title: Mars

text: Planned missions to Mars include the "Rosalind Franklin" rover mission, designed to search for evidence of past life, which was intended to be launched in 2018 but has been repeatedly delayed, with a launch date pushed to 2024 at the earliest, with a more likely one sometime in 2028. A current concept for a joint NASA-ESA mission to return samples from Mars would launch in 2026.


title: Mars

text: Several plans for a human mission to Mars have been proposed throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, but none have come to fruition. The NASA Authorization Act of 2017 directed NASA to study the feasibility of a crewed Mars mission in the early 2030s; the resulting report eventually concluded that this would be unfeasible. In addition, in 2021, China was planning to send a crewed Mars mission in 2033. Privately held companies such as SpaceX have also proposed plans to send humans to Mars, with the eventual goal to settle on the planet.


title: Mars

text: With the presence of various orbiters, landers, and rovers, it is possible to practice astronomy from Mars. Although Mars's moon Phobos appears about one-third the angular diameter of the full moon on Earth, Deimos appears more or less star-like, looking only slightly brighter than Venus does from Earth.


title: Mars

text: Various phenomena seen from Earth have also been observed from Mars, such as meteors and auroras. The apparent sizes of the moons Phobos and Deimos are sufficiently smaller than that of the Sun; thus, their partial "eclipses" of the Sun are best considered transits (see transit of Deimos and Phobos from Mars). Transits of Mercury and Venus have been observed from Mars. A transit of Earth will be seen from Mars on 10 November 2084.


title: Mars

text: The mean apparent magnitude of Mars is +0.71 with a standard deviation of 1.05. Because the orbit of Mars is eccentric, the magnitude at opposition from the Sun can range from about −3.0 to −1.4. The minimum brightness is magnitude +1.86 when the planet is near aphelion and in conjunction with the Sun. At its brightest, Mars (along with Jupiter) is second only to Venus in luminosity. Mars usually appears distinctly yellow, orange, or red. When farthest away from Earth, it is more than seven times farther away than when it is closest. Mars is usually close enough for particularly good viewing once or twice at 15-year or 17-year intervals. As Mars approaches opposition, it begins a period of retrograde motion, which means it will appear to move backwards in a looping curve with respect to the background stars. This retrograde motion lasts for about 72 days, and Mars reaches its peak luminosity in the middle of this interval.


title: Mars

text: The point at which Mars's geocentric longitude is 180° different from the Sun's is known as opposition, which is near the time of closest approach to Earth. The time of opposition can occur as much as 8.5 days away from the closest approach. The distance at close approach varies between about due to the planets' elliptical orbits, which causes comparable variation in angular size. The most recent Mars opposition occurred on 13 October 2020, at a distance of about . The average time between the successive oppositions of Mars, its synodic period, is 780 days; but the number of days between the dates of successive oppositions can range from 764 to 812.


title: Mars

text: Mars comes into opposition from Earth every 2.1 years. The planets come into opposition near Mars's perihelion in 2003, 2018 and 2035, with the 2020 and 2033 events being particularly close to perihelic opposition. Mars made its closest approach to Earth and maximum apparent brightness in nearly 60,000 years, , magnitude −2.88, on 27 August 2003, at 09:51:13 UTC. This occurred when Mars was one day from opposition and about three days from its perihelion, making it particularly easy to see from Earth. The last time it came so close is estimated to have been on 12 September 57,617 BC, the next time being in 2287. This record approach was only slightly closer than other recent close approaches.


title: Mars

text: Optical ground-based telescopes are typically limited to resolving features about across when Earth and Mars are closest because of Earth's atmosphere.


title: Mars

text: Mars is named after the Roman god of war. This association between Mars and war dates back at least to Babylonian astronomy, in which the planet was named for the god Nergal, deity of war and destruction. It persisted into modern times, as exemplified by Gustav Holst's orchestral suite "The Planets", whose famous first movement labels Mars "the bringer of war". The planet's symbol, a circle with a spear pointing out to the upper right, is also used as a symbol for the male gender. The symbol dates from at latest the 11th century, though a possible predecessor has been found in the Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri.


title: Mars

text: The idea that Mars was populated by intelligent Martians became widespread in the late 19th century. Schiaparelli's "canali" observations combined with Percival Lowell's books on the subject put forward the standard notion of a planet that was a drying, cooling, dying world with ancient civilizations constructing irrigation works. Many other observations and proclamations by notable personalities added to what has been termed "Mars Fever". High-resolution mapping of the surface of Mars revealed no artifacts of habitation, but pseudoscientific speculation about intelligent life on Mars still continues. Reminiscent of the "canali" observations, these speculations are based on small scale features perceived in the spacecraft images, such as "pyramids" and the "Face on Mars". In his book "Cosmos," planetary astronomer Carl Sagan wrote: "Mars has become a kind of mythic arena onto which we have projected our Earthly hopes and fears."


title: Mars

text: The depiction of Mars in fiction has been stimulated by its dramatic red color and by nineteenth-century scientific speculations that its surface conditions might support not just life but intelligent life. This gave way to many science fiction stories involving these concepts, such as H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds", in which Martians seek to escape their dying planet by invading Earth, Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles", in which human explorers accidentally destroy a Martian civilization, as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Barsoom" series, C. S. Lewis' novel "Out of the Silent Planet" (1938), and a number of Robert A. Heinlein stories before the mid-sixties. Since then, depictions of Martians have also extended to animation. A comic figure of an intelligent Martian, Marvin the Martian, appeared in "Haredevil Hare" (1948) as a character in the Looney Tunes animated cartoons of Warner Brothers, and has continued as part of popular culture to the present. After the "Mariner" and "Viking" spacecraft had returned pictures of Mars as it really is, a lifeless and canal-less world, these ideas about Mars were abandoned; for many science-fiction authors, the new discoveries initially seemed like a constraint, but eventually the post-"Viking" knowledge of Mars became itself a source of inspiration for works like Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" trilogy.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was born into a large family in Upstate New York that moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller's wealth soared as kerosene and gasoline grew in importance, and he became the richest person in the country, controlling 90% of all oil in the United States at his peak. Oil was used throughout the country as a light source until the introduction of electricity, and as a fuel after the invention of the automobile. Furthermore, Rockefeller gained enormous influence over the railroad industry which transported his oil around the country. Standard Oil was the first great business trust in the United States. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and, through corporate and technological innovations, was instrumental in both widely disseminating and drastically reducing the production cost of oil. His company and business practices came under criticism, particularly in the writings of author Ida Tarbell.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: The Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that Standard Oil must be dismantled for violation of federal antitrust laws. It was broken up into 34 separate entities, which included companies that became ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, and others—some of which still have the highest level of revenue in the world. In the end it turned out that the individual segments of the company were worth more than the entire company was when it was one entity—the sum of the parts were worth more than the whole—as shares of these doubled and tripled in value in their early years. Consequently, Rockefeller became the country's first billionaire, with a fortune worth nearly 2% of the national economy. His personal wealth was estimated in 1913 at $900 million, which was almost 3% of the US GDP of $39.1 billion that year. That was his peak net worth, and amounts to US$ (in dollars; inflation-adjusted).


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller spent much of the last 40 years of his life in retirement at Kykuit, his estate in Westchester County, New York, defining the structure of modern philanthropy, along with other key industrialists such as steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. His fortune was mainly used to create the modern systematic approach of targeted philanthropy through the creation of foundations that had a major effect on medicine, education, and scientific research. His foundations pioneered developments in medical research and were instrumental in the near-eradication of hookworm and yellow fever in the United States. He and Carnegie gave form and impetus through their charities to the work of Abraham Flexner, who in his essay "Medical Education in America" emphatically endowed empiricism as the basis for the US medical system of the 20th century.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller was also the founder of the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University and funded the establishment of Central Philippine University in the Philippines. He was a devout Northern Baptist and supported many church-based institutions. He adhered to total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco throughout his life. For advice, he relied closely on his wife Laura Spelman Rockefeller with whom he had five children. He was a faithful congregant of the Erie Street Baptist Mission Church, taught Sunday school, and served as a trustee, clerk, and occasional janitor. Religion was a guiding force throughout his life and he believed it to be the source of his success. Rockefeller was also considered a supporter of capitalism based on a perspective of social Darwinism, and he was quoted often as saying, "The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest".


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller was the second child born in Richford, New York, to con artist William A. Rockefeller Sr. and Eliza Davison. He had an elder sister named Lucy and four younger siblings: William Jr., Mary, and twins Franklin (Frank) and Frances. His father was of English and German descent, while his mother was of Ulster Scot descent. William Sr. was first a lumberman and then a traveling salesman who identified himself as a "botanic physician" who sold elixirs, described by locals as "Big Bill" and "Devil Bill." Unshackled by conventional morality, he led a vagabond existence and returned to his family infrequently. Throughout his life, Bill was notorious for conducting schemes. In between the births of Lucy and John, Bill and his mistress and housekeeper Nancy Brown had a daughter named Clorinda who died young. Between John and William Jr.'s births, Bill and Nancy had another daughter Cornelia.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Eliza was a homemaker and a devout Baptist who struggled to maintain a semblance of stability at home, as Bill was frequently gone for extended periods. She also put up with his philandering and his double life, which included bigamy. Eliza was thrifty by nature and by necessity, and she taught her son that "willful waste makes woeful want". John did his share of the regular household chores and earned extra money raising turkeys, selling potatoes and candy, and eventually lending small sums of money to neighbors. He followed his father's advice to "trade dishes for platters" and always get the better part of any deal. Bill once bragged, "I cheat my boys every chance I get. I want to make 'em sharp." However, his mother was more influential in his upbringing and beyond, while he distanced himself further and further from his father as his life progressed. He later stated, "From the beginning, I was trained to work, to save, and to give."


