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174-521: Ken Shamrock (born Kenneth Wayne Kilpatrick; February 11, 1964) is an American retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist . He is currently signed to WWE under a Legends contract, under the ring name Ken Shamrock . He is best known for his time in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), WWE and other combat sports . An inaugural inductee into the UFC Hall of Fame , Shamrock

348-563: A New York accent than with other Southern accents, due to commercial ties and cultural migration between the two cities. Since at least the 1980s, this local New Orleans dialect has popularly been called " Yat ", from the common local greeting "Where you at?". Some features that the New York accent shares with the Yat accent include: Yat also lacks the typical vowel changes of the Southern Shift and

522-435: A bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether the individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in

696-652: A bouncer in college and the early years of his professional wrestling career in North Carolina . He made money by winning Toughman Contests and street fights . Shamrock later joined the shoot-style Japanese pro wrestling organization Fujiwara Gumi . On October 4, 1992, at the Tokyo Dome , a legitimate match between "Wayne Shamrock" (Shamrock's ring name in Japan) and kickboxer Don Nakaya Nielsen took place. Shamrock submitted Nielsen in 45 seconds, first threatening him with

870-589: A gauntlet match , and an eight-man guitar-on-a-pole match . In both matches, he was unsuccessful in winning. Shamrock then departed TNA again shortly after the latter match. Shamrock returned to professional wrestling on November 30, 2018, for Battle Championship Wrestling in Melbourne, Australia . He defeated BCW Tag Team Champion Gabriel Wolfe in a singles match before teaming with Carlo Cannon in an impromptu BCW Tag Team Championship match against Wolfe and Big Cuz, in which Shamrock and Cannon were successful in capturing

1044-510: A kneebar . He lost the title in his next fight against Pancrase co-creator, Minoru Suzuki. In addition to his MMA bouts in Pancrase, Shamrock also competed in a kickboxing match in 1994 with Dutch champion Frank "The Animal" Lobman , who holds a pro record of 110-6 with a 90% KO ratio. The American had only rudimentary striking experience, but he took the fight expecting it to help him to work on proper kickboxing. Shamrock broke Lobman's nose with

1218-415: A performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in the 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance

1392-466: A professional wrestling event, he decided to sign up nonetheless, supported by Pancrase members Masakatsu Funaki and Takaku Fuke . The event, UFC 1 , was held under a one-night tournament format, but Shamrock only realized it would be real fighting after watching Gerard Gordeau knock out Teila Tuli in the first bout. In the first round, Shamrock was pitted against kickboxing stylist Patrick Smith , who he made short work of by throwing Smith to

1566-415: A professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from

1740-455: A rear naked choke and then locking a neck crank / keylock combination for the win. The success of this match made young professional wrestlers Shamrock, Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki question what they had been told since entering into predetermined wrestling: that nobody would ever pay to see real matches. Funaki and Suzuki then founded a group of professional wrestlers and decided to pursue marketable legitimate matches. The two formed

1914-610: A soccer kick to the face at 1:27. They wrestled a rematch in 1992, with both wrestlers working heavily stiff , though with no more incidents. Shamrock himself praised Takahashi as a wrestler, comparing him to himself. Shamrock made his WWF debut as a face on the February 24, 1997, episode of Monday Night Raw , the same episode of Raw where ECW promoted their first pay-per-view Barely Legal 1997 . On March 23, 1997, Shamrock, identified as Ken Shamrock and billed as "The World's Most Dangerous Man"—a name given to him by ABC News —refereed

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2088-657: A submission match between Bret Hart and Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 . Shamrock returned to the ring following WrestleMania, squashing Vernon White (one of his Lion's Den students) in his debut WWF match. He went on to feud with Vader , Bret Hart, and The Hart Foundation throughout 1997. Shamrock's feud with Vader continued in Japan, through a working agreement between the WWF and FMW, Shamrock wrestled Vader in an Ultimate Rules Steel Cage match for FMW's Kawasaki Legend 1997 super show featuring 4 other promotions. The match ended in

2262-429: A "Lion's Den weapons match". He went on to feud with the newly debuted Chris Jericho until departing the WWF in late 1999 in order to resume his mixed martial arts career. His departure was attributed on screen to an injury inflicted by Jericho's bodyguard, Mr. Hughes . However, during his 2024 interview with Chris Van Vliet , Shamrock revealed the reason he left WWF at the time is was due to being uncomfortable with

2436-573: A TKO win for Vader as Shamrock was suffering from internal bleeding from a lung infection and a rib injury. Shamrock's rivalry with the Harts led to his first WWF pay-per-view main event at In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede and culminated in a bout between him and The British Bulldog for the European Championship at SummerSlam which Shamrock lost by disqualification after hitting the Bulldog with

2610-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over

2784-407: A big victory, as it had been the first time he beat Funaki in all his time as Funaki's apprentice, and the show attracted a sell-out audience of 7,000. He followed up with victories over Yoshiki Takahashi , Takaku Fuke and Andre Van Den Oetelaar, and was slated to fight co-founder Minoru Suzuki on January 19, 1994. According to Shamrock, he was asked by Pancrase management not to injure Suzuki during

