title: Islamic fundamentalism

text: Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad (Arabic: جماعة اهل السنة للدعوة والجهاد Jamā'a Ahl al-sunnah li-da'wa wa al-jihād), better known by its Hausa name Boko Haram (pronounced [bōːkòː hàrâm], "Western education is sinful"), is a jihadist militant organization based in the northeast of Nigeria. It is an Islamist movement which strongly opposes man-made laws and westernization. Founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2001, the organization seeks to establish sharia law in the country. The group is also known for attacking Christians and bombing Mosques and churches.


title: Islamic fundamentalism

text: The movement is divided into three factions. In 2011, Boko Haram was responsible for at least 450 killings in Nigeria. It was also reported that they had been responsible for over 620 deaths over the first 6 months of 2012. Since its founding in 2001, the jihadists have been responsible for between 3,000 and 10,000 deaths.


title: Islamic fundamentalism

text: The group became known internationally following sectarian violence in Nigeria in July 2009, which left over 1000 people dead. They do not have a clear structure or evident chain of command. Moreover, it is still a matter of debate whether Boko Haram has links to terror outfits outside Nigeria and its fighters have frequently clashed with Nigeria's central government. A US commander stated that Boko Haram is likely linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), although professor Paul Lubeck points out that no evidence is presented for any claims of material international support.


title: Islamic fundamentalism

text: Ansar Dine is an Islamist militant group in the country of Mali that wants Shariah law in Mali. It opposes Sufi shrines. Its main support comes from the Ifora tribe of Tuaregs. The group is connected to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.


title: Islamic fundamentalism

text: It took part in the 2012 Tuareg Rebellion. They destroyed the tomb of a Sufi saint which was a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It managed to take control of Northern Mali, and they formed a pact with the MNLA forming the Islamic Republic of Azawad.


title: Islamic fundamentalism

text: It is designated a terrorist group by the United States Department of State and the United Nations Security Council.


title: Islamic fundamentalism

text: Ansar al-Sharia or Ansar al-Shariah is a name used by a collection of radical or militant Islamist groups or militias, in at least eight countries. While they share names and ideology, they lack a unified command structure.


title: Islamic fundamentalism

text: Some states and movements that are perceived or claimed to be islamic fundamentalists have been criticized for their human rights record by international organizations. The acceptance of international law on human rights has been somewhat limited even in Muslim countries that are not seen as fundamentalist. Ann Elizabeth Mayer writes that states with a predominantly Muslim population, even when they adopt laws along European lines, are influenced by Islamic rules and precepts of "sharia", which cause conflict with international law on human rights. According to Mayer, features found in conflict include severe deficiencies in criminal procedure, harsh criminal penalties causing great suffering, discrimination against women and non-Muslims, and prohibition against abandoning the Islamic religion. In 1990, under Saudi leadership, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a group representing all Muslim majority nations, adopted the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, which substantially diverges from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The Cairo declaration lacks provisions for democratic principles, protection for religious freedom, freedom of association and freedom of the press, as well as equality in rights and equal protection under the law. Further it stipulates that "all the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic "shari'a"".


title: Islamic fundamentalism

text: The Cairo declaration followed years of limited acceptance of the Universal declaration by predominantly Muslim states. As an example, in 1984, Iran's UN representative, Said Raja'i Khorasani, said the following amid allegations of human rights violations, "[Iran] recognized no authority ... apart from Islamic law... Conventions, declarations and resolutions or decisions of international organizations, which were contrary to Islam, had no validity in the Islamic Republic of Iran... The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which represented secular understanding of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, could not be implemented by Muslims and did not accord with the system of values recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran; this country would therefore not hesitate to violate its provisions." These departures, both theoretical and practical, have resulted in a multitude of practices and cases criticized by international human rights groups. See human rights in Iran, human rights in Saudi Arabia, and Taliban treatment of women for specific examples.


title: Islamic fundamentalism

text: In a 2005 Lowy Institute for International Policy Poll 57% of Australians indicated they are worried about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Amos N. Guiora noted that this is equivalent to the number of Australians who perceived American Foreign Policy as a threat, he further noted that not just Muslim countries have an unfavourable opinion of the United States but a large number of western countries such as: France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain and concluded that Australia was not an outlier on this regard. The Lowly Institute claimed that the result "raised eyebrows."


title: Shooter game

text: Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, and can be used in combination with other tools such as grenades for indirect offense, armor for additional defense, or accessories such as telescopic sights to modify the behavior of the weapons. A common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition, armor or health, or upgrades which augment the player character's weapons.


title: Shooter game

text: Shooter games test the player's spatial awareness, reflexes, and speed in both isolated single player or networked multiplayer environments. Shooter games encompass many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing on the actions of the avatar engaging in combat with a weapon against both code-driven NPC enemies or other avatars controlled by other players.


title: Shooter game

text: Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups) are a subgenre of shooters wherein the player may move, up, down, left or right around the screen, typically firing straight forward.


title: Shooter game

text: Shoot 'em ups share common gameplay, but are often categorized by viewpoint. This includes fixed shooters on fixed screens, such as "Space Invaders" and "Galaxian"; scrolling shooters that mainly scroll in a single direction, such as "Xevious" and "Darius"; top-down shooters (sometimes referred to as twin-stick shooters) where the levels are controlled from an overhead viewpoint, such as "Bosconian" and "Time Pilot"; rail shooters where player movement is automatically guided down a fixed forward-scrolling "rail", such as "" and "Space Harrier"; and isometric shooters which use an isometric perspective, such as "Zaxxon" and "Viewpoint".


title: Shooter game

text: Run-and-gun shooters are 2D scrolling action games in which the protagonists fight on foot, often with the ability to jump. Run-and-gun games may use side-scrolling, vertical scrolling or isometric viewpoints and may feature multidirectional movement.


title: Shooter game

text: Top-down run-and-gun games are characterized by an on-screen overhead in a camera angle that shows players and the areas around them from above. Notable games in this category include "Commando", "Ikari Warriors", "Shock Troopers" and "".


title: Shooter game

text: Side-scrolling run-and-gun games combine elements of both shoot 'em up and platform games, while the player characters move and jump around shooting with various guns and other long-range weapons. These games emphasize greater maneuvering or even jumping, such as "Green Beret", "Thexder", "Contra" and "Metal Slug".


title: Shooter game

text: Shooting gallery games (also known as "target shooting" games) are a sub-genre of shooters where the player aims at moving targets on a stationary screen. They are distinguished from rail shooters, which move the player through levels on a fixed path, and first-person shooters, which allow player-guided navigation through a three-dimensional space.


title: Shooter game

text: Shooting gallery games can be light gun games and rail-shooters, although many can also be played using a regular joypad and an on-screen cursor to signify where the bullets are being aimed. When these debuted, they were typically played from a first-person perspective, with enemy fire that occurred anywhere on the screen damaging or killing the player. As they evolved away from the use of light guns, the player came to be represented by an on-screen avatar, usually someone on the bottom of the screen, who could move and avoid enemy attacks while returning fire. These sorts of shooters almost always utilize horizontal scrolling to the right to indicate level progression, with enemies appearing in waves from predestined locations in the background or from the sides. One of the earliest examples is the 1985 arcade game "Shootout" produced by Data East.


title: Shooter game

text: As light gun games and rail shooters became more prevalent and started to make use of scrolling backgrounds, such as "Operation Wolf", or fully 3D backgrounds, such as the "Time Crisis" or "House of the Dead" series, these sorts of games fell out of popular production, but many like "Blood Bros." still have their fanbase today. Other notable games of this category include "Cabal" and "Wild Guns".


title: Shooter game

text: Light gun shooters are shooters designed for use with a gun-shaped controller, typically a light gun in arcade games; similar control methods include a positional gun, motion controller, pointing device or analog stick. The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing vacuum tubes. It was not long before the technology began appearing in mechanical shooting arcade games, dating back to the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite in 1936. These early mechanical gun games evolved into shooting electro-mechanical games around the mid-20th century, and in turn evolved into light gun shooter video games in the 1970s.


title: Shooter game

text: Early mechanical light gun games used small targets (usually moving) onto which a light-sensing tube was mounted; the player used a gun (usually a rifle) that emitted a beam of light when the trigger was pulled. If the beam struck the target, a "hit" was scored. Modern screen-based video game light guns work on the opposite principle—the sensor is built into the gun itself, and the on-screen target(s) emit light rather than the gun. The first light gun of this type was used on the MIT Whirlwind computer, which used a similar light pen. Like rail shooters, movement is typically limited in light-gun games.


title: Shooter game

text: Notable games of this category include the 1974 and 1984 versions of "Wild Gunman", "Duck Hunt" for the NES, "Operation Wolf", "Lethal Enforcers", the "Virtua Cop" series, "Time Crisis" series, "The House of the Dead" series, and "" & "".


title: Shooter game

text: First-person shooters are characterized by an on-screen representation of the player character's perspective within a three-dimensional space, with the player having control and agency over the character's movement and action within that space. While many rail shooters and light-gun shooters also use a first-person perspective, they are generally not included in this category, as the player generally lacks agency to move their character within the game world.


title: Shooter game

text: Notable examples of the genre include "Doom", "Quake", "Half-Life", "Counter-Strike", "GoldenEye 007", "Battlefield", "Medal of Honor", "Unreal", "Call of Duty", "Killzone", "TimeSplitters", "Team Fortress 2" and "Halo".


title: Shooter game

text: A boomer shooter is a term used to describe newer FPS games (2010s and later) that are purposely designed to emulate the style of the original FPS games like "Doom" and "Quake", moving away from realism and story and instead emphasizing fast gameplay and over-the-top combat. The term originated following the release of "Dusk" (2018), with fans of that game quickly coining the term; it has a double meaning in that it references the idea of "boomsticks" (powerful shotguns) that frequently were part of these games' arsenals, and refers to games that were popular from the baby boomer generation. Newer triple-A games like "Doom" (2016) and "" (2016) helped to repopularize these styles of shooters in the mid-2010s, and indie developers further contributed to the field, including "Amid Evil", "Ultrakill" and "Ion Fury".