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: When he was a boy, his family moved to Moravia, New York, and to Owego, New York, in 1851, where he attended Owego Academy. In 1853, his family moved to Strongsville, Ohio, and he attended Cleveland's Central High School, the first high school in Cleveland and the first free public high school west of the Alleghenies. Then he took a ten-week business course at Folsom's Commercial College, where he studied bookkeeping. He was a well-behaved, serious, and studious boy despite his father's absences and frequent family moves. His contemporaries described him as reserved, earnest, religious, methodical, and discreet. He was an excellent debater and expressed himself precisely. He also had a deep love of music and dreamed of it as a possible career.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: In September 1855, when Rockefeller was sixteen, he got his first job as an assistant bookkeeper working for a small produce commission firm in Cleveland called Hewitt & Tuttle. He worked long hours and delighted, as he later recalled, in "all the methods and systems of the office." He was particularly adept at calculating transportation costs, which served him well later in his career. Much of Rockefeller's duties involved negotiating with barge canal owners, ship captains, and freight agents. In these negotiations, he learned that posted transportation rates that were believed to be fixed could be altered depending on conditions and timing of freight and through the use of rebates to preferred shippers. Rockefeller was also given the duties of collecting debts when Hewitt instructed him to do so. Instead of using his father's method of presence to collect debts, Rockefeller relied on a persistent pestering approach. Rockefeller received $16 a month for his three-month apprenticeship. During his first year, he received $31 a month, which was increased to $50 a month. His final year provided him $58 a month.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: As a youth, Rockefeller reportedly said that his two great ambitions were to make $100,000 (equivalent to $ in dollars) and to live 100 years.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: In 1859, Rockefeller went into the produce commission business with a partner, Maurice B. Clark, and they raised $4,000 ($ in dollars) in capital. Clark initiated the idea of the partnership and offered $2,000 towards the goal. Rockefeller had only $800 saved up at the time and so borrowed $1,000 from his father, "Big Bill" Rockefeller, at 10 percent interest. Rockefeller went steadily ahead in business from there, making money each year of his career. In their first and second years of business, Clark & Rockefeller netted $4,400 (on nearly half a million dollars in business) and $17,000 worth of profit, respectively, and their profits soared with the outbreak of the American Civil War when the Union Army called for massive amounts of food and supplies. When the Civil War was nearing a close and with the prospect of those war-time profits ending, Clark & Rockefeller looked toward the refining of crude oil. While his brother Frank fought in the Civil War, Rockefeller tended his business and hired substitute soldiers. He gave money to the Union cause, as did many rich Northerners who avoided combat. "I wanted to go in the army and do my part," Rockefeller said. "But it was simply out of the question. There was no one to take my place. We were in a new business, and if I had not stayed it must have stopped—and with so many dependent on it."


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller was an abolitionist who voted for President Abraham Lincoln and supported the then-new Republican Party. As he said, "God gave me money", and he did not apologize for it. He felt at ease and righteous following Methodist preacher John Wesley's dictum, "gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can." At that time, the Federal government was subsidizing oil prices, driving the price up from $.35 a barrel in 1862 to as high as $13.75. This created an oil-drilling glut, with thousands of speculators attempting to make their fortunes. Most failed, but those who struck oil did not even need to be efficient. They would blow holes in the ground and gather up the oil as they could, often leading to creeks and rivers flowing with wasted oil in the place of water.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: A market existed for the refined oil in the form of kerosene. Coal had previously been used to extract kerosene, but its tedious extraction process and high price prevented broad use. Even with the high costs of freight transportation and a government levy during the Civil War (the government levied a tax of twenty cents a gallon on refined oil), profits on the refined product were large. The price of the refined oil in 1863 was around $13 a barrel, with a profit margin of around $5 to $8 a barrel. The capital expenditures for a refinery at that time were small – around $1,000 to $1,500 and requiring only a few men to operate. In this environment of a wasteful boom, the partners switched from foodstuffs to oil, building an oil refinery in 1863 in "The Flats", then Cleveland's burgeoning industrial area. The refinery was directly owned by Andrews, Clark & Company, which was composed of Clark & Rockefeller, chemist Samuel Andrews, and M. B. Clark's two brothers. The commercial oil business was then in its infancy. Whale oil had become too expensive for the masses, and a cheaper, general-purpose lighting fuel was needed.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: While other refineries would keep the 60% of oil product that became kerosene, but dump the other 40% in rivers and massive sludge piles, Rockefeller used the gasoline to fuel the refinery, and sold the rest as lubricating oil, petroleum jelly and paraffin wax, and other by-products. Tar was used for paving, naphtha shipped to gas plants. Likewise, Rockefeller's refineries hired their own plumbers, cutting the cost of pipe-laying in half. Barrels that cost $2.50 each ended up only $0.96 when Rockefeller bought the wood and had them built for himself. In February 1865, in what was later described by oil industry historian Daniel Yergin as a "critical" action, Rockefeller bought out the Clark brothers for $72,500 (equivalent to $ in dollars) at auction and established the firm of Rockefeller & Andrews. Rockefeller said, "It was the day that determined my career." He was well-positioned to take advantage of postwar prosperity and the great expansion westward fostered by the growth of railroads and an oil-fueled economy. He borrowed heavily, reinvested profits, adapted rapidly to changing markets, and fielded observers to track the quickly expanding industry.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: In 1866, William Rockefeller Jr., John's brother, built another refinery in Cleveland and brought John into the partnership. In 1867, Henry Morrison Flagler became a partner, and the firm of Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler was established. By 1868, with Rockefeller continuing practices of borrowing and reinvesting profits, controlling costs, and using refineries' waste, the company owned two Cleveland refineries and a marketing subsidiary in New York; it was the largest oil refinery in the world. Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler was the predecessor of the Standard Oil Company.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: By the end of the American Civil War, Cleveland was one of the five main refining centers in the U.S. (besides Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, New York, and the region in northwestern Pennsylvania where most of the oil originated). By 1869 there was triple the kerosene refining capacity than needed to supply the market, and the capacity remained in excess for many years.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: On January 10, 1870, Rockefeller abolished the partnership of Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler, forming Standard Oil of Ohio. Continuing to apply his work ethic and efficiency, Rockefeller quickly expanded the company to be the most profitable refiner in Ohio. Likewise, it became one of the largest shippers of oil and kerosene in the country. The railroads competed fiercely for traffic and, in an attempt to create a cartel to control freight rates, formed the South Improvement Company offering special deals to bulk customers like Standard Oil, outside the main oil centers. The cartel offered preferential treatment as a high-volume shipper, which included not just steep discounts/rebates of up to 50% for their product but rebates for the shipment of competing products.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Part of this scheme was the announcement of sharply increased freight charges. This touched off a firestorm of protest from independent oil well owners, including boycotts and vandalism, which led to the discovery of Standard Oil's part in the deal. A major New York refiner, Charles Pratt and Company, headed by Charles Pratt and Henry H. Rogers, led the opposition to this plan, and railroads soon backed off. Pennsylvania revoked the cartel's charter, and non-preferential rates were restored for the time being. While competitors may have been unhappy, Rockefeller's efforts did bring American consumers cheaper kerosene and other oil by-products. Before 1870, oil light was only for the wealthy, provided by expensive whale oil. During the next decade, kerosene became commonly available to the working and middle classes.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Undeterred, though vilified for the first time by the press, Rockefeller continued with his self-reinforcing cycle of buying the least efficient competing refiners, improving the efficiency of his operations, pressing for discounts on oil shipments, undercutting his competition, making secret deals, raising investment pools, and buying rivals out. In less than four months in 1872, in what was later known as "The Cleveland Conquest" or "The Cleveland Massacre," Standard Oil absorbed 22 of its 26 Cleveland competitors. Eventually, even his former antagonists, Pratt and Rogers, saw the futility of continuing to compete against Standard Oil; in 1874, they made a secret agreement with Rockefeller to be acquired.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Pratt and Rogers became Rockefeller's partners. Rogers, in particular, became one of Rockefeller's key men in the formation of the Standard Oil Trust. Pratt's son, Charles Millard Pratt, became secretary of Standard Oil. For many of his competitors, Rockefeller had merely to show them his books so they could see what they were up against and then make them a decent offer. If they refused his offer, he told them he would run them into bankruptcy and then cheaply buy up their assets at auction. However, he did not intend to eliminate competition entirely. In fact, his partner Pratt said of that accusation "Competitors we must have ... If we absorb them, it surely will bring up another."


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Instead of wanting to eliminate them, Rockefeller saw himself as the industry's savior, "an angel of mercy" absorbing the weak and making the industry as a whole stronger, more efficient, and more competitive. Standard was growing horizontally and vertically. It added its own pipelines, tank cars, and home delivery network. It kept oil prices low to stave off competitors, made its products affordable to the average household, and, to increase market penetration, sometimes sold below cost. It developed over 300 oil-based products from tar to paint to petroleum jelly to chewing gum. By the end of the 1870s, Standard was refining over 90% of the oil in the U.S. Rockefeller had already become a millionaire ($1 million is equivalent to $ in dollars).