2958-591: A can of dog food. Shamrock went on to wrestle Bret Hart to a no-contest in a match for the latter's WWF Championship on the edition of October 21 of Raw . He again challenged for the WWF Championship in the main event of December's D-Generation X: In Your House , defeating champion Shawn Michaels by disqualification when Triple H interfered. Throughout early 1998, Shamrock feuded with The Rock and his Nation of Domination stable over Rock's Intercontinental Championship . On January 18 at Royal Rumble , during

3132-520: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so

3306-513: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to

3480-574: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from

3654-410: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . Southern dialect of America Southern American English or Southern U.S. English

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3828-474: A distance between the speaker's claim and the hearer. It serves to soften obligations or suggestions, make criticisms less personal, and to overall express politeness, respect, or courtesy. Southerners also often use " evidential " predicates such as think, reckon, believe, guess, have the feeling, etc.: Evidential predicates indicate an uncertainty of the knowledge asserted in the sentence. According to Johnston (2003) , evidential predicates nearly always hedge

4002-404: A distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by the broader public. In the United States, wrestling

4176-540: A draw at Inoki Dojo in Hollywood, California. Shamrock made an appearance in the independent Wrestling company Juggalo Championship Wrestling during their flagship annual event, Bloodymania III , defeating Jimmy Jacobs with Dan Severn as the special guest referee. In December 2013 at "Amo del Hexagono" in Costa Rica, he made his return by attacking Carlito and challenging him to a match. In May 2002, Shamrock signed

4350-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers

4524-426: A huge movement of non-Southerners into the area during the 1990s. Modern-day Charleston speakers have leveled in the direction of a more generalized Midland accent (and speakers in other Southern cities too like Greenville, Richmond, and Norfolk), away from the city's now-defunct, traditional Charleston accent , whose features were "diametrically opposed to the Southern Shift... and differ in many other respects from

4698-471: A laid-back, plain, or humble attitude. The accent is also associated nationwide with the military , NASCAR , and country music . Furthermore, non–Southern American country singers typically imitate a Southern accent in their music. The sum of negative associations nationwide, however, is the main presumable cause of a gradual decline of Southern accent features, since the middle of the 20th century onwards, particularly among younger and more urban residents of

4872-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have

5046-754: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned

5220-400: A match the referee Mike Chioda was distracted by The Rock's team Nation of Domination when The Rock's teammate D'Lo Brown 's foot was stuck in the ropes, before The Rock used brass knuckles to hit him. He then disposed of the brass knuckles inside his trunks behind the referee's back. Shamrock was originally set to win the match and defeat The Rock. The Rock appealed to Chioda who discovered

5394-424: A more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for the purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise

Ken Shamrock - Misplaced Pages Continue

5568-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to

5742-497: A newsletter back at the hotel that explained to readers how Severn was going to destroy Shamrock. During the match, Shamrock forced Severn to tap out to a choke in 2:14 to win the UFC Superfight Championship. On September 8, 1995, at UFC 7 , Shamrock successfully defended the UFC Superfight Championship against UFC 6 Tournament Champion "The Russian Bear" Oleg Taktarov . Shamrock stated in his autobiography that he

5916-571: A one-night return on New Year's Eve 2000 teaming with UFC fighter Don Frye losing to Keiji Muto and Nobuhiko Takada at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye in Osaka, Japan. Shamrock returned to professional wrestling in March 2002, refereeing a Ring of Honor match between Bryan Danielson and Low Ki . Then on February 20, 2004, Shamrock defeated Sylvester Terkay in a double disqualification at Ultimate Pro Wrestling . A couple of weeks later he fought Shinsuke Nakamura to

6090-748: A one-year deal with the newly formed Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion. On the inaugural TNA pay-per-view on June 19, Shamrock won the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship in a Gauntlet for the Gold match and is recognized as TNA's first ever World Champion. After feuding with Malice for several weeks, Shamrock left TNA shortly after losing the title to Ron Killings on August 7. Shamrock made two appearances for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) between 2003 and 2004. He defeated Takashi Iizuka at NJPW Ultimate Crush II in May 2003. He then lost to Josh Barnett by disqualification at NJPW Nexess. Shamrock made

6264-522: A professional wrestling northern lights suplex floated over into a Kimura lock and was widely considered to be a worked shoot . When Shamrock was asked about the matter in 1998, he revealed that Hume and him had agreed to work the match in an exhibition format. Later, in 2015, he would answer to a similar question: "I talked to Matt and I said that we would go in with each other but I wouldn't hurt him. I wouldn't hurt him, because he had been so green. [...] So those were understandings I had with guys because I

6438-488: A range from obligated to forbidden and are mostly used as markers of politeness in requests whereas epistemic modals refer to probabilities from certain to impossible. Multiple modals combine these two modalities. People from the South often make use of conditional or evidential syntaxes as shown below (italicized in the examples): Conditional syntax in requests: Conditional syntax in suggestions: Conditional syntax creates

6612-595: A renewal among primarily male speakers born since the 1970s, who have been the most attracted by, and the biggest attractors of, a successful Cajun cultural renaissance. The accent includes: Cajun English is not subject to the Southern Vowel Shift. A separate historical English dialect from the above Cajun one, spoken only by those raised in the Greater New Orleans area, is traditionally non-rhotic and noticeably shares more pronunciation commonalities with