title: Shooter game

text: Third-person shooters are characterized by a third-person camera view that fully displays the player character in his/her surroundings. Notable examples of the genre include the "Tomb Raider" series, several entries in the "Resident Evil" and "Metal Gear Solid" franchises, "Syphon Filter", "Max Payne", "SOCOM", "", "Gears of War", and "Splatoon". Third person shooter mechanics are often incorporated into open-world adventure and sandbox games, including the "Elder Scrolls" series and the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise.


title: Shooter game

text: Arena shooters are multiplayer games that feature fast paced gameplay that emphasize quick speed and agile movement, and played out on levels or maps of limited size (the "arena"). Many of these are presented as first-person shooters, and thus "arena FPS" may also be used to describe a subset of these games. Examples of these include the "Quake" and "Unreal" series, more specifically "Quake III Arena" and "Unreal Tournament" which first pioneered the genre. Arena shooters can also be played from other perspectives, such as via a top-down view in games like "Robotron 2084" and "Geometry Wars". Arena shooters frequently emphasize multiplayer modes with few or no single-player modes outside of practice matches with computer-controlled opponents. The genre hit its peak in popularity in the late 90s and early 2000s.


title: Shooter game

text: Hero shooters are a variation of multiplayer first- or third-person shooters, where players form into two or more teams and select from pre-designed "hero" characters, with each possessing distinctive abilities and/or weapons that are specific to them. Hero shooters strongly encourage teamwork between players on a team, guiding players to select effective combinations of hero characters and coordinate the use of hero abilities during a match. Outside of a match, players have the ability to customize the appearance of these characters, but these changes are usually cosmetic only and do not alter the game's balance or the behavior of the "hero". Hero shooters take many of their design elements from older class-based shooter, multiplayer online battle arena and fighting games. The class-based shooter "Team Fortress 2" is considered to be the codifier of the hero shooter genre. Popular hero shooters include "Overwatch", "Paladins," "Apex Legends", and "Valorant". Hero shooters have been considered to have strong potential as esports games as a large degree of skill and coordination arises from the importance of teamwork.


title: Shooter game

text: Tactical shooters are shooters that generally simulate realistic squad-based or man-to-man skirmishes. Notable examples of the genre include Ubisoft's "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six" and "Ghost Recon" series and Bohemia Software's "Operation Flashpoint". A common feature of tactical shooters that is not present in many other shooters is the ability for the player character to lean out of cover, increasing the granularity of a player's movement and stance options to enhance the realism of the game. Tactical shooters also commonly feature more extensive equipment management, more complex healing systems, and greater depth of simulation compared to other shooters. As a result of this, many tactical shooters are commonly played from the first person perspective. Tactical shooters may combine elements from other shooter genres, such as "Rainbow Six Siege", "Valorant", and Squad, which combine the traditional tactical shooter style with the class-based gameplay of hero shooters.


title: Shooter game

text: Looter shooters are shooter games where the player's overarching goal is the accumulation of loot: weapons, equipment, armor, accessories and resources. To achieve this players complete tasks framed as quests, missions or campaigns and are rewarded with better weapons, gear and accessories as a result, with the qualities, attributes and perks of such gear generated randomly following certain rarity scales (also known as loot tables). The better gear allows players to take on more difficult missions with potentially more powerful rewards, forming the game's compulsion loop. Loot shooters are inspired by similar loot-based action role-playing games like "Diablo". Examples of loot shooters include the "Borderlands" franchise, "Warframe", "Destiny" and its sequel, "Tom Clancy's The Division" and its sequel, and "Anthem".


title: Shooter game

text: Artillery games have been described as a type of "shooting game", though they are more frequently classified as a type of strategy game.


title: Shooter game

text: Battle royale games are a subgenre of action games that combine last-man-standing gameplay with survival game elements, and frequently includes shooter elements. It is almost exclusively multiplayer in nature, and eschews the complex crafting and resource gathering mechanics of survival games for a faster-paced confrontation game more typical of shooters. The genre is named after the Japanese film "Battle Royale" (2000) which itself was based on the 1999 novel of the same name.


title: Shooter game

text: The concept of shooting games existed before video games, dating back to shooting gallery carnival games in the late 19th century, as well as target sports such as shooting sports, bowling, cue sports, archery and darts. Mechanical gun games first appeared in England's amusement arcades around the turn of the 20th century, before appearing in America by the 1920s. The British cinematic shooting gallery game "Life Targets" (1912) was a mechanical interactive film game where players shot at a cinema screen displaying film footage of targets. The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, with the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite. Games using this toy rifle were mechanical and the rifle fired beams of light at targets wired with sensors.


title: Shooter game

text: Shooting gallery games eventually evolved into more sophisticated shooting electro-mechanical games (EM games) such as Sega's influential "Periscope" (1965). Contemporary shooting video games have roots in older EM shooting games. Another influential Sega EM shooting game was "Gun Fight" (1969), where two players control cowboy figurines on opposing sides of a playfield full of obstacles, with each player attempting to shoot the opponent's cowboy. It had a Western theme and was one of the first games to feature competitive head-to-head shooting between two players, inspiring several early Western-themed shooter video games.


title: Shooter game

text: "Spacewar!" (1962), recognized as one of the first video games, was also the first shooter video game; it featured two players controlling spacecraft trying to fire onto the other player. "Spacewar!" was the basis for the first arcade video games, "Computer Space" and "Galaxy Game", in 1971. In the 1970s, EM gun games evolved into light gun shooter video games. The first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, shipped with a light gun for a shooting gallery game in 1972. In 1974, "Tank" by Kee Games adapted the concept of "Computer Space" into a more grounded tank combat game with simplified physics and maze game elements, becoming a hit in arcades.


title: Shooter game

text: In 1975, Taito's Tomohiro Nishikado adapted the concept of Sega's EM game "Gun Fight" into a video game, "Western Gun" (1975), with the cowboys represented as character sprites and both players able to maneuver across a landscape while shooting each other, making it a milestone for depicting human shooting targets. "Western Gun" became an arcade hit, which, along with "Tank", popularized a subgenre of one-on-one dueling video games. Midway's North American localization of "Western Gun", called "Gun Fight", also introduced the use of a microprocessor. In 1976, Midway had another hit shooting video game, "Sea Wolf" (1976), which was adapted from another Sega EM game, "Periscope".


title: Shooter game

text: The genre gained major attraction in popular culture with the release of Taito's "Space Invaders" arcade video game in 1978. It established the basis of the shoot 'em up subgenre, and became a cultural phenomenon that led into a golden age of arcade video games that lasted until around 1983. In contrast to earlier shooting games, "Space Invaders" has targets that fire back at the player, who in turn has multiple lives. Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, who combined elements from his earlier "Western Gun" (such as destructible environmental objects) with elements of Atari's "Breakout" (1976) and science fiction media, "Space Invaders" established a formula of "shoot or be shot" against numerous enemies. Space shooters subsequently became the dominant genre in arcades from the late 1970s up until the early 1980s. Most of these shooting games were presented from a 2D top-down-style perspective, with either a fixed or scrolling field. Games like "Space Wars" (1977) by Cinematronics and "Tempest" (1981) by Atari used vector graphics displays rather than raster graphics, while Sega's "Zaxxon" (1981) was the first video game to use an isometric playfield.


title: Shooter game

text: In the early 1980s, Japanese arcade developers began moving away from space shooters towards character action games. On the other hand, American arcade developers continued to focus on space shooters during the early 1980s. According to Eugene Jarvis, American arcade developers were greatly influenced by Japanese space shooters but took the genre in a different direction from the "more deterministic, scripted, pattern-type" gameplay of Japanese games, towards a more "programmer-centric design culture, emphasizing algorithmic generation of backgrounds and enemy dispatch" and "an emphasis on random-event generation, particle-effect explosions and physics" as seen in arcade games such as his own "Defender" (1981) and "" (1982) as well as Atari's "Asteroids" (1979). Nevertheless, Japanese developers occasionally released defining space shooters in the early 1980s, such as Sega's isometric shooter "Zaxxon" and pseudo-3D rail shooter "" (1982) demonstrating the potential of 3D shoot 'em up gameplay.


title: Shooter game

text: Shooter games diversified by the mid-1980s, with first-person light gun shooting gallery games such as Nintendo's "Duck Hunt" (1984), pseudo-3D third-person rail shooters such as Sega's "Space Harrier" (1985) and "After Burner" (1987), and military-themed scrolling run-and-gun shooters such as Capcom's "Commando" (1985), Konami's "Green Beret" (1985) and SNK's "Ikari Warriors" (1986). In the late 1980s, Taito's "Operation Wolf" (1987) popularized military-themed first-person light gun rail shooters.


title: Shooter game

text: "Doom" (1993) by id Software is considered the first major popular first-person shooter (FPS), and it was a major leap forward for three-dimensional environments in shooter games as well as action games in general. While the earlier games "Spasim" (1974) and "Maze War" (1974) for mainframe computers were effectively first-person shooters, they featured wireframe graphics and lacked the fidelity of texture that "Doom" brought. And while first-person perspectives had been used by rail shooter and shooting gallery games, they lacked player-guided navigation through a three-dimensional space, a defining feature of FPS games.


title: Shooter game

text: The use of texture-mapped 3D polygon graphics in shooter games dates back to Sega AM2's light gun rail shooter "Virtua Cop" (1994), followed by Sega's mech simulation shooter "Metal Head" (1995) and Parallax Software's FPS game "Descent" (1995). "GoldenEye 007" (1997) for the Nintendo 64 later combined the FPS sub-genre with light gun rail shooter elements from "Virtua Cop", popularizing FPS games on consoles. In the late 1990s, FPS games became increasingly popular while rail shooters declined in popularity, as FPS games were generally able to offer more variety, depth and sophistication than rail shooters. One of the last mainstream light gun rail shooter franchises was "The House of the Dead" horror game series in the late 1990s, which along with "Resident Evil" had a significant cultural impact on zombie media including zombie films by the 2000s.