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: In 1877, Standard clashed with Thomas A. Scott, the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Standard's chief hauler. Rockefeller envisioned pipelines as an alternative transport system for oil and began a campaign to build and acquire them. The railroad, seeing Standard's incursion into the transportation and pipeline fields, struck back and formed a subsidiary to buy and build oil refineries and pipelines.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Standard countered, held back its shipments, and, with the help of other railroads, started a price war that dramatically reduced freight payments and caused labor unrest. Rockefeller prevailed and the railroad sold its oil interests to Standard. In the aftermath of that battle, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania indicted Rockefeller in 1879 on charges of monopolizing the oil trade, starting an avalanche of similar court proceedings in other states and making a national issue of Standard Oil's business practices. Rockefeller was under great strain during the 1870s and 1880s when he was carrying out his plan of consolidation and integration and being attacked by the press. He complained that he could not stay asleep most nights. Rockefeller later commented:


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Although it always had hundreds of competitors, Standard Oil gradually gained dominance of oil refining and sales "as market share" in the United States through horizontal integration, ending up with about 90% of the US market. In the kerosene industry, the company replaced the old distribution system with its own vertical system. It supplied kerosene by tank cars that brought the fuel to local markets, and tank wagons then delivered to retail customers, thus bypassing the existing network of wholesale jobbers. Despite improving the quality and availability of kerosene products while greatly reducing their cost to the public (the price of kerosene dropped by nearly 80% over the life of the company), Standard Oil's business practices created intense controversy. Standard's most potent weapons against competitors were underselling, differential pricing, and secret transportation rebates.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: The firm was attacked by journalists and politicians throughout its existence, in part for these monopolistic methods, giving momentum to the antitrust movement. In 1879, the New York State Legislature's Hepburn Committee investigations into "alleged abuses" committed by the railroads uncovered the fact that Standard Oil was receiving substantial freight rebates on all of the oil it was transporting by railroad – and was crushing Standard's competitors thereby. By 1880, according to the "New York World", Standard Oil was "the most cruel, impudent, pitiless, and grasping monopoly that ever fastened upon a country". To critics Rockefeller replied, "In a business so large as ours ... some things are likely to be done which we cannot approve. We correct them as soon as they come to our knowledge."


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: At that time, many legislatures had made it difficult to incorporate in one state and operate in another. As a result, Rockefeller and his associates owned dozens of separate corporations, each of which operated in just one state; the management of the whole enterprise was rather unwieldy. In 1882, Rockefeller's lawyers created an innovative form of corporation to centralize their holdings, giving birth to the Standard Oil Trust. The "trust" was a corporation of corporations, and the entity's size and wealth drew much attention. Nine trustees, including Rockefeller, ran the 41 companies in the trust. The public and the press were immediately suspicious of this new legal entity, and other businesses seized upon the idea and emulated it, further inflaming public sentiment. Standard Oil had gained an aura of invincibility, always prevailing against competitors, critics, and political enemies. It had become the richest, biggest, most feared business in the world, seemingly immune to the boom and bust of the business cycle, consistently making profits year after year.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: The company's vast American empire included 20,000 domestic wells, 4,000 miles of pipeline, 5,000 tank cars, and over 100,000 employees. Its share of world oil refining topped out above 90% but slowly dropped to about 80% for the rest of the century. Despite the formation of the trust and its perceived immunity from all competition, by the 1880s Standard Oil had passed its peak of power over the world oil market. Rockefeller finally gave up his dream of controlling all the world's oil refining; he admitted later, "We realized that public sentiment would be against us if we actually refined all the oil." Over time, foreign competition and new finds abroad eroded his dominance. In the early 1880s, Rockefeller created one of his most important innovations. Rather than try to influence the price of crude oil directly, Standard Oil had been exercising indirect control by altering oil storage charges to suit market conditions. Rockefeller then ordered the issuance of certificates against oil stored in its pipelines. These certificates became traded by speculators, thus creating the first oil-futures market which effectively set spot market prices from then on. The National Petroleum Exchange opened in Manhattan in late 1882 to facilitate the trading of oil futures.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Although 85% of world crude production was still coming from Pennsylvania in the 1880s, oil from wells drilled in Russia and Asia began to reach the world market. Robert Nobel had established his own refining enterprise in the abundant and cheaper Russian oil fields, including the region's first pipeline and the world's first oil tanker. The Paris Rothschilds jumped into the fray providing financing. Additional fields were discovered in Burma and Java. Even more critical, the invention of the light bulb gradually began to erode the dominance of kerosene for illumination. Standard Oil adapted by developing a European presence, expanding into natural gas production in the U.S., and then producing gasoline for automobiles, which until then had been considered a waste product.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Standard Oil moved its headquarters to New York City at 26 Broadway, and Rockefeller became a central figure in the city's business community. He bought a residence in 1884 on 54th Street near the mansions of other magnates such as William Henry Vanderbilt. Despite personal threats and constant pleas for charity, Rockefeller took the new elevated train to his downtown office daily. In 1887, Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission which was tasked with enforcing equal rates for all railroad freight, but by then Standard depended more on pipeline transport. More threatening to Standard's power was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, originally used to control unions, but later central to the breakup of the Standard Oil trust. Ohio was especially vigorous in applying its state antitrust laws, and finally forced a separation of Standard Oil of Ohio from the rest of the company in 1892, the first step in the dissolution of the trust.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: In the 1890s, Rockefeller expanded into iron ore and ore transportation, forcing a collision with steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, and their competition became a major subject of the newspapers and cartoonists. He went on a massive buying spree acquiring leases for crude oil production in Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia, as the original Pennsylvania oil fields began to play out. Amid the frenetic expansion, Rockefeller began to think of retirement. The daily management of the trust was turned over to John Dustin Archbold and Rockefeller bought a new estate, Pocantico Hills, north of New York City, turning more time to leisure activities including the new sports of bicycling and golf.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Upon his ascent to the presidency, Theodore Roosevelt initiated dozens of suits under the Sherman Antitrust Act and coaxed reforms out of Congress. In 1901, U.S. Steel, then controlled by J. Pierpont Morgan, having bought Andrew Carnegie's steel assets, offered to buy Standard's iron interests as well. A deal brokered by Henry Clay Frick exchanged Standard's iron interests for U.S. Steel stock and gave Rockefeller and his son membership on the company's board of directors. In full retirement at age 63, Rockefeller earned over $58 million in investments in 1902.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: One of the most effective attacks on Rockefeller and his firm was the 1904 publication of "The History of the Standard Oil Company," by Ida Tarbell, a leading muckraker. She documented the company's espionage, price wars, heavy-handed marketing tactics, and courtroom evasions. Although her work prompted a huge backlash against the company, Tarbell stated she was surprised at its magnitude. "I never had an animus against their size and wealth, never objected to their corporate form. I was willing that they should combine and grow as big and wealthy as they could, but only by legitimate means. But they had never played fair, and that ruined their greatness for me." Tarbell's father had been driven out of the oil business during the "South Improvement Company" affair.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller called her "Miss Tarbarrel" in private but held back in public saying only, "not a word about that misguided woman." He began a publicity campaign to put his company and himself in a better light. Though he had long maintained a policy of active silence with the press, he decided to make himself more accessible and responded with conciliatory comments such as "capital and labor are both wild forces which require intelligent legislation to hold them in restriction." He wrote and published his memoirs beginning in 1908. Critics found his writing to be sanitized and disingenuous and thought that statements such as "the underlying, essential element of success in business are to follow the established laws of high-class dealing" seemed to be at odds with his true business methods.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller and his son continued to consolidate their oil interests as best they could until New Jersey, in 1909, changed its incorporation laws to effectively allow a re-creation of the trust in the form of a single holding company. Rockefeller retained his nominal title as president until 1911 and he kept his stock. At last in 1911, the Supreme Court of the United States found Standard Oil Company of New Jersey in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. By then the trust still had a 70% market share of the refined oil market but only 14% of the U.S. crude oil supply. The court ruled that the trust originated in illegal monopoly practices and ordered it to be broken up into 34 new companies. These included, among many others, Continental Oil, which became Conoco, now part of ConocoPhillips; Standard of Indiana, which became Amoco, now part of BP; Standard of California, which became Chevron; Standard of New Jersey, which became Esso (and later, Exxon), now part of ExxonMobil; Standard of New York, which became Mobil, now part of ExxonMobil; and Standard of Ohio, which became Sohio, now part of BP. Pennzoil and Chevron have remained separate companies.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller, who had rarely sold shares, held over 25% of Standard's stock at the time of the breakup. He and all of the other stockholders received proportionate shares in each of the 34 companies. In the aftermath, Rockefeller's control over the oil industry was somewhat reduced, but over the next 10 years the breakup proved immensely profitable for him. The companies' combined net worth rose fivefold and Rockefeller's personal wealth jumped to $900 million.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: In 1902, facing cash flow problems, John Cleveland Osgood turned to George Jay Gould, a principal stockholder of the Denver and Rio Grande, for a loan. Gould, via Frederick Taylor Gates, Rockefeller's financial adviser, brought John D. Rockefeller in to help finance the loan. Analysis of the company's operations by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. showed a need for substantially more funds which were provided in exchange for acquisition of CF&I's subsidiaries such as the Colorado and Wyoming Railway Company, the Crystal River Railroad Company, and possibly the Rocky Mountain Coal and Iron Company. Control was passed from the Iowa Group to Gould and Rockefeller interests in 1903 with Gould in control and Rockefeller and Gates representing a minority interests. Osgood left the company in 1904 and devoted his efforts to operating competing coal and coke operations.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: The strike, called in September 1913 by the United Mine Workers, over the issue of union representation, was against coal mine operators in Huerfano and Las Animas counties of southern Colorado, where the majority of CF&I's coal and coke production was located. The strike was fought vigorously by the coal mine operators association and its steering committee, which included Welborn, president of CF&I, a spokesman for the coal operators. Rockefeller's operative, Lamont Montgomery Bowers, remained in the background. Few miners actually belonged to the union or participated in the strike call, but the majority honored it. Strikebreakers (called "scabs") were threatened and sometimes attacked. Both sides purchased substantial arms and ammunition. Striking miners were forced to abandon their homes in company towns and lived in tent cities erected by the union, such as the tent city at Ludlow, a railway stop north of Trinidad.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Under the protection of the National Guard, some miners returned to work and some strikebreakers, imported from the eastern coalfields, joined them as Guard troops protecting their movements. In February 1914, a substantial portion of the troops were withdrawn, but a large contingent remained at Ludlow. On April 20, 1914, a general fire-fight occurred between strikers and troops, which was antagonized by the troops and mine guards. The camp was burned, resulting in 15 women and children, who hid in tents at the camp, being burned to death. Costs to both mine operators and the union were high. This incident brought unwanted national attention to Colorado.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Due to reduced demand for coal, resulting from an economic downturn, many of CF&I's coal mines never reopened and many men were thrown out of work. The union was forced to discontinue strike benefits in February 1915. There was destitution in the coalfields. With the help of funds from the Rockefeller Foundation, relief programs were organized by the Colorado Committee on Unemployment and Relief. A state agency created by Governor Carlson, offered work to unemployed miners building roads and doing other useful projects.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: The casualties suffered at Ludlow mobilized public opinion against the Rockefellers and the coal industry. The United States Commission on Industrial Relations conducted extensive hearings, singling out John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the Rockefellers' relationship with Bowers for special attention. Bowers was relieved of duty and Wellborn restored to control in 1915, then industrial relations improved. Rockefeller denied any responsibility and minimized the seriousness of the event. When testifying on the Ludlow Massacre, and asked what action he would have taken as Director, John D. Rockefeller Jr. stated, "I would have taken no action. I would have deplored the necessity which compelled the officers of the company to resort to such measures to supplement the State forces to maintain law and order." He admitted that he had made no attempt to bring the militiamen to justice.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Against long-circulating speculations that his family has French roots, genealogists proved the German origin of Rockefeller and traced them back to the early 17th century. "Johann Peter Rockenfeller" (baptized September 27, 1682, in the Protestant church of Rengsdorf) immigrated in 1723 from Altwied (today a district of Neuwied, Rhineland-Palatinate) with three children to North America and settled down in Germantown, Pennsylvania.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: In 1864, Rockefeller married Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman (1839–1915), daughter of Harvey Buell Spelman and Lucy Henry. They had four daughters and one son together. He said later, "Her judgment was always better than mine. Without her keen advice, I would be a poor man."


