title: Matthew Kenney

text: In 2017, he was sued for unpaid rent at the popular Plant Food and Wine in Miami. In December 2017, he faced debt and foreclosure proceedings in Belfast, Maine, on a building that housed his former culinary academy.


title: Matthew Kenney

text: In 2019, Matthew Kenney Cuisine opened an all-vegan food hall Plant City in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2019, he launched Ntidote Life nutrition bars with Dr. Amir Marashi.


title: Tiësto discography

text: Throughout his career, Dutch electronic DJ and producer Tiësto has released seven studio albums. After spending years searching for his personal style and working with DJs like Ferry Corsten (as Gouryella), Benno de Goeij (as Kamaya Painters) and Armin van Buuren (as Alibi and Major League), he decided it was time to focus on his solo work. Tiësto's fame started to rise in the late 1990s after his set at the first ID&T Innercity party (""), and it continued to skyrocket in the early 2000s following his six-hour "Tiësto Solo" sets, which he performed without any other DJs or opening acts. His last three full-length releases broke the 70,000-unit mark, and the 2003 DJ mix "Nyana" hit 87,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan in mid-2008.


title: Tiësto discography

text: In 1994, Tiësto began releasing material on Noculan Records' sub-labels Chemo and Coolman. Later that year he signed to Basic Beat Recordings, where he met Arny Bink. Tiësto released records on the sub-label Trashcan, founded by Bink, and created the sub-label Guardian Angel with Bink, where they introduced the popular Forbidden Paradise series. From 1995 to 1996 Tiësto released four extended plays on Bonzai Jumps and XTC, sub-labels of Lightning Records. In 1997, Tiësto joined his friend Yves Vandichel on his sub-label, DJ Yves, a division of the now defunct Human Resource label XSV Music. In the fall of 1997, both Bink and Tiësto decided to leave Basic Beat and create their own parent label, now known as Black Hole Recordings. Trashcan was discontinued and Guardian Angel continued releasing music until 2002. In 1998, Tiësto released the Magik series through Black Hole and created two major sub-labels, In Trance We Trust and SongBird. From 1998 to 1999, Tiësto released music on Planetary Consciousness. There he met A&R Hardy Heller and invited him to release records on Black Hole. Tiësto later included the In Search of Sunrise series on SongBird and opened a new division of Black Hole, Magik Muzik, in 2001, which is now the home of the major chart-topping songs by Tiësto. The sub-label released exclusive material but has expanded since then.


title: Tiësto discography

text: Tiësto's first studio album, "In My Memory", produced four major hits: "Flight 643", "Obsession", "Lethal Industry", and "Suburban Train". After becoming the "No. 1 DJ in the world" according to DJMag for three consecutive years, he released his second studio album in 2004, "Just Be". The album contained one number one hit, "Traffic", which was the first instrumental track to reach the top spot in his homeland the Netherlands in 23 years. The album also contained a new trance anthem, "Adagio for Strings", a remake of Samuel Barber's classical song "Adagio for Strings". Tiësto became the first DJ to perform live at the Olympic Games when he was asked to perform during the 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony. The set that he performed there was later condensed and released on CD as "Parade of the Athletes". In 2007, Tiësto released his third studio album, "Elements of Life", which moved 72,000 units in its April release according to Nielsen SoundScan. On October 6, 2009, Tiësto released his fourth studio album, "Kaleidoscope". Unlike his earlier albums, which were all mostly trance, Kaleidoscope explores other electronic genres, and is considered Tiesto's most experimental album. On June 16, 2014, Tiësto released his fifth studio album, "A Town Called Paradise". In 2020, he released his sixth studio album, "The London Sessions", which was a collaborative album with multiple producers including Shaun Frank and Jonas Blue.


title: Linda Henry

text: Linda Varilis ("née" Henry; born 24 August 1959) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Yvonne Atkins in the ITV drama "Bad Girls" and Shirley Carter in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders", a role she has played since 2006. She had previously appeared in "EastEnders" as the original Lorraine Salter, the mother of Mandy Salter (Nicola Stapleton) from 1991 to 1992. Her other acting credits include "Cracker" (1995), "Prime Suspect" (1997) and "Trial & Retribution" (1998). She has also appeared in the films "Beautiful Thing" (1996) and "The Business" (2005).


title: Linda Henry

text: Henry was born on 24 August 1959 and was brought up in Peckham, London. She spent some time with the Old Vic Youth Theatre, and at seventeen she went to the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Henry later set up a production company, Buster, which still exists although she is no longer involved with it.


title: Linda Henry

text: As well as her role in "Bad Girls" she is also remembered for her role as Sandra in the film "Beautiful Thing" and has appeared in the British television programmes "The Bill", "Birds of a Feather", "Touching Evil", "Cracker", "A Touch of Frost"," Trial & Retribution" as Marilyn Spark and "EastEnders", where she played Lorraine Salter, the prostitute mother of the teenage tearaway Mandy Salter (Nicola Stapleton).


title: Linda Henry

text: She had a minor role in British film "The Business" as the character Shirley, which also starred Danny Dyer as the main character.


title: Linda Henry

text: On 8 September 2006 it was announced Henry would be returning to "EastEnders" in a different role, this time playing Shirley Carter, mother to Carly (Kellie Shirley) and Deano (Matt Di Angelo) and ex-wife of Kevin (Phil Daniels).


title: Linda Henry

text: Shirley arrived in Walford in December 2006. Henry took part in the 2008 "WestEnders" Children in Need appeal where she sang alongside other "EastEnders" cast members. She is close friends with co-star Cheryl Fergison, who played her on-screen best friend Heather Trott. She also took part in a 2008 "EastEnders" edition of" The Weakest Link" and appears in the 2010 spin-off series "".


title: Linda Henry

text: In 2014, she was arrested for racially aggravated harassment. Henry pleaded not guilty and stood trial on 11 February 2015 at Bexley Magistrates Court in south London. She was later cleared of all charges.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: Damon Michael Gough (born 2 October 1969), known by the stage name Badly Drawn Boy, is an English indie singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: Gough chose his stage name from a character in the show "Sam and his Magic Ball", which he saw on TV at a party in Trafford, Greater Manchester, in 1995. Before he thought of using this name he made some business cards, each one unique, with a printed picture of a drawing by his nephew and a small collage by Gough.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: A chance meeting with Andy Votel at the Generation X bar in Manchester, where Gough's friends Scott Abraham and Damon Hayhurst were contributing to an exhibition by the Space Monkey Clothing Company and Votel was DJing, led to the foundation of Twisted Nerve Records.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: In 2002, "Q" magazine named Badly Drawn Boy in their list of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die", although this was as part of a sub-list of "5 Bands That Could Go Either Way" on account of Gough's tendency to talk and tell stories for extended periods in concert rather than play songs.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: Gough, though born in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, grew up in the Breightmet area of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. He cites American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen as his music hero. His recording career began in September 1997 with the five track vinyl release "EP1". This was distributed among friends and family members.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: In April 1998, Gough released his second EP, "EP2". This had one track less than its predecessor but twice as many copies were pressed. The highlight track, "I Love You All", was later transferred to a music box which was released alongside the EP. The box plays eleven seconds of the song and is considered much rarer than the record itself due to its limited production.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: Gough's third EP, "EP3", was released in November 1998 on both CD and vinyl formats, and was the first release in what became a long-term partnership with XL Recordings. In the same year he collaborated with Unkle for their first album "Psyence Fiction". "Road Movie" was released as a live recording with the band Doves. The B-side to the single was another track from the EP, "My Friend Cubilas". Music videos were recorded for both tracks.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: "It Came from the Ground" was the next EP, released in March 1999 on CD and vinyl. The style of this recording focused on woodland environments, an aspect displayed in both the cover art and the title track's video. Also released during this period was the single "Whirlpool". An instrumental was released on vinyl in April 1999.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: Gough's last EP, "Once Around the Block", was released in August 1999 in two vinyl formats and one CD edition. The release is almost short enough to be considered a single.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: Following the success of his early EPs, Gough's first album, "The Hour of Bewilderbeast", was released in June 2000, accompanied by four singles (including a re-release of "Once Around the Block").


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: The album was critically acclaimed and Badly Drawn Boy was successful in winning the 2000 Mercury Music Prize, beating his contemporaries Doves to the £20,000 prize. The album sold well (300,000 copies) and is widely considered to be his defining work.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: The Badly Drawn Boy band throughout this successful period consisted of Matt Wardle (keyboards/vocals), Robin File (guitar), Sean McCann (bass guitar) latterly replaced by the ex-Smiths bass guitarist Andy Rourke, Dave Verner (drums).


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: After a short break, Gough returned to score the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel "About a Boy". Impressed by his past work, the Weitz brothers asked Gough to score the film, a task which he undertook alone, with the assistance of producer Steve McLaughlin. Three singles from the album were released during 2002.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: His third album, "Have You Fed the Fish?", introduced more guitars and an increasingly mainstream pop sound which was not welcomed by all critics. The album is a play on Gough's minor celebrity status. Another three singles and a long American tour accompanied the album. The single "You Were Right" received heavy airplay on BBC Radio 2, became his first UK top ten single and includes lyrical references to music icons such as Madonna and John Lennon.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: After his long spell in America, Gough suffered from homesickness and decided to record his next album closer to home. Recorded at Moolah Rouge studios in Stockport, Greater Manchester, "One Plus One Is One" was a portrait of his personal life. Documenting a death of a close friend and the loss of a grandfather in the Battle of Normandy, the album was released in 2004. It was not a great commercial success, and Gough decided to leave his contract with XL Recordings after only one single was released. He then signed to EMI.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: Two years went by before "Born in the U.K.", which aimed to explain Gough's experience of growing up in the United Kingdom. The album was promoted with a small UK tour, profits from which were donated to Oxfam, a charity which "offers the chance for thousands of people to use music to achieve something together, which is an idea that gets me excited", said Gough. Gough also toured the US behind the album.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: The album "Is There Nothing We Could Do?", with music taken from and inspired by the film, "The Fattest Man in Britain", was released on his own BDB Records label in 2009.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: His seventh album, "It's What I'm Thinking Pt.1 – Photographing Snowflakes", the first of a planned trilogy of albums all to be released under the title "It's What I'm Thinking", was released in October 2010.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: In 2011, a portrait of Gough painted by British artist Joe Simpson was exhibited around the UK including a solo exhibition at The Royal Albert Hall.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: In March 2012, he released another soundtrack, for "Being Flynn", directed by Paul Weitz who had worked with Gough previously on the soundtrack album "About a Boy".


