title: Monday Night Wars

text: Despite losing to "Nitro" week after week, "Raw Is War" rallied in the ratings when it introduced its new "WWF Attitude" concept, in which the family-friendly and clear-cut face vs. heel dynamic of the 1980s to mid 1990s was jettisoned in favor of morally ambiguous wrestlers and adult-oriented, often heavily sexualized storylines. The concept was spearheaded by McMahon along with head WWF writer Vince Russo, who changed the way wrestling television was written and constructed. Russo's booking style was often referred to as "Crash TV": Matches were shortened in favor of story-building backstage vignettes, with an emphasis on shock factor. Like WCW's nWo storyline, the WWF began to blur the line between real life and kayfabe: Vince McMahon, taking advantage of fans' genuine dislike for him following the Montreal Screwjob, recast himself as the evil Mr. McMahon, a corrupt businessman who despised his own fans and valued sycophancy over talent. This presentation both mimicked "Nitro's" "Anything can happen" atmosphere, and acknowledged the growing phenomenon of "smarks," wrestling fans who used the Internet to gain a wide base of knowledge on the real-life, backstage workings of the industry. In February 1998, media tycoon Barry Diller would also finalize his purchase of the USA Network. Shaun Assael and Mike Mooneyham's book "Sex, Lies Headlocks:The Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment" stated that "the terrain shifted completely under everyone's feet" following Diller's purchase of the USA Network, which began in October 1997. It was also acknowledged that Diller's purchase of the USA Network gave sympathetic USA Network executive Bonnie Hammer more say regarding the WWF's status at the USA Network and that previous USA Network managing head Kay Koplovitz, who resigned from the network after Diller took over her Chairman and CEO posts on April 9, 1998, was in fact planning to remove WWF programming from the USA Network prior to the purchase. On April 13, 1998, Raw defeated Nitro in the ratings for the first time since 1996.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: Stone Cold Steve Austin would start to become extremely popular with the WWF's fan base during 1997, and would often receive the best fan response of the night; despite playing a heel character, many fans would start to see him as more of an anti-hero. During this time, many wrestlers' personas were retooled, and wrestlers who had been growing in popularity were given pushes, often with dark or morally ambiguous alterations to their characters: The Rock, who had failed as a babyface character named Rocky Maivia—a naive young athlete trying to live up to the athletic legacies of his grandfather and father—was recast as an arrogant jock who spouted catch phrases. Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna formed D-Generation X (DX), a rule-breaking, frat boy-themed stable of wrestlers who laced their vignettes with sexual innuendo and lewd gestures. Although an injury would cause Michaels to take a four-year hiatus from wrestling, the stable soared in popularity under the leadership of Triple H, who added the New Age Outlaws and Sean Waltman to the group's ranks. Waltman, who was a member of the nWo, had recently left WCW after wrestling there for a year and a half as Syxx (having been fired while recovering from an injury), and returned to the WWF as X-Pac. The Undertaker, then one of the company's longest-serving performers, had his gimmick changed for the first time in his career with the company during the Attitude Era: having performed from 1990 to 1998 as a revenant, his persona was first changed to a pseudo-Satanic cult leader in 1999, then to a "bad ass" biker persona in 2000. One of the few performers to have his gimmick changed to a lighter, sympathetic, more traditional face persona was Mick Foley, who had been wrestling as the psychotic heel Mankind. Over several weeks, Foley engaged in a series of out-of-character shoot interviews documenting his career, the toll it had taken on his body and his marriage, and his youthful ambitions of being a popular wrestler with a hippie persona named Dude Love. The interviews proved immensely successful with fans, and Foley's popularity soared. Foley began alternating characters, variously appearing as Mankind (whose character was tweaked from an insane asylum inmate to essentially Foley in a mask), Dude Love, and his former persona of Cactus Jack, an old western outlaw. The publication of the first of what proved to be a three-volume Foley autobiography, "", helped Foley and the company achieve mainstream success outside of wrestling circles as the book rose to #1 on "The New York Times" Best Seller List.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: The night after the highly praised WrestleMania XIV, McMahon began a feud with fan-favorite Stone Cold Steve Austin. The rivalry, which was cast as a battle between blue collar redneck Austin and white collar executive McMahon, became one of the defining storylines of the Attitude Era, as each engaged in ever-escalating acts of sabotage and violence against the other. Austin's popularity would skyrocket even more with the company's fan base during this time. On April 13, 1998, an advertised Austin vs. McMahon main event was enough for "Raw Is War" to finally beat "Nitro" in the ratings for the first time in nearly two years. Two weeks later, the WWF taunted WCW's slipping ratings by sending members of DX to Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia in an attempt to crash a live taping of "Nitro". The WWF was taping "Raw Is War" at the nearby Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. Earlier in the day, Triple H and other wrestlers appeared outside the arena in military fatigues, challenging Eric Bischoff to come out and face them. The event was videotaped by a WWF camera crew for inclusion on "Raw". "Raw Is War"s ratings began to rise steadily, bringing the "Attitude Era" to its highest point.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: Hoping to counter the McMahon/Austin feud, WCW divided the nWo into the Hollywood Hogan-led heel "nWo Hollywood" faction and the Kevin Nash-led face "nWo Wolfpac" faction. Although the Wolfpack proved popular with fans, the overall nWo storyline began to grow stale: As with the culmination of the Sting/Hogan match, fans grew tired of the lack of any kind of resolution, as many matches between the groups simply ended in disqualifications when other members jumped into the ring to interfere, leading to all-out brawls. Ted Turner decided to expand the brand by introducing a second weekly program "WCW Thunder", on his TBS channel. The introduction of "Thunder" troubled Eric Bischoff, who warned Turner that a second weekly program could potentially result in fan burnout, as viewing both programs would require five hours of viewing time a week.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: WCW attempted to regain ratings supremacy by marketing ex-NFL player Bill Goldberg as an invincible monster with a record-breaking streak of 173 consecutive wins. Goldberg proved to be very popular with the fans and enjoyed some crossover success in mainstream popular culture. On July 6, 1998, airing from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, "Nitro" defeated "Raw Is War" in the ratings when Goldberg pinned Hollywood Hogan to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The match drew a 6.91 rating for the quarter-hour, the highest rating recorded in the rating war up to that time and over 5 million viewers. However, the decision to stage the match on live cable television was questioned backstage at WCW: several employees felt that the match should have been the highlight of a pay-per-view, where it could have generated more revenue. Vince McMahon himself questioned the wisdom of the decision, likewise confused why his competitor would fail to make a move that could have so greatly benefitted the company.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: On August 10, 1998, WCW regained the lead for six weeks. During this time WCW brought in The Ultimate Warrior, now known as The Warrior, and then later reformed the Four Horsemen for Ric Flair's television return. WCW's final victory in the Monday Night Wars came on October 26, following the previous night's Halloween Havoc pay-per-view. The episode included a repeat airing of the Halloween Havoc WCW World Heavyweight Championship match between Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg after the original airing exceeded the scheduled 3-hour running time and subscribers lost the feed at 11 p.m. EST.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: In the fall of 1998, The Rock's popularity led to a main event lead babyface push, pitting him against Mr. McMahon in the build up to Survivor Series, leading to one of the biggest swerves in WWF history with The Rock turning heel and aligning with Mr. McMahon to form The Corporation upon winning the WWF Championship against Mankind.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: Prior to this, the WWF's Austin/McMahon and WCW's Goldberg/nWo storylines would have each company trade victories. The Rock's leap into megastar status and subsequent feud with Mankind would give the WWF the lead, nearly doubling WWF ratings and PPV buys entering 1999.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: After winning the World War 3 battle royal in November 1998, with the help of Scott Hall and his stun gun, Kevin Nash ended Goldberg's 173–0 winning streak and won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Starrcade 1998 the following month.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: As 1999 began, both shows were consistently getting 5.0 or higher Nielsen ratings and over ten million people tuned in to watch "Raw Is War" and "Nitro" every week. Wrestling gained newfound popularity, as wrestlers made the mainstream media, appearing on magazine covers like "Entertainment Weekly" and "TV Guide", and appearing in commercials. By November 1998, however, the momentum would be in the WWF's favor for the remainder of the war. On January 4, 1999, "Nitro" broadcast live once again from the Georgia Dome. In the second of three hours, Eric Bischoff, who had learned of the results of the taped "Raw Is War" that was set to air that night, ordered commentator Tony Schiavone to make the following statement:


title: Monday Night Wars

text: Although the WWF had acknowledged the title change on their website six days previously, ratings indicated that, immediately after Schiavone's comments, 600,000 people switched channels from "Nitro" on TNT to "Raw Is War" on USA Network to see Mankind win the WWF Championship with the help of Stone Cold Steve Austin. After Mankind won the title, many fans then switched back to "Nitro" (which still had five minutes of airtime left), suggesting that WCW had a show that the fans wanted to see and might have emerged the victor that night had they not given away the "Raw Is War" results. The final ratings for the night were 5.7 for "Raw Is War" and 5.0 for "Nitro". During the year following the incident, many WWF fans brought signs to the shows saying "Mick Foley put my butt in this seat".