6786-495: A reputation as being seemingly unbeatable. Gracie came into the octagon at 190 pounds, while Shamrock cut his weight down to 205 pounds for the bout. Mere hours before the event, the UFC suddenly instituted a 30-minute time limit, mainly due to pay per view time constraints. Both Gracie and Shamrock were upset at the sudden rule change. Shamrock and Gracie fought for the entire allotted time of 30 minutes along with 5 minutes of overtime before

6960-500: A right cross early in the bout but was ultimately defeated by TKO due to leg kicks . Shamrock eventually had a falling out with Pancrase management in early 1996 and left the company to compete in the UFC full-time. Shamrock left Pancrase with a record of 17–3. From there he went to the newly formed Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a fighting tournament that would take place in America. Although Shamrock initially believed it to be

7134-431: A row ( might could, might should, might would, used to could, etc.--also called "modal stacking") and sometimes even triple modals that involve oughta (like might should oughta ) The origin of multiple modals is controversial; some say it is a development of Modern English , while others trace them back to Middle English and others to Scots-Irish settlers. There are different opinions on which class preferably uses

Ken Shamrock - Misplaced Pages Continue

7308-491: A senior, he qualified for the state championships in wrestling, but broke his neck in practice days before the competition and underwent neck surgery. Due to the injury, he received no scholarship offers from any big colleges, and doctors told him his sports career was likely over. Against doctors' orders, he joined the Shasta College football team, where he was voted team captain in his final season. The San Diego Chargers of

7482-537: A special return to NJPW on October 27, 2022, at Rumble on 44th Street , escorting Clark Connors to the ring for his match against Minoru Suzuki , in which Suzuki was victorious. After the match, Suzuki and Shamrock stared off, hinting a brawl, however both instead embraced in the ring. Shamrock briefly returned to TNA in July 2004. In his return, he only wrestled twice: for the NWA Heavyweight Championship in

7656-575: A stable of wrestlers in opposition to the Corporate Ministry . The Union dissolved soon after defeating the Corporate Ministry at Over the Edge in May. Shamrock briefly feuded with Jeff Jarrett before beginning a rivalry with martial artist Steve Blackman that saw he and Blackman fight one another in a series of unorthodox matches. The feud ended at SummerSlam , where Shamrock defeated Blackman in

7830-497: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in

8004-575: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point

8178-415: A win. You gain nothing (with a draw)". Shamrock expressed desire to fight Gracie again for a third time in 1996, saying that if it went to a draw again, he would have Gracie declared the winner and Shamrock would forfeit his UFC Superfight Championship belt to Gracie. Shamrock was then matched up with UFC 5 tournament champion Dan Severn at UFC 6 on July 14, 1995, to determine the reigning champion of

8352-498: A young age, playing in Little League baseball and Pop Warner football. Nance remembers a veteran coach telling him that he had never seen a player with as much heart and tenacity as the young Shamrock. Shamrock was not as involved with drugs as his brothers, such as his brother Richie, who enjoyed smoking marijuana and eventually using heroin intravenously , but who also played football. At age 10, Shamrock ran away from home for

8526-612: Is War , Shamrock's kayfabe sister, Ryan made her WWF debut, with both Billy Gunn and Val Venis making overtures to her. It led to a match between Shamrock and Gunn for the Intercontinental Championship at Royal Rumble . Shamrock retained the title. The following night, on the January 25 episode of Raw is War , Shamrock and Boss Man lost the Tag Team Championship to Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart. Val Venis continued to flirt with Ryan, leading to Shamrock defending

8700-809: Is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States , primarily by White Southerners and increasingly concentrated in more rural areas . As of 2000s research, its most innovative accents include southern Appalachian and certain Texan accents . Such research has described Southern American English as the largest American regional accent group by number of speakers. More formal terms then developed to characterize this dialect within American linguistics include "Southern White Vernacular English" and "Rural White Southern English". However, more commonly in

8874-436: Is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with the premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which

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9048-424: Is a geographic term, "Southern dialect" may also encompass dialects developed among other social or ethnic groups in the South. The most prominent of these dialects is African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), a fairly unified variety of English spoken by working and middle-class African-Americans throughout the United States. AAVE exhibits a relationship with both older and newer Southern dialects, though there

9222-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted

9396-427: Is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as a genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has

9570-452: Is known for some unique vocabulary: long sandwiches are often called poor boys or po' boys , woodlice/roly-polies called doodle bugs , the end of a bread loaf called a nose , pedestrian islands and median strips alike called neutral ground , and sidewalks called banquettes . Discussion of "Southern dialect" in the United States sometimes focuses on those English varieties spoken by white Southerners; However, because "Southern"

9744-470: Is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain a " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to

9918-492: Is not yet a broad consensus on the exact nature of this relationship. The historical context of race and slavery in the United States is a central factor in the development of AAVE. From the 16th to 19th centuries, many Africans speaking a diversity of West African languages were captured, brought to the United States, and sold into slavery. Over many generations, these Africans and their African-American descendants picked up English to communicate with their white enslavers and