title: Shooter game

text: Due to its violent nature, some consider the shooter game genre to be a representation of real world violence. Debate regarding video games causing violence were exasperated by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, whose perpetrators, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were fans of the game "Doom." Similarly, in Germany, school shootings such as those at Erfurt, Emsdetten and Winnenden, resulted in conservative politicians accusing violent shooter games, most notably "Counter Strike", of inciting young gamers to run amok. Several attempts were made to ban the "Killerspiele" (killing games) in Germany and the European Union. Shooter games were further criticized when Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, claimed that he developed target acquisition skills by playing "". This has led to a plethora of experimental research to determine the true effects. Experimental Research, focusing on the short term effects, found that playing violent games can increase the player's aggression. In a 2011 Supreme Court case involving a California law, Justice Antonio Scalia stated that there was some correlation between violent video games and increased aggression, but very little real-world effects. An experiment by C.A. Anderson and K.E. Dill, in which they had undergraduates randomly play either a violent or non-violent game, determined that the students who played the violent game were more susceptible to primed aggressive thoughts. Further studies have shown that there are some limitations with the research. Many research studies have not taken into account that violent video games tend to be more competitive, have a higher playing difficulty, and are more fast paced than non-violent games. Past research also shows that the way aggression was measured in the studies could be compared to the way competitiveness is measured, leaving the question of whether or not the effects of violent video games are forms of aggression or competitiveness.


title: Ibrahim ibn Muhammad

text: Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad (), was the son of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and Maria al-Qibtiyya. He died at the age of 2.


title: Ibrahim ibn Muhammad

text: In his book ""Al-Bidāya wa-n-Nihāya"" Ibn Kathir mentions that Ibrahim died on Thursday 10 Rabi' al-Awwal 10 AH, and on the , eclipse of the sun occurred, so people at the moment started talking that Allah is showing his condolences to his prophet by eclipsing the Sun. Muhammad, not wanting his companions to fall into Fitna by ascribing divinities to him or his son, stood at the mosque and said:


title: Ibrahim ibn Muhammad

text: Muhammad's wife, and the mother of believers, Ibrahim's mother was an Egyptian woman who came from Byzantine official to Muhammad in 628. According to Ibn Kathir, quoting Ibn Sa'd, he was born in the last month of the year 8 AH, equivalent of 630 CE. Muslim scholars such as Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj and Al-Nasa'i mention that Al-Waqidi is not reliable and is not trustworthy to be quoted. The child was named after Abraham (or Ibrahim in Arabic) the Biblical prophet revered in Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions. Ibrahim was placed in the care of a nurse called Umm Sayf, wife of Abu Sayf, the blacksmith, in the tradition of the Arabs of the time, to whom Muhammad gave some goats to complement her milk supply. When he fell ill he was moved to a date orchard near the residence of his mother, under the care of her and her sister Sirin. When it was clear that he would not likely survive, Muhammad was informed. His reaction to the news is reported as:


title: Ibrahim ibn Muhammad

text: Muhammad is also reported as having informed Maria and Sirin that Ibrahim would have his own nurse in Paradise. Different accounts relate that the ghusl for Ibrahim was performed by either Umm Burdah, or al-Fadl ibn ʿAbbas, in preparation for burial. Thereafter, he was carried to the cemetery upon a little bier by Muhammad, his uncle al-ʿAbbas, and others. Here, after a funeral prayer led by Muhammad, he was interred. Muhammad then filled the grave with sand, sprinkled some water upon it, and placed a landmark on it, saying that "Tombstones do neither good nor ill, but they help appease the living. Anything that man does, God wishes him to do well."


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church () is an Eastern Catholic church based in Kerala, India. The Syro-Malabar Church is an autonomous ("sui iuris") particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, including the Latin Church and the 22 other Eastern Catholic churches, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO). The Church is headed by the Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar, currently George Alencherry. The Syro-Malabar Synod of Bishops canonically convoked and presided over by the Major Archbishop constitutes the supreme authority of the Church. The Major Archiepiscopal Curia of the Church is based in Kakkanad, Kochi. "Syro-Malabar" is a prefix reflecting the church's use of the East Syriac Rite liturgy and origins in Malabar (modern Kerala). The name has been in usage in official Vatican documents since the nineteenth century.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The Syro-Malabar Church is primarily based in India; with 5 metropolitan archeparchies and 10 suffragan eparchies in Kerala, there are 17 eparchies in other parts of India, and 4 eparchies outside India. It is the largest of the Saint Thomas Christians communities with a population of 2.35 million in Kerala as per the 2011 Kerala state census and 4.25 million worldwide as estimated in the 2016 "Annuario Pontificio". It is the third largest "sui juris" church in the Catholic Church communion and the second largest Eastern Catholic church after the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The church traces its origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The earliest recorded organised Christian presence in India dates to the 4th century, when Persian missionaries of the East Syriac Rite tradition, members of what later became the Church of the East, established themselves in modern-day Kerala and Sri Lanka. The Church of the East shared communion within the Great Church until the Council of Ephesus in the 5th century, separating primarily over differences in Christology and due to political reasons. The Syro-Malabar Church employs a variant of the East Syriac Rite, which dates back to 3rd century Edessa, Upper Mesopotamia. As such it is a part of Syriac Christianity by liturgy and heritage.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: After the schism of 1552, a faction of the Church of the East came in communion with the Holy See of Rome (modern-day Chaldean Catholic Church) and the Church of the East collapsed due to internal struggles. Throughout the later half of the 16th century, the Malabar Church was under Chaldean Catholic jurisdiction. Through the Synod of Diamper of 1599, the Malabar Church was subjected directly under the authority of the Latin Catholic "Padroado" Archbishopric of Goa and the Jesuits. After a half-century administration under the Goa Archdiocese, dissidents held the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653 as a protest. In response, Pope Alexander VII, with the help of Carmelite missionaries, by 1662, was able to reunite the majority of the dissidents with the Catholic Church. The Syro-Malabar Church descends from the Saint Thomas Christians who first aligned with the Catholic Church at Synod of Diamper in 1599 and those who reunited with the Holy See under the leadership of Mar Palliveettil Chandy during the period between 1655 and 1663. During the 17th and 18th centuries the Archdiocese of Cranganore was under the Syro-Malabar, but it was later suppressed and integrated into the modern day Latin Archdiocese of Verapoly.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: After over two centuries under the Latin Church's hegemony, in 1887, Pope Leo XIII fully separated the Syro-Malabar from the Latin Church (the Archdiocese of Verapoly remained as the jurisdiction for Latin Catholics). Leo XIII established two Apostolic Vicariates for Syro-Malabar, Thrissur and Changanassery (originally named Kottayam), and in 1896, the Vicariate of Ernakulam was erected as well, under the guidance of indigenous Syro-Malabar bishops. In 1923, the Syro-Malabar hierarchy was organized and unified with Ernakulam as the Metropolitan See and Mar Augustine Kandathil as the first head and Archbishop of the Church. The Syro-Malabar Church in effect became an autonomous "sui iuris" Eastern church within the Catholic communion.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The Syro-Malabar are unique among Catholics in their inculturation with traditional Hindu customs through Saint Thomas Christian heritage. Scholar and theologian Placid Podipara describes the Saint Thomas Christian community as "Hindu in culture, Christian in religion, and Oriental in worship." The Church is predominantly of the Malayali ethnic group who speak Malayalam, although there are a minority of Tamils, Telugus, and North Indians from the various eparchies outside Kerala. Following emigration of its members, eparchies have opened in other parts of India and in other countries to serve the diaspora living in the Western world. There are four eparchies outside of India, concentrated in English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and United States. Saint Alphonsa is the Church's first canonized saint, followed by Saint Kuriakose Chavara, Saint Euphrasia, and Saint Mariam Thresia. It is one of the two Eastern Catholic churches in India, the other one being the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church which represents the faction of the Puthenkoor that returned to full communion with the Holy See of Rome in 1930.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: It is believed that the Saint Thomas Christians in Malabar came into contact with the Persian Church of the East in the middle of the 4th century. Saint Thomas Christians looked to Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East for ecclesiastical authority. Although the bishops from the Middle East were the spiritual rulers of the Church, the general administration of the Church of Kerala was governed by the indigenous Archdeacon. The Archdeacon was the head of Saint Thomas Christians. Even when there were more than one foreign bishop, there was only one Archdeacon for the entire community.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The Church of the East Patriarch Shemon VII Ishoyahb's unpopularity led to the schism of 1552, due to the patriarchal succession being hereditary, normally from uncle to nephew. Opponents appointed the monk Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa as a rival patriarch. Sulaqa's subsequent consecration by Pope Julius III (1550–55) saw a permanent split in the Church of the East; and the reunion with Catholic Church resulted in the formation of the modern-day Chaldean Catholic Church of Iraq.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: Thus, parallel to the "traditionalist" (often referred as Nestorian) Patriarchate of the East, the "Chaldean" Patriarchate in communion with Rome came into existence. Following the schism, both traditionalist and Chaldean factions began sending their bishops to Malabar. Abraham of Angamaly was one among them. He first came to India in 1556 from the traditionalist patriarchate. Deposed from his position in 1558, he was taken to Lisbon by the Portuguese, escaped at Mozambique and left for his mother church in Mesopotamia, entered into communion with the Chaldean patriarchate and Rome in 1565, received his episcopal ordination again from the Latin patriarch of Venice as arranged by the Pope Pius IV (1559–65) in Rome. Subsequently, Abraham was appointed by Pope as Archbishop of Angamaly, with letters to the Archbishop of Goa and the Bishop of Cochin.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: In 1597, Abraham of Angamaly died. The Catholic Portuguese padroado Archbishop of Goa, Aleixo de Menezes, downgraded the Angamaly Archdiocese into a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Goa and appointed the Jesuit Francisco Ros as Bishop of Angamaly. Menezes held the Synod of Diamper in 1599 to bring the Saint Thomas Christians under the complete authority of the Latin Church.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The oppressive rule of the Portuguese padroado eventually led to a revolt in 1653, known as the Coonan Cross Oath. The Thomas Christians including their native priests assembled in the church of Our Lady at Mattancherry near Cochin, formally stood before a crucifix and lighted candles and solemnly swore an oath upon the Gospel that they never again accept another European prelate. The exact wording used in Coonan Cross Oath is disputed. There are various versions about the wording of oath, one version being that the oath was directed against the Portuguese, another that it was directed against Jesuits, yet another version that it was directed against the authority of Latin Catholics.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: After the Coonan Cross Oath, the leaders of Saint Thomas Christians assembled at Edappally, where four senior priests Anjilimoottil Itty Thommen Kathanar of Kallisseri, Palliveettil Chandy Kathanar of Kuravilangad, Kadavil Chandy Kathanar of Kaduthuruthy and Vengoor Geevarghese Kathanar of Angamaly were appointed as advisors of the Archdeacon and on 22 May 1653 Archdeacon Thoma was proclaimed as bishop by the laying on of hands of twelve priests. After the consecration of Thoma I, The information about this consecration was then communicated to all the churches. The vast majority of churches accepted Thoma I as their bishop. At this point of time, Portuguese authorities requested direct intervention of Rome and hence Pope sent Carmelite Missionaries in two groups from the Propagation of the Faith to Malabar headed by Fr. Sebastiani and Fr. Hyacinth. Fr. Sebastiani arrived first in 1655 and began to speak directly with the Thoma I. Fr. Sebastiani, with the help of Portuguese, gained the support of many, especially with the support of Palliveettil Chandy, Kadavil Chandy Kathanar and Vengoor Geevarghese Kathanar. These were the three of the four counselors of Thoma I, who had defected with Francisco Garcia Mendes, Archbishop of Cranganore, before the arrival of Sebastaini, according to Jesuit reports.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The Carmelite missionaries succeeded in convincing a group of St.Thomas Christians that the consecration of Archdeacon as bishop was not legitimate and Thoma I started losing his followers. In the meantime, Sebastiani returned to Rome and was ordained as bishop by Pope on 15 December 1659. Between 1661 and 1662, out of the 116 churches, the Carmelites claimed eighty-four churches, leaving the native archdeacon Thoma I with thirty-two churches. The eighty-four churches and their congregations were the body from which the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church has descended. The other thirty-two churches and their congregations represented the nucleus from which the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church), the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Malabar Independent Syrian Church, the Marthoma Syrian Church, and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church have originated. However, in 1663, with the conquest of Cochin by the Dutch, the control of the Portuguese on the Malabar coast was lost. The Dutch declared that all the Portuguese missionaries had to leave Kerala. Before leaving Kerala, on 1 February 1663 Sebastiani consecrated Palliveettil Chandy as the Metran of the Thomas Christians who adhered to the Church of Rome.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: Thoma I, meanwhile sent requests to various Oriental Churches to receive canonical consecration as bishop. In 1665 Gregorios Abdal Jaleel, a bishop sent by the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, arrived in India. The independent group under the leadership of Thoma I which resisted the authority of the Portuguese padroado welcomed him. Abdal Jaleel consecrated Thoma I canonically as a bishop and regularised his episcopal succession. This led to the first lasting formal schism in the Saint Thomas Christian community. Thereafter, the faction affiliated with the Catholic Church under Bishop Palliveettil Chandy came to be known as "Pazhayakuttukar" (or "Old Allegiance"), and the branch affiliated with Thoma I came to be known as "Puthenkūttukār" (or "New Allegiance"). They were also known as "Jacobite Syrians" and they organized themselves as independent "Malankara Church". The visits of prelates from the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch continued since then and this led to gradual replacement of the East Syriac Rite liturgy with the West Syriac Rite and the Puthenkūttukār affiliated to the Miaphysite Christology of the Oriental Orthodox Communion.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The "Pazhayakuttukar" faction continued with the Catholic Communion and preserved the traditional East Syriac (Persian) liturgy and Dyophysite Christology. They were also known as "Romo-Syrians" or "Syrian Catholics". They also used the title "Malankara Church" initially. Following the death of Palliveettil Chandy in 1687, the Syrian Catholics of the Malabar coast came under the parallel double jurisdiction of Vicariate Apostolic of Malabar under Roman Catholic Carmelites and Archdiocese of Cranganore under the Padroado. Thus many priests and laymen attempted to persuade the Pope to restore their Chaldean Catholic rite and hierarchy of the local church, and for the appointment of bishops from local priests. To represent their position, Kerala's Syrian Catholics Joseph Kariattil and Paremmakkal Thomma Kathanar went to Rome in 1778. While they were in Europe, Kariatty Joseph Kathanar was installed in Portugal as the Archbishop of Kodungalloor Archdiocese. While journeying home, they stayed in Goa where Kariattil died before he could formally take charge. Before he died, Kariattil appointed Kathanar as the Administrator of Kodungalloor Archdiocese after him. The new administrator ran the affairs of the church, establishing his headquarters at Angamaly. In 1790, the headquarters of the Archdiocese was shifted to Vadayar, dodging the invasion of Tippu Sultan. In the last four years of his life, Thomma Kathanar managed church administration from his own parish, Ramapuram.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: "Angamaly Padiyola", a declaration of the "Pazhayakūr" gave the history of Saint Thomas Christians up to 1787 and advocated for the appointment of a native bishop that adhered to the local traditions.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: Latin Catholic Carmelite clergy from Europe served as bishops, and the Church along with the Latin Catholics was under the Apostolic Vicariate of Malabar (modern-day Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Verapoly). In 1887, the Holy See established two Apostolic Vicariates, Thrissur and Kottayam (later Changanassery) under the guidance of indigenous Syro-Malabar bishops, and named the Church as "The Syro-Malabar Church" to distinguish them from the Latins. The Holy See re-organized the Apostolic Vicariates in 1896 into three Apostolic Vicariates (Thrissur, Ernakulam, and Changanassery). A fourth Apostolic Vicariate (Kottayam) was established in 1911 for Knanaya Catholics.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: In 1923, Pope Pius XI (1922–39) set up a full-fledged Syro-Malabar hierarchy with Ernakulam-Angamaly as the Metropolitan See and Augustine Kandathil as the first Head and Archbishop of the Church. In 1992, Pope John Paul II (1978–05) raised the Syro-Malabar Church to Major Archepiscopal rank and appointed Cardinal Antony Padiyara of Ernakulam as the first Major Archbishop. The Syro-Malabar Church shares the same liturgy with the Chaldean Catholic Church based in Iraq and the independent Assyrian Church of the East based in Iraq (including its archdiocese the Chaldean Syrian Church of India). The Syro-Malabar Church is the third-largest particular church ("sui juris") in the Catholic Church (after the Latin Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church).