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: The Rockefeller wealth, distributed as it was through a system of foundations and trusts, continued to fund family philanthropic, commercial, and, eventually, political aspirations throughout the 20th century. John Jr.'s youngest son David Rockefeller was a leading New York banker, serving for over 20 years as CEO of Chase Manhattan (now part of JPMorgan Chase). Second son Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was Republican governor of New York and the 41st Vice President of the United States. Fourth son Winthrop Aldrich Rockefeller served as Republican Governor of Arkansas. Grandchildren Abigail Aldrich "Abby" Rockefeller and John Davison Rockefeller III became philanthropists. Grandson Laurance Spelman Rockefeller became a conservationist. Great-grandson John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV served from 1985 until 2015 as a Democratic Senator from West Virginia after serving as governor of West Virginia, and another Winthrop served as lieutenant governor of Arkansas for a decade.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: John D. Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York, then part of the Burned-over district, a New York state region that became the site of an evangelical revival known as the Second Great Awakening. It drew masses to various Protestant churches—especially Baptist ones—and urged believers to follow such ideals as hard work, prayer, and good deeds to build "the Kingdom of God on Earth." Early in his life, he regularly went with his siblings and mother Eliza to the local Baptist church—the Erie Street Baptist Church (later the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church)—an independent Baptist church which eventually came to associate with the Northern Baptist Convention (1907–1950; modern American Baptist Churches USA).


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: His mother was deeply religious and disciplined, and had a major influence on him in religious matters. During church service, his mother would urge him to contribute his few pennies to the congregation. He came to associate the church with charity. A Baptist preacher once encouraged him to "make as much money as he could, and then give away as much as he could". Later in his life, Rockefeller recalled: "It was at this moment, that the financial plan of my life was formed". Money making was considered by him a "God-given gift".


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: A devout Northern Baptist, Rockefeller would read the Bible daily, attend prayer meetings twice a week and even led his own Bible study with his wife. Burton Folsom Jr. has noted:


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller would support Baptist missionary activity, fund universities, and heavily engage in religious activities at his Cleveland, Ohio, church. While traveling the South, he would donate large sums of money to churches belonging to the Southern Baptist Convention, various Black churches, as well as other Christian denominations. He paid towards the freedom of two slaves and donated to a Roman Catholic orphanage. As he grew rich, his donations became more generous, especially to his church in Cleveland; nevertheless, it was demolished in 1925, and replaced with another building.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller's charitable giving began with his first job as a clerk at age 16, when he gave six percent of his earnings to charity, as recorded in his personal ledger. By the time he was twenty, his charity exceeded ten percent of his income. Much of his giving was church-related. His church was later affiliated with the Northern Baptist Convention, which formed from American Baptists in the North with ties to their historic missions to establish schools and colleges for freedmen in the South after the American Civil War. Rockefeller attended Baptist churches every Sunday; when traveling he would often attend services at African-American Baptist congregations, leaving a substantial donation. As Rockefeller's wealth grew, so did his giving, primarily to educational and public health causes, but also for basic science and the arts. He was advised primarily by Frederick Taylor Gates after 1891, and, after 1897, also by his son.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller believed in the Efficiency Movement, arguing that: "To help an inefficient, ill-located, unnecessary school is a waste ... it is highly probable that enough money has been squandered on unwise educational projects to have built up a national system of higher education adequate to our needs, if the money had been properly directed to that end."


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller and his advisers invented the conditional grant, which required the recipient to "root the institution in the affections of as many people as possible who, as contributors, become personally concerned, and thereafter may be counted on to give to the institution their watchful interest and cooperation".


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: In 1884, Rockefeller provided major funding for Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary in Atlanta for African-American women, which became Spelman College. His wife Laura Spelman Rockefeller, was dedicated to civil rights and equality for women. John and Laura donated money and supported the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary whose mission was in line with their faith based beliefs. Today known as Spelman College, the school is an all women Historically Black College or University in Atlanta, Georgia, named after Laura's family. The Spelman Family, Rockefeller's in-laws, along with John Rockefeller were ardent abolitionists before the Civil War and were dedicated to supporting the Underground Railroad. John Rockefeller was impressed by the vision of the school and removed the debt from the school. The oldest existing building on Spelman's campus, Rockefeller Hall, is named after him. Rockefeller also gave considerable donations to Denison University and other Baptist colleges.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller gave $80 million to the University of Chicago under William Rainey Harper, turning a small Baptist college into a world-class institution by 1900. He would describe the University of Chicago as "the best investment I ever made." He also gave a grant to the American Baptist Missionaries foreign mission board, the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in establishing Central Philippine University, the first Baptist and second American university in Asia, in 1905 in the heavily Catholic Philippines.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller's General Education Board, founded in 1903, was established to promote education at all levels everywhere in the country. In keeping with the historic missions of the Baptists, it was especially active in supporting black schools in the South. Rockefeller also provided financial support to such established eastern institutions as Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley and Vassar.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: On Gates' advice, Rockefeller became one of the first great benefactors of medical science. In 1901, he founded the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City. It changed its name to Rockefeller University in 1965, after expanding its mission to include graduate education. It claims a connection to 23 Nobel laureates. He founded the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission in 1909, an organization that eventually eradicated the hookworm disease, which had long plagued rural areas of the American South. His General Education Board made a dramatic impact by funding the recommendations of the "Flexner Report" of 1910. The study, an excerpt of which was published in "The Atlantic", had been undertaken by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller created the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913 to continue and expand the scope of the work of the Sanitary Commission, which was closed in 1915. He gave nearly $250 million to the foundation, which focused on public health, medical training, and the arts. It endowed Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, the first of its kind. It also built the Peking Union Medical College in China into a notable institution. The foundation helped in World War I war relief, and it employed William Lyon Mackenzie King of Canada to study industrial relations.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: In the 1920s, the Rockefeller Foundation funded a hookworm eradication campaign through the International Health Division. This campaign used a combination of politics and science, along with collaboration between healthcare workers and government officials to accomplish its goals.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller's fourth main philanthropy, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation, was created in 1918. Through this, he supported work in the social studies; this was later absorbed into the Rockefeller Foundation. In total Rockefeller donated about $550 million.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller became well known in his later life for the practice of giving dimes to adults and nickels to children wherever he went. He even gave dimes as a playful gesture to wealthy men, such as tire mogul Harvey Firestone.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller supported the passage of the 18th Amendment, which banned alcohol in the United States. He wrote in a letter to Nicholas Murray Butler on June 6, 1932, that his neither Rockefeller nor his parents or his father's father and mother's mother drank alcohol. In the same letter, Rockefeller writes that he has "always stood for whatever measure seemed at the time to give promise of promoting temperance." He believed that measure to be prohibition, as he and his father donated 350,000 to "all branches of the Anti-Saloon League, Federal and State." But by 1932, Rockefeller felt disillusioned by prohibition because of its failure to discourage drinking and alcoholism. He supported the incorporation of repealing the 18th amendment into the Republican party platform.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Henry Morrison Flagler, one of the co-founders of Standard Oil along with Rockefeller, bought the Ormond Hotel in 1890, located in Ormond Beach, Florida, two years after it opened. Flagler expanded it to accommodate 600 guests and the hotel soon became one in a series of Gilded Age hotels catering to passengers aboard Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway. One of Flagler's guests at the Ormond Hotel was his former business partner John D. Rockefeller, who first stayed at the hotel in 1914. Rockefeller liked the Ormond Beach area so much that after four seasons at the hotel, he bought an estate in Ormond Beach called The Casements. It would be Rockefeller's winter home during the latter part of his life. Sold by his heirs in 1939, it was purchased by the city in 1974 and now serves as a cultural center and is the community's best-known historical structure.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: In his 50s Rockefeller suffered from moderate depression and digestive troubles; during a stressful period in the 1890s he developed alopecia, the loss of some or all body hair.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: By 1901 he began wearing toupées and by 1902, his mustache disappeared. His hair never grew back, but other health complaints subsided as he lightened his workload.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller died of arteriosclerosis on May 23, 1937, less than two months shy of his 98th birthday, at "The Casements", his home in Ormond Beach, Florida. He was buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller had a long and controversial career in the oil industry followed by a long career in philanthropy. His image is an amalgam of all of these experiences and the many ways he was viewed by his contemporaries. These contemporaries include his former competitors, many of whom were driven to ruin, but many others of whom sold out at a profit (or a profitable stake in Standard Oil, as Rockefeller often offered his shares as payment for a business), and quite a few of whom became very wealthy as managers as well as owners in Standard Oil. They include politicians and writers, some of whom served Rockefeller's interests, and some of whom built their careers by fighting Rockefeller and the "robber barons".