10092-402: Is spoken by many older Cajun ethnic group members and is said to be dying out. A related language, Louisiana Creole French , also exists. Since the early 1900s, Cajuns additionally began to develop their vernacular dialect of English , which retains some influences and words from French, such as "cher" (dear) or "nonc" (uncle). This dialect fell out of fashion after World War II but experienced

10266-524: Is used to say that something exists (rather than saying where it is located). The construction can be found in Middle English as in Marlowe 's Edward II : "Cousin, it is no dealing with him now". Standard English has a strict word order . In the case of modal auxiliaries , standard English is restricted to a single modal per verb phrase . However, some Southern speakers use double or more modals in

10440-419: Is widely regarded as an icon and pioneer of the sport. He has headlined over 15 main events and co-main events in the UFC and Pride FC and set numerous MMA pay-per-view records. In the early part of his UFC career, Shamrock was named "The World's Most Dangerous Man" by ABC News in a special called "The World's Most Dangerous Things". The moniker has stuck as his nickname. Shamrock became known early on in

10614-608: The Jacksonville area of northern Florida , the Springfield area of southern Missouri , and much of Texas . Other 21st-century scholarship further includes within the dialect region southern Maryland , eastern and southern Oklahoma , central West Virginia, the rest of northern Florida and southern Missouri, and southeastern New Mexico . The Atlas , furthermore, documents the South Midland accent as sharing key features with

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10788-547: The National Football League later offered him a tryout, but he declined in order to pursue a career in professional wrestling , where he debuted in 1989 in the North Carolina based South Atlantic Pro Wrestling promotion. In 1988, Shamrock trained as a professional wrestler under Buzz Sawyer , Nelson Royal, and Gene Anderson . He debuted in 1989 in Royal's North Carolina-based Atlantic Coast Wrestling promotion under

10962-609: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In

11136-588: The US Department of Energy at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee offered a voluntary "Southern accent reduction" class so that employees could be "remembered for what they said rather than their accents". The course offered accent neutralization through code-switching . The class was canceled because of the resulting controversy and complaints from Southern employees, who were offended by

11310-620: The United States , the variety is known as the Southern accent or simply Southern . A diversity of earlier Southern dialects once existed: a consequence of the mix of English speakers from the British Isles (including largely English and Scots-Irish immigrants ) who migrated to the American South in the 17th and 18th centuries, with particular 19th-century elements also borrowed from

11484-524: The WWF Championship . Additionally, Shamrock was also one of the first wrestlers to use the shoot style of wrestling in America, being credited by WWE with popularizing the legitimate ankle lock submission hold. A " military brat ," Kilpatrick was born at Robins Air Force Base , in Warner Robins, Georgia on February 11, 1964, where he lived for his first four years. His father Richard Kilpatrick

11658-543: The WWF Tag Team Championship , unsuccessfully challenging rival faction D-Generation X (DX) members New Age Outlaws ( Billy Gunn and Road Dogg ) for the titles at Rock Bottom: In Your House . However, the following night, on the December 14 episode of Raw is War , Shamrock and Boss Man defeated New Age Outlaws for the Tag Team Championship, making Shamrock a dual champion. On the January 11, 1999 episode of Raw

11832-748: The World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). There, he is a one-time Intercontinental Champion , a one-time World Tag Team Champion and the 1998 King of the Ring . Shamrock also wrestled for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , where he is a one-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion – the first world champion under the TNA banner – and a 2020 inductee in the Impact Hall of Fame . He headlined multiple pay-per-view events in both promotions, including 1997's D-Generation X: In Your House , where he challenged for

12006-533: The cot–caught merger is very close to completed. Some sub-regions of the South, and perhaps even a majority of the biggest cities, are showing a gradual shift away from the Southern accent (toward a more Midland or General American accent) since the second half of the 20th century to the present. Such well-studied cities include Houston, Texas , and Raleigh, North Carolina ; in Raleigh, for example, this retreat from

12180-534: The creoles and pidgins spoken by Black Caribbeans. There is also evidence of some influence of West African languages on the vocabulary and grammar of AAVE. It is uncertain to what extent current white Southern English borrowed elements from early AAVE, and vice versa. Like many white accents of English once spoken in Southern plantation areas—namely, the Lowcountry, the Virginia Piedmont, Tidewater, and

12354-488: The independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in the United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including

12528-536: The pin–pen merger that is commonly heard elsewhere throughout the South. Yat is associated with the working and lower-middle classes, and a spectrum of speech patterns with fewer notable Yat features is often heard among those of higher socioeconomic status; such New Orleans affluence is associated with the New Orleans Uptown and the Garden District , whose speech patterns are sometimes considered distinct from

12702-434: The pin–pen merger , and the most defining sound of the current Southern accent (though rarely documented in older Southern accents): the glide weakening of /aɪ/ . However, while this glide weakening has triggered among white Southerners a complicated "Southern Vowel Shift", African-American speakers in the South and elsewhere are "not participating or barely participating" in much of this shift. AAVE speakers also do not front

12876-570: The ring name Wayne Shamrock. After ACW folded, he moved on to the George Scott/Paul Jones-run company South Atlantic Pro Wrestling (which initially promoted under the banner of the North American Wrestling Association) and changed his ring name to Vince Torelli. Later he adopted the nickname "Mr. Wrestling" and a more villainous persona. In June 1990, after being inspired by Dean Malenko , Shamrock applied for