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The Catholic Saint Thomas Christians ("Pazhayakūttukār") came to be known as the Syro Malabar Catholics from 1932 onwards to differentiate them from the Syro-Malankara Catholics in Kerala. The Indian East Syriac Catholic hierarchy was restored on 21 December 1923 with Augustine Kandathil as the first Metropolitan and Head of the Church with the name Syro-Malabar.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The Saint Thomas Christians received their bishops from the Church of the East/Chaldean Church until the end of the sixteenth century, when it was stopped by the Portuguese Latin authorities in 1597, after the death of Metropolitan Archbishop Abraham of Angamaly.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: As per the East Syriac tradition, "liturgical day" of the Syro-Malabar Church starts at sunset (6 pm). Also the worshiper has to face the East while worshiping. This is not followed after Latinization.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: According to the East Syriac (Edessan or Persian) tradition, the following are the seven times of prayer:


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The Holy Mass, which is called Holy Qurbana in East Syriac Aramaic and means "Eucharist", is celebrated in its solemn form on Sundays and special occasions. During the celebration of the Qurbana, priests and deacons put on elaborate vestments which are unique to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: East Syriac liturgy has three anaphorae: those of the Holy Apostles (Saints Mar Addai and Mar Mari), Mar Theodore Mpašqana, and Mar Nestorius. The first is the most popularly and extensively used. The second is used (except when the third is ordered) from Advent to Palm Sunday. The third was traditionally used on the Epiphany and the feasts of St. John the Baptist and of the Greek Doctors, both of which occur in Epiphany-tide on the Wednesday of the Rogation of the Ninevites, and on Maundy Thursday. The same pro-anaphoral part (Liturgy of the Word) serves for all three.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: In the second half of the 20th century, there was a movement for better understanding of the liturgical rites. A restored Eucharistic liturgy, drawing on the original East Syriac sources, was approved by Pope Pius XII in 1957, and for the first time on the feast of St. Thomas on 3 July 1962 the vernacular, Malayalam, was introduced for the celebration of the Syro-Malabar Qurbana. Currently they celebrate the Divine Liturgy of Addai and Mari and the Anaphora of Theodre in mostly Malayalam, with Syriac and English influences.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: Besides the Anaphora of Mar Addai and Mar Mari being used currently in Syro-Malabar liturgy, there are two more anaphorae known as Anaphora of Theodore and Anaphora of Nestorius. That the Anaphora of Theodore which was withdrawn from use after the Synod of Diamper (a large number of churches used it up to 1896) is being used again in the Syro-Malabar Church after 415 years is indeed an important historical reality. In a way the Syro-Malabar church rejected the Synod of Diamper. Pope Pius XII during the process of restoration of the Syro-Malabar Qurbana in 1957 had requested the restoration of the Anaphorae of Theodore and Nestorius. The draft of the Anaphora of Theodore was restored after meticulous study by the Central Liturgical Committee, Liturgical Research Centre, various sub-committees, and the eparchial liturgical commissions. Many changes befitting to the times have been made in the prayers, maintaining maximum fidelity to the original text of the Second Anaphora. It was this text so prepared that was sent to Rome for the recognition of the Apostolic See in accordance with the decision of the Syro-Malabar Synod. The Congregation for the Eastern Churches gave its approval for using this anaphora on an experimental basis for three years on 15 December 2012.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: After almost 420 years, the Anaphora of Nestorius is restored in the Syro-Malabar Church. The aftermath of the so-called Synod of Diamper was that any texts related to Nestorius were systematically burnt by the Jesuits, who represented and ruled the Latin Church of India in 1599. In a way, the SyroMalabar church rejected the Synod of Diamber (Udayamperoor) by restoring the Anaphora of Theodore and Anaphora of Nestorius.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: Liturgical latinisation was furthered in 1896 by Ladislaus Zaleski, the Apostolic Delegate to India, who requested permission to translate the Roman Pontifical into Syriac. This was the choice of some Malabar prelates, who chose it over the East Syriac Rite and West Syriac Rite pontificals. A large number of Syro-Malabarians had schismed and joined with Assyrians at that time and various delayed the approval of this translation, until in 1934 Pope Pius XI stated that latinization was to no longer be encouraged. He initiated a process of liturgical reform that sought to restore the oriental nature of the Latinized Syro-Malabar rite. A restored Eucharistic liturgy, drawing on the original East Syriac sources, was approved by Pius XII in 1957 and introduced in 1962.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The curia of the Syro-Malabar Church began to function in March 1993 at the archbishop's house of Ernakulam-Angamaly. Later, on 27 May 1995, it was shifted to new premises at Mount St. Thomas near Kakkanad, Kochi. The newly constructed curial building was opened on 3 July 1998.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The administration of the Syro-Malabar Church has executive and judicial roles. The major archbishop, officials, various commissions, committees, and the permanent synod form the executive part. The permanent synod and other offices are formed in accordance with the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO). The officials include the chancellor, vice-chancellor, and other officers. Various commissions are appointed by the major archbishop: Liturgy, Pastoral Care of the Migrant and Evangelisation, Particular Law, Catechism, Ecumenism, Catholic Doctrine, Clergy and Institutes of Consecrated Life, and Societies of Apostolic Life. The members of the commissions are ordinarily bishops, but include priests. For judicial activities there is the major archiepiscopal ordinary tribunal formed in accordance with CCEO which has a statutes and sufficient personnel, with a president as its head. At present, Rev. Dr. Jose Chiramel is the president. The Major archiepiscopal curia functions in the curial building in Kerala, India.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: They have prepared the particular law for their Church and promulgated it part by part in Synodal News, the official Bulletin of this Church. There are statutes for the permanent synod and for the superior and ordinary tribunals. CCEO c. 122 § 2 is specific in the particular law, that the term of the office shall be five years and the same person shall not be appointed for more than two terms consecutively.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: There are 35 eparchies (dioceses). Five of them are Archeparchies (of major archbishop) at present, all in southern India: Ernakulam-Angamaly, Changanacherry, Trichur, Tellicherry, and Kottayam.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: These have another 13 suffragan eparchies: Bhadravathi, Belthangady, Irinjalakuda, Kanjirapally, Kothamangalam, Idukki, Mananthavady, Mandya, Palai, Palghat, Ramanathapuram, Thamarassery, and Thuckalay within the canonical territory of the Major Archiepiscopal Church.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: There are 13 further eparchies outside the canonical territory of which Adilabad, Bijnor, Chanda, Gorakhpur, Jagdalpur, Kalyan, Rajkot, Sagar, Satna, Faridabad, Hosur, Shamsabad, and Ujjain in India are with exclusive jurisdiction. The St. Thomas Eparchy of Chicago in the United States, St. Thomas the Apostle Eparchy of Melbourne in Australia, Eparchy of Great Britain, and Eparchy of Mississauga, Canada enjoy personal jurisdiction.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: Most believers of this church are organized under five metropolitan archeparchies (archdioceses), all in Kerala, and their suffragan eparchies.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: The Religious Congregations are divided in the Eastern Catholic Church Law (Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches – CCEO) as Monasteries, Hermitages, Orders, Congregations, Societies of Common Life in the Manner of Religious, Secular Institutes, and Societies of Apostolic Life.


title: Syro-Malabar Church

text: According to the 2016 Annuario Pontificio pontifical yearbook, there were about 4,189,349 members in the Syro-Malabar Church.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Brian David Kendrick (born May 29, 1979) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE. Kendrick is also known for his appearances with Ring of Honor (ROH), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1).


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Kendrick began his career in 1999. During the early years on his career, Kendrick wrestled as Leonardo Spanky or simply Spanky for several small American promotions like ROH and TNA and for Japanese promotions like Zero1, where he won the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship and Zero-One United States Openweight Championship. In the early 2000s, he also had two stints with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later World Wrestling Entertainment), one as a developmental wrestler and a second stint where he appeared as part of the main roster before departing. He would make his return to WWE in 2005, where he was paired with Paul London. During his time as a tag team, they would win the World Tag Team Championship and the WWE Tag Team Championship, with the latter becoming the longest reign of the title until WrestleMania 20. After the team was dissolved, he began a singles career as The Brian Kendrick, with Ezekiel Jackson as his enforcer. He would leave WWE in 2009. The next year, Kendrick would make his return to TNA, where he stayed for two years, winning the TNA X Division Championship. He also worked until 2016 on the independent circuit and toured occasionally with NJPW.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: In 2014, Kendrick began to work with WWE as a trainer. He would make his return to the ring during the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic, a tournament held by WWE for cruiserweight wrestlers. Despite not winning the tournament, Kendrick was assigned to 205 Live, a newly-created cruiserweight brand, where he would capture the WWE Cruiserweight Championship once. During the following years, Kendrick worked on both the "205 Live" and "NXT UK" programs, until he began to work as a backstage producer for the NXT brand.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Kendrick is also a promoter. He currently owns and operates his own promotion, called Brian Kendrick's Wrestling Pro Wrestling.