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Hostile critics often portrayed Rockefeller as a villain with a suite of bad traits—ruthless, unscrupulous and greedy—and as a bully who connived his cruel path to dominance. Economic historian Robert Whaples warns against ignoring the secrets of his business success:


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: [R]elentless cost cutting and efficiency improvements, boldness in betting on the long-term prospects of the industry while others were willing to take quick profits, and impressive abilities to spot and reward talent, delegate tasks, and manage a growing empire.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: Rockefeller is largely remembered simply for the raw size of his wealth. In 1902, an audit showed Rockefeller was worth about $200 million—compared to the total national GDP of $24 billion then.


title: John D. Rockefeller

text: His wealth continued to grow significantly (in line with U.S. economic growth) as the demand for gasoline soared, eventually reaching about $900 million on the eve of the First World War, including significant interests in banking, shipping, mining, railroads, and other industries. His personal wealth was 900 million in 1913 worth 23.5 billion dollars adjusted for inflation in 2020. According to his "New York Times" obituary, "it was estimated after Mr. Rockefeller retired from business that he had accumulated close to $1,500,000,000 out of the earnings of the Standard Oil trust and out of his other investments. This was probably the greatest amount of wealth that any private citizen had ever been able to accumulate by his own efforts." By the time of his death in 1937, Rockefeller's remaining fortune, largely tied up in permanent family trusts, was estimated at $1.4 billion, while the total national GDP was $92 billion. According to some methods of wealth calculation, Rockefeller's net worth over the last decades of his life would easily place him as the wealthiest known person in recent history. As a percentage of the United States' GDP, no other American fortune—including those of Bill Gates or Sam Walton—would even come close.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: WrestleMania 38 was the 38th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event was held as a two-night event, taking place on April 2 and 3, 2022, at the AT&T Stadium in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex city of Arlington, Texas.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: The event was the fourth WrestleMania to be held in the state of Texas (after X-Seven, 25, and 32) and the second in AT&T Stadium after WrestleMania 32 in 2016. It was the third WrestleMania to feature Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns in the main event (after 31 and 34). WWE billed the match as "The Biggest WrestleMania Match of All-Time", which was a Winner Takes All match for the promotion's two world championships, Raw's WWE Championship and SmackDown's Universal Championship, which were held by Lesnar and Reigns, respectively, going into the event. This would also be the last WrestleMania overseen by WWE owner Vince McMahon as he retired later that year in July. McMahon had served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company since 1982 and created WrestleMania in 1985.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: The card comprised a total of sixteen matches, with seven on the first night and nine on the second. In an impromptu match that served as the main event for Night 1, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin defeated Kevin Owens in a No Holds Barred match, marking Austin's first match since WrestleMania XIX in 2003 and the final match of his career overall. This encounter had originally been advertised as a special edition of Owens' "KO Show" with Austin as the special guest. Other prominent matches saw a returning Cody Rhodes defeat Seth "Freakin" Rollins, Charlotte Flair defeated Ronda Rousey to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship, and Bianca Belair defeated Becky Lynch to win the Raw Women's Championship. In the main event for Night 2, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Brock Lesnar to claim both titles and become recognized as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. In other prominent matches, "Jackass"s Johnny Knoxville defeated Sami Zayn in an Anything Goes match and Edge defeated AJ Styles. Night 2 also featured then-WWE chairman Vince McMahon defeating "SmackDown" commentator Pat McAfee in an impromptu match after McAfee had defeated Austin Theory, marking McMahon's first match since 2012 and the last match of his career.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: WrestleMania is considered WWE's flagship live event, having first been held in 1985. It is the longest-running annual professional wrestling event in history and is held between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views (PPVs), including Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, which were originally dubbed the "Big Four", and as of October 2021, it is one of the company's five biggest events of the year, along with Money in the Bank, referred to as the "Big Five". WrestleMania is ranked the sixth most valuable sports brand in the world by Forbes, and has been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. WrestleMania 38 featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The official theme songs for the event were "Sacrifice" by The Weeknd and "I Feel Good" by Pitbull, Anthony Watts, and DJWS.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: On January 16, 2021, in addition to announcing the date and location change of WrestleMania 37, which had to be rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the promotion revealed the dates and locations of the next two WrestleMania events. WrestleMania 38 was announced to be held at AT&T Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. It was originally scheduled to be held solely on April 3, 2022; however, on October 25, 2021, it was revealed that like the previous two WrestleMania events, WrestleMania 38 was expanded to take place over two nights: Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, 2022. It was the fourth WrestleMania to be held in the state of Texas (after X-Seven, 25, and 32) and the second to be held in this venue, after WrestleMania 32 in 2016, which set the attendance record for a WrestleMania event at 101,763, which was, however, disputed. Travel packages became available on November 8, 2021, while general tickets went on sale on November 12.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: WrestleMania 38 was available on traditional pay-per-view. It was also available through the online streaming services Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network in international markets. Additionally, WWE partnered with Fathom Events to air both nights of WrestleMania 38 in movie theaters across the United States.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: As is tradition at WrestleMania, celebrities from the entertainment field took part in the event in various capacities. Social media personality Logan Paul, who appeared at WrestleMania 37, participated in a tag team match on WrestleMania Saturday, teaming with The Miz against Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio (Paul later in the year would sign a full time WWE contract). "Jackass" actor and stuntman Johnny Knoxville competed in an Anything Goes match against Sami Zayn on WrestleMania Sunday. The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders also appeared on stage to cheer Pat McAfee to the ring for his match against Austin Theory on WrestleMania Sunday. Additionally, country music singers Brantley Gilbert and Jessie James Decker performed "America the Beautiful" to open the event on Saturday and Sunday night, respectively, while DJ Valentino Khan had musical performances on both nights.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: As part of the WrestleMania festivities during the week of the event, WWE held a number of events throughout the week. On the Monday before WrestleMania 38, WWE aired a special "WrestleMania Edition" of "Raw". The night before WrestleMania 38 on April 1, WWE kicked off WrestleMania Weekend with a special "WrestleMania Edition" of "SmackDown", which hosted the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, won by Madcap Moss, as well as a triple threat match for the Intercontinental Championship. Immediately after "SmackDown", the 2022 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony commenced. The day of WrestleMania Saturday, WWE's NXT brand held its annual WrestleMania Week event, Stand & Deliver, which aired at 1pm Eastern Time. WrestleMania Week concluded with the "Raw" after WrestleMania on April 4. "SmackDown", the Hall of Fame ceremony, NXT Stand & Deliver, and the "Raw" after WrestleMania all aired live from the American Airlines Center in Dallas.