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: In July 2015, to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the release of "The Hour of the Bewilderbeast", Gough undertook a short UK tour.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: There have been three documentaries made about Badly Drawn Boy: "Open Map" in 2007, "Ipso Facto" in 2010, and "About A Badly Drawn Boy". The first two tour documentaries remain unreleased, while the last, about Gough and his debut album "The Hour of Bewilderbeast", was released in 2018.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: In December 2015, Badly Drawn Boy appeared on a celebrity edition of Mastermind. His specialist subject was the singer Bruce Springsteen.


title: Badly Drawn Boy

text: In October 2017, he had a cameo role in the final episode of "Cold Feet" (Series 7) where he played a busker.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The Invasion was a professional wrestling storyline in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) during the Attitude Era that ran from March–November 2001 and involved stables of wrestlers purporting to represent World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW)—which merged to form The Alliance—placed against a stable of wrestlers purporting to represent the WWF. The storyline began shortly after the WWF's acquisitions of WCW and ECW in March and April 2001, respectively, and concluded with a "winner takes all" match between The Alliance and the WWF at Survivor Series.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The idea of a supercard featuring the two top promotions of the Monday Night Wars was considered to be a dream match scenario in the eyes of many fans, as it would allow the fans to see which promotion would be superior in storyline. The angle began when Mr. McMahon's son, Shane McMahon, announced as part of the storyline on WWF's "Raw Is War" and the final episode of WCW's "Nitro" (which merged into a simulcast) that he had bought WCW from under his father's nose. This led to several run-in appearances of WCW wrestlers during "Raw Is War" and "SmackDown!" over the months after WrestleMania X-Seven.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: In June 2001, the angle grew in intensity as the WWF storylines somewhat abated to make room for the central Invasion storyline. WCW and ECW merged to form The Alliance and challenged the WWF's control over the wrestling industry. An Inaugural Brawl took place at the WWF Invasion pay-per-view, where Stone Cold Steve Austin defected and joined The Alliance. Many inter-promotional matches occurred after the Invasion between The Alliance and the WWF, leading up to the climax of the angle at Survivor Series, when Team WWF (The Rock, Chris Jericho, Big Show, The Undertaker and Kane) defeated Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Booker T and Shane McMahon) in a Winner Take All elimination tag team match.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The angle saw financial success for the WWF, with the WWF Invasion pay-per-view garnering a buyrate of 770,000. Despite its commercial success, the angle received mixed reviews following its conclusion, and is generally historically considered a major disappointment by fans and critics.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: During the Monday Night Wars, the WWF and WCW, the two top North American wrestling promotions, competed for ratings. Through developments such as the creation of the New World Order (nWo) and the Montreal Screwjob, fans continually compared the two promotions.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Among other factors, however, mismanagement within WCW eventually led WCW to a downward spiral from which it never recovered. The Monday Night Wars came to an end on March 23, 2001, when the WWF bought the rights to WCW's video library, trademarks, 24 contracts for selected wrestlers, championships, and other properties for what was considered to be a lower bargain price.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The final night of the Monday Night Wars occurred on March 26, 2001: "Raw Is War" primarily focused on the major storylines heading into WrestleMania X-Seven, while "Nitro" held their final episode with a "Night of Champions". Mr. McMahon opened up "Nitro" and announced a simulcast later that night to address the future of WCW. Throughout "Raw Is War", McMahon publicly named several WCW wrestlers who would not be retained. Though most would wrestle for the WWE in the ensuing years, he did legitimately fire Jeff Jarrett on television due to animosity between the two dating back in 1999, when Jarrett blackmailed McMahon for payment after he was booked for a match at No Mercy following his contract expiry the day before. After Sting defeated Ric Flair in WCW's final match, the simulcast began. McMahon talked about the buyout of WCW and toyed with the idea of making WCW into a huge media conglomerate, much like the WWF. He asked the crowd who he should keep under his belt by mentioning names of WCW wrestlers and asking for a reaction. Lex Luger and Hulk Hogan received a negative reaction from fans, and Buff Bagwell, Booker T, Scott Steiner, Sting, and Goldberg received positive reactions. Vince then proceeded to fire them all, however, to the cheers of the "Raw Is War" crowd and the jeers of the "Nitro" crowd. McMahon then announced that he would sign the contract and make the purchase official at WrestleMania, on the condition that Ted Turner brings the contract for McMahon to sign personally. Shane McMahon, however, appeared on "Nitro" and announced in kayfabe that he had signed the contract and purchased WCW out from under his father's nose, planting the seed for what was considered a lucrative future storyline opportunity. The Invasion did not begin immediately afterwards, as the WWF was preparing for WrestleMania X-Seven, the year's largest show, which was mere days away.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The WWF had effectively doubled the size of its roster through its acquisition of WCW, and as a result, there was not enough screen time for everyone. The original plan was to find a time slot on TNN (renamed to Spike TV, now known as Paramount Network) to continue running WCW as a separate entity. Polls were even put up on WWF.com and WCW.com to decide the name of the new show. These plans fell through when no television station would touch WCW because of its reputation for losing money. The WWF eventually carried out a brand extension, effectively reviving WCW under its own auspices and running two separate promotions, each with one of the WWF's two existing televised shows, "Raw" and "SmackDown!".


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: As part of its plans, Lance Storm became the first WCW wrestler to appear on WWF programming, by performing a run-in during a match on the May 28 episode of "Raw Is War". Hugh Morrus made his WWF debut on the June 4 episode of "Raw Is War" by attacking Edge. At King of the Ring on June 24, then-WCW wrestler Booker T interfered during the triple threat main event match for the WWF Championship and almost cost Stone Cold Steve Austin the title. Additionally, Austin legitimately suffered fractured bones in his hand from the side slam he took from Booker T into an announce table. The next night on "Raw Is War", which was held in New York City's Madison Square Garden, a confrontation occurred between WCW owner Shane McMahon and WWF owner Vince McMahon. While Vince was in the ring, Booker T came from behind to deliver his finishing move, a scissor kick, to Vince. The WWF roster ran to the ring to aid Vince, but Booker T and Shane McMahon escaped through the crowd. This incident marked the official start of the Invasion storyline; "Raw Is War" commentator Jim Ross announced, "The battle lines have been drawn!"


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: WCW Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire then made their WWF debuts on June 28, 2001, by invading "SmackDown!" and attacking the Hardy Boyz and Dudley Boyz during a tag team match, before fleeing after WWF wrestlers came after them in the ring.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: As they were exiting the arena, they were attacked from behind by other WWF wrestlers led by Hardcore Holly and the APA, preventing what happened with the previous WCW wrestlers running to the arena exits undisturbed and rushing them back into the ring, where they were beaten up by WWF wrestlers.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The WWF eventually began to recognize WCW and tested the idea of a brand extension by giving WCW the final twenty minutes of the July 2 episode of "Raw Is War", with Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson as the announcers in place of Jim Ross and Paul Heyman. During a match between Buff Bagwell and Booker T for the WCW Championship, WWF wrestlers Kurt Angle and then WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin interfered in retaliation by beating Booker T up, with Bagwell joining Angle and Austin by attacking Booker T. This match was poorly received by the audience in attendance at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington; sports journalist Michael Landsberg reported that many have called the bout "the worst match ever". One source cited that the match should have showcased the best of WCW, but instead featured too many restholds and not enough action. The audience jeered the wrestlers with chants of "This match sucks!" and "Boring!" A WWF source close to Vince McMahon said that he "absolutely hated" the segment. In a podcast interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin in 2015, Bagwell expressed his suspicions of the WWF's true plans for the WCW product, stating his confusion as to why his match with Booker T took place in Tacoma, Washington (very much a pro-WWF area) instead of on the following week's "Raw Is War" show at the Philips Arena in Atlanta (the former headquarters city of WCW), where the match likely would have received a more positive fan reception.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Up until this point, the WCW contingent were being built up to being malcontent faces rising up against the heel Vince McMahon, because of Vince's bluster during the final "Nitro" broadcast and Shane's usurping of the WCW ownership. Originally, WCW talents were meant to attack strictly heel WWF wrestlers. The strongly negative reaction of the core WWF viewership to the WCW product and talent, however, coupled with the reality that a WCW wrestling program tailored to appeal to WWF fans would not come to fruition, led to the entire WCW contingent being abruptly turned heel. One example was the heel gimmick of then WCW Alliance member Diamond Dallas Page, whose first WWF appearance was built up over several weeks in a storyline in which he was portrayed as an anonymous stalker sending invasive videotapes to then-babyface, The Undertaker.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: On the July 9 episode of "Raw Is War" at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, Kane was scheduled to face Mike Awesome and Lance Storm in a handicap match. Chris Jericho came out and offered to be Kane's partner, thus turning it into a tag team match. Near the end of the match, Jericho applied the "Walls of Jericho" on Lance Storm. As the move was being applied, however, Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer ran through the audience and into the ring and started to beat on Kane and Jericho. In response, WWF wrestlers consisting of The Dudley Boyz, Tazz, Justin Credible, Rhyno, and Raven (all former ECW wrestlers) ran to the ring. After a brief stand-off, the WWF cavalry turned around and attacked Kane and Jericho. This prompted Paul Heyman to leave the announce table and enter the ring. After high-fiving the wrestlers, he announced that ECW has been brought into the Invasion. Heyman talked about how tired he was sitting beside Jim Ross and discussing WCW vs. WWF, stating that he felt that everyone had forgotten about ECW and announced, "This Invasion just got taken to the extreme!".