title: Monday Night Wars

text: This "Nitro"s main event was originally scheduled to be Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and was going to be their anticipated rematch. Goldberg was arrested during mid-show storyline, however, and accused of "aggravated stalking" by Miss Elizabeth. He was released when Elizabeth could not keep her story straight. Meanwhile, Hollywood Hogan returned to WCW after a hiatus and challenged Nash to a match, which Nash accepted. This led to the infamous moment which saw Hogan poking Nash in the chest with his finger, nicknamed the "Fingerpoke of Doom", causing Nash to lie down for Hogan to win the belt. It led to another heel turn for Hogan and the reformation of the nWo. The credibility of the company, which did not present the match that had been advertised, was damaged. Despite the incident, WCW would continue this bait and switch tactic of booking until its demise in 2001. This "match" may have started the permanent ratings slide that was to follow for WCW, as "Nitro" – according to Nielsen ratings numbers listed by TWNPNews.com- – only got a 5.0 rating three times afterwards. Some dispute whether the Fingerpoke of Doom angle hurt WCW. According to TWNPNews.com, "Nitro"s Nielsen ratings on January 11, the week following the incident, once again reached 5.0. During the January 18 episode, however, ratings would fall slightly to 4.9, but would recover to 5.0 the following week. Its 5.7 Nielsen rating on February 8 (on a night when "Raw" was pre-empted by the Westminster Dog Show) was the last time it would get such a number.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: "Raw Is War" was dominating "Nitro" to the point where WCW was making "quick fixes" to stem the tide, including hiring rapper Master P, bringing in Megadeth, Chad Brock, and Kiss for concerts, and conducting a contest to find a new member of the Nitro Girls (all of which flopped in the ratings). On September 10, 1999, Bischoff was removed from power. He states in his autobiography that he intended to resign on the day and when word leaked, they decided to remove him before he could resign. Meanwhile, "Raw Is War"s numbers continued to rise; a match between The Undertaker vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin drew an 9.5 rating on June 28, 1999. It currently stands as the highest-rated segment in "Raw" history.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: On October 5, 1999, Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara, the head writers of WWF television programs, signed with WCW, and were immediately replaced in the WWF by Chris Kreski. Russo and Ferrara contend that their reasons for leaving the WWF were a dispute with Vince McMahon over the increased workload that they were facing, with the introduction of the new "SmackDown!" broadcast, an attempt by WWF to compete with WCW's "Thunder" broadcast on Thursday nights; they became known on-screen as unseen management known as "The Powers That Be". Ferrara even became an on-air parody of Jim Ross, named "Oklahoma", who mocked Ross's Bell's Palsy. However, Russo and Ferrara failed to replicate their success in the WWF.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: In December 1999, Bret Hart suffered a career-ending concussion during a match with Goldberg at Starrcade. WCW was entering severe financial and creative lows. "Nitro"s ratings failed to increase, and in January 2000, both Russo and Ferrara were suspended from the company after they considered putting the WCW World title on Tank Abbott. The subsequent promotion of Kevin Sullivan to head booker caused an uproar among WCW's wrestlers. Despite winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Souled Out 2000, Chris Benoit quit in protest, along with Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko. All four of them entered the WWF as The Radicalz, debuting on "Raw Is War"s January 31 episode—15 days after Benoit's title win. "Nitro" was cut to two hours beginning with the edition of January 3, 2000 (with the first hour running unopposed and the second hour competing against "Raw Is War") in an effort to bolster the aggregate ratings score, but the elimination of the third hour did not mean higher ratings for "Nitro", which by April averaged around a 2.5 (while "Raw Is War" drew more than double that amount).


title: Monday Night Wars

text: In April 2000, WCW hired the reigning ECW World Heavyweight Champion Mike Awesome, who left ECW over a contract dispute. His appearance on WCW television led to legal threats from ECW owner Paul Heyman. A compromise was reached which resulted in Awesome losing the title at an ECW event to Tazz, who was formerly of ECW and at the time contracted to the WWF. Tazz would later appear on WWF programming with the title. The WWF used this as a symbolic demonstration of superiority over WCW. On April 10, 2000, Bischoff (now a creative consultant) and Russo returned with equal power to work as a team and attempted to reboot WCW by vacating all of the promotion's titles. Bischoff was allowed back with booking powers, but no longer had control of the company finances like he did in his previous reign. The Millionaire's Club, consisting of WCW's veteran stars such as Hogan, Flair and Diamond Dallas Page, were accused of preventing the younger talent from ascending to main event status and feuded with The New Blood, consisting of WCW's younger stars such as Billy Kidman, Booker T and Buff Bagwell. The New Blood/Millionaire's Club rivalry was aborted before the start of the New Blood Rising pay-per-view, which was supposed to showcase the rivalry. WCW became even more desperate, going as far as placing the WCW World Heavyweight Championship upon actor David Arquette, who was making promotional appearances for WCW's feature film "Ready to Rumble".


title: Monday Night Wars

text: The struggles of WCW since Russo's arrival to the company came to a head on July 9, 2000, at the Bash at the Beach pay-per-view. During the match between Jeff Jarrett and Hollywood Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, Jeff Jarrett, by Russo's order, lied down in the ring to let Hogan pin him and win the title. After scolding Russo as being the reason for WCW's problems and pinning Jarrett, Hogan left the arena in disgust. Russo would then cut a shoot promo proclaiming that the reason WCW was in dire straits was due to "that goddamn politician Hulk Hogan". During the promo, Russo also reversed the result of the Jarrett/Hogan match and giving the championship back to Jarrett. Additionally, he announced that Jarrett would defend the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Booker T later that night. Booker T ended up winning the championship over Jarrett. Bash at the Beach 2000 not only exposed the backstage hardships under Russo, but it was also the last event for Hogan as he would never appear in WCW again following the incident.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: On the September 25, 2000 edition of "WCW Monday Nitro", Russo won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage match. At the end of the match, Russo suffered a concussion after Goldberg speared him through a cage, resulting in a head-on collision with the ringside barriers. On the October 2, 2000 edition of "Nitro", Russo would relinquish the championship saying that he was "not an athlete nor did I [Russo] ever claim to be". The October 2, 2000 edition of "Nitro" was also the last appearance for Russo in WCW, though he would continue to be employed by the company until its demise.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: In 2000, Ted Turner was no longer running the company, which had been purchased by Time Warner in 1996 and America Online (AOL) in 2001. In 2000, WCW lost US$62 million, due to guaranteed contracts of their older performers, plummeting advertising revenues, dropping house show attendance, declining attendance of tapings for "Thunder" (which moved its tapings to immediately after "Nitro" beginning on October 9 of that year), controversial booking decisions (like Arquette and Russo winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship), and expensive stunts to boost the dismal ratings and pay-per-view buyrates. Difficulties also began to arise around Goldberg, who had become the company's flagship performer. He sustained an arm injury during a backstage vignette taping that kept him off television for six months; upon his return, the decision was made to try and shake up the status quo by having him turn heel at The Great American Bash, despite being the most popular wrestler in the company. The change was poorly received by fans.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: In January 2001, Fusient Media Ventures, led by Bischoff, announced that they were going to purchase WCW. The deal was contingent on the Turner networks keeping "Nitro" on TNT on Monday and "Thunder" on TBS on Wednesday. When Jamie Kellner took over as CEO of Turner Broadcasting, he announced the cancellation of all WCW programming on the company's networks, believing that wrestling did not fit the demographics of either channel and would not be favorable enough to get the "right" advertisers to buy airtime (even though "Thunder" was the highest-rated show on TBS at the time). In the book "NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW" by Guy Evans, it is said that a key condition in WCW's purchase deal with Fusient Media Ventures was that Fusient wanted control over time slots on TNT and TBS networks, regardless of whether these slots would show WCW programming or not. This influenced Kellner's decision to ultimately cancel WCW programming. WCW's losses were then written-off via purchase accounting; according to Evans: "in the post-merger environment, the new conglomerate was able to 'write down' money losing operations, essentially eliminating those losses because of their irrelevancy moving forward."