title: WrestleMania 38

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


title: WrestleMania 38

text: For many years, Paul Heyman had been the advocate for Brock Lesnar. After Lesnar took a hiatus following WrestleMania 36 in April 2020, Heyman became the special counsel for Roman Reigns that August, guiding him to win SmackDown's Universal Championship. After Reigns retained the title at SummerSlam in August 2021, Lesnar returned to WWE and confronted Reigns, also implying that Heyman was still his advocate. Two months later at Crown Jewel, Reigns defeated Lesnar to retain the Universal Championship with help from The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso). A rematch was scheduled for the New Year's event Day 1, and Reigns fired Heyman as he believed Heyman was working with Lesnar behind his back. The Day 1 match, however, was canceled as Reigns tested positive for COVID-19. Due to his status as a free agent, Lesnar was instead added to Raw's multi-person WWE Championship match at Day 1 and won the title. On the following "SmackDown", Lesnar, who reunited with Heyman, challenged Reigns to a champion vs. champion match, but Reigns declined. At the Royal Rumble, Lesnar lost his WWE Championship after interference from Reigns and a double cross from Heyman, who realigned with Reigns. Later that night, Lesnar entered into the Royal Rumble match and won to earn himself a world championship match of his choice at WrestleMania 38. On the following episode of "Raw", Lesnar announced that he would challenge Reigns for the Universal Championship. Still wanting it to be a champion vs. champion match, and also wanting a rematch for losing his title, Lesnar was also added to the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match at Elimination Chamber, which he won. With Reigns also retaining his title against Goldberg at the beginning of the event, it would be confirmed that their WrestleMania match would be a Winner Takes All match for the WWE Championship and Universal Championship, which was further stipulated as a championship unification match.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: After weeks of disrespecting the state of Texas, on the March 7 episode of "Raw", Kevin Owens invited the "Texas Rattlesnake", "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, as a special guest on the "KO Show" at WrestleMania 38. A day later, Austin accepted and it was announced that the segment would occur on WrestleMania Saturday.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: At the Royal Rumble, Ronda Rousey, in her first appearance since WrestleMania 35 in April 2019, made a surprise return and won the women's Royal Rumble match to earn a women's championship match of her choice at WrestleMania 38. After pondering her choices due to having heated history with both reigning champions, on the following episode of "SmackDown", Rousey announced that she would challenge Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: At SummerSlam in August 2021, Becky Lynch, who had been on maternity leave since May 2020, made a surprise return and defeated Bianca Belair in an impromptu match to win the SmackDown Women's Championship in 26 seconds. Over the course of the next month, Lynch would continue to retain the championship against Belair using underhanded tactics before both were drafted to Raw in the 2021 WWE Draft; Lynch and Raw Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, who was drafted to SmackDown, traded their championships to keep the titles on their respective brands, thus Lynch became the Raw Women's Champion. After Belair failed to earn a title shot at the 2022 Royal Rumble and also failing to win the women's Royal Rumble match, Belair won the women's Elimination Chamber match at Elimination Chamber to finally earn a one-on-one match against Lynch for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 38. This in turn scheduled the only two women to win in the main event of WrestleMania against each other at WrestleMania (Lynch at WrestleMania 35 and Belair at WrestleMania 37 Night 1, respectively).