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Later during the night, Shane and Vince McMahon bumped into each other backstage. Shane told his father that ECW needed to be taken care of and pointed out that there were ten ECW wrestlers under Heyman's belt. He suggested that WWF and WCW field five wrestlers each to take out ECW; Vince agreed, but he stubbornly insisted that WCW would eventually meet its demise when all was said and done.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: At the end of the night, the WCW wrestlers came into the ring, accompanied by Shane McMahon. The WWF wrestlers then came into the ring and, before ECW entered, the WCW and WWF wrestlers started to brawl. The WWF wrestlers cleared the ring, but then were stormed by the ECW wrestlers and taken out. The WCW wrestlers came into the ring, high-fived the ECW men and then dismantled the WWF wrestlers as Paul Heyman and Shane McMahon hugged in triumph. Upon seeing a stunned Vince McMahon asking what was going on, Shane admitted being responsible for all the events that just transpired and announced that ECW and WCW merged to form The Alliance – with Stephanie McMahon as ECW's new owner.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Stone Cold Steve Austin, who had turned heel at WrestleMania and formed an alliance with McMahon when he helped Austin win the WWF Championship, took a change in character during this time. Instead of being a beer-drinking redneck, he was more emotional and tried to cheer-up Vince McMahon, who was clearly stressed from the threat of The Alliance, by doing something generous like giving Vince a cowboy hat as a present. On the July 12 episode of "SmackDown!", Austin played "Kumbaya" and "We Are the Champions" for McMahon, to which Vince was unresponsive. Later that night, Vince McMahon came out and asked Austin to come to the ring, announcing him as the man that would lead Team WWF into the pay-per-view and into victory. Upon entering, Vince McMahon told Austin that he had changed quite a bit since WrestleMania, and when the WWF goes up against The Alliance at the upcoming pay-per-view, he did not need an Austin that gave him hugs and gifts and baked him cookies. He needed the "old" Stone Cold who was a "beer-swilling, foul-mouthed SOB" and the "old" Stone Cold that "didn't take shit from anyone". He asked Austin to knock him down, even yelling to the crowd, "If you want Stone Cold to beat the living hell out of Vince McMahon, give me a hell yeah!" to which the crowd responded enthusiastically. Austin, however, shook his head and proceeded to leave the ring, turning his back on Vince McMahon. Later that night when Diamond Dallas Page and Shane McMahon went up against the Undertaker and Kurt Angle, many members of the Alliance interfered. Kane and Jericho came to help their team, but the Alliance's numbers were too many, and without Austin to back up his teammates, Team WWF was overwhelmed.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: On the July 16 episode of "Raw Is War", Austin was shown drinking and playing pool at a bar downtown. During the night, Vince McMahon held a WWF meeting backstage. Undertaker and the APA gave a motivational speech on how they should not tolerate the Alliance any longer. After they were finished, Brooklyn Brawler wheeled Freddie Blassie into the room so he could address the wrestlers and pump them up for the night. As the WWF wrestlers united, Austin could be seen watching the events on the television at the bar. He proceeded to slam his cue stick on the pool table and left.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Later that night, DDP and Rhyno faced Kane and the Undertaker. During the match, there was interference from the Alliance. In response, The Hardy Boyz, the APA, Jericho, and Kurt Angle came to help their WWF allies, but more Alliance members came in and overwhelmed the WWF wrestlers. Backstage, many WWF and Alliance wrestlers were fighting each other, and the WWF seemed to be on the losing end of things. A truck was seen driving up to the arena, however, and Austin came out with his cue stick and proceeded to beat down any WCW and ECW wrestlers in his path. He then came to the ring, trash-talking on the way down, and beat down the Alliance wrestlers, giving Stunners to most of the men in the ring. The WWF wrestlers had cleaned house and were standing tall. The WWF seemed to be in good shape for the upcoming pay-per-view with Austin's return.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: At InVasion, the Inaugural Brawl took place between Team WCW/ECW and Team WWF. Team WWF consisted of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Kane, and the Undertaker, who all squared off against the team of Diamond Dallas Page, Booker T, Rhyno, and the Dudley Boyz. Near the end of the match, all of the wrestlers were outside of the ring except Booker T and Angle. Angle applied the ankle lock on Booker T, who tapped out, but no referee was there to witness it. Austin then dragged a referee into the ring, but in a swerve, kicked Angle in the head, hit him with a Stunner, and placed Booker T on top of Angle and told the referee to count. Team WCW/ECW won the match due to Austin's betrayal of the WWF.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The next night, Austin claimed he joined the Alliance because they appreciated him. He cited Vince's hugging of Angle and calling The Rock on the phone as signs that Vince did not appreciate Austin and accused McMahon of grooming Angle to be the next WWF Champion.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: On the July 26 episode of "SmackDown!", Shane McMahon extended an invitation to The Rock, who had not been seen since the "Raw Is War" following WrestleMania X-Seven, to join the Alliance. Also that night, Kurt Angle challenged Booker T to a WCW Championship match, which Booker T accepted. The WWF gained momentum when Angle made Booker T submit with an ankle lock, taking the WCW Championship away from the Alliance. Angle's title run proved to be short-lived, as Booker T won it back on the July 30 episode of "Raw Is War".