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Kendrick was born in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, and is the son of Barbara Kendrick and the oldest of three children—a brother named Neal and a sister named Shannon. He later moved to Olympia, Washington where he attended North Thurston High School in Lacey, Washington. During his senior year, he worked as a dishwasher at Dirty Dave's Pizza Parlor while saving money to attend wrestling school.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: While growing up, Kendrick's favorite wrestlers included Ultimate Warrior, Blue Blazer and Koko B. Ware. He was also a fan of Shawn Michaels, who trained him, and Chris Jericho. He was already very good friends with his former tag team partner Paul London, with Lance Cade and Bryan Danielson, both of whom he trained with.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: In 1999, he moved to Texas to begin training at the NWA Southwest wrestling school and later attended the Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy. It was there that Kendrick adopted the ring name Spanky, a nickname he was given due to his method of staying awake during long drives on the indy circuit. He made his professional wrestling debut on October 4, 1999 in a match with American Dragon that ended in a 10-minute time limit draw.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: In October 2001, Kendrick wrestled American Dragon in the first round of The King of the Indies tournament, but lost. The crowd, however, gave both men a standing ovation after the match.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: In February 2000, Kendrick signed a developmental deal with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), spending a year in the company's "farm territory", Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW), before the promotion closed and Kendrick was released from his contract. Kendrick won his first Championship in MCW when he defeated American Dragon for the MCW Southern Light Heavyweight Championship on September 22. He later teamed with American Dragon to win the MCW Southern Tag Team Championship, on December 1, becoming a double champion. The tag team disbanded after they lost the Championships to The Dupps. On December 30, however, the Southern Light Heavyweight title was declared vacant after a match that Kendrick had with Derrick King. In a match for the vacant championship, Kendrick regained the title after beating King, on January 6, 2001. He later dropped it to Tyler Gates, before regaining it on May 11. On June 1, however, Spanky was stripped of the title and it was abandoned, making Spanky the last ever MCW Southern Light Heavyweight Champion. He also holds the record for most reigns, with three.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On February 23, 2002, Kendrick wrestled on the premiere show of Ring of Honor (ROH), winning the match to gain an ROH contract. While in ROH, Kendrick competed in several other promotions such as Heartland Wrestling Association and All Pro Wrestling, before leaving for Japan in June to compete in Pro Wrestling Zero-One (Zero-One). There, he wrestled under the ring name Leonardo Spanky, a gimmick proposed by Shinya Hashimoto due to Kendrick's resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio. On June 29, he became the first International Junior Heavyweight Champion in company history. He dropped the title to Low Ki a few months later.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: In late 2002, Kendrick signed a contract with WWE but was unable to compete until he completed his time in the independent circuit. He made his WWE debut on the edition of January 11, 2003 of "Velocity" under the gimmick of a mascot representing the local sports team of the town in which he was competing. He continued wearing masks for several weeks, each time competing under a different identity. After acting as a telegram deliverer for Big Show to Undertaker, and getting a Last Ride for his troubles, he showed up the following week and began a series of events trying to impress the then General Manager of Smackdown! Stephanie McMahon in order to earn a contract for the WWE, including trying to last five minutes in a match with Kurt Angle. He eventually earned himself a contract on the March 20, 2003 episode of Smackdown! by defeating Shannon Moore. His first major storyline within WWE came on the May 1, 2003 episode of "SmackDown!". He reverted to his former "Spanky" ring name after he interrupted a promo by John Cena. The two feuded over their similar hip hop gimmicks, until May 22. On October 30, Spanky began teaming with Paul London until January 13, 2004 when Kendrick left WWE to return to Zero1.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: After leaving WWE, Kendrick wrestled in different independent promotions. He returned to Pro Wrestling Zero1 as "Spanky" and was quickly pushed to capture the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship. This occurred with partner Low Ki on February 19, 2004, when they defeated Dick Togo and Ikuto Hidaka. They lost the championship to Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Tomohiro Ishii a few months later. Kendrick gained a new tag team partner in Kaz Hayashi, on September 19, 2004, and won back the championships. They held onto the titles until March 2005, when they dropped them to Hidaka and Minoru Fujita. Although he lost the tag titles in March, Kendrick, as Spanky, received a singles push, and won the Zero-One United States Openweight Championship that same month. but he lost the title in September 2005.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Kendrick had a brief stint in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in November 2004 under the ring name "Spanky" on the November 4 episode of "Impact" where he defeated Kaz, Matt Sydal and Amazing Red, in a four-way match. At TNA's first monthly three-hour PPV event Victory Road, Spanky competed in a 20-man X-Division Gauntlet match for the X Division Cup the match was won by Héctor Garza.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: He then returned to ROH, as well as debuting on its sister promotion Full Impact Pro (FIP) on December 17, 2004, winning the first ever Florida Rumble. On February 25, Kendrick wrestled a match against fellow WWE alumnus, James Gibson. Throughout the match, the crowd chanted "Welcome Back!" and "SmackDown! Sucks!", and both men received a standing ovation after the match. During his time in ROH, Kendrick was booked as a mid-carder, consistently having matches late on the card. Kendrick also competed in the Trios Tournament, but lost in the first round with his team members, Gibson and Nigel McGuinness. He unsuccessfully competed for several titles such as the ROH Pure Championship, ROH World Championship and ROH World Tag Team Championship. In July 2005, Kendrick announced that he had re-signed with World Wrestling Entertainment, and would be returning there after he had fulfilled his obligations on the Independent circuit. In FIP, Kendrick won the FIP Tag Team Championship with Sal Rinauro on August 6, 2005, but lost it to The Heartbreak Express less than a month later, shortly before he returned to WWE.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: In July 2005, Kendrick announced that after he had fulfilled his obligations on the independent circuit, he would return to WWE. He made his return during a live event on August 22, 2005, losing in a Fatal Four-Way match for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. He then reformed a tag team with his former partner Paul London on the edition of September 30 of "Velocity". On December 16, the pair remade their image, wearing theatrical masks to the ring with matching vests and shorts. They were quickly elevated into the WWE Tag Team Championship picture, receiving a non-title match against WWE Tag Team Champions MNM on the edition of February 10, 2006 of "SmackDown!", which London and Kendrick lost. On April 7, they faced MNM again, picking up a win in a non-title match. Their storyline feud continued, as London and Kendrick continued their winning streak over the champions, including singles victories for both Kendrick and London on MNM members Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury, respectively. London and Kendrick won the WWE Tag Team Championship at Judgment Day, thus defeating MNM six times in a row in singles and tag team matches altogether.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Their first main competition for the titles came when K. C. James and Idol Stevens defeated the champions in a non-title match, in early August, igniting a storyline feud between the two teams. During the rivalry, WWE Diva Ashley Massaro began accompanying London and Kendrick to the ring, acting as a valet to the team while combating the actions of James and Stevens' manager Michelle McCool.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On October 14, London and Kendrick became the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions until 2016, surpassing MNM's previous record of 145 days. Despite this, they were still booked as the underdogs in their feuds, and this was shown when they began a losing streak to the team of William Regal and Dave Taylor. Regal defeated both in singles matches and on the December 8 episode of "SmackDown!", Kendrick and London lost a non-title tag team match to the duo. London and Kendrick had a scheduled title defense at Armageddon, against Regal and Taylor. Before the pay-per-view, the match changed into a Fatal Four Way tag team ladder match with London and Kendrick defending their titles against Regal and Taylor, MNM, and The Hardys. London and Kendrick won the match and retained the titles.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On February 2, 2007, London and Kendrick suffered a non-title loss to the rookie team Deuce 'n Domino. In a title match at No Way Out, London and Kendrick retained the championship. London and Kendrick, however, dropped the championship to them on the edition of April 20 of "SmackDown!", ending their reign at 331 days ("SmackDown!" was recorded on April 17). In the storyline, London missed a moonsault from the ring apron to the floor during the title match, injuring his ribs, leaving Kendrick to battle Deuce 'n Domino alone. London and Kendrick unsuccessfully competed for the title on June 1 in a triple threat tag team match, which also involved Regal and Taylor, and lost a rematch on June 15 in a standard tag team match.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Kendrick, along with London, was drafted to the Raw brand on June 17, 2007 during the Supplemental Draft. They won their debut match on "Raw" against The World's Greatest Tag Team on June 18. They were soon established as a threat to the tag titles, and on the edition of September 3 of "Raw", they won a number one contender's match for Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch's World Tag Team Championship. Kendrick and London then worked a feud with Cade and Murdoch, and at a house show on September 5, they defeated Cade and Murdoch to win the titles, only to lose it back to Cade and Murdoch three days later. London and Kendrick continued to feud with Cade and Murdoch and lost to the Tag Team champions at Unforgiven. For the rest of 2007, London and Kendrick mainly competed on "Heat" or in tag title bouts, until London got injured in late 2007. As a result, Kendrick was mainly used as a jobber on "Raw", until London returned at the start of February 2008, although Kendrick still won sometimes on "Heat".