title: WrestleMania 38

text: On the January 31 episode of "Raw", The Miz defeated Dominik Mysterio. The following week, Dominik and his father Rey Mysterio were guests on "Miz TV". Rey claimed that Miz cheated to defeat Dominik while Miz took issue that Rey had an opportunity to qualify for the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match while he did not and also that Rey was the cover star of the "WWE 2K22" video game. Miz also questioned if Rey was truly Dominik's dad, referencing the child custody battle that Rey had with Eddie Guerrero back at SummerSlam in 2005. Dominik then defeated Miz in a rematch. Rey then defeated Miz during the Elimination Chamber Kickoff pre-show. Later backstage, Miz accused Rey of cheating due to Dominik and said he would find a tag team partner who was a "global superstar". On the following episode of "Raw", as Miz teased the identity of his partner to face Rey and Dominik at WrestleMania 38, The Mysterios interrupted, stating it did not matter who Miz had chosen. Miz then revealed his partner as social media personality Logan Paul, after which, Miz and Paul attacked The Mysterios.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: On the February 21 episode of "Raw", Edge made his first post-Royal Rumble appearance where he issued an open challenge for WrestleMania 38. The following week, Edge came out to see who would answer his challenge, which was accepted by AJ Styles. Edge then stated he was glad Styles accepted as it was a match he had been wanting; however, he wanted the "pitbull" AJ Styles who reigned as WWE Champion, not the AJ Styles who had been Omos' tag team partner for the majority of the past year. Edge then turned heel and attacked Styles, after which, a conflicted Edge performed two con-chair-tos on Styles.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: On March 3, 2022, WWE Chairman and chief executive officer Vince McMahon made a rare media appearance for a live interview on "The Pat McAfee Show". During the interview, McMahon offered Pat McAfee a match at WrestleMania 38. McAfee primarily served as the color commentator on "SmackDown", but gladly accepted and McMahon stated that he would find him an opponent. On the following night's episode of "SmackDown", Raw's Austin Theory, who had been under the tutelage of McMahon for the past several weeks, revealed himself as McAfee's opponent at WrestleMania 38. This marked McAfee's first match since in December 2020.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: At Day 1, "Jackass" actor and stuntman Johnny Knoxville announced that he would be participating in the men's Royal Rumble match. Sami Zayn took issue of this, claiming that Knoxville was not qualified to compete, nor did he earn the opportunity. After Zayn lost his match on the following "SmackDown", Knoxville ran down to the ring and threw Zayn over the top rope, and ring announcer Mike Rome then announced that Knoxville had officially qualified for the Royal Rumble match, much to Zayn's displeasure. The two faced off in the Royal Rumble match where Zayn eliminated Knoxville. After Zayn had invited himself to the red carpet premiere of "Jackass Forever", for which he was kicked out, Knoxville then invited himself to Zayn's celebration for winning the Intercontinental Championship. Knoxville challenged Zayn for the title at WrestleMania 38, but Zayn declined. During Zayn's championship defense on the March 4 episode, Knoxville distracted Zayn, costing him the title. An enraged Zayn then challenged Knoxville to a match at WrestleMania 38, which Knoxville accepted. After Knoxville shared Zayn's phone number, causing a multitude of people attempting to contact Zayn, Zayn changed the stipulation to an Anything Goes match at WrestleMania and Knoxville accepted.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: For weeks, Seth "Freakin" Rollins attempted to get a spot at WrestleMania. After failing to defeat Kevin Owens and AJ Styles to take their respective spots, Vince McMahon summoned Rollins into his office on the morning of March 28. McMahon stated that he would choose an opponent for Rollins to face at WrestleMania 38 and the opponent would be revealed at the event itself while Rollins was waiting in the ring on WrestleMania Saturday.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: WrestleMania Saturday opened with The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defending the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs. During the match, Boogs legitimately injured his right knee after attempting to lift both of The Usos on his shoulders. As Nakamura attempted to perform a Kinshasa on Jey, Jey countered with a Superlock. Jey tagged in Jimmy, who performed an Uso Splash on Nakamura for a nearfall. In the end, The Usos performed the 1-D on Nakamura to retain the titles. Following the match, medical personnel tended to Boogs.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: Next, Drew McIntyre faced Happy Corbin (accompanied by Madcap Moss). During the match, Corbin performed an End of Days on McIntyre for a near fall, which was the first time that anyone kicked out of the End of Days. In the climax, Moss accidentally distracted Corbin which allowed McIntyre to perform a Claymore Kick on Corbin to win the match. Following the match, after Moss attempted to enter the ring, McIntyre stopped him with his sword and swung his sword toward Moss, slicing the top and middle ring ropes in the process.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: In the third match, Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio took on The Miz and Logan Paul. Throughout the match, Paul disrespected Eddie Guerrero by successfully performing the Three Amigos and Frog Splash on Rey. In the end, after Rey and Dominik performed frog splashes on Paul, Miz tagged himself in and performed a Skull Crushing Finale on Rey to win the match. After the match, Miz turned on Paul and performed a Skull Crushing Finale on him.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: Next, WWE executive Stephanie McMahon came out and thanked the fans in attendance. She then introduced WWE's newest signee, Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: In the fourth match, Becky Lynch defended the Raw Women's Championship against Bianca Belair. About one minute in the match, Lynch performed a Man-Handle Slam on Belair for a near-fall. During the match, Lynch applied the Dis-Arm-Her on Belair who reached the ring ropes to void the submission. Outside of the ring, Lynch performed a Man-Handle Slam on Belair on top of the steel stairs. Lynch then entered the ring hoping for a count out victory, however, Belair managed to enter the ring at the last second. In the end, Belair performed the Kiss of Death on Lynch to win the title.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: Next, Seth "Freakin" Rollins came out for his match against an opponent who was pre-selected by Mr. McMahon. After Rollins waited impatiently, former All Elite Wrestling wrestler Cody Rhodes made his return to WWE as Rollins' opponent; Rhodes last performed in WWE in 2016 under the gimmick of Stardust. This was a back-and-forth match. Rollins performed the Pedigree on Rhodes for a near fall. Rhodes performed the Cross Rhodes on Rollins for a near fall. In the end, Rhodes performed two Cross Rhodes, the Bionic Elbow as a tribute to his father, Dusty Rhodes, and a third Cross Rhodes on Rollins to win the match.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: Following the match, the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2022 were honored: The Undertaker, Queen Sharmell, and The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner) were introduced to the crowd, while posthumous inductees Vader and Warrior Award recipient Shad Gaspard were represented by family members.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: In the penultimate match, Charlotte Flair defended the SmackDown Women's Champion against Ronda Rousey. During the match, Rousey applied the Armbar and Ankle Lock on Flair, however, Flair escaped. Rousey performed a Piper's Pit on Flair, however, Flair placed her foot on the bottom rope to void the pin attempt. As Flair attempted the Figure-Eight, Rousey countered by kicking Flair toward the referee, inadvertently incapaciting the referee. While the referee was down, Rousey applied the Armbar on Flair who tapped out, however, the referee was still incapacited. In the end, as Rousey attempted to revive the referee, Flair performed a Big Boot on Rousey to retain the title, ending Rousey's undefeated streak in singles matches.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: In the main event, Kevin Owens came out to host a special edition of the "KO Show" with special guest "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. This was Austin's first WrestleMania appearance since WrestleMania 32 in 2016, coincidentally also in the same venue. During the segment, Owens claimed that he lied to Austin about having him as a guest and actually wanted to challenge Austin to a No Holds Barred match. Austin accepted, thus marking his first match since WrestleMania XIX in 2003. During the match, Austin and Owens fought in the crowd and Austin constantly taunted Owens by pouring cans of beer on Owens. Owens performed a Stunner on Austin for a nearfall. In the end, after Owens accidentally hit himself in the head with a chair (due to it bouncing off the ring ropes when Austin ducked), Austin performed a Stunner on Owens to win the match. Following the match, Austin performed a second Stunner on Owens, who was escorted out by Texas State Police. Austin then celebrated with commentator Byron Saxton, after which, he performed a Stunner on Saxton. Austin then celebrated with his brother to close out WrestleMania Saturday.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: WrestleMania Sunday opened with WWE executive Triple H making an appearance. Triple H, who 9 days prior had announced his retirement from wrestling due to a cardiac event, welcomed the fans to the second night of WrestleMania and symbolically left his wrestling boots in the center of the ring.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: In the first match, RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) defended the Raw Tag Team Championship against Alpha Academy (Chad Gable and Otis) and The Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins) in a triple threat tag team match. In the end, after an evenly contested match between the three teams, Orton performed an RKO on Gable, who was mid-air, to retain the title. Following the match, RK-Bro and The Street Profits shared a drink alongside recent WWE signee, Gable Steveson. Chad Gable took offense to Steveson and slapped the drink out of Steveson's hand. This prompted Steveson to perform a belly-to-belly suplex on Gable, after which, Steveson celebrated with RK-Bro and Street Profits with a toast.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: Next, Bobby Lashley faced Omos. Omos dominated Lashley almost throughout the entire match. In the closing moments, Lashley performed a vertical suplex and two spears on Omos to win the match, ending Omos' undefeated streak.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: In the third match, Sami Zayn faced Johnny Knoxville in an Anything Goes match. At the start of the match, Zayn performed a helluva kick on Knoxville. Outside the ring, Knoxville obtained a fire extinguisher and sprayed it on Zayn. Zayn performed an exploder suplex on Knoxville through a table positioned in one corner of the ring. Later in the match, Zayn was attacked by a number of Knoxville's "Jackass" co-stars, including Wee-Man, who performed a bodyslam on Zayn. Knoxville knocked Zayn who was perched atop a turnbuckle onto a table. In the end, Knoxville and his allies obtained a large mouse trap from underneath the ring and trapped Zayn in the mouse trap. Knoxville pinned Zayn to win the match.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: Next, Queen Zelina and Carmella defended the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against Sasha Banks and Naomi, Natalya and Shayna Baszler, and Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan in a fatal four-way tag team match. In the end, Banks and Naomi performed a Wheel Barrow/Double knee combo on Carmella to win the title. This also marked Banks' first win at WrestleMania since making her WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania 32 in 2016 in the same venue, ending her 6 loss streak.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: The fifth match was between Edge and AJ Styles. Styles kicked Edge off the apron and into the steel steps. As Styles attempted for a springboard 450° splash on Edge, Edge raised his knees. Styles performed a suplex on Edge into a turnbuckle. Styles performed a Rack Bomb on Edge for a nearfall. Edge performed a DDT on Styles for a nearfall. Edge performed a powerbomb on Styles. Styles performed a superplex from the top rope and followed up with a springboard 450° splash and a Styles Clash on Edge for a nearfall. In the end, as Styles attempted another Phenomenal Forearm on Edge, Damian Priest emerged to momentarily distract Styles, allowing Edge to perform a spear on Styles to win the match. Following the match, Edge and Priest celebrated the victory, leading into the formation of Judgment Day.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: In the sixth match, Sheamus and Ridge Holland (accompanied by Butch) faced The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods). Outside the ring, Sheamus performed a Brogue Kick on Kingston. Sheamus then performed another Brogue Kick on Woods inside the ring. In the end, Holland performed the Northern Grit on Woods to win the match.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: After this, Class of 2022 WWE Hall of Fame inductee The Undertaker came out for one more appearance to acknowledge the crowd before departing backstage.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: Next, Mr McMahon came out to watch the match between Austin Theory and Pat McAfee. During the match, McAfee performed a hurricanrana on Theory for a nearfall. Theory and McAfee performed suplexes on each other. Outside the ring, McAfee poured a drink on Theory. McAfee performed a superplex off the top rope on Theory. In the end, McAfee countered an ATL from Theory with a roll-up to win the match.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: Following the match, McAfee called out Mr. McMahon, followed by the latter removing his suit before heading into the ring for an impromptu match, marking McMahon's first match since October 2012 and first WrestleMania match since WrestleMania XXVI in 2010. It would also be his final match before he announced his retirement on July 22. Before the match began, Theory attacked McAfee. McMahon kicked a Dallas Cowboys football at McAfee's face before pinning him to win the match. At 76 years old, this made McMahon the oldest person to compete, and win, at WrestleMania. Following the impromptu match, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin made a surprise appearance and performed a stunner on Theory. After sharing beers with McMahon, Austin performed a Stunner on McMahon. Austin then signalled for McAfee and celebrated with him, after which, Austin performed a Stunner on McAfee.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: In the main event, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns (accompanied by Paul Heyman) faced Raw's WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match. Lesnar performed three belly-to-belly suplexes and a clothesline on Reigns. Outside the ring, Heyman distracted Lesnar, allowing Reigns to perform a spear on Lesnar through the timekeeper barricade. Back in the ring, Reigns performed a second spear on Lesnar for a nearfall. As Reigns attempted a Superman Punch on Lesnar, Lesnar countered by performing five German suplexes on Reigns in quick succession. Reigns performed a third Superman Punch on Lesnar. Lesnar then executed an F-5 on Reigns for a nearfall. As Lesnar attempted a second F-5, Reigns countered by sending Lesnar into the referee, incapacitating him. Reigns took the opportunity to attack Lesnar with a low-blow and then strike Lesnar with the title for a nearfall. Reigns performed a Spear on Lesnar and as Reigns attempted another Spear, Lesnar countered and applied the Kimura lock on Reigns, Paul Heyman helped Reigns to void the submission. In the closing moments, as Lesnar attempted an F-5, Reigns countered into a fourth Spear to win the match and claim both titles to become recognized as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. Although WWE billed the match as a championship unification match, both titles remain independently active, with Reigns recognized as a double champion.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: According to the analytics firm Conviva, WrestleMania accumulated a record 2.2 billion impressions across all social platforms, compared to 1.8 billion for Super Bowl LVI, and up 10% from the previous year. In addition, WWE amassed 1.1 billion video views (up 47% from the previous year) across various social media networks, 13.1 million hours of video watch time (up 29% from the previous year), and 87 million engagements over the weekend of the event. Furthermore, WrestleMania 38 generated $206.5 million for the Dallas/Arlington region, setting a company record and the first time that a WrestleMania generated more than $200 million in economic impact.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: WWE reported that Night 1 of WrestleMania had an attendance of 77,899, and that Night 2 had an attendance of 78,453. Bryan Alvarez of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" contested these numbers, saying they sold 65,719 and 65,653, respectively.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: The event received mixed to positive reviews from critics, who praised the Raw Women's Championship, Raw Tag Team Championship match, Pat McAfee's and Logan Paul's performance, Rhodes vs. Rollins, and the in-ring return of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin while criticizing the main event for Night 2, Sheamus and Ridge Holland vs. The New Day, and panning McMahon vs. McAfee, which received a -2 star rating from Dave Meltzer.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: Following his well-received performance at the event, Logan Paul would go on to sign with WWE on June 30 later that year. Seeking revenge, he faced and defeated The Miz in a match at SummerSlam.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: Also, Sasha Banks and Naomi would successfully retain the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against their WrestleMania opponents in regular tag team matches over the next few weeks. Their title defense on the May 13 episode of "SmackDown" would be their final televised WWE appearance, as on the May 16 episode of "Raw", they were scheduled to take part in a six-pack challenge to determine the number one contender for the Raw Women's Championship at Hell in a Cell, but due to legitimate creative frustrations, they walked out of the arena. They were subsequently suspended and stripped of their titles. This made WrestleMania 38 the last PPV and livestreaming event Banks and Naomi took part in.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: WrestleMania 38 would be the last WrestleMania overseen by WWE owner Vince McMahon, as in July, McMahon announced his retirement from the company. In addition to creating WrestleMania, McMahon had served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company since 1982. Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan took over as Co-CEOs, and the former also took over as Chairwoman of WWE.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: Cody Rhodes opened the post-WrestleMania episode of "Raw", revealing that he returned to WWE to live the legacy of his late father, Dusty Rhodes, and win the WWE Championship. The following week, he wrestled his first match on "Raw" since May 2016 against The Miz in a winning effort. After the match, Seth "Freakin" Rollins challenged him to a rematch at WrestleMania Backlash which Rhodes accepted.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: The rivalry between Edge and AJ Styles continued. On the April 18 episode of "Raw", Edge challenged Styles to a rematch at WrestleMania Backlash, and Styles accepted. Two weeks later, Styles defeated Damian Priest, banning him from ringside during the match.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: On the following "Raw", MVP turned on Bobby Lashley and sided with Omos. Later that month, a rematch between Lashley and Omos was made official for WrestleMania Backlash.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: On the following "SmackDown", Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns claimed he had nothing left to prove. However, he said that SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) needed to go to "Raw" and unify the Raw Tag Team Championship with their tag team titles so that The Bloodline would have all the gold. The following week, Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) accepted the challenge and the match was scheduled for WrestleMania Backlash. However, on the April 29 episode of "SmackDown", the contract signing for the match ended with Reigns assisting The Usos in attacking RK-Bro and tearing up the contract in the process. Drew McIntyre then came out and joined forces with RK-Bro in driving off The Bloodline from the ring. Because of what had transpired, Reigns' special counsel, Paul Heyman, then met with WWE official Adam Pearce backstage where Heyman announced that the resulting tag team championship unification match was called off (and would later be rescheduled for the May 20 edition of "SmackDown") and instead, a six-man tag team match pitting The Bloodline against RK-Bro and McIntyre was scheduled for WrestleMania Backlash.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: After failing to defeat SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey appeared on the following "SmackDown" to challenge Flair to an "I Quit" match for the title. Flair declined, ordering Rousey to go back to the locker room. During "Talking Smack" the next day, however, the championship rematch was scheduled for WrestleMania Backlash.