title: Monday Night Wars

text: With no national television outlet to air the shows, Fusient dropped their offer to purchase the promotion. The WWF, the only company who would not need the television time slots Kellner had canceled, then made their offer. On March 23, 2001, all of WCW's trademarks and archived video library, as well as a select 25 contracts, were sold to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. through its subsidiary WCW Inc. WCW's assets were purchased for just $3 million. Most of the main event-level stars including Flair, Goldberg, Kevin Nash, and Sting were contracted directly to parent company AOL Time Warner instead of WCW, and thus AOL Time Warner was forced to continue to pay many of the wrestlers for years. The actual WCW entity was reverted to Universal Wrestling Corporation solely to deal with both legal and administrative issues.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: TNT did allow a final "Nitro" show to air from Panama City Beach, Florida which had been scheduled for the following Monday on March 26. McMahon opened the last-ever episode of "WCW Monday Nitro" with a simulcast with "WWF Raw Is War", which aired from Cleveland, Ohio, with a self-praising speech. The final WCW World Heavyweight Championship match for the show and the company saw WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Booker T defeat Scott Steiner to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The main event featured Sting defeating Ric Flair with the Scorpion Deathlock as a culmination of their trademark feud, then both men embraced one another at the match's conclusion. This was a direct parallel to the very first "Nitro". After the Sting/Flair match, McMahon appeared on "Raw Is War" to close "Nitro" and to declare victory over WCW. His son Shane McMahon then appeared on "Nitro", declaring that it was actually "he" who had bought WCW. This initiated the Invasion storyline that would have Shane's character leading the WCW invasion of the WWF, which lasted from March to November 2001 and marked the end of WCW as a brand. The last "Nitro" drew a 3.0 rating. The final rating tally in 270 head-to-head showdowns was: 154 wins for "Monday Night Raw", 112 for "Nitro", and four ties.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: Three weeks prior to the final "Nitro", ECW owner Paul Heyman had begun an announcing contract with the WWF, as ECW had also fallen to financial problems and was forced to declare bankruptcy and close in January 2001. Thus, the WWF became the sole national professional wrestling promotion in the United States. During the Invasion storyline, Heyman's ECW (owned in the storyline by Stephanie McMahon) would align with Shane McMahon's WCW against the WWF, as a faction known as the Alliance.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: WWF business steadily declined in North America after the end of the war, with a noticeable drop in buyrates and ratings. To compensate for the decrease in domestic revenue, the WWF expanded their business outside of the United States. The "Raw Is War" logo and its name were retired in September 2001, following the September 11 attacks and sensitivity over the word war, and because the Monday Night Wars were "over." By 2002, the WWF roster had doubled in size due to the abundance of contracted workers. As a result of the increase, WWF was divided into franchises through its two main television programs, "Raw" and "SmackDown!", assigning the now divided roster to either franchise while also designating championships and appointing figureheads to each franchise. This expansion became known as the Brand Extension. The franchises or "brands" act as complementing promotions under the parent company. The institution of concepts like separate rosters, "General Managers" and talent drafts was intended to emulate the rivalry that had ended with WCW.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: In May 2002, WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) after a lawsuit with the World Wide Fund for Nature, which operates in the U.S. and Canada under its former international name of "World Wildlife Fund", and also used the WWF initials. Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, and Goldberg eventually signed contracts with WWE only after the conclusion of the Invasion, though it is generally thought that their participation in the storyline would have benefited the promotion.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: In the summer of 2003, WWE purchased ECW's assets in court, acquiring the rights to ECW's video library. They used this video library to put together a two-disc DVD titled "The Rise and Fall of ECW". The set was released in November 2004.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: As a result of the Monday Night Wars, professional wrestling became a prime-time tradition on Monday nights in America. It also lessened the prevalence of squash matches (where star wrestlers would defeat jobbers) on television, as both companies were compelled to show competitive, pay-per-view quality matches on a weekly basis in an effort to increase ratings.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: The Monday Night Wars resulted in the creation of millions of new wrestling viewers. Consequently, the late 1990s are commonly referred to as professional wrestling's most recent boom period. Stars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Bill Goldberg and Sting became household names, and some attempted to parlay their newfound fame into other mediums and found success in them, much like Hulk Hogan of the 1980s and early 1990s: notable examples being Mick Foley, who became a "New York Times" best selling author with the first volume of his autobiography, "", and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who branched out to become one of the highest grossing actors of all time.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: WCW's closure left a gap in the market which several companies have attempted to fill. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and Ring of Honor (ROH) both emerged in early 2002 and have enjoyed moderate success since that time. At first running weekly pay-per-views, TNA switched to monthly pay-per-views supported by a weekly show on cable television, "Impact Wrestling" (now known as "Impact!"). In late 2007, ROH also started airing bi-monthly pay-per-views, and in 2009, ROH began airing a weekly wrestling program on HDNet. However, it was announced in early 2011 that HDNet would drop ROH from its schedule. Since September 2011, ROH airs a weekly syndicated television show on stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which was ROH's parent company until All Elite Wrestling owner Tony Khan announced that he had purchased the promotion on March 2, 2022. In June 2015, the weekly show began airing on Destination America as well, though it was dropped and moved to the Sinclair-owned Comet. In 2017, TNA was purchased by Anthem Sports & Entertainment, the owner of their Canadian broadcaster Fight Network and renamed Impact Wrestling after their television series.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: In 2004, an unauthorized DVD called "Forever Hardcore" was written, directed and produced by former WCW crew member Jeremy Borash in response to "The Rise and Fall of ECW". The DVD had stories of wrestlers who were not employed by WWE telling their side of ECW's history. By 2005, WWE began reintroducing ECW through content from the ECW video library and a series books. With heightened and rejuvenated interest in the ECW franchise, WWE organized ECW One Night Stand in June 2005, an ECW reunion event. With the financial and critical success of the production, WWE produced a second One Night Stand in June 2006 and relaunched the ECW franchise as a WWE brand, complementary to Raw and SmackDown. The brand would continue to operate until 2010 when it was replaced with "NXT".


title: Monday Night Wars

text: In 2004, WWE produced a DVD called "The Monday Night Wars". Two hours in length, the DVD left out a large portion of the "war," breaking off around 1997 before jumping straight to the post-WCW era of WWE. The objectivity of the DVD's content was questioned, as some believed the documentary was simply telling the WWE side of the story. On August 25, 2009, WWE released "The Rise and Fall of WCW" on DVD. The DVD looks back at the roots of WCW during the days of Georgia Championship Wrestling and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, to the glory days of "Monday Nitro" and the nWo, and to its demise and sale to WWE. With the launch of the WWE Network in 2014, much of WCW's and ECW's video libraries have been made available to subscribers.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: On January 4, 2010, TNA moved "Impact!" To Monday nights, in direct competition with "Raw". In a move referred to by some as "The New Monday Night Wars", TNA began airing "Impact!" on Monday each week beginning on March 8, 2010. After declining ratings, the show returned to its Thursday timeslot in May 2010.


title: Monday Night Wars

text: In 2014, Sting would make his first appearance in WWE, interrupting the Survivor Series main event. Sting was the last major WCW star to never wrestle for WWE. At WrestleMania 31, Sting would face Triple H in a no disqualification match. The match was interrupted by the stables of WCW's nWo and WWE's DX, leading to a brawl between them and Sting's defeat in his first match in the company. Despite Sting having cut a promo on "Raw" saying the match would not be about the war between the companies "because that would be ridiculous at this point", the match finish has been interpreted as a desire of McMahon to reiterate his victory in the Monday Night Wars, with Scott Hall commenting, "That's Vince just reminding you who won, even if he's going to make money the other way".


title: Monday Night Wars

text: In May 2019, All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which had launched the previous January, announced a deal to broadcast a live two-hour weekly television show on TNT. The show, known as "", premiered on October 2, 2019. In August, WWE announced that it would move NXT to the USA Network beginning with the show's September 18 episode and change the show's format to a live two-hour program which will compete with AEW's live weekly program. NXT's move to the USA Network triggered the start of the Wednesday Night Wars.


title: Lists of 21st-century earthquakes

text: In terms of fatalities, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was the most destructive event with around 227,898 fatalities, followed by the 2010 Haiti earthquake with 160,000 fatalities, 2005 Kashmir earthquake 87,351 fatalities and 2008 Sichuan earthquake with 87,587 fatalities.


title: Lists of 21st-century earthquakes

text: The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami became the costliest natural disaster, resulting in approximately $360 billion in property damage at the time, followed by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake which resulted at least $150 billion in damage.


title: Cardale Jones

text: Cardale Jones (; born September 29, 1992) is a professional American football quarterback who is a free agent. He was most recently a member of the Edmonton Elks of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at Ohio State. At the beginning of the 2014 season, Jones was listed as third on the Ohio State depth chart at quarterback. However, after injuries to Braxton Miller in August and J. T. Barrett in November, he started for the Buckeyes during the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship. Cardale Jones went on to be the starter for the Buckeyes for the first 7 games of the 2015 season. Jones was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. He has also played for the Los Angeles Chargers and Seattle Seahawks, as well as the DC Defenders of the XFL.


title: Cardale Jones

text: Jones attended Ginn Academy in Cleveland, Ohio and played football for Ted Ginn Sr. at Glenville High School. Students at Ginn Academy are allowed to play at Glenville High. Jones led the Tarblooders to the OHSAA D-I Championship game in 2009. While at Glenville, Jones also lettered in basketball and track. Jones was ranked by "Rivals.com" as a three-star recruit. He committed to Ohio State University in October 2011.


title: Cardale Jones

text: Jones redshirted as a freshman and thus did not play, but nevertheless drew controversy when he posted the following on his Twitter account: The tweet received heavy criticism and Jones was suspended for one game. The tweet was featured as an example of bad social media behavior in the "Best Practices on Social Media" section of a textbook for "The Ole Miss Experience," a freshman year class at the University of Mississippi. In March 2014, head coach Urban Meyer described Jones as a "different guy" who was "making progress in the classroom." Later, Jones provided context for the tweet:


title: Cardale Jones

text: Ultimately, on May 7, 2017, Jones graduated from Ohio State with a bachelor's degree in African-American Studies.


title: Cardale Jones

text: Jones was sparingly used during his freshman season after red-shirting the 2012 season, playing only 39 snaps, attempting one pass and rushing for 128 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries.


title: Cardale Jones

text: After entering the 2014 season as a redshirt sophomore, third on the Buckeyes' depth chart, Jones made his first start of his college career in the Big Ten Championship Game in place of J. T. Barrett, who had been injured the prior week versus Michigan. Jones led the #6 (AP) ranked Buckeyes squad to a 59–0 victory over the #11 ranked Wisconsin Badgers, on the eve of the NCAA football committee's inaugural playoff selection. Jones was named MVP of the game.


title: Cardale Jones

text: Jones made the second start of his college career, and the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated #1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide 42–35 in the Allstate Sugar Bowl to advance to the College Football Playoff National Championship against the Oregon Ducks. In the College Football National Championship game, he excelled once again and led the Buckeyes to a 42–20 victory over the Ducks. Jones recorded 280 all-purpose yards, scoring two touchdowns. He completed 16 of 23 attempted passes for 242 yards, with one touchdown and one interception and ran for another 38 yards and a touchdown. The day after winning the National Championship, Jones discussed his future football career. In a news conference, Jones said that while he did not officially rule out declaring for the 2015 NFL Draft, he believes that he is "not ready for that level yet," partly because he has only started in 3 college football games. Jones confirmed on January 15, 2015 that he would not declare for the 2015 NFL Draft, and would stay with Ohio State for at least another year, most probably until he graduated.


title: Cardale Jones

text: After a competition with Barrett that lasted the entire off-season, Jones was named the Buckeyes' starting quarterback immediately before game time in Ohio State's season opener at Virginia Tech. Both he and Barrett remained listed as co-starters on the depth chart headed into September 12 meeting with Hawaii. He set career highs in passing yards and completions against Maryland on September 10, 2015 with 21 completions, 291 passing yards, and two passing touchdowns. After starting the first seven games of the season, he was benched in favor of Barrett. After Ohio State's final home game, he announced his intention to enter the 2016 NFL Draft.


title: Cardale Jones

text: At the 2016 NFL Scouting Combine, Jones suffered a hamstring injury during his second 40-yard dash attempt, ending his workout prematurely.


title: Cardale Jones

text: Despite only starting 11 games in his college career, Jones was drafted in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft, with the 139th overall selection, by the Buffalo Bills. On June 7, 2016, the Bills signed Jones to a rookie contract. In 2016, he was inactive for the first 15 games of the season as the third-string quarterback behind primary backup EJ Manuel and starter Tyrod Taylor. With Taylor being inactive for the final game of the season against the New York Jets, Jones was promoted to second string. Jones entered the game to begin the fourth quarter after Manuel was benched. Jones completed 6-of-11 passes for 96 yards and no touchdowns with one interception.