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: On that same "Raw Is War" at the First Union Center in Philadelphia, The Rock returned for the first time since his kayfabe suspension (in reality, he was given the "suspension" to take time off to film "The Scorpion King") on the April 2 episode of "Raw Is War". Shane, Stephanie, and Vince McMahon were in the ring that night, trying to convince The Rock to join them. Shane reminded The Rock of how Vince screwed him out of the WWF Championship earlier in the year at WrestleMania and also in a steel cage match the day after WrestleMania. Vince conceded that it was wrong for him to back Austin, as he was a rattlesnake that he should have known would eventually bite him. He promised The Rock that he had no intention of screwing him if he returned to the WWF but also noted that he could not promise that he never would; if it was good for business, he said, then he just might do it. He told The Rock that he was at least being honest with him and pleaded for The Rock to trust himself, stating that his future was with the fans and the WWF. The Rock gave Vince a Rock Bottom after some bickering between Shane and Vince, and proceeded to stare down Shane, then smile cheekily and shake Shane's hand, faking a defection to the Alliance and a heel turn – but he then proceeded to Rock Bottom him as well and give him a People's Elbow, before emphatically asserting, "Finally, the Rock has come back... to the WWF," thus aligning himself with the World Wrestling Federation.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: His return led to a WCW Championship match between The Rock and Booker T at SummerSlam, which The Rock won, marking the second time the WCW Championship belt changed sides to the WWF. At that same pay-per-view, Austin retained his WWF Championship against Angle after Angle won by disqualification.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The following "Raw Is War" and "SmackDown!" showings featured primarily interpromotional matches between the two companies, with one notable match being a singles match between Chris Jericho and Hugh Morrus on the August 9 episode of "SmackDown!" in which the match ended with Jericho picking up the victory with a submission on Morrus, however Rhyno performed a post-match attack on Jericho in which Rhyno delivered his finishing move 'The Gore' to Jericho which in turn destroyed a small portion of the stage design (the following week on the August 16 episode of "SmackDown!" would lead to the debut of the fist stage design in response to the destruction of the oval stage design). On the August 27 episode of "Raw Is War", Austin stole Kurt Angle's medals, and on the August 30 episode of "SmackDown!", tied them to a cinder block and threw them in a river. On the following September 3 episode of "Raw Is War", Debra and Stephanie bought a new truck for Austin, but Angle came up from behind and nailed Austin in the back of the head with a pipe. He put a cinder block and rope in the truck, put Austin in it, and drove away on the truck. He blindfolded Austin and threatened to throw him into a river if he did not get a title shot. Austin, fearful for his life, "broke down in tears" and agreed to give Angle a title shot at the upcoming pay-per-view, Unforgiven. Angle said, however, that Austin was "still going into the water", but instead simply embarrassed Austin by throwing him into a kiddie pool.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: On September 11, 2001, four aircraft were hijacked and crashed into New York City and Washington, D.C. As a result, the Invasion storyline has been temporarily paused on the September 13 live episode of "SmackDown!" held in Houston, two days after the attacks, when the Alliance and the WWF wrestlers joined in solidarity where Vince McMahon gave a speech and ring announcer Lillian Garcia sang The Star-Spangled Banner.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The WWF gained even more momentum at Unforgiven, as The Rock retained the WCW Championship in a handicap match against Booker T and Shane McMahon, and Kurt Angle made Austin submit to the ankle lock, winning the WWF Championship from Austin, putting both belts into the hands of the WWF.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Almost every other championship had changed hands during this period of time, being exchanged between WWF Superstars and Alliance members. For example, The Undertaker and Kane beat Diamond Dallas Page and Chris Kanyon in a steel cage match at SummerSlam to become co-holders of both the WWF and WCW Tag Team titles. Also, X-Pac beat Billy Kidman to become double champion of WWF Light Heavyweight Champion as well as WCW Cruiserweight Champion.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: There were several interpromotional matches after Unforgiven. Furthermore, a crucial plot point formed when, on the October 8 airing of "Raw", Jericho and The Rock teamed up against Shane McMahon and Rob Van Dam. During the match, Jericho mistakenly struck The Rock with a steel chair, costing them the match. The Rock confronted Jericho backstage after the match, leading to a brawl between the two. The two of them began a feud, although they often tagged together, had similar gimmicks of hurling comedic insults at Stephanie McMahon, and at one point won the WWF Tag Team Championship.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Also that night, Steve Austin and Kurt Angle faced off for the WWF Championship, and then-WWF Commissioner William Regal, who sat at ringside to ensure a fair match would take place, hit Kurt Angle with the belt, thereby backstabbing the WWF and costing Angle the title. On the following October 11 episode of "SmackDown!", Linda McMahon promptly fired Regal from his position as WWF Commissioner, and named Mick Foley as his replacement. Regal was then declared the Commissioner of the Alliance by Shane and Stephanie.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The feud between Jericho and The Rock built up to a match at No Mercy on October 21, where Jericho beat the Rock to win the WCW Championship (Jericho's first world title), and Steve Austin defeated Angle and Rob Van Dam to retain his WWF Championship.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: On the October 29 episode of "Raw", Shane McMahon told his father, Vince McMahon, that a member of the WWF would jump ship to the Alliance that night. Later that same night, Kurt Angle backstabbed the WWF by hitting Jericho, The Rock, Undertaker, and Kane with steel chairs. On the following episode of "SmackDown!" on November 1, Angle, who originally led the WWF wrestlers, explained that he represented what is great about America—he was a winner, and his defection came from his decision to fight along the winning side. That side included Steve Austin, a man Angle claimed knew how to win.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: On the November 5 airing of "Raw", Vince McMahon countered Kurt Angle's defection by stating that a member of Team Alliance would defect during a match at the upcoming Survivor Series. Steve Austin came out to confront Vince about it, and Vince stated that Austin would be the one to defect. Because of this announcement, many Alliance members began to distrust Austin, who vehemently denied the charges and called Vince a liar. Austin went on to interrogate members of Team Alliance, questioning Booker T and sitting Rob Van Dam down in a room with a light shining on him. That same night The Rock won the WCW Championship from Chris Jericho, but Jericho assaulted The Rock in the ring following the match.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: All of this led to a Winner Take All match at Survivor Series, which pitted Team WWF (The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and Big Show) against Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, and Shane McMahon). The final three men in the match were The Rock and Jericho vs. Austin. Jericho was eliminated and, to continue the feud between the two men, attacked The Rock with a Breakdown, even though Jericho's future was on the line if The Rock lost. The Rock and Austin continued to battle it out, each stealing and reversing their signature maneuvers and the referee was knocked down in the match. Austin Stone Cold Stunnered the Rock and pinned him, but there was no referee to count it. Austin approached the downed referee to try to revive him. As this was occurring, Angle ran to the ring, picked up the WWF Championship belt, and nailed Austin with it, revealing himself to be the defector to which McMahon was referring to the entire time. The Rock got up to his feet and followed this with a Rock Bottom and a pin on Austin, to which the referee woke up and groggily counted the three count. Team WWF prevailed, thus ending the storyline.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: It was also on this night that several titles were unified; Edge defeated Test to unify the WCW United States Championship and the WWF Intercontinental Championship, while The Dudley Boyz beat The Hardy Boyz in a Steel Cage match to unify the WCW Tag Team Championship with the WWF Tag Team Championship. The final ECW member, Jazz, made her debut during a Six Pack Challenge for the vacant WWF Women's Championship, which was won by Trish Stratus.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Alliance member Test won a battle royal at Survivor Series that featured both Alliance and WWF wrestlers battling for the right to be immune from termination for a year. Over the next several weeks Test began using that immunity to his advantage, attacking and bullying other wrestlers for no reason and often assaulting referees. Whenever he would be called on it, he would bring up his immunity from being fired. Shortly after Survivor Series however, this was eventually forgotten.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The immunity was also extended to any Alliance member who held a championship at the conclusion of Survivor Series. Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was the WWF Champion, The Dudley Boyz, who held the tag team championships; Rob Van Dam, who was the Hardcore Champion, Billy Kidman, who was the Cruiserweight Champion, and Christian, who was European Champion also saw that extended to them. Of these wrestlers, everyone except RVD (who was already cheered by fans despite being in the Alliance) remained a heel after the Alliance. Also receiving immunity was Stacy Keibler, the manager of the Dudleys, and Tazz, who was a commentator on "SmackDown!" and had been kicked out of the Alliance several weeks prior.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: On the "Raw" the night after Survivor Series, WWF Commissioner Mick Foley resigned. Vince McMahon celebrated his (assumed) complete and sole ownership of the WWF and his final victory over the Alliance, going on a power trip the entire night. His power trip included kayfabe firing the Alliance's Paul Heyman from his broadcasting position and replaced him with a returning Jerry Lawler, who had been absent from the company since February. He later had his daughter, Stephanie McMahon, escorted from the building by security (with his son, Shane McMahon, leaving the arena on his own accord). Stephanie would return to WWF television again the following month whilst as Shane made a small brief appearance on the July 15, 2002 episode of "Raw" and would then return to television again in March 2003. Perhaps Vince McMahon's most egotistical move during this power trip was making Alliance commissioner William Regal become the inaugural member of the infamous Kiss My Ass Club in order to retain his job.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: McMahon also announced that he would strip Alliance leader Steve Austin of his WWF Championship and would reward it to Kurt Angle, who earlier that night had portrayed himself as the hero of Survivor Series the entire night and bragged about his actions in an egotistical matter to other face wrestlers, to which they all gave him negative reactions. This led to an upset Angle telling McMahon that nobody thanked him and appreciated him for his actions the previous night, which then McMahon had told Angle that he would be honored to reward him the WWF Championship. In doing so, McMahon completed a slow heel turn he had begun at the beginning of the night.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Before McMahon could announce Angle as his new champion, Ric Flair (who was making his return to the WWF after leaving in January 1993) announced that he "bet on a winner" at Survivor Series. When pressed, Flair revealed to McMahon that he was not in fact the sole owner of the WWF as he had originally thought. When Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon had bought WCW and ECW earlier in the year they had sold their shares in the WWF to "a consortium", and that Flair was the man who had bought them, making him half-owner of the WWF.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Immediately after making the declaration Austin made his return and attacked Angle for costing him the win at Survivor Series against The Rock and also attacked Vince McMahon for attempting to strip him of his title, ending the heel run he had begun at WrestleMania. He turned face by aligning himself with Flair and reclaiming his WWF Championship belt.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: After The Alliance was disbanded, the WWF was faced with a title crisis; that is, they had too many championships (due to them acquiring all of WCW's championships), and each individual title became devalued. To combat this, the WWF began to unify many championships. Survivor Series saw two title unification matches: WCW United States Champion Edge defeated Test to become the WWF Intercontinental Champion, retiring the US title, while WCW World Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz defeated The Hardy Boyz to win the WWF Tag Team Championships, retiring the WCW tag titles. The following month at Vengeance, the WCW Championship (simply renamed the World Championship after Survivor Series) was unified with the WWF Championship in which Chris Jericho became the champion by defeating both The Rock and Steve Austin in a three-match tournament to form the Undisputed WWF Championship, which continued the lineage of the WWF Championship, while the former World Championship was retired. Another WCW championship, the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, was rebranded as a WWF title (and later, WWE) and replaced the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The Undisputed Championship was originally represented by both the original WWF and WCW title belts, and the champion would carry both belts around until it was replaced with a single belt the following year on the April 1 edition of "Raw". At the beginning of the WWE brand extension, the Undisputed Champion would appear on both "Raw" and "SmackDown!" until then-champion Brock Lesnar signed an exclusive deal with "SmackDown!" after his victory over The Rock at SummerSlam 2002, thus making the championship exclusive to the brand. In response, then-Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff introduced the World Heavyweight Championship, represented by the former WCW/World Championship belt, and awarded it to Triple H, who was the number one contender for the Undisputed title. The Undisputed Championship would be renamed the WWE Championship, as it was no longer undisputed as there were two world championships in the promotion. On the June 19, 2003 edition of "SmackDown!", the United States Championship was revived as a SmackDown!-exclusive title, thus becoming the WWE United States Championship (and counterpart to Raw's Intercontinental title)—it is the only active title currently in the WWE to not have originated in the promotion.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Although the WWF acquired all of WCW's championships, several were never used following the purchase of WCW, such as the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship and the WCW World Television Championship, which was quietly retired a year before WCW went out of business. Jim Ross made a passing mention of the WCW Hardcore Championship at WWF Invasion when mentioning all the titles Lance Storm had held in WCW, but the title never appeared during the storyline.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Although Tazz briefly appeared on WWF television with the ECW World Heavyweight Championship in 2000 (while under contract with the WWF) after reigning ECW World Heavyweight Champion Mike Awesome unexpectedly signed with WCW, none of ECW's titles were shown on WWF television during the Invasion angle due to ECW's assets being held up in bankruptcy court; the WWE eventually purchased ECW's assets in 2003. Although the WCW brand effectively died once and for all following the end of the Invasion storyline, ECW was temporarily revived by WWE in 2005 for the purposes of a special reunion show, ECW One Night Stand, held on June 12, 2005. The build-up to this one-shot event featured former ECW talent putting over the virtues of the brand versus the WWE product and appearances by several former ECW wrestlers not under contract to WWE. In 2006, it was announced that WWE would be reviving ECW as its third brand (to complement Raw and SmackDown!). The second One Night Stand, held on June 11, 2006, led to the official debut of the new ECW the following Tuesday. Rob Van Dam was awarded the ECW World Heavyweight Championship for his victory in winning the WWE Championship over John Cena, thus officially reviving the title for the ECW brand, as well as the only wrestler to hold the ECW and WWE titles simultaneously. This was the only ECW title to be reactivated by WWE for the ECW brand. The brand would continue to operate until February 2010, when it was announced by Vince McMahon that "ECW" would be replaced by a developmental series for new talent entitled "WWE NXT", which eventually took the place of Florida Championship Wrestling as WWE's developmental brand. The ECW Championship was retired along with the closure of the brand.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The Invasion angle was a large storyline that spanned for almost half of 2001 and brought about financial success for the WWF, such as the InVasion pay-per-view being one of the highest non-major event buyrates in the history of pay-per-views. However, the Invasion storyline has come under criticism by wrestling fans and wrestling media, with the storyline being called a flop. Other media refer to the storyline as "one of the most poorly handled, ego-filled storylines in wrestling history".