13050-431: The spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from the competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on

13224-448: The "Inland South" as a large linguistic sub-region of the South located mostly in southern Appalachia (specifically naming the cities of Greenville, South Carolina, Asheville, North Carolina, Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Birmingham and Linden, Alabama), inland from both the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts, and the originating region of the Southern Vowel Shift. The Inland South, along with

13398-409: The "Texas South" (an urban core of central Texas: Dallas , Lubbock , Odessa , and San Antonio ) are considered the two major locations in which the Southern regional sound system is the most highly developed, and therefore the core areas of the current-day South as a dialect region. The accents of Texas are diverse, for example with important Spanish influences on its vocabulary; however, much of

13572-577: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in

13746-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in

13920-460: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide

14094-521: The American Civil War – and the subsequent national abolition of explicitly racial slavery in the 19th century – many newly freed African Americans and their families remained in the United States. Some stayed in the South, while others moved to join communities of African-American free people living outside of the South. Soon, racial segregation laws followed by decades of cultural, sociological, economic, and technological changes such as WWII and

14268-607: The American tryouts of Japanese Universal Wrestling Federation in Florida. As it was a shoot style promotion, where real strikes and holds were used, Shamrock was put to spar legitimately against other participants, among them Bart Vale . After passing another tryout in Japan, he was eventually accepted, and in October he had his debut match in UWF, wrestling under the name of "Wayne Shamrock" and defeating Yoji Anjo . He became instantly popular and

14442-641: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike

14616-537: The BCW tag team titles. These matches were Shamrock's first since 2009 and his first championship since the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in the summer of 2002. They would go on to hold the titles for nine months to the day losing them to The Preston Kindred (Jonathan Preston & Sean Preston). In August 2019, it was announced that Shamrock would be returning to TNA, now known as Impact Wrestling, for

14790-457: The Intercontinental Championship against Venis at St. Valentine's Day Massacre , with Billy Gunn as the guest referee. Shamrock lost the match after Ryan slapped him and Gunn delivered a fast count. Shortly after losing the title, Shamrock also began feuding with Goldust , who also began flirting with Ryan. This led to Shamrock competing in a four way match for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania XV . The reigning champion Road Dogg,

14964-667: The London upper class and enslaved African-Americans. By the 19th century, this included distinct dialects in eastern Virginia, the greater Lowcountry area surrounding Charleston, the Appalachian upcountry region, the Black Belt plantation region, and secluded Atlantic coastal and island communities. Following the American Civil War , as the South's economy and migration patterns fundamentally transformed, so did Southern dialect trends. Over

15138-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from

15312-477: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into

15486-659: The South, best documented before the Civil War , on the decline during the early 1900s, and non-existent in speakers born since the civil rights movement . Little unified these older Southern dialects since they never formed a single homogeneous dialect region to begin with. Some older Southern accents were rhotic (most strongly in Appalachia and west of the Mississippi ), while the majority were non-rhotic (most strongly in plantation areas); however, wide variation existed. Some older Southern accents showed (or approximated) Stage 1 of

15660-544: The South. In a study of children's attitudes about accents published in 2012, Tennessee children from five to six were indifferent about the qualities of persons with different accents, but children from Chicago were not. Chicago children from five to six (speakers of Northern American English ) were much more likely to attach positive traits to Northern speakers than Southern ones. The study's results suggest that social perceptions of Southern English are taught by parents to children and exist for no biological reason. In 2014,

15834-488: The South. Most of the Southern United States underwent several major sound changes from the beginning to the middle of the 20th century, during which a more unified, region-wide sound system developed, markedly different from the sound systems of the 19th-century Southern dialects. The South as a present-day dialect region generally includes all of the pronunciation features below, which are popularly recognized in

16008-503: The Southeastern fronting of /oʊ/ and the status of the pin–pen merger is highly variable. Non-rhoticity ( r -dropping) is now rare in these cities, yet still documented in some speakers. Most of southern Louisiana constitutes Acadiana , a cultural region dominated for hundreds of years by monolingual speakers of Cajun French , which combines elements of Acadian French with other French and Spanish words. Today, this French dialect

16182-811: The Southern Vowel Shift—;namely, the glide weakening of /aɪ/ —however, it is virtually unreported before the very late 1800s. In general, the older Southern dialects lacked the Mary–marry–merry , cot–caught , horse–hoarse , wine–whine , full–fool , fill–feel , and do–dew mergers , all of which are now common to, or encroaching on, all varieties of present-day Southern American English. Older Southern sound systems included those local to the: These grammatical features are characteristic of both older and newer Southern American English. Standard English would prefer "existential there ", as in "There's one lady who lives in town". This construction

16356-405: The Southern accent but to a weaker extent; these features extend across all of Texas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia as well as eastern and central Kansas , southern Missouri, southern Indiana , southern Ohio , and possibly southern Illinois . African-American accents across the United States have many common points with Southern accents due to the strong historical ties of African Americans to