title: Cardale Jones

text: On July 26, 2017, Jones was traded to the Los Angeles Chargers in exchange for a conditional draft pick.


title: Cardale Jones

text: On September 2, 2018, Jones was waived by the Chargers and was signed to the practice squad the next day. Jones signed a reserve/future contract with the Chargers on January 14, 2019.


title: Cardale Jones

text: On September 7, 2019, Jones was signed to the Seattle Seahawks practice squad. He was released on September 18.


title: Cardale Jones

text: Jones was allocated to the DC Defenders of the XFL on October 15, 2019. He signed a contract with the team on November 4, 2019. In his first XFL start, Jones went 16-of-26 for 291 yards and two touchdowns and led the team in rushing, helping propel the DC Defenders to their first win. Jones would lead the Defenders to the XFL's first shutout, defeating the New York Guardians in Week 2 behind his 276 yards and two touchdowns in the 27–0 victory. He had his contract terminated when the league suspended operations on April 10, 2020.


title: Cardale Jones

text: On May 6, 2022, it was announced that Jones had signed with the Edmonton Elks. Jones was released by the Elks on May 20, 2022.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: PT-109 was an 80' Elco PT boat (patrol torpedo boat) last commanded by Lieutenant (junior grade) John F. Kennedy, future United States president, in the Solomon Islands campaign of the Pacific theater during World War II. Kennedy's actions in saving his surviving crew after "PT-109" was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer made him a war hero. Back problems stemming from the incident required months of hospitalization at Chelsea Naval Hospital and plagued him the rest of his life. Kennedy's postwar campaigns for elected office referred often to his service on "PT-109".


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Hubert Scott-Paine of the British Power Boat Company had developed Air Sea Rescue fast motor boats in the UK. He took his PT boat to Elco in 1939 as there was a shortage of suitable engines in the UK at the outbreak of war. British Powerboat Company continued production of his designs in Britain throughout the hostilities. The seakeeping qualities of boats and ease of construction matched to the available Packard engines made a perfect combination.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: "PT-109" was an , 40-ton Elco motor torpedo boat (MTB), one of hundreds built by the firm between 1942 and 1945 in Bayonne, New Jersey.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: The seventh MTB of the "PT-103" class, her keel was laid 1942, she was launched on , and delivered to the Navy on 1942 to be fitted out in the New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn. Fully loaded, she displaced , and could accommodate a crew of three officers and 14 enlisted men, with the typical crew size between 12 and 14.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: The Elco MTBs were the largest PT boats operated by the U.S. Navy during World War II. They had strong wooden hulls, constructed of two layers of mahogany planking, excellent for speed and reasonably adequate for seakeeping, but providing limited protection in combat.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: "PT-109" was powered by three 12-cylinder Packard 4M-2500 marinized aero gasoline engines (one per propeller shaft), with a designed top speed of .


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: To accommodate three engines in the boat's narrow beam (and improve weight distribution) they were staggered fore-and-aft, with the two outboard motors mounted with their output shafts facing forward and power transmitted through V-drive gearboxes to their respective propeller shafts. The center engine was mounted forward of the outboard pair in a conventional orientation, with power transmitted directly from its output end to an extended propeller shaft.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: The engines were fitted with mufflers on the transom both to mask the engines' noise from the enemy and to improve the crew's chance of hearing enemy aircraft. These directed the exhaust underwater at idle and extreme low speeds, and were bypassed for anything faster.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: The PT boat's principal offensive weapon was her torpedoes. She was fitted with four torpedo tubes containing torpedoes. They weighed each, with warheads and gave the tiny boat a punch believed at the time to be effective even against armored ships. The Mark 8, however, was both inaccurate and ineffective until its detonator was recalibrated by the Navy at the end of the war. A major issue was that even in the unlikely instance they hit their target, they rarely detonated, even when they hit at a 90-degree angle, perpendicular to their target. Also noteworthy, was that the torpedoes were slow, travelling at only 28 knots, thoroughly unable to catch faster moving Japanese vessels. In contrast, the Japanese Type 93 destroyer torpedo, later called the "Long Lance", was faster at , had an accurate range of , was far more powerful with of high explosives, and unlike the Mark 8, its detonator usually worked when it hit a target.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: One naval officer explained that 90% of the time, when the button was pushed on the torpedo tube to launch a torpedo, nothing happened or occasionally the motor spun the propeller until the torpedo motor exploded in the tube, showering the deck with metal fragments. For safety, a torpedoman's mate was frequently required to hit the torpedo's firing pin with a hammer to get one to launch. Kennedy and contemporary writers noted that torpedo mates and other PT crew were inadequately trained in aiming and firing the Mark 8 torpedoes, and were never informed of the torpedoes' ineffectiveness and low rate of detonation.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: "PT-109" had a single Oerlikon anti-aircraft mount at the rear with "109" painted on the mounting base, two open circular rotating turrets mounting twin M2 .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns at opposite corners of the open cockpit, and a smoke generator on the transom, operated as needed when engaging the enemy at close range. The boat's guns were used both offensively and defensively.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Seeking to augment the boat's firepower (given the inaccuracy and unreliability of its torpedoes), the day before her final mission Kennedy had the "PT-109"s crew lash a U.S. Army 37 mm antitank gun he had bartered for to the foredeck, replacing a small, two-man life raft. Timbers used to secure the weapon to the deck later helped save their lives when used as a float while swimming over three miles to safety on an uninhabited island.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Ahead of the torpedoes on "PT-109" were two depth charges, omitted on most PTs, one on each side, about the same diameter and directly in front of the launchers. Though designed to be used against submarines, they were sometimes used to confuse and discourage pursuing destroyers. With Kennedy's squadron commander, Lt. Alvin Cluster, at the wheel in storm conditions, "PT-109" port depth charge was knocked through the foredeck unexpectedly by an inadvertent launch of the port forward torpedo. Cluster had asked Kennedy for a turn at "PT 109"s wheel, as he had only had experience with the older, Elco PTs. The torpedo stayed in the tube, half in and half out on a "hot run", its propellers spinning, until Kennedy's executive officer Ensign Leonard Thom deactivated it. "PT-109" returned to Tulagi for repairs to the foredeck and the replacement of the depth charge.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: "PT-109" was transported from the Norfolk Navy Yard to the South Pacific in August 1942 on board the Liberty ship SS "Joseph Stanton". Originally Navy grey, it is believed the ship was painted a flat, dark green at Nouméa, New Caledonia after being off-loaded. She arrived in the Solomon Islands in late 1942 and was assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 2 based on Tulagi island. She participated in combat operations around Guadalcanal from 1942 to 1943, when the Japanese withdrew from the island.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Despite having a chronically bad back and a history of other illnesses including abdominal pain and scarlet fever as an infant, John F. Kennedy used his father Joseph P. Kennedy's influence to get into the war. In 1940, the U.S. Army's Officer Candidate School had rejected him as 4-F, for his bad back, ulcers and asthma. Kennedy's father persuaded his old friend Captain Allan Goodrich Kirk, USN, head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, to let a private Boston doctor certify his son's good health. Kennedy started out in October 1941 prior to Pearl Harbor as an ensign with a desk job for the Office of Naval Intelligence. He was reassigned to South Carolina in January 1942 because of his affair with Danish journalist Inga Arvad. On 27 July 1942, Kennedy entered the Naval Reserve Officers Training School in Chicago.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: After completing his Naval Reserve Officer's Training on , Kennedy voluntarily entered the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island, where he was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) (LTJG). In September 1942, Joseph Kennedy had secured PT Lieutenant Commander John Bulkeley's help in placing his son in the PT boat's service and enrolling him in their training school, after meeting with Bulkeley in a New York Plaza suite near his office at Rockefeller Plaza. Nonetheless, Bulkeley would not have recommended John Kennedy for PT boat training if he did not believe he was qualified to be a PT captain. In an interview with Kennedy, Bulkeley was impressed with his appearance, communication skills, grades at Harvard, and awards received in small boat competitions, particularly while a member of Harvard's sailing team. Exaggerated claims by Bulkeley about the effectiveness of the PTs in combat against larger craft allowed him to recruit top talent, raise war bonds, and cause overconfidence among squadron commanders who continued to pit PTs against larger craft. But many in the Navy knew the truth; his claims that PTs had sunk a Japanese cruiser, a troopship, and a plane tender in the Philippines were false. Kennedy completed his PT training in Rhode Island on , with very high marks and was asked to stay for a brief period as an instructor. He was then ordered to the training squadron, Motor Torpedo , to take over the command of motor torpedo boat "PT-101", a Huckins PT boat.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: In January 1943, "PT-101" and four other boats were ordered to Motor Torpedo Boat (RON 14), which was assigned to patrol the Panama Canal. Kennedy detached from in February 1943, while the squadron was in Jacksonville, Florida, preparing for transfer to the Panama Canal Zone. Still desperately seeking a combat assignment, and on his own volition, Lieutenant Kennedy then contacted family friend and crony, Massachusetts Senator David I. Walsh, Chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee, who diverted his assignment to Panama, and had him sent to PT combat in the Solomon Islands, granting Kennedy's previous "change-of-assignment" request to be sent to a squadron in the South Pacific. His actions were against the wishes of his father who had wanted a safer assignment.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: The Allies had been in a campaign of island hopping since securing Guadalcanal in a bloody battle in early 1943. Kennedy transferred on 1943, as a replacement officer to Motor Torpedo Boat , which was based at Tulagi Island, immediately north of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Traveling to the Pacific on the large troop carrier , Kennedy witnessed a fierce air strike that killed the ship's captain, and found Kennedy helping to hand shells to supply a large gun on board, giving him his first taste of battle. He arrived at Tulagi on and took command of "PT-109" on . Although "PT-109" was less than a year old, it had seen heavy combat service since its arrival in the Pacific, and considerable repairs were required on the boat; leading by example, Kennedy pitched in to help the crew get his vessel seaworthy. On , several PT boats of MTBRON 2, including "PT-109", were ordered to the Russell Islands in preparation for the invasion of New Georgia.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: After the capture of Rendova Island, the PT boat operations were moved north to a crude "bush" berth there on . The Rendova base held the potential for its residents to contract a host of unpleasant diseases like malaria, dengue, dysentery, and elephantiasis. The Navy men stationed there also contended with cockroaches, rats, foot diseases, ear fungus, and mild malnutrition from the monotonous and mostly canned food. On his first desk assignment with the Navy after his return to the States, Kennedy suffered from the aftereffects of malaria, colitis, and chronic back pain, all caused or aggravated by his experiences in combat or during his stay at the Rendova base.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: From their crude base on the northern tip of Rendova Island, on a small spit of land known as Lumbari, PT boats conducted daring and dangerous nightly operations, both to disturb the heavy Japanese barge traffic that was resupplying the Japanese garrisons in New Georgia, and to patrol the Ferguson and Blackett Straits in order to sight and to give warning when the Japanese Tokyo Express warships came into the straits to supply Japanese forces in the New Georgia–Rendova area.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: On , an attack by 18 Japanese bombers struck the base, wrecking "PT-117" and sinking "PT-164". Two torpedoes were blown off "PT-164" and ran erratically around the bay until they ran ashore on the beach without exploding.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: At the end of July 1943, intelligence reports were received and decoded by Naval authorities at Kennedy's PT base on Rendova Island indicating that five enemy destroyers were scheduled to run the night of 1–2 August. The destroyers would cruise from the Solomon's Bougainville Island through Blackett Strait to supply provisions and bring troops to the Japanese garrison on Vila Plantation, on Kolombangara Island's southern tip. America's sophisticated deciphering of the Japanese naval codes had contributed to the victory at the Battle of Midway, ten months earlier, and the same technology had been used to break their code and provide the report of the Japanese destroyers expected 1–2 August. Despite the recent loss of two boats and two crewmen from a Japanese air attack, the skippers of "PT-109" and 14 other boats met with Commander Thomas G. Warfield to discuss the details of a mission to head north through a cut in the reefs known as Ferguson Passage, to Blackett Strait between Gizo and Kolombongara Islands to block or attack the anticipated enemy destroyers. The resulting skirmish, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Blackett Strait, should not be confused with an earlier battle there on 3 March 1943. Commander Arleigh Burke had been ordered to sit on the northern approach to Kolombangara with seven American destroyers to ensure the Japanese were prevented from reinforcing their garrison, though he was not on station till 12:30 a.m. All four Japanese destroyers would evade his grasp, as they arrived one hour early, before Burke had reached his post. The resulting battle would become the largest use of PT boats in the war, and the results would not be promising for the future use of PTs against Japanese destroyers.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: On 1 August, fifteen PT boats, "PT-109" among them, motored from the PT base on Rendova around 6:30 p.m. on strict but cursory orders from Rendova's top brass, Commander Thomas Warfield. The combined PT task force was divided into four divisions of roughly four PTs each. "PT-109"s "B" division also included PTs "162", "159", and "157", and were stationed the farthest north of the PT divisions, nearly midway up Kolombongara Island's western coast and around to the west. The "B" Division left Rendova first, leading the pack, as their station was the farthest from the Rendova base. Most of the divisions reached their station by 8:30 p.m. The fifteen PTs carried four torpedo tubes each, for a total of , and roughly half of these were fired at the four advancing Japanese destroyers protected by Japanese float planes. The Navy's official report of the incident listed 5–6 torpedo explosions reaching the destroyer targets, but none, in fact, were actual torpedo hits. Of the twenty-four torpedoes fired by PT boats from eight PTs, not a single hit was scored against the advancing destroyers. Though each division of PTs was assigned a location likely to intercept the destroyers, several of those without radar cruised about aimlessly in the fog and darkness, unable to locate the enemy ships.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Lieutenant Brantingham on "PT-159", leader of Kennedy's division, and originally stationed near Kennedy, first saw radar blips indicating the southbound destroyers just arriving on the scene, and fired his torpedoes from about away. As he advanced, he did not radio "PT-109" to follow, leaving Kennedy and his crew behind in the darkness. All of Brantingham's torpedoes missed the destroyers, and his torpedo tubes caused a small fire, requiring Lieutenant Liebenow's PT, also in Kennedy's division, to swing in front of Brantingham's PT to block the light emitting from his burning torpedo tubes as they could have given away their location to the destroyers. Liebenow's "157" fired two more torpedoes that failed to hit their target as well, then both boats laid smoke from their smoke generator and zigzagged away to avoid detection. No signal of the destroyer's presence was ever radioed or received by "PT-109", or the other boat in the division, and skippers Brantingham and Liebenow headed blindly west to Gizo Island and away from the destroyers and "PT-109".