title: Brian Kendrick

text: In his next storyline, Kendrick abandoned London during a handicap match with Umaga. This abandonment resulted in Umaga performing the Samoan Spike on London, allowing Umaga to pick up the win over the duo. London and Kendrick still teamed together with no apparent dissension rising between the former tag team champions. After defeating Charlie Haas and Robbie McAllister on "Heat", London and Kendrick said they were ready to win the World Tag Team Championship. London and Kendrick beat the champions Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes next week on "Heat" in a non-title match. However, they failed to win the World Tag Team Titles on "Raw" after Holly pinned London.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Kendrick was drafted back to the SmackDown brand while London stayed on Raw, thus ending the team. He made his return to the brand on the July 18, 2008 airing of "SmackDown", as a heel, with new ring attire defeating Jimmy Wang Yang with the help of his bodyguard, Ezekiel, who was later given a surname and became Ezekiel Jackson. Kendrick was later given the name "The Brian Kendrick". On the edition of August 22 of "SmackDown", Kendrick won a 10-man battle royal to qualify for the WWE Championship Scramble match at Unforgiven. Kendrick won the interim WWE Championship title at the event, though he did lose minutes after having the longest reign as "interim" champion. As Kendrick was not the final interim champion, he never officially held the title. He later teamed with Jackson on many occasions, becoming number one contenders to the WWE Tag Team Championship held by Carlito and Primo, but they never managed to win the championship.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On April 15, 2009, Kendrick was separated from Jackson as he was drafted back to the Raw brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft while Jackson was drafted to the ECW brand. He wrestled his return match on "Raw" on the April 27 episode, against Kofi Kingston. He won a match on "Raw" after defeating Carlito on the May 11 episode before declaring his intention to win the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship; in the following weeks, Kendrick tried several unsuccessful pairings. In his final match, he was defeated by Kofi Kingston while cutting a promo on Jerry Lawler. The match ended with Kendrick turning around into Trouble In Paradise. On July 30, 2009, WWE announced that Kendrick was released from his contract.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Kendrick signed with Dragon Gate USA on August 6, 2009. His first match for the company, a losing effort against Cima at Untouchable, aired on pay-per-view edited down to only the highlights of the match. On August 28 he made his return to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla at "Speed of Sound" where he, wrestling as a heel, defeated Bryan Danielson after a low blow. Afterwards he formed an alliance with PWG World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks and started a feud with El Generico, Colt Cabana and the PWG World Champion Kenny Omega. On December 19 Ring of Honor announced that Kendrick would be making his return to the company on February 13, 2010, at the "8th Anniversary Show". At the event Kendrick was defeated by Roderick Strong.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On January 30, 2010, at PWG's WrestleReunion 4 the Young Bucks decided that Kendrick did not fit in with them and turned on him, only for him to be saved by his old tag team partner Paul London. Later in the night, Kendrick and London defeated the Young Bucks, now renamed Generation Me, in a non-title match. On March 27, 2010, at the tapings of Dragon Gate USA's "Mercury Rising" pay-per-view, Kendrick was defeated by Jimmy Jacobs in a Loser Leaves Company tag team match, where he teamed with Paul London against Jacobs and Jack Evans and as a result was forced to leave the company for good.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: In March 2012, Kendrick made his debut in Family Wrestling Entertainment, defeating Mike Benett. In mid May, Kendrick participated in Absolute Intense Wrestling's JT Lightning Invitational Tournament and made it to the semi final before losing to B. J. Whitmer. On July 28, at FWE X, he wrestled against FWE Champion Tommy Jay Lethal, Tommy Dreamer and Carlito for the title, but the match was won by Dreamer. Three months later, London, Kendrick and Lethal defeated Petey Williams and The Young Bucks. He also was in the first event of House of Hardcore, where Londron & Kendrick defeated The Young Bucks.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Kendrick returned to DGUSA on January 26, 2013, winning an Eight Way Fray. Next Day, Kendrick was defeated By Johnny Gargano for the Open the Freedom Gate title. In February, at Preston City Wrestling, Kendrick participated in the Road To Glory Tournament where he reached the semi final, losing to Noam Dar. At FWE No Limits, Kendrick lost a number one contendership match for the FWE Tri-Borough Championship to Paul London. Kendrick made his Combat Zone Wrestling debut on April 5, 2013, defeating Sami Callihan. Same day, Kendrick and Garando defeated The Gentlemen's Club on EVOLVE 19. On April 6 and 7, was defeated by Rich Swann on DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate. On June 22, 2013, London and Kendrick were defeated by The Young Bucks at House of Hardcore 2.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On March 30, 2014, Kendrick made his ICW debut in a match against Joe Coffey at ICW - Still Smokin' in the O2 ABC in Glasgow, Scotland where he was narrowly defeated. On September 8, 2014, it was announced that Kendrick would once again team up with Paul London to take on The New Age Kliq in Newcastle, England on October 5 for the Insane Championship Wrestling Tag-Team Championship. Both men won the titles and lost them on November 2, 2014.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Kendrick made an appearance for Ring of Honor on February 2, 2016, defeating Will Ferrara in a non-televised match.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On January 17, 2010 at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA)'s pay-per-view Genesis, Kendrick made his return to the promotion using his real name and losing to Amazing Red in a match for the TNA X Division Championship, under a similar heel gimmick to his The Brian Kendrick gimmick used in WWE. On April 7, 2010, Dixie Carter announced on her Twitter account that Kendrick had signed a new multi-year deal with the company. On the May 3, 2010 edition of "TNA Impact!", Kendrick turned face by having a confrontation with his partner Douglas Williams after their match against Ink Inc. (Shannon Moore and Jesse Neal), but then Samoa Joe came out and attacked both of them. The following week, Kendrick picked up his first singles victory since returning to TNA by defeating Williams after a distraction from Kazarian. As a result of his victory, Kendrick was given a shot at Williams' X Division Championship at Slammiversary VIII, but was unable to win the title.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Kendrick received a rematch the following month at Victory Road, but was defeated again by Williams, this time in an Ultimate X submission match. On the September 2 edition of "Impact!", Kendrick joined EV 2.0, a stable consisting of former Extreme Championship Wrestling performers. At Bound for Glory Kendrick interfered in a Lethal Lockdown match between EV 2.0 and Fortune and helped his team win the match between the two factions. At Turning Point EV 2.0 faced Fortune in a ten-man tag team match, where each member of EV 2.0 put their TNA careers on the line. Kendrick was taken out of the match immediately, after being attacked by Douglas Williams. In the end, EV 2.0 lost the match and Sabu was released from TNA.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: After the dissolution of EV 2.0, Kendrick spent months wrestling mainly house show matches, before returning to PPV on April 17, 2011, at Lockdown, where he wrestled in an eight-man X Division number one contender's Xscape match, where he outlasted six other men, before losing to Max Buck. On the edition of May 5 of "Impact!", Kendrick came together with Amazing Red and Generation Me to battle for X Division's future, after the legitimate firing of Jay Lethal. On June 12 at Slammiversary IX, Kendrick failed in his attempt to win the X Division Championship from Abyss in a three-way match with Kazarian. On July 10 at Destination X, Kendrick defeated Abyss to win the TNA X Division Championship for the first time. On the edition of July 21 of "Impact Wrestling", Kendrick made his first successful defense of the X Division Championship by defeating Alex Shelley, following outside interference from Austin Aries. The following week Kendrick successfully defended the title against Abyss in an Ultimate X match to end the feud.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On August 7, 2011, at Hardcore Justice, Kendrick successfully defended the title against Alex Shelley and Austin Aries in a three-way match. On September 11 at No Surrender, Kendrick lost the X Division Championship. On the September 29 edition of "Impact Wrestling", Kendrick won a five-man ladder match to earn a rematch with Aries. On the October 6 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Kendrick was attacked by Kid Kash for disrespect on Kash. On October 16 at Bound for Glory, Kendrick failed in his attempt to regain the X Division Championship from Austin Aries, this was Kendrick's last TNA pay-per-view appearance. On the November 17 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Kendrick teamed up with Jesse Sorensen to help defeat Austin Aries and Kid Kash in a tag team match, this was Kendrick's last appearance in TNA. After three months of inactivity, TNA announced that Kendrick was released from his TNA contract on February 27, 2012.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On June 18, 2011, at Dominion 6.18, Kendrick made a surprise debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling in Osaka, teaming with Gedo and Jado in a six-man tag team match, where they defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Kushida and Tiger Mask, when Kendrick pinned Kushida with the "Sliced Bread #2". Three days later Kendrick, Gedo and Jado were eliminated from the J Sports Crown Openweight 6 Man Tag Tournament in the first round by the team of IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kushida and Máscara Dorada. The two matches built to a singles match between Kendrick and Kushida on June 23, where Kushida managed to pick up the win. During his time in New Japan, Kendrick became an associate member of Chaos and competes for Chaos whenever he has toured New Japan.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On May 11, 2012, New Japan announced that Kendrick would return to the promotion to take part in the 2012 Best of the Super Juniors tournament as Davey Richards' replacement. In the round-robin stage of the tournament, which ran from May 27 to June 9, Kendrick won five out of his eight matches, but a loss to Ryusuke Taguchi in his final round-robin match caused him to narrowly miss advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. Kendrick returned to New Japan on October 21, when he and Low Ki entered the 2012 Super Jr. Tag Tournament as "Chaos World Wrestling Warriors". However, the team was eliminated from the tournament in the first round by Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi).