16530-479: The Southern highlands and Piney Woods , as in yesterday they riz up, come outside, drawed, and drownded , as well as participle forms like they have took it, rode it, blowed it up, and swimmed away . Drug is traditionally both the past tense and participle form of the verb drag . Y'all is a second-person singular pronoun that used to refer to a single group . It is originally a contraction  – you all. Southern Louisiana English especially

16704-609: The UFC Superfight Champion, he was widely considered the #1 mixed martial artist in the world, and in 2008, Shamrock was ranked by Inside MMA as one of the top 10 greatest mixed martial arts fighters of all time. He is the founder of the Lion's Den mixed martial arts training camp, and is the older brother of fellow fighter Frank Shamrock . In addition to his mixed martial arts career, Shamrock has had considerable success in professional wrestling, particularly during his tenure with

16878-553: The UFC for his rivalry with Royce Gracie . After fighting to a draw in the inaugural UFC "Superfight", he became the first UFC Superfight Champion when he defeated Dan Severn at UFC 6 ; the title was eventually replaced by the UFC Heavyweight Championship when weight categories were introduced to the UFC. He was also the first foreign MMA champion in Japan, winning the King of Pancrase Openweight title . During his reign as

17052-478: The UFC. The "superfight", a match presented as a fight between the "best of the best", was still the match that would determine the UFC champion and the tournament winner would be considered the #1 contender for the newly created UFC Superfight Championship (later replaced by the UFC Heavyweight Championship when weight categories were introduced to the UFC). Their feud began at the pre-fight press conference. After most of

17226-486: The United States as making up a "Southern accent". The following phonological phenomena focus on the developing sound system of the 20th-century Southern dialects of the United States that altogether largely (though certainly not entirely) superseded the older Southern regional patterns. However, there is still variation in Southern speech regarding potential differences based on factors like a speaker's exact sub-region, age, ethnicity, etc. William Labov et al. identify

17400-683: The accent appears to have begun around 1950. Other sub-regions are unique in that their inhabitants have never spoken with the Southern regional accent, instead having their distinct accents. The Atlas of North American English identified Atlanta, Georgia , as a dialectal "island of non-Southern speech", Charleston, South Carolina , likewise as "not markedly Southern in character", and the traditional local accent of Savannah, Georgia , as "giving way to regional [Midland] patterns", despite these being three prominent Southern cities. The dialect features of Atlanta are best described today as sporadic from speaker to speaker, with such variation increased due to

17574-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight

17748-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that

17922-517: The assertions and allow the respondents to hedge theirs. They protect speakers from the social embarrassment that appears, in case the assertion turns out to be wrong. As is the case with conditional syntax, evidential predicates can also be used to soften criticisms and to afford courtesy or respect. In the United States, the following vocabulary is mostly unique to, or best associated with, Southern U.S. English: Unique words can occur as Southern nonstandard past-tense forms of verbs, particularly in

18096-402: The attention from the media was given to Shamrock, Severn got up and walked out of the door without explanation. Shamrock took Severn's action as a sign of disrespect. Severn later said that he walked out because he felt that it would be unfair to Shamrock for him to be present in the room while Shamrock was discussing his fight strategy to the media. Shamrock became even more furious when he found

18270-550: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As

18444-410: The blame of his loss in the fact that he wasn't allowed to wear wrestling shoes during the fights, while Gracie himself had been allowed to wear his gi and choke Shamrock with it. "[Wearing shoes] is a lot of the set ups and the positions for my leglocks- being able to get my knee inside, being able to spin and push off, and being able to secure the leg. You take the shoes off, it's like being on ice on

18618-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who

18792-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards

18966-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling

19140-508: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about

19314-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine

19488-458: The decision was reversed when Shamrock continued to apply his ankle lock after The Rock had submitted, and The Rock was declared the winner by disqualification. In June 1998, Shamrock competed in the 1998 King of the Ring tournament , eliminating Nation members Mark Henry , Kama and The Rock, as well as Jeff Jarrett , to win the tournament. Following the King of the Ring, Shamrock feuded briefly with

19662-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and

19836-597: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to

20010-466: The finals of UFC 3 . However, Shamrock refused to compete in the finals after he learned Gracie had dropped out of the tournament after his win over Kimo Leopoldo , combined with a knee injury he suffered during his match with Leininger. On April 5, 1995, at UFC 5 , Shamrock got his rematch with Gracie in a match called "The Superfight," which would determine the UFC Champion. At the time, Gracie had

20184-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In

20358-423: The first round, before losing to eventual winner The Rock in the quarterfinals. The following night, on Raw is War Shamrock joined Mr. McMahon's Corporation after McMahon offered him "a family" in exchange for his services. Shamrock successfully defended the Intercontinental Championship against Steve Blackman at Capital Carnage . In December, Shamrock and his Corporation teammate Big Boss Man began pursuing

20532-487: The first time since 2004. He returned at the September 5 Impact! TV taping in Las Vegas, Nevada , and furthered his feud with Moose that began over social media. Shamrock faced Moose at the 2019 Bound for Glory event in a losing effort. On the October 29 episode of Impact! , Shamrock was challenged to a match by Joey Ryan. The following week, Shamrock defeated Ryan, winning his first match since 2002. In February 2020, he