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Many of the torpedoes that were fired exploded prematurely or ran at the wrong depth. The odds that a Mark 8 torpedo that made it to a destroyer would explode was less than 50%, due to faulty calibration of the detonators, a problem that was not known nor corrected by the Navy until later in the war. A few other PTs, including the leader of Division A to the south of Kennedy, intercepted the destroyers on their southbound route close to Kolombangara, but were unable to hit any with torpedoes. The boats were radioed by Warfield to return when their torpedoes were expended, but the four boats with radar fired their torpedoes first and were ordered to return to base. Commander Warfield's concept of sending orders to the PTs in darkness by radio from away and without a view of the battle, was inefficient at best. The radar sets the four boats carried were relatively primitive, and sometimes malfunctioned. When the four boats with radar left the scene of the battle, the remaining boats, including "PT-109", were deprived of the ability to determine the location or approach of the oncoming destroyers, and were not notified that other boats had already engaged the enemy.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Late in the night, "PT-109" and two accompanying PTs became the last to sight the Japanese destroyers returning on their northern route to Rabaul, New Britain, New Guinea, after they had completed dropping their supplies and troops at 1:45 a.m. on the southern tip of Kolombangara. The official Navy account of the incident listed radio communications as good, but PT commanders were also told to maintain radio silence until informed of enemy sightings, causing many commanders to turn off their radios or not closely monitor their radio traffic, including Kennedy.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: By 2 a.m. on 1943, as the battle neared its end, "PT-109", "PT-162", and "PT-169" were ordered to continue patrolling the area on orders previously radioed from Commander Warfield. The night was cloudy and moonless, and fog had set amidst the remaining PTs. Kennedy's boat was idling on one engine to avoid the detection of her phosphorescent wake by Japanese aircraft when the crew realized they were in the path of the Japanese destroyer , which was heading north to Rabaul from Vila Plantation, Kolombangara, after offloading supplies and .


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Contemporary accounts of the incident, particularly the work of Mark Doyle, do not often find Kennedy at fault for the collision. The lack of speed and maneuverability caused by the idling engines of "PT-109" put the ship at risk from passing destroyers, but Kennedy had not been warned by radio of destroyers in the area. Kennedy believed the firing he had heard was from shore batteries on Kolombangara, not destroyers, and that he could best avoid detection by enemy sea planes by idling his engines and reducing his wake.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Kennedy said he attempted to turn "PT-109" to fire a torpedo and have Ensign George "Barney" Ross fire their newly installed 37 mm anti-tank gun from the bow at the oncoming northbound destroyer "Amagiri". Ross lifted a shell but did not have time to load it into the closed breech of the weapon that Kennedy hoped might deter the oncoming vessel. "Amagiri" was traveling at a relatively high speed of between in order to reach harbor by dawn, when Allied air patrols were likely to appear.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Kennedy and his crew had less than ten seconds to get the engines up to speed and evade the oncoming destroyer, which was advancing without running lights, but the PT boat was run down and severed between Kolombangara and Ghizo Island, near . "PT-109" was struck on her starboard side at a 20-degree angle, shearing off a piece of the boat. Conflicting statements have been made as to whether the destroyer captain had spotted and steered towards "PT-109" with the intention of ramming her, or tried to avoid her at the last minute. Most contemporary authors write that "Amagiri"s captain, Lieutenant Commander Kohei Hanami, intentionally steered to collide with "PT-109". Hanami later admitted it himself and also stated that "PT-109" was traveling at a steady pace in their direction.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: When "PT-109" was cut in two around 2:27 a.m., a fireball of exploding aviation fuel caused the sea surrounding the ship to flame. Seamen Andrew Jackson Kirksey and Harold William Marney were killed instantly, and two other members of the crew were badly injured and burned when they were thrown into the flaming sea surrounding the boat. For such a catastrophic collision, explosion, and fire, there were few men lost compared to the losses on other PT boats hit by shell fire. "PT-109" was gravely damaged, with watertight compartments keeping only the forward hull afloat in a sea of flames.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: "PT-169", closest to Kennedy's craft, launched two torpedoes that missed the destroyer and "PT-162"s torpedoes failed to fire at all. Both boats then turned away from the scene of the action and returned to base without checking for survivors of "PT-109". There had been no procedure outlined by Commander Warfield of how to search for survivors or what the PT flotilla should do in case a ship was lost. In the words of Captain Robert Bulkley, naval historian, "This was perhaps the most confused and least effectively executed action the PTs had been in. Eight PTs fired 30 torpedoes. The only confirmed results were the loss of "PT-109" and damage to the Japanese destroyer "Amagiri"" [from striking "PT-109"].