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Throughout the storyline, many interpromotional matches had WWF wrestlers winning over WCW/ECW wrestlers, usually cleanly. In contrast, most of the Alliance's wins were controversial due to interference or disqualification. For example, it took Tazz assisting Raven at InVasion to beat William Regal. The Rock, however, won cleanly at SummerSlam, despite Shane McMahon's assistance to Booker T. A few other critics also noticed the overemphasis on Steve Austin. Critics believed that Austin was the only credible superstar in the Alliance.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: One particular example of this was during the Inaugural Brawl at the InVasion pay-per-view. Besides Austin's turn in the match that was needed to secure a WCW/ECW win over the WWF, SLAM! Wrestling alleged that the Alliance wrestled poorly in comparison to the WWF wrestlers: Portrayed as disorganized and inferior grapplers, the ECW-WCW Team had more than its fair share of mistimed moves which hurt their own team members while the "WWF squad" of course wrestled like a well-oiled machine. The weakening of the ECW-WCW dubbed superstars didn't stop there either. The WWF faction battered their enemy tag partners off the ring apron over and over again making them appear weak and more times than not, the ECW-WCW grapplers gained an advantage only by double-teaming or employing underhanded tactics. The message sent was loud and clear. The "best" of ECW-WCW is not good enough to hang with the WWF.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: It has been speculated that the reason for this was because Vince McMahon did not want the WWF to look weak while fighting the Alliance, as he worked very hard to put down his competition, especially WCW. Smash Wrestling alleges that WWF wrestlers needed to defect to make the Alliance appear to be a credible threat.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The Invasion storyline was presented with a backdrop of a McMahon feud. In the storyline, the WWF was owned by Vince McMahon, WCW was owned by Shane McMahon, and ECW was owned by Stephanie McMahon. Although the feud did not center completely around the McMahons, the family feud storyline had been done many times before. In addition to this, the Steve Austin versus Vince McMahon feud was to start again when Vince McMahon hit Austin in the back of the head with a chair at No Mercy. As stated by a SLAM! Wrestling synopsis of No Mercy: For fans who didn't catch it the fifth, tenth or twentieth time they've run the angle, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Vince McMahon are about to feud once again... First up was Vincent McMahon labelling Austin with a steel chair as he was waiting to put a dazed RVD away... Three minutes later, it was Shane McMahon's turn to hurl Kurt Angle out of the ring and into a steel ring post. Vince tackled Shane over the announce table and the two began pummeling one another. Back in the ring, Austin laid a "Stone Cold" Stunner on to retain the belt as a disgruntled Vince scowled. Gee, how many times have we seen that scenario play itself out before? Austin wins. Vince fumes. Fans snore. Whatever.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The storyline also allegedly centered too much on the McMahons, who were getting more airtime than the wrestlers.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Many fans had dreamed of a day where they could pit WWF and WCW wrestlers against each other, but the storyline's final match ended with four WWF wrestlers brawling it out. On TSN's "Off the Record", host Michael Landsberg asked Booker T why the Invasion – which he stated should have been one of the biggest money angles in wrestling history – was in his words a failure on pay-per-view. Booker responded: That wasn't the true WCW. I mean, we didn't have guys like Goldberg. We didn't have Sting. We didn't have Kevin Nash. We didn't have all the major players in the WCW to face the WWF superstars.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: Some of the WCW wrestlers' absences were out of the WWF's control. Many of WCW's top wrestlers had contracts with AOL Time Warner, WCW's parent company, and were willing to sit at home rather than wrestle for less money; Booker T, the reigning WCW Champion at the time of WWF's purchase, was a notable exception, agreeing to a buyout of the remainder of his contract with AOL Time Warner in order to wrestle for the WWF immediately. McMahon had the option of taking on any contract he wanted with his purchase, but chose to let AOL Time Warner continue to pay out what were considered bad deals. Ric Flair and Rey Mysterio were not signed until the end of the Invasion because they were tied to their contracts, and therefore their absence was out of the WWF's control. In addition, Scott Steiner was recovering from an injury, while WWF officials were concerned about Steiner's unprofessional backstage behavior. Others, such as Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Goldberg, were not signed until well after the storyline finished. As for WCW's other top superstars, Sting was still under contract to AOL Time Warner, and did not join the now-WWE until late 2014, while Lex Luger and Randy Savage would never reappear in the company on television (in May 2011, Luger rejoined WWE in a backstage role related to the company's Wellness Program, while Savage died of a sudden heart attack later the same month). Bret Hart, who made his name in the WWF but was last seen wrestling for WCW, had retired from wrestling due to his concussion he suffered in a match with Goldberg at Starrcade 1999 and estranged from Vince McMahon after the 1997 Montreal Screwjob; he would eventually return to WWE in 2010, having been inducted to the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006. Jeff Jarrett, despite his contract being dealt with WCW rather than AOL Time Warner, was another missing name as he was legitimately and publicly fired during the "Raw"/"Nitro" finale simulcast owing to disputes between Jarrett and McMahon that was not settled until 2018. Fans were confused by McMahon's decisions seeing as the WWF would make more than enough to cover all these wrestlers contracts in 2001. Because of this, the WWF's opponent allegedly lacked the strong identity of WCW.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: In correlation with WCW, ECW was also missing most of their key superstars such as The Sandman, Sabu, Balls Mahoney, Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke (all of whom would later join WWE's relaunched ECW). Other wrestlers such as Shane Douglas, Masato Tanaka, Terry Funk, New Jack, 2 Cold Scorpio and Mikey Whipwreck would also be missing from the storyline. During that period, the usage of the ECW name on-air was subjected to dispute despite Heyman still technically owning the company while the WWF faced legal action by Harry Slash & The Slashtones for the use of its theme song "This Is Extreme!".


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: The WWF itself would be missing some of its biggest stars, most notably Triple H, who tore his left quadriceps muscle on the May 21 episode of "Raw Is War", weeks before the start of the storyline and would not return until the following year on the January 7 episode of "Raw", however he did not compete as an in-ring competitor until the January 17 episode of "SmackDown!" in a tag team match and would also go on to win the Royal Rumble match a few days later at the Royal Rumble, well after the Invasion angle ended. Shawn Michaels, who was under a four-year retirement at the time, was on hiatus from WWF and also did not appear during the Invasion storyline. Rikishi (shoulder) and Big Boss Man were inactive throughout the entire storyline, and both men did not return to the WWF until December 2001. Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit who were former WCW/ECW stars, working for WWF at the time, were also absent from the storyline. Benoit was hinted to defect to WCW before his injury in June 2001 at King of the Ring. Guerrero was also hinted to defect to WCW but was sent to rehabilitation after an addiction with painkillers in May 2001 before being released that November. Both Guerrero and Benoit would not return to the company until April and May 2002 respectively. Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn, who were Benoit and Guerrero's former stablemates from The Radicalz were also absent from the storyline as well, with Malenko officially retiring from professional wrestling in July 2001 while Saturn was involved in a shoot incident during a "Jakked/Metal" taping and was minimally involved in the storyline; whenever Saturn appeared on match cards during the storyline, it is indicated that he is aligned with the WWF side.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: To bolster the ranks of WCW (in lieu of big WCW names), some WWF wrestlers (such as Steve Austin) defected and joined the Alliance and were pushed as the leaders of the Alliance. Austin, who had worked in WCW and ECW but had found his greatest success in the WWF and was seen primarily as a WWF wrestler, was pushed as the leader of the Alliance and a more important player during the Invasion than the bona fide WCW or ECW members of the Alliance. Several top WCW and ECW talents who were top superstars in their previous companies, such as Diamond Dallas Page, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, The Dudley Boyz, Justin Credible, Raven and Tazz, were put down into low-mid card matches, while lesser-ranked WWF wrestlers who defected to the Alliance, such as Test, were given a greater push. Sting would cite this as the reason he would never sign with the WWF (until 2014) despite being offered a contract.


title: The Invasion (professional wrestling)

text: In the final Survivor Series main event between the WWF and the Alliance, the Alliance was represented by five wrestlers. Three of these were WWF wrestlers who had defected. Shane McMahon and Kurt Angle had never wrestled a match for WCW or ECW prior to the Invasion. Only three wrestlers who had worked in WCW or ECW, Austin, Booker T and Rob Van Dam, were on the team. McMahon, Booker T and Rob Van Dam were the first three wrestlers eliminated on the Alliance's team, resulting in the last survivors representing the ostensible WCW/ECW entity being two wrestlers who were already working for the WWF prior to the Invasion.


title: Sniper: Ultimate Kill

text: Sniper: Ultimate Kill is a 2017 American action film directed by Claudio Fäh and starring Chad Michael Collins, Billy Zane, and Tom Berenger. The film is the seventh installment of the "Sniper" film series and a sequel to "" (2016). It was released direct-to-video on October 3, 2017.