title: Brian Kendrick

text: In May 2013, Kendrick returned to participate in the 2013 Best of the Super Juniors, where he managed to win four out of his eight matches, failing to qualify for the semifinals. Kendrick returned to NJPW on October 25 to take part in the 2013 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, where he teamed with Beretta. They were, however, eliminated in their first round match by The Young Bucks, following a pre-match assault by Bullet Club. Kendrick teamed with various Chaos stablemates in midcard six-man and eight-man tag team matches for the rest of the tour, which lasted until November 6.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: In 2013, Kendrick founded his own professional wrestling promotion, called Brian Kendrick's Wrestling Pro Wrestling, in Bell Gardens, California. Wrestling Pro Wrestling currently has live streaming event on Twitch TV monthly. The promotion ran shows pretty regularly until 2018, when they only ran two shows. Both shows took place in Los Angeles rather than Bell Gardens and South Gate, where his previous shows had taken place.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On December 11, 2014, Kendrick was backstage at as he was reportedly trying out for a trainer role at the WWE Performance Center. Kendrick made his televised return on the February 25, 2015 episode of "NXT", losing to Finn Bálor. Kendrick then began working as a trainer for WWE and was tasked in training Eva Marie and Tough Enough Season 6 contestants Daria Berenato and Mada Abdelhamid. Kendrick appeared on Season 4 of "Total Divas" as a recurring character.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On June 13, 2016, Kendrick was announced as a participant in WWE's upcoming Cruiserweight Classic tournament. The tournament began on June 23, with Kendrick defeating Raul Mendoza in the first round match. On July 14, Kendrick defeated Tony Nese in the second round match. On August 26, Kendrick was eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinals by Kota Ibushi, with his performance moving color commentator Daniel Bryan to tears and drawing an ovation from the live crowd.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On the August 22 episode of "Raw", Kendrick was announced as part of the upcoming cruiserweight division. On the September 19 episode of "Raw", Kendrick made his official main roster return, winning a number one contender's fatal four-way match against Cedric Alexander, Gran Metalik and Rich Swann for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. At Clash of Champions, Kendrick failed to win the title from TJ Perkins. After the match, Kendrick embraced Perkins, but attacked him with a headbutt afterwards, re-establishing himself as a heel in the process. The next night on "Raw", Kendrick challenged Perkins to another match. At Hell in a Cell on October 30, Kendrick defeated Perkins to win the Cruiserweight Championship, after faking an injury. At Survivor Series in an interpromotional match, Kendrick retained the title against SmackDown brand's Kalisto, winning by disqualification. On the premiere episode of "205 Live" on November 29, Kendrick lost the title to Rich Swann, ending his reign at 30 days. The following week on "205 Live", Kendrick lost to Swann in a rematch for the title. At , Kendrick again failed to regain the title in a triple threat match also involving TJ Perkins.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: In 2017, he developed a gimmick by offering to teaching lessons to the new Akira Tozawa, who declined. This eventually led to a street fight on the May 23, 2017 episode of "205 Live", in which Tozawa defeated Kendrick. Kendrick then began a feud with Jack Gallagher, with Kendrick impersonating and mocking Gallagher after the latter's matches. The feud ended on the edition August 29 edition of "205 Live", when Kendrick defeated Gallagher by referee stoppage in a no disqualification match, which led to Gallagher turning heel and the two regularly competing as a tag team on "205 Live", having notable matches against Kalisto and Gran Metalik.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On the December 25, 2017 episode of "Raw", Kendrick suffered an injury during a match against Hideo Itami, after Itami performed a "GTS" on Kendrick. After going to a local medical facility, it was revealed that Kendrick suffered a fracture to his orbital bone and nasal bridge and would be out of action for two months. Kendrick returned on the April 17, 2018 edition of "205 Live", teaming with Gallagher to defeat two local competitors. On the October 3 episode of "205 Live", Kendrick was attacked by his allies Gallagher and Gulak during one of Gulak's PowerPoint presentations, with Gulak calling Kendrick the "weakest link" in the group, turning Kendrick face again. On October 17 episode of "205 Live", Kendrick saved his former rival Akira Tozawa from a post-match attack by Gulak and Gallagher. On the October 30 episode of "205 Live", Kendrick defeated Gallagher after Tozawa prevented the interference of Gulak. They two sides went on to trade victories over the next few weeks. On the December 19, 2018 episode of "205 Live", Kendrick returned to his old clean shaven look and blonde hair as he and Tozawa defeated Gulak and Gallagher in a Street Fight match to end the feud. On the February 26 episode of "205 Live", Kendrick was defeated by Drew Gulak in the first round of the tournament to decide the number one contender for the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 35.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Following this, Kendrick would team with Akira Tozawa regularly while also managing him during his chase for the Cruiserweight Championship. In August, Kendrick and Tozawa began a feud with Jack Gallagher after Kendrick accidentally knocked Gallagher's foot off the rope during a match with Tozawa, costing him the match. On the September 10 episode of "205 Live", Kendrick and Tozawa faced Gallagher and his mystery partner Kushida in a losing effort. The following week, Kendrick would face Gallagher, where he lost by disqualification after assaulting Gallagher with a kendo stick. After Tozawa confronted him, Kendrick would proceed to assault him with the kendo stick, thus turning heel again. On November 15, Kendrick announced on Twitter that he would be taking an indefinite hiatus from "205 Live". He returned on the January 3 episode of 205 Live where he cost Danny Burch his match against Ariya Daivari and proceeded to attack him afterwards. On the January 21 episode of "205 Live", Kendrick defeated Danny Burch with the help of Daivari.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: During January and February 2020, Kendrick wrestled two televised matches for NXT UK, losing to Travis Banks in his first and then losing to A-Kid in his second. After a brief hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kendrick made his return on the August 28 episode of 205 Live where he defeated Tehuti Miles. After the match, he shook hands with Miles thus turning face in the process. Kendrick would continue wrestling on 205 Live in the coming months losing to the likes of Ashante "Thee" Adonis (Tahuti Miles), Isaiah "Swerve" Scott and Mansoor. On the October 30 episode of 205 Live, Kendrick would team with Mansoor to defeat Ever-Rise.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On March 31, 2021, in a video released on the WWE Performance Center's YouTube channel entitled "Brian Kendrick: Life After Wrestling", Kendrick announced that his match on October 30, 2020 would be his semi-retirement match as he would be transitioning to a backstage producer role and that he would only wrestle part-time. On the December 14 episode of NXT 2.0, Kendrick was involved in an angle where he was thrown down a flight of stairs by Harland after trying to escort him out of the arena. On the December 21 episode of NXT 2.0, Kendrick announced that he had resigned as a coach and would make his in-ring return against Harland. However, the match never took place as scheduled and on January 25, 2022, it was reported that Kendrick had asked for his release from the company, which was granted six days later on February 1. In November 2022, he briefly returned to produce Ronda Rousey's match at Survivor Series WarGames with Ronda having specifically requested he produce her match.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: On the same day he was granted his WWE release, it was announced that Kendrick would make his All Elite Wrestling debut on the February 2 episode of "AEW Dynamite", where he would face Jon Moxley. The match was pulled from the card, however, when Tony Khan was made aware of controversial comments made by Kendrick in the past.