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Kennedy was able to rescue MM1 Patrick McMahon, the crew member with the most severe wounds, which included burns that covered 70 percent of his body, and brought him to the floating bow. Kennedy also rescued Starkey and Harris, bringing them both to the bow. On instructions from Kennedy, the eleven survivors thrown from "PT-109" regrouped, and then hoping for rescue, clung to "PT-109" bow section for 12 hours as it drifted slowly south. By about 1 p.m., on 2 August, it was apparent that the hull was taking on water and would soon sink, so the men decided to swim for land, departing around 1:30 p.m. As there were Japanese camps on all the nearby large islands including Kolombangara, the closest, they chose the tiny deserted Plum Pudding Island southwest of where the bow section had drifted. They placed their lantern, shoes, and non-swimmers on one of the timbers that had been used as a gun mount and began kicking together to propel it. Kennedy, who had been on the Harvard University swim team, used a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth to tow McMahon. It took four hours to swim to the island, away, which they reached without encountering sharks or crocodiles.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Plum Pudding Island was only in diameter, with no food or water. The exhausted crew dragged themselves behind the tree line to hide from passing Japanese barges. The night of 2 August, Kennedy swam to Ferguson Passage to attempt to hail a passing American PT boat. On 4 August, he and Lenny Thom assisted his injured and hungry crew on a demanding swim south to Olasana Island which was visible to all from Plum Pudding Island. They swam against a strong current, and once again, Kennedy towed McMahon by his life vest. They were pleased to discover Olasana had ripe coconuts, though there was still no fresh water. On the following day, 5 August, Kennedy and George Ross swam for one hour to Naru Island, visible at an additional distance of about southeast, in search of help and food and because it was closer to Ferguson Passage where Kennedy might see or swim to a passing PT boat on patrol. Kennedy and Ross found a small canoe, packages of crackers and candy, and a fifty-gallon drum of drinkable water left by the Japanese, which Kennedy paddled back to Olasana in the acquired canoe to provide his crew. It was then that Kennedy first spoke to native Melanesian coastwatchers Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana on Olasana Island. Months earlier, Kennedy had learned a smattering of the pidgin English used by the coastwatchers by speaking with a native boy. The two coastwatchers had finally been convinced by Ensign Thom that the crew were from the lost "PT-109", when Thom asked Gasa if he knew John Kari, and Gasa replied that he worked with him. Realizing they were with Americans, the coastwatchers brought a few yams, vegetables, and cigarettes from their dugout canoe and vowed to help the starving crew. But it would take two more days for a full rescue.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: The rescue of "PT-109" was a long process, largely achieved by the work of native Solomon Island scouts who first located Kennedy and his crew. The scouts were sent by Sub-lieutenant Reg Evans, an Australian coastwatcher, who had seen the "109" explode from his secret observation site.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: The explosion and resulting fireball on the early morning of was spotted by Evans, who manned a secret observation post at the top of the Mount Veve volcano on Kolombangara, where more than 10,000 Japanese troops were garrisoned below on the southeast portion. The Navy and its squadron of PT boats held a memorial service for the crew of "PT-109" after reports were made of the large explosion, but Commander Warfield, to his credit, ordered an aerial search by Royal New Zealand Air Force P-40 fighters that spotted a few remains of the wreck, but not the crew who had already swum to safety.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Evans had been the first to dispatch islander scouts, Gasa and Kumana, in a dugout canoe late on 5 August, to look for possible survivors after decoding radio broadcasts that the explosion he had witnessed was from the lost "PT-109". Gasa and Kumana had been trained by the British and Australians in search and detection and were willing to sacrifice their lives as part of their duty to the British and American troops. Native coastwatchers were used because they could avoid detection by Japanese ships and aircraft and, if spotted, would probably be taken for native fishermen.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Before they were rescued by the scouts on 8 August, Kennedy and his men survived for six days on Plum Pudding and then Olasana Island. They had eaten only a few ripe coconuts, rainwater caught on leaves, and small amounts of fresh water and Japanese cookies Kennedy had taken from Naru Island. By chance, Gasa and Kumana stopped by Naru to investigate a Japanese wreck, from which they salvaged fuel and food. They first fled by canoe from Kennedy, who with his sunburn, beard, and disheveled clothing appeared to them to be a Japanese soldier. When they later arrived on Olasana, they pointed their Tommy guns at the rest of the crew, since the only light-skinned people they expected to find were Japanese with whom they could not communicate.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Kennedy's message scratched on a coconut while he was on Naru, where he had spent some time from 4–7 August, was not the only communication given to the coastwatchers. A more detailed message was written by the executive officer of "PT-109", Ensign Leonard Jay Thom on 6 August. Thom's message was a "penciled note" written on paper, which read:


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Subject: Rescue of 11(eleven) men lost since Sunday, in enemy action. Native knows our position & will bring P.T. Boat back to small islands of Ferguson Passage off NURU IS. A small boat (outboard or oars) is needed to take men off as some are seriously burned.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Signal at night three dashes (- - -) Password--Roger---Answer---Wilco If attempted at day time--advise air coverage or a PBY could set down. Please work out a suitable plan & act immediately Help is urgent & in sore need. Rely on native boys to any extent


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Though the 1963 movie depicted Kennedy offering a coconut inscribed with a message as his idea and the sole form of communication, it was Gasa who suggested it and Kumana who climbed a coconut tree to pick one. On the instructions of Gasa, Kennedy painstakingly scratched the following message on the coconut husk with a knife:


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: On 6 August, Gasa and Kumana left Olasana and headed east, carrying the penciled note and Kennedy's coconut message to Wana Wana Island, south of Kolombangara and a quarter of the way to Kennedy's PT Naval base on Rendova Island. There they took little time to rest but linked up with Senior Scout Benjamin Kevu who they told they had found the crew of "PT-109". Kevu sent another scout to inform Evans, north on Kolombangara Island, of the discovery. Gasa and Kumana departed Wana Wana with scout John Kari in a better canoe given them by Kevu, carrying both Thom's and Kennedy's messages to a military outpost on Roviana Island, close to the PT Rendova base in a total of fifteen hours by paddling their canoe all night through of rough seas and hostile waters patrolled by the Japanese. From the content of the messages, it is clear both Thom and Kennedy trusted the coastwatchers with their lives, as neither message contained the exact coordinates of their location, nor the name of Olasana Island. Traveling in an arranged boat, Gasa and Kumana were at last sent south to the PT base at Rendova from Roviana Island, a distance of only , with Gasa still clutching the coconut. Around 6 August, after speaking to Kevu about the eleven found on Olasana, Evans sent a canoe with fresh fish, yams, potatoes, corned beef hash, and rice to Kennedy and his crew with a message to return to him on Kolumbangara's Gomu Island in the canoe immediately. Kennedy followed this request and was the only one of his crew to go, since there were many Japanese planes flying above and the coast watcher's station was located on the Japanese-occupied island of Wana Wana. Kennedy was instructed to lie underneath palm fronds in the canoe so he would not be spotted by Japanese planes. It was not until the morning of 7 August, that Evans was able to radio Rendova to confirm the news that Kennedy and his crew had been discovered.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: On the night of 6–7 August, while Kennedy still awaited rescue, Admiral William Halsey, now convinced that PTs were unsuitable against Japanese destroyers, sent six U.S. Navy destroyers equipped with more advanced radar to intercept the "Tokyo Express", again on their frequent run to Kolombangara Island. This time, the U.S. forces succeeded and sank four Japanese destroyers, two of which, the "Arashi" and "Hagikaze", had eluded Kennedy and the 14 PT crews on the night of 1–2 August. This action became known as the "Battle of Vella Gulf".