title: Sniper: Ultimate Kill

text: Colombian drug kingpin Jesús Morales hires a skilled sniper known as "El Diablo" to eliminate all of his enemies, enabling him to gain more control over routes for smuggling drugs into the United States. Kate Estrada, a DEA agent, was sent to Colombia with Master Sergeant Brandon Beckett to stop "El Diablo" and extradite Morales.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Planet of the Humans is a 2019 American environmental documentary film written, directed, and produced by Jeff Gibbs. The film was executively produced by Michael Moore. Moore released it on YouTube for free viewing on April 21, 2020, the eve of the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: The film examines the decision of mainstream environmental groups and leaders to partner with billionaires, corporations, and wealthy family foundations in the fight to save a planet said to be in crisis. The film questions whether green energy can solve the problem of society's expanding resource depletion without reducing consumption and population growth, as all existing forms of energy generation require consumption of finite resources. Centrally, the film questions whether renewable energy sources such as biomass energy, wind power, and solar energy are as clean and renewable as they are portrayed to be.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Upon its release, "Planet of the Humans" generated intense controversy and critical reception was mixed. It was criticized by some climate scientists, environmentalists and renewable energy proponents as misleading and outdated. The filmmakers have defended the film from criticism. On May 25, 2020, "Planet of the Humans" was removed from YouTube in response to a claim of copyright infringement, which PEN America condemned as censorship. The filmmakers challenged the claim, arguing that the fragment was used under fair use and that free speech was subverted. Twelve days later, YouTube allowed the film to be viewed again. In November 2020, Moore removed it from YouTube where it was available for free and made it available on Amazon, Apple and Google's rental channels.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: "Planet of the Humans" takes a critical look at the mainstream environmental movement, questioning its leaders' decision to partner with billionaires, corporations, and wealthy family foundations, and to promote renewable energy technology as the solution to climate change.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Gibbs admits to being a long-time fan of renewable energy. When Barack Obama directs billions of dollars into renewable energy, Gibbs follows the green energy movement more closely but is disappointed with his initial findings. "Everywhere I encountered green energy," Gibbs says, "it wasn’t what it seemed." Attending General Motors' Chevy Volt press conference in 2010, he learns that the vehicle is being charged by a fossil fuel grid. A visit to his local solar array reveals it could only meet the energy demand of 10 homes over a year. He joins a group of concerned citizens on a hike to a wind turbine construction site in Vermont and finds part of the mountainside being removed. Gibbs asks, "Can machines made by industrial civilization save us from industrialization?"


title: Planet of the Humans

text: This question leads Gibbs to environmental sociologist Richard York’s study published in the journal "Nature," which found renewables were not displacing fossil fuels. Gibbs also speaks with author Richard Heinberg and anthropologist Nina Jablonski on why people seek technological fixes. Gibbs then interviews Ozzie Zehner, author of " (2012)," who reports that solar, wind, and electric vehicle technologies require mined minerals, including rare earths, and heavy industrial processes to produce – with new mines opening as demand for green technology rises.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Gibbs and Zehner travel to Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the Mojave Desert and show a natural gas line hooked up to the facility. Gibbs speaks to a series of solar industry insiders, an electrical engineer, and a Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner about solar energy’s intermittency limitation and reliance on baseload plants. Zehner reveals that while the Sierra Club’s "Beyond Coal" campaign has been successfully closing coal plants, natural gas plants were opening in their wake resulting in the overall expansion of fossil fuel use in the United States during that same time period, citing data from the U.S. Department of Energy. The film shows green tech investor Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaking to an oil and gas industry group, stating: "The plants that we're building, the wind plants and the solar plants, are gas plants."


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Zehner discusses how companies including Apple and Tesla claim to run on 100% renewable energy despite remaining hooked up to the grid and reveals the Koch Brothers' involvement in green technology production. The film contains a three-minute montage set to Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "The Enemy God Dances with the Black Spirits", which shows the scale of industrial mining required to create solar, wind, and electric vehicle technology. A bulldozer is shown destroying a 500-yearold yucca plant to clear the land for what became the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility. Gibbs says that solar and wind arrays last only a few decades before "you tear it down, and start all over again."


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Gibbs visits Steven Running, an ecologist from the University of Montana, who discusses planetary limits – including global fish production, agricultural land, water irrigation, and ground water. Gibbs ends the section by speaking to social-psychologist Sheldon Solomon positing whether faith in renewables could be a reflection of a fear of death.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Gibbs sneaks onto a biomass plant property in Vermont and finds that instead of burning forest residue as advertised, the plant is surrounded by whole trees. A citizen activist in Michigan reveals that her local biomass plant burns PCP and creosote-treated railroad ties shipped in from Canada as well as rubber tires, which cause black snow to appear at the adjacent elementary school. Gibbs explores the practice of universities committing to "go green" by opening biomass plants on campus, tracing the practice back to a college in Middlebury, VT, endorsed by Bill McKibben. Gibbs reveals that biomass energy remains the largest percentage of renewable energy in the world. He then explores what he calls the "language loopholes" that allow for the continuation of biomass around the U.S. The section ends with Gibbs, as part of a media event at the Climate March in New York City, asking environmental leaders for their stance on biomass including Van Jones, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Bill McKibben, and Vandana Shiva. Only Shiva denounces biomass & biofuels.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: In the last third of the film, Gibbs explores the partnerships between mainstream environmental groups and Wall Street investors, billionaires, and wealthy family foundations. Gibbs reveals a tax return showing that the Sierra Club accepted 3 million dollars from timber investor Jeremy Grantham. McKibben is shown on stage with former Goldman Sachs executive David Blood, supporting his call to raise $40–50 trillion in green energy investments. Gibbs displays U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings of green funds promoted in divestment campaigns by 350.org's, Bill McKibben, and the Sierra Club, which show holdings in mining companies, oil and gas infrastructure, various banks including BlackRock, Halliburton, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Exxon, Chevron, Gazprom, and Enviva among others. Gibbs shows corporate formation documents indicating that Al Gore partnered with David Blood to start Generation Investment Management – a sustainability investment fund – before releasing "An Inconvenient Truth". Gibbs then shows Gore lobbying Congress on behalf of the sugarcane ethanol industry in Brazil, juxtaposing footage of indigenous cultures in Brazil being evicted from their land to create more sugarcane fields.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Gibbs asserts that "the takeover of the environmental movement by capitalism is now complete," and asks whether it has always been complete. The film shows McKibben stating that 350.org receives funding from The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation. He also shows Gore in multiple interviews defending his decision to sell his American television channel, Current TV, earning him an estimated $100 million pre-tax for the deal, to Al Jazeera which is owned by the State of Qatar, an oil and gas producer. Gibbs attends an Earth Day concert celebration in Washington, DC sponsored by Toyota, Citibank, and Caterpillar, where Dennis Hayes claims the entire event is run on solar energy. Backstage, Gibbs discovers the concert is actually being run by biodiesel generators.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: The film ends with Gibbs reflecting that "Infinite growth on a finite planet is suicide", imploring the audience to take back the environmental movement from billionaires and capitalists. The final scene shows a mother and baby orangutan struggling to survive as the forest is logged and burned around them.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Planet of the Humans was written, directed, and narrated by Jeff Gibbs. Michael Moore served as executive producer. The producers of "Planet of the Humans" are Gibbs and Ozzie Zehner; co-producers are Valorie Gibbs, Christopher Henze and David Paxson; cinematography by Gibbs, Zehner, and Christopher Henze; editing by Gibbs and Angela Vargos; sound mixing by Christopher Henze. Gibbs also composed some of the film's score.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Its content consists of energy-related footage, street interviews, formal interviews, and archival footage of businessmen and prominent environmental leaders. Footage includes satellite views of America's night skies, construction of a wind turbine, a solar fair, a wind farm construction site, a solar array owned by Lansing Power and Light Company, the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, biomass facilities, and public events where prominent environmental leaders were speaking. Interviews were done by a camera crew that identified themselves as being from New World Media during public events. These interviews were preceded by a number of formal interviews with Richard Heinberg, Ozzie Zehner, and Penn State anthropologist Nina Jablonski. The voice-over for much of the film was done by Jeff Gibbs.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: The film received its world premiere at the Traverse City Film Festival (TCFF) in July 2019. On April 21, 2020, the eve of Earth Day, Moore announced that the film would be available for free on YouTube for 30 days, which was later extended by another month because of high viewership.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: In an interview held at TCFF, Gibbs stated that "the film is not expected to be a comfortable beginning to the needed conversation", especially for those who treat solar and wind energy like "sacred cows".


title: Planet of the Humans

text: The Films For Action website originally promoted the documentary. After protests stating that "the film is full of misinformation", they removed the embedded link and published a statement listing multiple falsehoods and errors, including statements about environmental organizations and solar and wind power that were outdated or incorrect. On May 7, Films for Action restored the embedded link, stating their concern that "taking the film down in the context of Josh's retraction campaign was only going to create headlines, generate more interest in the film, and possibly lead people to think we're trying to 'cover up the truth,' giving the film more power and mystique than it deserves".


title: Planet of the Humans

text: On May 25, 2020, the film was temporarily removed from YouTube due to a copyright infringement claim by British environmental photographer Toby Smith over a 4-second segment Gibbs considered fair-use content. The controversial video had more than 8 million YouTube views at the time. Moore and Gibbs called the move a "blatant act of censorship" and disputed the claim with YouTube. The producers made the video available for free streaming on the competing Vimeo platform.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: On November 18, 2020, Moore took it down from his "rumble" YouTube channel where it was available for free and instead made it available on Amazon, Apple and Google's rental channels.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: The movie was criticized as outdated and misleading by climate scientists. The film claims the carbon footprint of renewable energy is comparable to fossil fuels, when taking into account all different stages of its production. However, a large body of research shows the life-cycle emissions of wind and solar are much lower than those of fossil fuels.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: The film uses footage of a solar field that is up to a decade old, which critics argue may give a false impression of the maturity of the technologies in the present day. One field of solar panels the documentary shows operates with 8% efficiency of sunlight conversion, which is below the typical 15-20% efficiency of solar panels in use in 2020.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: The film also includes footage of a 10-year-old electric vehicle being recharged from a grid that is 95% powered by coal. The emissions intensity of electric vehicles varies depending on the source of electricity used to power the grid; however, as of 2020, they emit less than internal combustion vehicles in all but a few of the world's regions. As of 2015, electric vehicles emit on average 31% less than internal combustion vehicles for the same distance travelled. The average power grid derived slightly more than 60% of its energy from fossil fuels in 2019.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: A pie chart is shown in the film with total battery storage compared to yearly energy use, which is a factor of thousand higher. The filmmakers suggest that this amount of energy storage is needed to make sure intermittency of renewables does not lead to power outages. In reality, battery storage is only part of solving intermittency, and using a mix of different energy sources reduces the need for batteries.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: In a letter, filmmaker and environmental activist Josh Fox and academics including climate scientist Michael Mann have asked for an apology and a retraction of the film. They say the film includes "various distortions, half-truths and lies", and that the filmmakers "have done a grave disservice to us and the planet by promoting climate change inactivist tropes and talking points".


title: Planet of the Humans

text: The Union of Concerned Scientists, which was mentioned in the movie, responded to the allegations: "it implies that UCS took money from corporations profiting from EVs, without (again) stopping to check the facts, or reaching out to UCS about it. It wouldn't have been hard, either way, to discover that UCS doesn't take corporate money at all".


