanwhile, on the February 10 episode of "Raw", Ambrose's open challenge for the United States Championship was answered by Mark Henry, with Ambrose retaining by disqualification due to The Shield's interference, and Reigns defeated Henry without interference. At Elimination Chamber on February 23, The Shield lost to The Wyatt Family as Ambrose and Bray Wyatt brawled into the crowd, but Wyatt later returned to the ring with no sign of Ambrose, which caused Rollins and Reigns to be outnumbered and overwhelmed. On the March 3 episode of "Raw", The Shield lost a rematch against The Wyatt Family when The Shield's poor teamwork led to Rollins walking out during the match.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: On the March 7 episode of "SmackDown", the members of The Shield met in the ring to on their disharmony, and Rollins explained that his actions achieved his purpose of getting Ambrose and Reigns to finally , which led to the trio ultimately reconciling.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: During their next storyline, the Shield turned into babyfaces and feuded with Kane after refusing to assault Jerry Lawler. The feud also The Authority's The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) after they sided with Kane, culminating in a match at WrestleMania XXX, which The Shield emerged victorious quickly and decisively. Then, The Authority leader Triple H reunited his previous stable Evolution with Orton and Batista, and at Extreme Rules, The Shield defeated Evolution. The following night on "Raw", Triple H forced Ambrose to defend the United States Championship in a 20-man battle royal without Reigns and Rollins being involved. (Though they were both outside the ring the whole match yelling encouragement to him, they could not physically interfere.) Ambrose would end up losing the title after he was the last eliminated by Sheamus. At Payback, they defeated Evolution in a No Holds Barred elimination match, in which no Shield member was eliminated.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: The following night on "Raw", Triple H announced his intention to continue Evolution's feud with The Shield, but Batista quit WWE and left Evolution. Later that night with The Shield in the ring, Triple H's "plan B" for destroying The Shield turned out to be Rollins suddenly attacking Ambrose and Reigns with a steel chair, signalling Rollins re-alignment with The Authority. On the June 9 episode of "Raw", Rollins described his betrayal as severing a business relationship and that he had destroyed "his own creation" to further his own interests, while Ambrose and Reigns (still labelled as The Shield) addressed Rollins' betrayal with Ambrose describing Rollins as a "cancer" in The Shield, while Reigns claimed that Rollins "committed the most unforgivable sin". Later that night, Ambrose and Reigns had their final match as The Shield, teaming up with John Cena to defeat The Wyatt Family.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: While Ambrose and Reigns did not fall out with each other, they did begin to take separate paths as Ambrose declared his intention to take revenge on Rollins, while Reigns set his sights on the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. While the duo were still referred to as The Shield on the June 13 episode of "SmackDown", Ambrose debuted new theme music, ring attire, and entrance on the June 16 episode of "Raw". Reigns, however, largely retained The Shield's ring attire, theme music, and continued to enter the ring through the live audience. On the June 24 episode of "Main Event", Reigns confirmed that he was on his own and no longer with The Shield, thus confirming that The Shield had dissolved.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: Throughout July 2017, Ambrose, who was drafted to the Raw brand via the Superstar Shake-up, and Rollins teased a potential reunion between the two, but Ambrose continuously declined Rollins' offer to reunite, primarily due to trust issues from Rollins' betrayal three years prior.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: On the July 31 episode of "Raw", Rollins was confronted by Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Sheamus, and later won a match against Sheamus after which the duo attacked Rollins before Ambrose came down to make the save, though backstage Ambrose told Rollins that he would not help him if Rollins got outnumbered again. The following week on "Raw", after Rollins lost a rematch against Sheamus and was once again attacked after the match, Ambrose did not help him. Later that night, Ambrose defeated Cesaro, only to be subsequently attacked by the duo before being saved by Rollins. On the August 14 episode of "Raw", an argument in the ring culminated in Ambrose and Rollins brawling with each other only to fight off Cesaro and Sheamus and performing a fist bump to a loud ovation. Rollins and Ambrose defeated the champions at SummerSlam, winning the titles.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: At No Mercy on September 24, Ambrose and Rollins made their first successful title defense in a rematch against Cesaro and Sheamus. Then, Ambrose and Rollins reunited with Reigns, who had a feud with The Miz. On the October 9 episode of "Raw", Miz opened the show with Cesaro and Sheamus, but they were interrupted by the reunited Shield, who attacked the trio, leading to a six-man tag team Tables, Ladders and Chairs match between The Shield and the team of Cesaro, The Miz and Sheamus at . Later, Braun Strowman and Kane were added to the match as part of The Miz's team. However, Reigns was pulled out of the match on October 20 due to illness and Kurt Angle took his place.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: At the event on October 22, Ambrose, Rollins and Angle won the match. While Reigns was still out of action, Ambrose and Rollins also recruited former rival Triple H to be a one-time member at a house show on November 1. Ambrose and Rollins lost the titles back to Cesaro and Sheamus after SmackDown's The New Day appeared and caused a distraction on the November 6 episode of "Raw". Reigns returned the following week on "Raw", and The Shield challenged The New Day to a match at Survivor Series on November 19. which they won. On the November 20 episode of "Raw", Reigns won the Intercontinental Championship by defeating The Miz following a distraction by the other Shield members. In December 2017, Ambrose suffered a triceps injury and was written off TV, thus putting The Shield on a hiatus.


title: The Shield (professional wrestling)

text: During the group's inactivity, Reigns lost the Intercontinental Championship to The Miz in January 2018. At WrestleMania 34, Rollins defeated The Miz and Finn Bálor in a triple threat match to win the Intercontinental Championship. Rollins and Reigns also continued to acknowledge their on-screen friendship afterwards, working together infrequently, although no longer operating under the Shield banner.