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: On 7 August, when the coastwatcher scouts carrying the coconut and paper message arrived at Rendova, PT Commander Warfield was at first skeptical of the messages and the trustworthiness of the native scouts Gasa and Kumana. After finally receiving Evans' radioed message of the discovery of the "109" crew, and facing overwhelming evidence that Kennedy had returned from the dead, he cautiously consented to risk two PTs to rescue them. Warfield selected "PT-157", commanded by Kennedy's friend and former tentmate Lieutenant William Liebenow for the rescue, as he and his crew were experienced and familiar with the area. Liebenow later said that his crew were chosen because they were "the best boat crew in the South Pacific." "PT-171" would travel ahead and radio Liebenow of any sightings of the enemy. Departing just after sunset from Rendova at 7:00 p.m. on 8 August, Liebenow motored "PT-157" to Evans' base at Gomu Island, off Kolombangara. To prevent making a wake, Liebenow traveled at 10-15 knots, muffled his engines, and zigzagged to prevent being tracked by planes or shore batteries. The arranged signal when Liebenow picked up Kennedy on Gomu was four shots, but since Kennedy only had three bullets in his pistol, Evans gave him a Japanese rifle for the fourth signal shot. With Kennedy aboard, "PT-157" rescued the weak and hungry "PT-109" crew members on Olasana Island in the early morning of 8 August, after dispatching row boats to pick them up. The "157" then motored the full crew and the coastwatcher scouts back to the Rendova PT base where they could begin to receive medical attention.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: There were reporters aboard "PT-157", when they rescued Kennedy and his crew from Olasana Island. After the rescue, the "New York Times" announced, "KENNEDY'S SON IS HERO IN PACIFIC AS DESTROYER SPLITS HIS BOAT". Other papers wrote "KENNEDY'S SON SAVES 10 IN PACIFIC", and "SHOT FROM RUSTY JAP GUN GUIDES KENNEDY RESCUERS". All the published accounts of the PT-109 incident made Kennedy the key player in rescuing all 11 crew members and made him a war hero. His father, Joseph Kennedy Sr., made sure that these articles were widely distributed, and that it was known that his son was a hero. The articles focused on Kennedy's role in the incident, omitting most of the contributions of Thom, the crew, and the coastwatchers.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Thom, Ross, and Kennedy were each awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, though senior officer Lt. Commander Alvin Cluster had recommended Kennedy for the Silver Star. Kennedy was also awarded the Purple Heart for injuries he sustained in the collision. Following their rescue, Thom was assigned as commander of "PT-587" and Kennedy was assigned as commander of "PT-59" (a.k.a. "PTGB-1"). Kennedy and Thom remained friends, and when Thom died in a 1946 car accident, Kennedy was one of his pallbearers.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: The PT-109 incident aggravated Kennedy's ongoing health issues. It contributed to his back problems, until his symptoms eventually progressed to a point where they were incapacitating. The incident also contributed to his gastrointestinal problems.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: The coconut shell came into the possession of Ernest W. Gibson Jr., who was serving in the South Pacific with the 43rd Infantry Division. Gibson later returned it to Kennedy. Kennedy preserved it in a glass paperweight on his Oval Office desk during his presidency. It is now on display at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Both Solomon Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana were alive when visited by "National Geographic" in 2002. They were each presented with a bust and a letter from the Kennedy family.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Kennedy invited both Gasa and Kumana to his inauguration, but the island authorities gave their trip to local officials instead. Kumana and Gasa made it to the airport in Honiara, but were turned back by Solomon Island officials on the grounds that their appearance and pidgin English would be an embarrassment. Gasa and Kumana gained recognition, especially after being mentioned and praised by "National Geographic", and the publication of William Doyle's book on "PT-109". Gasa died in late August 2005, his passing noted only in a single blog post by a relative.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: In 2007, the commanding officer of USS "Peleliu", Captain Ed Rhoades, presented Kumana with gifts, including an American flag for his actions more than 60 years earlier.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: In 2008, Mark Roche visited Kumana and discussed "PT-109"s incident. Kumana had been a scout for the Coastwatchers throughout the war, and besides rescuing the crew of "PT-109", he had rescued two downed American pilots who parachuted into the sea. Kumana noted that Kennedy visited him several times while still stationed at Rendova and always brought trinkets to swap. Kumana lived atop a cliff on his native island with his extended family. His most prized possession was his bust of President Kennedy, later given him by the Kennedy family. Kumana gave Roche a valuable family heirloom, a large piece of Kustom Money, to place on the President's grave. (Among other uses, Kustom Money was used to pay tribute to a chief, especially by placing it on the chief's grave.) In November 2008, Roche placed the tribute on the President's grave in a private ceremony. The artifact was then taken to the Kennedy Library and placed on display beside the coconut with the rescue message.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: The wreckage of "PT-109" was located in May 2002, at a depth of , when a National Geographic Society expedition headed by Robert Ballard found a torpedo tube from wreckage matching the description and location of Kennedy's vessel. The boat was identified by Dale Ridder, a weapons and explosives expert on the U.S. Marine Forensics Panel.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: The stern section was not found, but a search using remote vehicles found the forward section, which had drifted south of the collision site. Much of the half-buried wreckage and grave site was left undisturbed in accordance with Navy policy. Max Kennedy, JFK's nephew, who joined Ballard on the expedition, presented a bust of JFK to the islanders who had found Kennedy and his crew.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: "National Geographic" produced a TV special titled "The Search for Kennedy's PT 109". A DVD and book were also released.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Nine years after the sinking of "PT-109", U.S. Representative John Kennedy, engaged in a race for the Senate, instructed his staff to locate Kohei Hanami, Commander of the "Amagiri", the Japanese destroyer that had run down the "109". When they found Captain Hanami, Kennedy wrote him a heartfelt letter on 15 September 1952, with wishes of good fortune for him and for long-term peace between Japan and the United States. The two became friends, and Hanami subsequently went into politics in 1954, being elected as councilman of Shiokawa, and later as mayor in 1962. Hanami hoped to meet Kennedy on his next visit to Japan, and though the meeting never took place, the United States and Japan remained close allies. Years later, Caroline Kennedy accepted the post of Ambassador to Japan, holding the office from November 2013 to 18 January 2017, extending the positive relationship with Japan her father had begun after the war.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: While Kennedy was running for president in 1960 he met with Fujio Onozeki, a Japanese naval officer who was aboard the "Amagiri" when it hit "PT-109", who gave him a card signed by other officers from the "Amagiri".


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: President Kennedy presented "PT-109" tie clasps to key supporters in his 1960 campaign, as well as to close friends and staff members. Replicas of the tie clasps are still sold to the public by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. An original flag from "PT-109" is now kept in the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. The story of "PT-109"s sinking was featured in several books and a 1963 movie, "PT 109", starring Cliff Robertson. Kennedy's father, Joe Kennedy Sr., had a role in the production, financing, casting, and writing. As there were only a few 80-foot Elco "PT-103"-class hulls in existence by that time (none in operable condition or resembling their World War II appearance), United States Air Force crash rescue boats were modified to resemble "PT-109" and other Elco PTs in the movie. Instead of the dark green paint used by PT boats in the Western Pacific theater during World War II, the film versions were painted the same gray color as contemporary U.S. naval vessels of the 1960s.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: A song titled "PT-109" by Jimmy Dean reached on the pop music, and on the country music charts in 1962, making it one of Dean's most successful recordings.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Eroni Kumana named his son "John F. Kennedy". Plum Pudding Island was later renamed Kennedy Island. A controversy arose when the government sold the land to a private investor who charged admission to tourists. "PT-109" was also the subject of toy, plastic, and radio control model ships in the 1960s, familiar to boys who grew up as baby boomers. It was still a popular Revell "PT-109" (model) kit in the . Hasbro also released a "PT-109" edition John F. Kennedy G.I. Joe action figure, dressed in Navy khakis with a miniature version of the famous coconut shell.


title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

text: Two episodes of the World War II–themed television series "McHale's Navy", which began airing during the Kennedy presidency, mention the "PT-109" and its unnamed captain from Massachusetts (whose speech and accent Ensign Parker imitate in one episode). In one episode, the boat's captain is the ultimate choice to be the face of a congresswoman's bond selling tour, and in the other, Captain Binghamton lists the "PT-109"s captain as someone who has recently been promoted and of whom he is envious.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: Boys Like Girls is an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2005, the group gained mainstream recognition when it released its self-titled debut album which went on to sell over 700,000 albums in the United States earning a Gold Record from the RIAA. The group's second studio album "Love Drunk", was released on September 8, 2009 and their third album "Crazy World", was released December 11, 2012.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: The band toured worldwide between 2006 and 2013. Notable tours include their main stage appearance on the entire 2007 Vans Warped Tour, their first headline tour "Tourzilla" (2007) and a co-headliner with Good Charlotte for the Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour 2008.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: The music video for their single "The Great Escape" (directed by Alan Ferguson) was voted the No. 1 video on MTV's TRL on August 6, 2007 and the band performed at MTV's TRL studio overlooking Times Square.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: The group was formed in Andover, Massachusetts in the final months of 2005, when vocalist Martin Johnson, formerly of the Boston act Fake ID/The Drive, wrote a handful of songs he wanted to record. He recruited bassist Bryan Donahue and drummer John Keefe. Keefe brought along lead guitarist Paul DiGiovanni, with whom he had recorded a brief demo, to complete the line-up. Some of the demo's titles were "Free", "If You Could See Me Now", and "The Only Way That I Know How To Feel". Some months later Keefe and DiGiovanni learned that they were distant cousins. The group later changed their name to Boys Like Girls.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: The quartet soon opened a PureVolume account to showcase their music, and uploaded a rough demo of "The Great Escape" and an acoustic rendition of "Thunder". By the end of the year, the group was on the No. 1 spot on the website's "Top Unsigned Artists" chart and within a few months had completed nationwide tours with Cute Is What We Aim For, Hit the Lights, All Time Low and Butch Walker.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: Eventually, in 2006, the popularity of the band was overheard by booking agent Matt Galle and record producer Matt Squire, who contacted the band about a future collaboration. With their full support, Boys Like Girls embarked on their first nationwide tour with A Thorn for Every Heart, Hit the Lights and Keating in late February 2006. Following the month-long venture, the group immediately entered the recording studio with Squire to record their debut album for Columbia Records/Red Ink.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: During their time in the studio Squire introduced the band to another of his alumni, Cute Is What We Aim For, who offered Boys Like Girls an opening slot on their upcoming headlining tour. Once the album was recorded, Boys Like Girls played back-to-back tours, including the Cute Is What We Aim For tour in June, as well as a two-week stint with Butch Walker in late July. In between tours the band filmed their first music video for their album's lead single, "Hero/Heroine", directed by Mark Serao and Chris Vaglio of Grey Sky Films.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: On August 22, 2006, the eponymous "Boys Like Girls" was released. As of August 2008, the album has sold over 580,000 copies within the United States. While, as the title might suggest, songs about boys liking girls clearly prevail on the album, Johnson occasionally touched upon themes such as his mother's battle with cancer, leaving home, and promiscuous adolescents. Concerning the latter, he discussed the motivation behind the song "Dance Hall Drug":