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Environmentalist Bill McKibben responded to claims made in the documentary about him and the organization he cofounded, 350.org:


title: Planet of the Humans

text: "A Youtube video emerged on Earth Day eve making charges about me and about 350.org — namely that I was a supporter of biomass energy, and that 350 and I were beholden to corporate funding, and have misled our supporters on the costs and trade-offs related to decarbonizing our economy. These things aren't true."


title: Planet of the Humans

text: In "Rolling Stone", McKibben continued: "the filmmakers didn't just engage in bad journalism (though they surely did), they acted "in bad faith". They didn't just behave dishonestly (though they surely did), they behaved "dishonorably". I'm aware that in our current salty era those words may sound mild, but in my lexicon they are the strongest possible epithets."


title: Planet of the Humans

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . On Metacritic it has a score of 56% based on reviews from five critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Supporters of the film praised it provoking discussion. Writing for "The Guardian", Peter Bradshaw called the film "refreshingly contrarian" saying that "it's always valuable to re-examine a sacred cow" and praising the film for focusing on "liberal A-listers" and refraining from attacking Greta Thunberg but criticised the film for being vague about solutions and not examining nuclear power.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Gary Mason at "The Globe and Mail" referred to the film as "The Michael Moore-backed film enviros are dreading".


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Nonfictionfilm.com editor-in-chief, Matthew Carey, wrote: "Films about environmental issues have long been a staple of the documentary form, a genre that in recent years alone has brought us Before the Flood, Chasing Ice, Chasing Coral and, of course, An Inconvenient Truth. But those documentaries arguably pale in importance to Planet of the Humans"


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Julie Ann Grimm of the "Santa Fe Reporter" praised the film saying that "Gibbs highlights how the global environmental cost of mining, production and disposal of solar and wind technology don’t get primetime play" and calling it a "enjoyable if also gut-rotting indictment of Big Environment and some of its figureheads" concluding that "It's ... a must-watch."


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Adrian Hennigan, features editor at "Haaretz", called "Planet of the Humans" a "provocative documentary about how capitalism has destroyed the environmental movement" and stated: "This cri de coeur from American producer-composer-editor Gibbs may lack balance and counterarguments, but it convincingly makes the case that 'less must be the new more' if humankind is to have any chance of not being wiped out due to overpopulation and overconsumption."


title: Planet of the Humans

text: The "Las Vegas Review-Journal" editorial page wrote of the movie, "As Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbs have uncovered, renewable energy proponents have been much better at making promises than keeping them", noting that "they aren’t the only ones who’ve noticed that renewable energy is heavily dependent on things that aren’t so renewable," pointing to an article in the "Wall Street Journal" by Mark P. Mills. However, they were less positive about the film's scepticism of companies, saying: "But the duo seem particularly aghast ... that any transition to green energy will require massive investment from evil industrialists and capitalists who might turn a profit. Who knew?"


title: Planet of the Humans

text: For Resilience, Heinberg has also written: "[The film] starts a conversation we need to have, and it's a film that deserves to be seen" and "Mainstream enviros will hate this movie because it exposes some of their real failings. By focusing on techno-fixes, they have side-lined nearly all discussion of overpopulation and overconsumption."


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Dennis Harvey in "Variety" claimed "Gibbs' dull monotone makes him a poor narrator", "there's nothing particularly elegant about the way "Planet of the Humans" arrives at its downbeat thesis," and "though well-shot and edited, the material here is simply too sprawling to avoid feeling crammed into one ungainly package."


title: Planet of the Humans

text: University of California environmental policy professor Leah Stokes of "Vox" claimed that the movie undermines the work of young climate activists and that "throughout, the filmmakers twist basic facts, misleading the public about who is responsible for the climate crisis. We are used to climate science misinformation campaigns from fossil fuel corporations. But from progressive filmmakers?" Dana Nucitelli of Yale Climate Connections claims: "The film's case is akin to arguing that because fruit contains sugar, eating strawberries is no healthier than eating a cheesecake." The Post Carbon Institute, a sustainability think tank closely connected with interviewee Richard Heinberg, published a podcast that criticizes the film.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Emily Atkin, environmental journalist for "The New Republic", described the documentary as "an argumentative essay from a lazy college freshman". Josh Fox of "The Nation" claimed that the film is "wildly unscientific, outdated, full of falsehoods, and benefits fossil fuel industry promoters and climate deniers." InsideClimate News argued that the movie "will almost certainly do far more harm than good in the struggle to reduce carbon emissions".


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Environmental journalist Brian Kahn of Earther argued that the filmmaker's choice to have "mostly white experts who are mostly men" argue in favor of population control gives the film "a bit more than a whiff of eugenics and ecofascism. [...] What's most frustrating about Gibbs' film is he walks right up to some serious issues and ignores clear solutions", Kahn concluded. "Jacobin" wrote that the film "embraces bad science on renewable energy and anti-humanist, anti–working class narratives of overpopulation and overconsumption", concluding that by "focusing on industrial civilization and 'overpopulation' as the cause of environmental problems, Moore and Gibbs distract us from the real problem: the untrammeled market." Ted Nordhaus, an environmental policy writer and proponent of nuclear energy and industrial agriculture, argued that "the treatment of renewables [in the film] is a mirror image of the misinformation that the anti-nuclear movement has trafficked in for decades." and called the overall message of the film "apocalyptic neo-Malthusian nihilism".


title: Planet of the Humans

text: In "The Guardian", George Monbiot wrote: "The film does not deny climate science. But it promotes the discredited myths that [climate change] deniers have used for years to justify their position. It claims that environmentalism is a self-seeking scam, doing immense harm to the living world while enriching a group of con artists". According to Monbiot, its "attacks on solar and wind power rely on a series of blatant falsehoods". Monbiot further criticised the film's focus on discussions of overpopulation, saying: "When wealthy people, such as Moore and Gibbs, point to this issue without the necessary caveats, they are saying, in effect, 'it's not Us consuming, it’s Them breeding.'"


title: Planet of the Humans

text: In a review of the film for Deep Green Resistance News Service, radical feminist Elisabeth Robson said the population issue was a "relatively minor point in the film compared to the points about solar, wind, and biomass" and "the film did a fairly good job of raising it as an issue without being particularly 'Malthusian' about it." She also opined that "it is very clear that 8 billion humans would not exist without massive amounts of fossil fuels. I don’t think many would argue with that at this point (and if you have a cogent argument, I’d like to see it)."


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Michael Moore, Jeff Gibbs, and Ozzie Zehner responded to the critics on an episode of "Rising". In the interview Gibbs states that "we don't attack environmental leaders. We need our environmental leaders." Gibbs also states that "We went to great pains to show you what's happening in the field of solar and wind. And many of our experts are in the solar and wind industry". In summarizing his primary intent for making the movie, Gibbs states that "I wanted to spark a holistic discussion about all the things we humans are doing and whether these green technologies were even going to solve climate change let alone all the other things happening around the planet."


title: Planet of the Humans

text: When pressed in the "Rising" interview about accusations that the film presents a Malthusian point of view, Gibbs responded that they never used the term "population control" and are not in favor of it, and added that a recent UN study on the extinction crisis also mentioned population growth and economic growth as the primary drivers of the crisis.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: Jeff Gibbs has said that the film is designed to prompt discussion and debate beyond the narrow issue of climate change and to look at the overall human impact on the environment, including issues such as human overpopulation and the contemporary extinction crisis in which half of all wildlife has disappeared in the last 40years, and whether green technology can solve these issues.


title: Planet of the Humans

text: On 18 May, Gibbs replied directly to the accusations of using "old footage" arguing that while most of the footage was shot in 2019 and 2020, the videos of the popular solar festivals were shot twice, in an interval of 10 years, and usage of diesel generators was observed each time. He explained that the solar farm in Michigan they filmed continues to operate at 8% efficiency and will continue for decades and that manufacturing of panels will require mining non-renewable resources. He also accused the "eco-industrial complex" of attempting to "choke [the producers] to death", instead of "self-reflection".


title: Debora Caprioglio

text: Debora Caprioglio (born 3 May 1968) is an Italian actress. Internationally, she is best known for playing the title character in the 1991 film "Paprika" by Tinto Brass and a relationship with Klaus Kinski from 1987–1989. In 2007, she took part in the Italian version of the reality show "Celebrity Survivor" ("L'isola dei famosi").