20706-1039: The first time, and was stabbed by another child on the run, ending up in the hospital. When he was 13, his stepfather kicked him out of their home, and each of the brothers went their own ways. Shamrock lived in stolen cars and would often rob people at knifepoint as a means to survive, before being placed in a foster home. He went through seven group homes and served time in a juvenile hall . He moved between several more group homes before being placed in Bob Shamrock's Boys' Home in Susanville, California at age 14, where he turned his life around. Bob Shamrock legally adopted Ken as his son, and Ken changed his last name from Kilpatrick to Shamrock in Bob's honor. At Lassen High School, Shamrock (known there as Kenny Nance) excelled in football and wrestling . Shamrock credits organized sports, as well as his adoptive father, Bob, for his life turning around. As

20880-452: The foreign object. Shamrock objected to using the brass knuckles to Chioda before Chioda reversed the decision and took the Intercontinental Championship belt from Shamrock and gave it back to The Rock, making The Rock the winner via disqualification. After the match, Shamrock attacked Chioda for taking the Intercontinental Championship belt from him. Two months later on March 29 at WrestleMania XIV , Shamrock originally defeated The Rock, though

21054-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as

21228-455: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself

21402-404: The gym. He had his first high level bout with Duane Koslowski, Dennis Koslowski 's twin brother and a 1988 Summer Olympics Greco-Roman wrestler , whom Shamrock submitted twice before working their actual match. A different situation happened with Kazuo Takahashi , as he broke the script and shot on Shamrock in their November 1991 match, leading the American to fight back and knock him out with

21576-539: The incest storyline, which included Alicia Webb , who debuted using Shamrock's real life son's name as a part of Webb's ring name, and stated that the Montreal Screwjob Incident that caused his mentor Bret Hart to leave WWF hurt his career, as Hart was the person who helped him get into the wrestling business along with his character gimmick. Shamrock also stated that he had no creative direction by WWE due to them not knowing what to do with him. Shamrock made

21750-414: The increasing prevalence of mass media further complicated the relationship between AAVE and all other English dialects. Modern AAVE retains similarities to older speech patterns spoken among white Southerners. Many features suggest that it largely developed from nonstandard dialects of colonial English as spoken by white Southern planters and British indentured servants, plus a more minor influence from

21924-513: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with

22098-471: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore

22272-487: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by

22446-402: The latter sat back, it pulled Gracie on top of him. With his arm still entangled, the American could not apply his leglock, which Gracie capitalized on to secure a choke with his free hand and submit Shamrock. While the move is often listed as a rear naked choke , Shamrock later stated it to be actually a gi choke, as Royce had wrapped the cloth of his gi around Ken's neck. The ending of the fight

22620-520: The lower Mississippi Valley—the modern-day AAVE accent is mostly non-rhotic (or " r -dropping"). The presence of non-rhoticity in both AAVE and old Southern English is not merely coincidence, though, again, which dialect influenced which is unknown. It is better documented, however, that white Southerners borrowed some morphological processes from Black Southerners. Many grammatical features were used alike by white speakers of old Southern English and early AAVE, more so than by contemporary speakers of

22794-482: The lower-class Yat dialect. Before becoming a phonologically unified dialect region, the South was once home to an array of much more diverse accents at the local level. Features of the deeper interior Appalachian South largely became the basis for the newer Southern regional dialect; thus, older Southern American English primarily refers to the English spoken outside of Appalachia: the coastal and former plantation areas of

22968-656: The main body of Southern dialects". The Savannah accent is also becoming more Midland-like. The following vowel sounds of Atlanta, Charleston, and Savannah have been unaffected by typical Southern phenomena like the Southern drawl and Southern Vowel Shift: Today, the accents of Atlanta, Charleston, and Savannah are most similar to Midland regional accents or at least Southeastern super-regional accents . In all three cities, some speakers (though most consistently documented in Charleston and least consistently in Savannah) demonstrate

23142-494: The mat and submitting him with a heel hook . His next opponent was Brazilian jiu-jitsu exponent and eventual tournament winner Royce Gracie . Shamrock sprawled a takedown and manoeuvred on top of Gracie, but the latter escaped from under his mount attempt and returned to his feet. The Brazilian then pulled guard , so the American grabbed his ankle and sat back to attempt another heel hook. According to Shamrock, however, Gracie had wrapped his gi around Shamrock's arm, and when

23316-412: The mat if you've never done it before." Shamrock was originally scheduled to compete at UFC 2 but broke his hand after blocking a high kick while sparring with a teammate. He still wanted to compete, but when doctors told him that he might never fight again if he injured his hand any further, he reluctantly withdrew. On September 9, 1994, Shamrock returned to the octagon at UFC 3 in an event that

23490-416: The match was declared a draw. Had there been ringside judges, UFC matchmaker Art Davie believes that Shamrock would have been declared the winner. Gracie left with a melon sized welt closing his eye, a result of a standing punch due to a sudden change of the rules in which both of the fighters were restarted on their feet. Shamrock was not satisfied with his performance against Gracie, saying "it's certainly not

23664-480: The match, as the Japanese was already affected by a back injury. However, during the match Suzuki refused to release a kneebar after Shamrock had grabbed the ropes to escape, which injured the American's leg and forced him to forfeit the fight. The incident angered Shamrock, but there were no consequences. His ninth match, against Matt Hume , would be a controversial one too. The bout was finished by Shamrock performing