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In 2007, they began with a short headlining run with Self Against City, after which the group joined Cobra Starship supporting a two-month Cartel tour in February. In between releasing their album's second single, "The Great Escape" (reaching No. 9 on the Pop 100), performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on February 22, 2007, and eventually charting the "Billboard" 200 for the first time in April 2007, Boys Like Girls played their first international concerts during the Canada leg of a North American tour with Hellogoodbye and the UK festival Give It A Name 2007.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In mid-2006, the group performed on the annual Vans Warped Tour for the first time and on July 31, 2007 the band reached the No. 1 spot on the MTV show Total Request Live. The following month, on August 20, 2006, Boys Like Girls members Johnson and DiGiovanni played a private show at 105.1 The Buzz radio station. They announced that they would be performing five shows in Japan and said how much Good Charlotte helped their career.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In September 2006, Boys Like Girls released a three-song acoustic set for AOL's Sessions Under Cover as an EP in the iTunes Store, containing "The Great Escape", "Thunder" and a cover of Frou Frou's "Let Go". On December 4, 2007, the band performed a concert with Good Charlotte, with opening act NLT, for New Orleans radio station B97's "The Night B97 Stole Christmas" at the New Orleans House of Blues, located in the French Quarter.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: Boys Like Girls played at the Slam Dunk Festival on the Glamour Kills stage, in Leeds, on Sunday, May 25, 2008. The group shared the stage with bands such as, Cute Is What We Aim For, Kids in Glass Houses, Valencia, We the Kings, You Me at Six and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. The band was also the opening act for Avril Lavigne's 2008 Best Damn Tour throughout the majority of North America.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: During mid-2008, Boys Like Girls toured with Good Charlotte, The Maine, and Metro Station, for the Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour. The tour kicked off in Southaven, Mississippi with a performance named Red White and Boom hosted by Q107.5 on June 3, 2008. On July 4, 2008, they played in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee at the 2008 Starjam concert, along with Metro Station, Good Charlotte, Ace Young, and Menudo. Two months later, on August 5, 2008, Boys Like Girls and Metro Station performed together at Six Flags St. Louis in Missouri. In between tour dates, they worked alongside Nickelodeon pop singer Miranda Cosgrove on her upcoming debut album, released in 2009.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In 2008, five songs that were believed to be on the band's second album leaked onto the internet. The fan based EP, entitled "Heavy Heart", consists of five demo songs that were recorded, but did not make it onto the band's first album. None of the songs would appear on their second record.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: Boys Like Girls supported Fall Out Boy on their UK tour in October, along with You Me at Six. A month later the band's debut DVD, "Read Between the Lines", was released on November 4, 2008.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: Johnson announced on his website that the band had begun to record their new album on February 10, 2009. It was recorded half in Vancouver and half in New York City with two different producers/production teams, in two different environments, and with two different styles of inspiration. The band embarked upon a 2009 fall tour with Cobra Starship, A Rocket to the Moon, The Maine, and VersaEmerge. The tour, known as 'The Op Tour' began on October 14 with the first show being in Buffalo, New York.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: On June 18, Boys like Girls confirmed the title for their second album would be "Love Drunk". The album was officially released on September 8, 2009. On June 24, 2009, the band released their first single, the title track of the album. The "Love Drunk" music video features actress and singer Ashley Tisdale. The group released their second single "She's Got a Boyfriend Now" on iTunes in August. The fourth song from "Love Drunk" is called "Two Is Better Than One," featuring and written with Taylor Swift. The song is about Johnson's previous relationship with a longtime girlfriend. Johnson had previously worked with Swift to write the song "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home"., which is featured in Hannah Montana: The Movie.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: The band made history on August 15, 2009 when it was featured alongside The All-American Rejects, Hoobastank, Raygun, Kasabian, Pixie Lott and Misha Omar as one of the live acts at Asia's very first MTV World Stage Live concert that was held in Malaysia.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: The album is available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon, as well as many major retailers around the country on iTunes, there is a "Deluxe Version" of the album that contains 3 bonus tracks; "Love Drunk (Acoustic)", "Heart Heart Heartbreak (Acoustic)" and a Mark Hoppus remixed version of "Love Drunk".


title: Boys Like Girls

text: Boys Like Girls made a video for their most recent single "Heart Heart Heartbreak". Boys Like Girls was on VH1's "Top Twenty Countdown" on February 13 to talk about their hit single "Two is Better Than One", which landed a number 8 spot on the countdown. The video was on the countdown for 8 consecutive weeks. When asked if they were filming a 3-D video or not, Johnson said they had already filmed the music video. Boys Like Girls second album, released in September 2009, was Love Drunk. In its first week, it sold more than 41,000 copies, landing it on the No. 8 spot on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In March 2010, Boys Like Girls supported Hedley along with Stereos and FeFe Dobson on select dates across Canada.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: Boys Like Girls co-headlined The Bamboozle Roadshow 2010 between May and June 2010. All Time Low, Third Eye Blind, and LMFAO co-headlined with Boys Like Girls. Along with numerous other supporting bands, including 3OH!3, Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, and Simple Plan. Martin Johnson and Paul DiGiovanni had a small cameo in Good Charlotte's "Like It's Her Birthday" music video, along with The Maine's John O'Callaghan and Kennedy Brock.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: Rumors surfaced on the internet about a year after the release of the band's second studio album "Love Drunk", stating that "the band is currently writing new material for their upcoming third studio album".


title: Boys Like Girls

text: On September 1, 2010, the band posted a video on their official YouTube account announcing that they would be heading back to the studio to "do some preps and record" for album number 3.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: On December 17, 2010, Johnson confirmed that they have completed writing the songs to be included in the upcoming record and that the band is currently recording demos-to-be-done in the studio with producer Matt Squire, with whom the band had worked on their self-titled album, "Boys Like Girls".


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In early 2011, rumors started spreading that Boys Like Girls had broken up, with no update from the band, its members or management team. They had no shows scheduled and told fans they were in the studio since September which turned out to be false. Drummer John Keefe was quick to deny these rumors, but along with the rest of the band has issued no statement to say that they are still recording and/or playing together.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: As of February 2011, the band's members are working on individual projects. Johnson has been in the studio recording solo material as he prepares to tour in the summer playing his self written songs. He is also currently working with producers John Feldman and Tommy Brown who has previously worked with Black Eyed Peas. On the other hand, bassist Donahue is continuing with his side project Early Morning Blues, along with guitarist Paul DiGiovanni. DiGiovanni has also opened his own clothing range named "Black Carbon Custom" which he runs himself.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In June 2011, Johnson debuted several songs of his "solo material" on Kiss FM. Johnson also stated that the band would be going on an "indefinite hiatus", providing sufficient time for [Bryan/Paul] to tour in the later parts of the year as they remain in "Early Morning Blues" and himself to finish up his solo record, which was near its finishing touches. Johnson also confirmed that he was set to perform and tour under his very own name "Martin Johnson".


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In November 2011, Martin tweeted that he would post a video update the following day, which was later accompanied by a second tweet "...#boyslikegirlsisback". It was later revealed that the band would be commencing the preparation of the upcoming third studio album in the frontman's place back at Los Angeles.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: On November 19, 2011, another video update from the official Boys Like Girls YouTube channel was uploaded, confirming that Boys Like Girls is currently recording a new album. However, the band's bassist Bryan Donahue unwillingly left the band. Reasons told were that Bryan had too many plans disrupting the band's progress and was apparently too "engrossed" in his other solo projects, "Early Morning Blues" and "The Tower and the Fool".


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In December 2011, the band posted a "studio update" video on their YouTube channel, revealing the trio undergoing recording session in the Sound Factory studio in LA. Also, frontman Martin had uploaded a picture on his Instagram, displaying a hand-written note which what seems like lyrics to a song the band has been recording titled "Be Your Everything". The band have been posting videos of them in the studio recording a track called "Life of the Party", it also features gospel singers on the bridge. The band also posted on Instagram a picture taken of a hand-written note displaying lyrics of the song they are recording, which was later revealed to be titled "Stuck in the Middle". Johnson also stated that the song "Be Your Everything" would most probably be released as the untitled album's first single. On May 17, 2012 the name of the album was revealed as Crazy World which would be released sometime in Fall 2012.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: As of May 2012, the band has confirmed that the new record to be released would be titled "Crazy World" and is set for a fall 2012 release. Martin & guitarist Paul have also confirmed several titles off the record, which are: "Be Your Everything", "Cheated", "Stuck in the Middle", "Leaving California", "Shoot", "Crazy World", "Take Me Home", "Red Cup, Hands Up, Long Brown Hair", "Life of the Party", "Hey You" & "The First Time". The band also made a small announcement that Morgan Dorr would be inducted as the band's permanent bassist, who is on tour with them currently.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: On July 17, they released the "Crazy World" EP, containing three songs off the upcoming full-length album of the same name. The three songs are "Be Your Everything", "Life of the Party" and "The First Time".


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In September 2012, the band kicked off a U.S Tour in New Hampshire headlining with The All American Rejects which also featured supporting bands such as Parachute and The Ready Set. This two-month nationwide tour, from the east coast to the west, instituted a comeback for the band on the road and on stage. They included mainly some of their older material alongside songs from their EP "Crazy World."


title: Boys Like Girls

text: Following the release of "Crazy World", a music video for "Be Your Everything" was created and a lyric video for "Life of the Party" was released as well. Paul has announced that the band has no plans to make any more music videos for "Crazy World".


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In August 2016, the band embarked on a tour to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of their self-titled debut album.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In a 2017 interview with "New York City Monthly" about his project The Night Game, Johnson stated the band hasn't broken up and may continue writing and recording.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: On December 26, 2010, it was announced that the band's former bassist Bryan Donahue was releasing an EP, "Newest Versions", that contained four exclusive tracks, of the group name "Early Morning Blues". It was recorded by several artists including Joey Heartland, Kevin Sanders, Paul DiGiovanni, Jimmy Welsh, Connor Bissett and Alex Correia.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: On March 17, 2011, the band's lead guitarist, Paul DiGiovanni, appeared on The Gunz Show and announced that he is starting a new clothing line named "Black Carbon Custom". Up to date, there are only four shirts, "Black Burn", "Bombs", "Burning World" and "Snake", and a hoodie, "Shut Up and Color" released under the clothing label.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: In early 2011, John Keefe, the band's drummer, began collaborating with the Rebels, a Boston-based band. They have now changed their name to "Empire Kids".


title: Boys Like Girls

text: John Keefe, the band's drummer, and Morgan Dorr, the bassist, collaborated on a side project that began July 2012 but wasn't released until mid April 2013 that consists of them, Ethan Dorr, Allyn Dorr, Kevin Mchugh, Jamel Hawke and Mario Fanizzi. Their new side project is a modern Americana vibe, that began with a small performance for Kevin's wedding. The six-song debut ep was released in three parts.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: Paul DiGiovanni has been occasionally involved in the genre of country music. He co-wrote Dan + Shay's single "How Not To", which reached No. 1 on Country Airplay in 2017, and produced "Home State", the debut album of singer Jordan Davis.


title: Boys Like Girls

text: Stylistically, the band lists its musical influences as a variety of contemporary, emo pop, punk, and alternative rock bands, such as Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182, Secondhand Serenade, Relient K, The Academy Is..., and Dashboard Confessional. While these tendencies are clearly audible in guitarwork and drumming, punk rock influences are far less obvious as far as vocal patterns and lyricism are concerned. Given Johnson's characteristic tenor vocal melodies, the band's all-around sound is geared to late '90s alternative radio rock, along the lines of Vertical Horizon, Goo Goo Dolls, and Eve 6.