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: Shooting Stars is a British television comedy panel game broadcast on BBC Two as a pilot in 1993, then as three full series from 1995 to 1997, then on BBC Choice from January to December 2002 with two series before returning to BBC Two for another three series from 2008 until its cancellation in 2011. Created and hosted by double-act Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, it uses the panel show format but with the comedians' often slapstick, surreal and anarchic humour that does not rely on rules in order to function, with the pair apparently ignoring existing rules or inventing new ones as and when the mood takes them.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: The basic format of the show is that of a conventional panel game. The hosts (Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer) ask questions of the two teams with points awarded for "correct" answers; however, scoring is largely arbitrary. Each episode is produced by editing together excerpts of a longer session.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: Rounds include "true or false", the film clip round, the impressions round, and "The Dove from Above". In the impressions round, contestants have to guess what song Reeves is singing (incomprehensibly) "in the club style".


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: "The Dove from Above" is a large prop animal suspended above the contestants merely for the purpose of bearing six key words for further questions. Guests would be prompted to "coo" down the dove. Alternatives to the dove in various series included "The Blue Suitcase" in the pilot, "The Crow From Below", "The Vest From the West", Matt Lucas as "George Dawes from the Upper Floors," "The Wonderful, Wonderful Car," "Donald Cox – The Sweaty Fox," "The Fly From Upon High" and "The Beast From The East."


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: In the "Dove From Above" round, and subsequent versions of the same round, if a contestant answers incorrectly, Vic says "UVAVU" and pulls a silly face. If the contestant chooses a certain, prize-winning option, Vic will pull another silly face and say "ERANU" The prize is invariably a bizarre and practically useless device.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: Occasionally, there would be a "Maverick Round" where a guest would have to stand centre stage and represent something "via the medium of dance", or "the gift of the air guitar". They would then be judged by scorekeeper George Dawes (Lucas), who would invariably award them no points.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: Reeves would often tell a joke, much to everyone's disappointment. The joke would always fall flat, often accompanied by tumbleweed blowing across the floor of the studio. Occasionally, someone else would tell the joke and would be met with uproarious laughter, much to Reeves' anger.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: The impressions round saw a "random light" pick a contestant at random, and then they had to do an impression of a celebrity. In the pilot this was called by Reeves, "random factor". Other elements of the impressions round included the aforementioned club style singing.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: The film clip round always included a clip that was related to the question, but the answer to the question was never shown in the film just like the lyrics of George Dawes' songs, despite Bob Mortimer as a running gag saying to watch or listen carefully. In one episode, Mark Lamarr's team were shown a clip from "Citizen Smith" (instead of a comedy clip created by the Shooting Stars team), and were totally unaware the question would relate directly to the clip. A serious question was asked requesting what a man's T-shirt read, only for Mark to make something up and then Vic saying his traditional "UVAVU!" wrong answer catchphrase. One of the most memorable film clips was a spoof of "The Naked Chef", with Matt Lucas playing the part of Jamie Oliver, and Ulrika Jonsson playing the part of his then wife-to-be Juliette Norton. In the sketch, Lucas plays on highlighting Jamie's then constant use of the word pukka, constantly using the word while making sandwiches for a party in which he has invited his friends along (which he often used to do on his show, including the Sainsbury's adverts). He keeps saying that he'll use something later which he has discarded such as an eggshell, while Juliette twice appears asking if he would like any help, only to be turned away. At the end of the film clip, he throws a lot of chips in his motorcycle crash helmet.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: Whichever teams "wins" the round according to the scoring system "wins" £1 per point, and the captain must nominate a teammate to do a silly stunt for an alleged £5 per point. This is a timed round, often marked by Vic or Bob stating, "We don't know how much time we have, but when the time is up, you'll hear this sound," prompting George to say a silly phrase such as "Come on, come on! Clear it up, woman!" The credits then roll after this round as Vic and Bob sing their goodbyes.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: The title of the show is a pun on the fact that much of the humour is at the expense of the guest stars. To prove this point, in the pilot episode at the opening song (singing "let's start Shooting Stars"), Vic and Bob are holding shotguns and fire these into the stars.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: There are two teams – Team A and Team B. Each team has a regular team captain – originally Mark Lamarr and Ulrika Jonsson – and two celebrity guests on each team. Lamarr left the series in 1997 as he disliked being in too many quiz shows at once (at the time he was hosting "Never Mind the Buzzcocks"), and was replaced by novelist Will Self when the series returned in 2002. At the same time comedian Johnny Vegas was brought in as a regular guest on Jonsson's team, where he had a pint of Guinness on his desk where all the other contestants had water. Self was replaced by Jack Dee for the 2008 15th Anniversary Special and for the 2009 series, which also saw Lucas' character, George Dawes, replaced by Angelos Epithemiou, a creation of comedian Renton Skinner. Contestants are often addressed by their surnames, in reference to "University Challenge".


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: In addition to the 'regulars', the panel consisted of other celebrities from music, sports, politics and other fields. Some of the most memorable episodes included members who were clearly unaware of the format; on one particularly famous episode, "Dallas" star Larry Hagman appeared on the show and was in a state of constant bemusement. Writing in "The Guardian", Nancy Banks-Smith described him as looking "like a man in a nightmare".


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: Until the 2010 series, the "score" was kept by George Dawes, an overgrown, ranting, drumming baby played by comedian Matt Lucas (occasionally, George's mother Marjorie – also played by Lucas – appears instead. She also appears in "Little Britain"). His arrival at the start of the show would be accompanied by the words, "He's a baby!" sung to the tune of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog". He would also provide a sound effect to signal the end of timed rounds: in earlier series this was a simple scream, but later became random phrases ("Leakage"), sometimes in regional accents ("That's it; I'm turning the car around and we're going back to Dorset!"), or advertising slogans ("Have you ever been to a Harvester before?"). In the later series he would also perform "George's Song," on which subject questions would follow. These included "Lesbians", "Everybody's Talkin' About Football", "Hip Hop Is The Best", "1942" (appeared in the 15-year special, while being a song about inventions such as floors, trees, shoes and the 'flu) and even a rendition of the "Rentaghost" theme song. One of the most famous songs is "Peanuts", with George shouting "Peanuts!" every so often to a backing track, while corpsing. The costume Lucas wore for this performance later became an inspiration for his "Little Britain" character Andy. Another notable song was "Thank You Baked Potato", in which a potato gave him helpful advice. Lucas later used a revised version of this song in a fundraising effort for the National Health Service, during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: Lucas quit the programme in the 2010 series due to scheduling conflicts with his other projects, and the role of scorekeeper was taken over by Epithemiou.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: Apart from the Team Captains, Johnny Vegas made the most appearances with 19 as he was a permanent panellist on Ulrika's team during the 2002 series. Carol Vorderman made a total of 3 appearances and Jarvis Cocker, Stephen Fry, Zoë Ball, Les Dennis and Sara Cox each made two appearances (although Fry made a short appearance in the 2002 Christmas special). Martin Clunes and Robbie Williams both made two appearances as a panellist, once on Series One and once on video exclusive Unviewed and Nude, Clunes was also featured as a "mystery celebrity" in series two.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: An anniversary edition entitled "All New Shooting Stars" was shown on 30 December 2008, celebrating the 15th anniversary of the show. Ulrika Jonsson returned as captain, with Jack Dee as the replacement team captain. Matt Lucas also reprised his George Dawes character for the episode. Guests for the episode were Peter Jones, Kate Garraway, Christine Walkden, and Dizzee Rascal.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: On 3 April 2009, it was announced that the show would return for a full sixth series. Most of the original cast returned along with Jack Dee, who continued as a permanent team captain after his appearance on the anniversary special. It began on BBC Two and BBC HD on 26 August 2009.


title: Shooting Stars (British TV series)

text: "Shooting Stars" returned in July 2010 for a seventh series. This series made the following further changes:


title: Michael Boyce, Baron Boyce

text: Admiral of the Fleet Michael Cecil Boyce, Baron Boyce, (2 April 1943 – 6 November 2022) was a British Royal Navy officer who also sat as a crossbench member of the House of Lords until his death in November 2022.


title: Michael Boyce, Baron Boyce

text: Boyce commanded three submarines and then a frigate before achieving higher command in the Navy and serving as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff from 1998 to 2001 and then as Chief of the Defence Staff from 2001 to 2003. As Chief of Defence Staff he is believed to have had concerns about US plans for a national missile defence system. In early 2003 he advised the British Government on the deployment of troops for the invasion of Iraq, seeking assurances as to the legitimacy of the deployment before it was allowed to proceed.


title: Michael Boyce, Baron Boyce

text: Michael Cecil Boyce, the first son of Commander Hugh Boyce DSC and his Afrikaner wife, Madeline (née Manley), was born in Cape Town on 2 April 1943. His two brothers were Philip Boyce, a professor of psychiatry in Australia, and Graham Boyce, a diplomat.


title: Michael Boyce, Baron Boyce

text: Boyce was educated at Hurstpierpoint College and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. He joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1961 and, having trained as a submariner, was confirmed in the rank of sub-lieutenant on 10 December 1965, promoted to lieutenant on 30 August 1966, and saw service in the submarines , and . He completed the Submarine Command Course in 1973, became commanding officer of the submarine in the same year and, having been promoted to lieutenant commander on 8 January 1974, was given command of the submarine later that year.


title: Michael Boyce, Baron Boyce

text: Promoted to the rank of commander on 30 June 1976, Boyce became commanding officer of the submarine in 1979. He was posted to the Directorate of Naval Plans at the Ministry of Defence in 1981 and appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1982 Birthday Honours, before being promoted to captain on 30 June 1982. He was given command of the frigate in January 1983, and returned to the Ministry of Defence as captain, Submarine Sea Training in 1984. He attended the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1988 and then became Senior Naval Officer in the Middle East in 1989. He went on to be Director of Naval Staff Duties at the Ministry of Defence in August 1989. Following promotion to rear admiral, he became Flag Officer Sea Training in July 1991. He became Flag Officer, Surface Flotilla and NATO Commander of the Anti-Submarine Warfare Striking Force in November 1992.