title: WrestleMania 38

text: After costing Happy Corbin a win at WrestleMania, Madcap Moss was attacked by Corbin. Later that month, a match between the two was scheduled for WrestleMania Backlash.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: Jensen Ross Ackles (born March 1, 1978) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Dean Winchester in The WB/CW dark fantasy drama series "Supernatural" (2005–2020) and appearing in television series such as NBC's "Days of Our Lives" as Eric Brady (earning him several Daytime Emmy Award nominations), super soldiers Ben/X5-493 and Alec/X5-494 in Fox's "Dark Angel", Jason Teague in The WB/CW's "Smallville", and Ben/Soldier Boy in Amazon Prime Video's "The Boys". He also starred as the lead in the box office success "My Bloody Valentine 3D", and provided the voices of Jason Todd in the animated film "", and Bruce Wayne/Batman in the of "".


title: Jensen Ackles

text: Ackles was born on March 1 1978 in Dallas the son of Donna Joan (née Shaffer) and Alan Roger Ackles, an actor. He grew up in Richardson and attended Lloyd V. Berkner High School. After graduating in 1996, he moved to Los Angeles to begin his acting career.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: After modeling on and off since the age of four, Ackles began to concentrate on an acting career in 1996. He appeared in several guest roles on "Mr. Rhodes", "Sweet Valley High", and "Cybill" before joining the cast of the NBC soap opera "Days of Our Lives" as Eric Brady in 1997. A role that he remembers fondly. He won a 1998 Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Male Newcomer and went on to be nominated three times (in 1998, 1999, and 2000) for a Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series" for his work on "Days of our Lives".


title: Jensen Ackles

text: Ackles left "Days of our Lives" in 2000 and went on to appear in the mini-series "Blonde", about the life of Marilyn Monroe. He also auditioned for the role of the young Clark Kent on "Smallville", a role offered to actor Tom Welling instead. Next he appeared in a guest role on the James Cameron television series "Dark Angel" on Fox in 2001 as serial killer Ben/X5-493, the brother of main character Max/X5-452 (played by Jessica Alba). His character died in the episode, but Ackles returned to the show as a series regular in the second season as Ben's sane clone, Alec/X5-494. He remained with the show until its cancellation in 2002.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: Ackles worked steadily throughout 2003. He joined the cast of The WB's hit show "Dawson's Creek" during its final season, playing CJ, Jen Lindley's lover. Afterward, Ackles filmed several episodes of the unaired series "Still Life" for Fox before it was abruptly dropped. He also had a small role in the 2004 short film "The Plight of Clownana". Ackles was the producer's first choice to play Eliza Dushku's love interest on the second season of "Tru Calling"; Ackles turned down the role, which was then offered to Eric Christian Olsen and the character's name was changed to "Jensen" because the producers of "Tru Calling" liked Ackles' name. Ackles returned to Vancouver (where "Dark Angel" was filmed) in 2004 to become a regular on "Smallville" playing the assistant football coach Jason Teague, who was also the newest romantic interest for Lana Lang (played by Kristin Kreuk). He also had a lead role in the 2005 film "Devour" in which Ackles' father, actor Alan Ackles, also had a role playing the father of Ackles' character, Jake Gray.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: In 2005, Ackles joined the cast of the WB show horror/action series "Supernatural" where he starred as Dean Winchester. Dean and his brother Sam (Jared Padalecki) drive throughout the United States hunting paranormal predators, fighting demons and angels, and showcasing fantasy & sci-fi pop culture. The show ended after fifteen seasons, making it the longest-running North American sci-fi series in history.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: In the summer of 2007, Ackles took on the role of Priestly in the independent comedy "Ten Inch Hero". The film began hitting the film festival circuit in early 2007 and Ackles received high praise for his comedic timing in the role. In February 2009, the film was released on DVD exclusively by Blockbuster Home Video. He also appeared on stage from June 5–10, 2007 with Lou Diamond Phillips in "A Few Good Men" at Casa Mañana Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas as Lt. Daniel Kaffee. Ackles received strong praise for his work in this role, which was also his professional theatre debut.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: In the summer of 2008, Ackles was cast in the remake of the cult film "My Bloody Valentine 3D", which opened nationwide on January 16, 2009.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: In summer of 2010, as part of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies franchise, Ackles provided the voice for the Red Hood (Jason Todd) in the animated film, "", which was released to DVD and Blu-ray on July 27. In summer of 2021, Ackles voiced the role of Batman (Bruce Wayne) for the of "".


title: Jensen Ackles

text: On October 22, 2010, Disney Interactive Studios announced he would be voicing a character named Gibson in the video game, "" which was released on December 7, 2010.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: After years of performing at conventions, Ackles released his first original song as a professional singer titled "Sounds of Someday" which is the first track from his debut album. In 2018, Ackles collaborated with musician Steve Carlson to form Radio Company. Together Ackles and Carlson completed a debut album entitled "Vol. 1". The album's first single was released on iTunes and the album was released in November 2019. Ackles and Carlson released "Vol. 2" on May 7, 2021.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: In August 2020, it was announced he would join the cast of "The Boys" in its third season as Ben / B.C.L. RED / Soldier Boy.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: More recently, he and his wife formed Chaos Machine Productions with a deal at Warner Bros. Television. In June 2021, it was revealed that they were developing a "Supernatural" prequel spinoff for The CW, titled "The Winchesters", about young John and Mary Winchester, Sam and Dean's parents. Ackles would serve as narrator, reprising his role as Dean. It was picked up to series in May 2022.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: In October 2021, Ackles was cast to play U.S. Marshal Wood Helm in the Western feature "Rust", written and directed by Joel Souza. He played opposite Alec Baldwin, who starred in the title role. Production was temporarily suspended after the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: In May 2022, he guest starred on the "ABC" drama "Big Sky"'s second season finale "Catch a Few Fish", as temporary sheriff Beau Arlen. The role was planted to be series regular for the show's third season, which was ordered the day after the episode aired.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: After three years of dating, Ackles became engaged to actress and model Danneel Harris in November 2009. The couple married on May 15, 2010, in Dallas. Their first child, a daughter, was born in May 2013. In August 2016, the couple announced that they were expecting twins, a boy and a girl who were born in December.


title: Jensen Ackles

text: Ackles is a co-owner of a brewery in Dripping Springs, Texas, Family Business Beer Company, with his wife and in-laws. The brewery's name is a reference to "Supernatural" ("family business" being a tagline for the series).


title: Hrithik Roshan

text: Hrithik Roshan (; born 10 January 1974) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He has portrayed a variety of characters and is known for his dancing skills. One of the highest-paid actors in India, he has won many awards, including six Filmfare Awards, of which four were for Best Actor. Starting from 2012, he has appeared in "Forbes India" Celebrity 100 several times based on his income and popularity.


title: Hrithik Roshan

text: Roshan has frequently collaborated with his father, Rakesh Roshan. He made brief appearances as a child actor in several films in the 1980s and later worked as an assistant director on four of his father's films. His first leading role was in the box-office success "Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai" (2000), for which he received several awards. Performances in the 2000 terrorism drama "Fiza" and the 2001 ensemble family drama "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..." consolidated his reputation but were followed by several poorly received films.


title: Hrithik Roshan

text: The 2003 science fiction film "Koi... Mil Gaya", for which Roshan won two Filmfare Awards, was a turning point in his film career; he later starred as the titular superhero in its sequels: "Krrish" (2006) and "Krrish 3" (2013). He earned praise for his portrayal of a thief in "Dhoom 2" (2006), Mughal emperor Akbar in "Jodhaa Akbar" (2008) and a quadriplegic in "Guzaarish" (2010). He achieved further commercial success by playing the lead in the 2011 drama "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara", the 2012 revenge drama "Agneepath", the 2014 action thriller "Bang Bang!", the 2019 biopic "Super 30", and the 2019 action thriller "War"; the lattermost ranks as his highest-grossing release.


title: Hrithik Roshan

text: Roshan has also performed on stage and debuted on television with the dance reality show "Just Dance" (2011). As a judge on the latter, he became the highest-paid film star on Indian television at that time. He is involved with a number of humanitarian causes, endorses several brands and products and has launched his own clothing line. Roshan was married for fourteen years to Sussanne Khan, with whom he has two children.


title: Hrithik Roshan

text: Roshan was born on 10 January 1974 in Bombay to a family prominent in Bollywood. He is of Punjabi and Bengali descent on his paternal side. Hrithik's paternal grandmother Ira Roshan was a Bengali. His father, film director Rakesh Roshan, is the son of music director Roshanlal Nagrath; his mother, Pinky, is the daughter of producer and director J. Om Prakash. His uncle, Rajesh, is a music composer. Roshan has an older sister, Sunaina, and was educated at the Bombay Scottish School. Roshan belongs to a Hindu family, though he considers himself more spiritual than religious.


title: Hrithik Roshan

text: Roshan felt isolated as a child; he was born with an extra thumb fused to the one on his right hand, which led some of his peers to avoid him. He has stammered since the age of six; this caused him problems at school, and he feigned injury and illness to avoid oral tests. He was helped by daily speech therapy.