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Kendrick has a keen interest in conspiracy theories. In 2011, he told the conspiracy website Truth is Scary that he believed the September 11 attacks were faked with holograms and that the killing of Osama bin Laden never happened. In 2013, he was featured in a video interview by Highspots Wrestling Network titled "Brian Kendrick Presents: The Kendrick Theory", in which he stated his belief the number of Jewish people murdered during the Holocaust was exaggerated and that the gas chambers utilized during the Holocaust were used for delousing and not murder, as well as claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was faked. His comments, along with several other statements regarding his belief in other conspiracy theories, resurfaced in February 2022 and resulted in mass outrage on social media; his scheduled "AEW Dynamite" debut, which had been announced the previous day, was cancelled. He issued an apology on Twitter which said, "I apologize for all the hurt and embarassment I have caused with my words. These are not my beliefs and never were beliefs of mine, and I crossed the line. I spread the most vile comments without thinking of the damage it would cause. I will live with this regret for the rest of my life. I am truly sorry for the pain I have caused."


title: Brian Kendrick

text: Kendrick played the role of 'Skull' in the movie, Slammed (2004). Kendrick also appeared in Season 4 of "Total Divas", training Eva Marie.


title: George Whitefield

text: George Whitefield (; 30 September 1770), also known as George Whitfield, was an Anglican cleric and evangelist who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement.


title: George Whitefield

text: Born in Gloucester, he matriculated at Pembroke College at the University of Oxford in 1732. There he joined the "Holy Club" and was introduced to the Wesley brothers, John and Charles, with whom he would work closely in his later ministry. Whitefield was ordained after receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree. He immediately began preaching, but he did not settle as the minister of any parish. Rather he became an itinerant preacher and evangelist. In 1740, Whitefield traveled to North America, where he preached a series of revivals that became part of the "Great Awakening". His methods were controversial and he engaged in numerous debates and disputes with other clergymen.


title: George Whitefield

text: Whitefield received widespread recognition during his ministry; he preached at least 18,000 times to perhaps 10 million listeners in Great Britain and her American colonies. Whitefield could enthrall large audiences through a potent combination of drama, religious rhetoric, and patriotism.


title: George Whitefield

text: Whitefield was born on at the Bell Inn, Southgate Street, Gloucester in England. Whitefield was the fifth son (seventh and last child) of Thomas Whitefield and Elizabeth Edwards, who kept an inn at Gloucester.


title: George Whitefield

text: At an early age, he found that he had a passion and talent for acting in the theatre, a passion that he would carry on with the very theatrical re-enactments of Bible stories he told during his sermons. He was educated at The Crypt School, Gloucester, and Pembroke College, Oxford.


title: George Whitefield

text: Because business at the inn had diminished, Whitefield did not have the means to pay for his tuition. He therefore came up to the University of Oxford as a servitor, the lowest rank of undergraduates. Granted free tuition, he acted as a servant to Fellows and Fellow-commoners; duties including teaching them in the morning, helping them bathe, cleaning their rooms, carrying their books, and assisting them with work. He was a part of the "Holy Club" at the University with the Wesley brothers, John and Charles. An illness, as well as Henry Scougal's "The Life of God in the Soul of Man", influenced him to turn to the Church. Following a religious conversion, he became passionate for preaching his new-found faith. The Bishop of Gloucester ordained him a deacon of the Church of England in 1736.


title: George Whitefield

text: Whitefield preached his first sermon at St Mary de Crypt Church in his home town of Gloucester, a week after his ordination as Deacon. He had earlier become the leader of the Holy Club at Oxford when the Wesley brothers departed for Georgia.


title: George Whitefield

text: In 1738 he went to Savannah, Georgia, in the American colonies, as parish priest of Christ Church. While there he decided that one of the great needs of the area was an orphan house. He decided this would be his life's work. He returned to England to raise funds, as well as to receive priest's orders. While preparing for his return, he preached to large congregations. At the suggestion of friends he preached to the miners of Kingswood, outside Bristol, in the open air. Because he was returning to Georgia he invited John Wesley to take over his Bristol congregations, and to preach in the open air for the first time at Kingswood and then at Blackheath, London.


title: George Whitefield

text: Whitefield, like many other 18th century Anglican Evangelicals such as Augustus Toplady, John Newton, and William Romaine, accepted a plain reading of Article 17, the Church of England's doctrine of predestination, and disagreed with the Wesley brothers' Arminian views on the doctrine of the atonement. However, Whitefield finally did what his friends hoped he would not do—hand over the entire ministry to John Wesley. Whitefield formed and was the president of the first Methodist conference, but he soon relinquished the position to concentrate on evangelical work.


title: George Whitefield

text: Three churches were established in England in his name—one in Penn Street, Bristol, and two in London, in Moorfields and in Tottenham Court Road—all three of which became known by the name of "Whitefield's Tabernacle". The society meeting at the second Kingswood School at Kingswood, a town on the eastern edge of Bristol, was eventually also named Whitefield's Tabernacle.


title: George Whitefield

text: Whitefield acted as chaplain to Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, and some of his followers joined the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, whose chapels were built by Selina, where a form of Calvinistic Methodism similar to Whitefield's was taught. Many of Selina's chapels were built in the English and Welsh counties, and one, Spa Fields Chapel, was erected in London.


title: George Whitefield

text: In 1739, Whitefield returned to England to raise funds to establish the Bethesda Orphanage, now the Bethesda Academy. It is the oldest extant charity in North America.


title: George Whitefield

text: Whitefield's endeavour to build an orphanage in Georgia was central to his preaching. The Bethesda Orphanage and his preaching comprised the "two-fold task" that occupied the rest of his life. On 25 March 1740, construction began. Whitefield wanted the orphanage to be a place of strong Gospel influence, with a wholesome atmosphere and strong discipline.


title: George Whitefield

text: Having raised the money by his preaching, Whitefield "insisted on sole control of the orphanage". He refused to give the Trustees a financial accounting. The Trustees also objected to Whitefield's using "a wrong Method" to control the children, who "are often kept praying and crying all the Night".


title: George Whitefield

text: On returning to North America in 1740, he preached a series of revivals that came to be known as the First Great Awakening. In 1740 he engaged Moravian Brethren from Georgia to build an orphanage for negro children on land he had bought in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. Following a theological disagreement, he dismissed them and was unable to complete the building, which the Moravians subsequently bought and completed. This now is the Whitefield House in the center of the Moravian settlement of Nazareth, Pennsylvania. The Whitefield House is owned by the Moravian Historical Society, and operates as the Society's museum and administrative offices.


title: George Whitefield

text: He preached nearly every day for months to large crowds of sometimes several thousand people as he travelled throughout the colonies, especially New England. His journey on horseback from New York City to Charleston, South Carolina, was at that time the longest in North America by a white man.


title: George Whitefield

text: Like his contemporary and acquaintance, Jonathan Edwards, Whitefield preached staunchly Calvinist theology that was in line with the "moderate Calvinism" of the Thirty-nine Articles. While explicitly affirming God's sole agency in salvation, Whitefield freely offered the Gospel, saying at the end of his sermons: "Come poor, lost, undone sinner, come just as you are to Christ."


title: George Whitefield

text: The Church of England did not assign him a pulpit, so he began preaching in parks and fields in England on his own, reaching out to people who normally did not attend church. Like Jonathan Edwards, he developed a style of preaching that elicited emotional responses from his audiences. But Whitefield had charisma, and his loud voice, his small stature, and even his cross-eyed appearance (which some people took as a mark of divine favour) all served to help make him one of the first celebrities in the American colonies. Whitefield included slaves in his revivals and their response was positive. Historians see this as "the genesis of African-American Christianity."


title: George Whitefield

text: To Whitefield "the gospel message was so critically important that he felt compelled to use all earthly means to get the word out." Thanks to widespread dissemination of print media, perhaps half of all colonists eventually heard about, read about, or read something written by Whitefield. He employed print systematically, sending advance men to put up broadsides and distribute handbills announcing his sermons. He also arranged to have his sermons published.


title: George Whitefield

text: Whitefield sought to influence the colonies after he returned to England from his 1740 tour in America. He contracted to have his autobiographical "Journals" published throughout America. These "Journals" have been characterized as "the ideal vehicle for crafting a public image that could work in his absence." They depicted Whitefield in the "best possible light". When he returned to America for his third tour in 1745, he was better known than when he had left.


title: George Whitefield

text: Much of Whitefield's publicity was the work of William Seward, a wealthy layman who accompanied Whitefield. Seward acted as Whitefield's "fund-raiser, business co-ordinator, and publicist". He furnished newspapers and booksellers with material, including copies of Whitefield's writings.


title: George Whitefield

text: When Whitefield returned to England in 1742, a crowd Whitefield estimated at 20,000 and William M'Culloch, the local minister, at 30,000, met him.


title: George Whitefield

text: One such open-air congregation took place on Minchinhampton Common, Gloucestershire. Whitefield preached to the "Rodborough congregation" - a gathering of 10,000 people - at a place now known as "Whitefield's tump".


title: George Whitefield

text: Whitefield was a plantation owner and slaveholder, and viewed the work of slaves as essential for funding his orphanage's operations. Whitefield's contemporary John Wesley denounced slavery as "the sum of all villainies", and detailed its abuses. However, defenses of slavery were common among 18th-century Protestants, especially missionaries who used the institution to emphasize God's providence. Whitefield was at first conflicted about slaves. He believed that they were human, and was angered that they were treated as "subordinate Creatures". Nevertheless, George Whitefield and his friend, James Habersham, played an important role in the reintroduction of slavery to Georgia.