23838-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in

24012-559: The next few decades, Southerners moved increasingly to Appalachian mill towns, to Texan farms, or out of the South entirely. The main result, further intensified by later upheavals such as the Great Depression , the Dust Bowl and perhaps World War II , is that a newer and more unified form of Southern American English consolidated, beginning around the last quarter of the 19th century, radiating outward from Texas and Appalachia through all

24186-460: The pioneering mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion called Pancrase , which Shamrock later joined. Shamrock made his mixed martial arts debut at Pancrase on September 21. Using professional wrestling rules—no closed fisted punching to the head and breaks on the ropes—but fighting for real without predetermined finishes, Shamrock beat Funaki by arm-triangle choke in the main event of the first Pancrase show on September 21, 1993. Shamrock considered this

24360-437: The platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of the venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as

24534-490: The promotion once more. Shamrock returned for a one-night appearance for Battleground Championship Wrestling in Philadelphia on August 6, 2022, defeating Davey Boy Smith 's son Harry Smith . Shamrock had announced that he re-signed with the now-renamed WWE on September 19, 2024 under a Legends Contract during his interview with Chris Van Vliet . The origins of Shamrock's professional fighting career began while working as

24708-714: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During

24882-458: The returning King Mabel , who had interfered to attack him in a rematch with Jarrett, and whom Shamrock defeated in a singles match injuring his leg. He next feuded with Owen Hart : Hart defeated Shamrock in a " Hart Family Dungeon match" at Fully Loaded , and Shamrock defeated Hart in a " Lion's Den match " at SummerSlam . In September, he formed a short-lived stable with Mankind and The Rock . Shamrock turned heel in October 1998 and won

25056-474: The same two varieties. Even so, contemporary speakers of both continue to share these unique grammatical features: "existential it ", the word y'all , double negatives , was to mean were , deletion of had and have , them to mean those , the term fixin' to , stressing the first syllable of words like hotel or guitar , and many others. Both dialects also continue to share these same pronunciation features: /ɪ/ tensing , /ʌ/ raising, upgliding /ɔ/ ,

25230-579: The slow decline of the modern Southern accent, it is still documented as widespread as of the 2006 Atlas of North American English . Specifically, the Atlas definitively documents a Southern accent throughout Virginia , North Carolina , South Carolina (except Charleston ), Georgia (though not particularly in Atlanta ), Alabama , Mississippi , Tennessee , Kentucky , Arkansas , Louisiana (alongside Cajun and New Orleans accents ), southern West Virginia ,

25404-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For

25578-437: The state is still an unambiguous region of modern rhotic Southern speech, strongest in the cities of Dallas, Lubbock, Odessa, and San Antonio, which all firmly demonstrate the first stage of the Southern Shift, if not also further stages of the shift. Texan cities that are noticeably "non-Southern" dialectally are Abilene and Austin; only marginally Southern are Houston, El Paso, and Corpus Christi. In western and northern Texas,

25752-463: The term. Atwood (1953) for example, finds that educated people try to avoid multiple modals, whereas Montgomery (1998) suggests the opposite. In some Southern regions, multiple modals are quite widespread and not particularly stigmatized. Possible multiple modals are: As the table shows, there are only possible combinations of an epistemic modal followed by deontic modals in multiple modal constructions. Deontic modals express permissibility with

25926-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,

26100-466: The traditional Southern States until around World War II. This newer Southern dialect largely superseded the older and more diverse local Southern dialects, though it became quickly stigmatized in American popular culture. As a result, since around the 1950s and 1960s, the notable features of this newer Southern accent have been in a gradual decline, particularly among younger and more urban Southerners, though less so among rural white Southerners. Despite

26274-505: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by

26448-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it

26622-783: The two racial groups "to stigmatize linguistic variables associated with the other group". This may explain some of the differences outlined above, including why most traditionally non-rhotic white Southern accents have shifted to become intensely rhotic. In the United States, there is a general negative stigma surrounding the Southern dialect. Non–Southern Americans tend to associate a Southern accent with lower social and economic status, cognitive and verbal slowness, lack of education, ignorance, bigotry, or religious or political conservatism, using common labels like " hick ", " hillbilly ", or " redneck accent". Meanwhile, Southerners themselves tend to have mixed judgments of their accent, some similarly negative but others positively associating it with

26796-467: The vacant Intercontinental Championship on the October 12 episode of Raw is War , defeating X-Pac in the finals of an eight-man tournament . Shamrock retained the title in his first title defense against Mankind, six days later at Judgment Day: In Your House . In November, Shamrock participated in the Deadly Games tournament for the vacant WWF Championship at Survivor Series . He defeated Goldust in

26970-413: The vowel starting positions of /oʊ/ and /u/ , thus aligning these characteristics more with the speech of 19th-century white Southerners than 20th-century white Southerners. Another possible influence on the divergence of AAVE and white Southern American English (i.e., the disappearance of older Southern American English ) is that historical and contemporary civil rights struggles have over time caused

27144-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of

27318-455: The white servants that they sometimes worked alongside, and they also used English as a bridge language to communicate with each other in the absence of another common language. There were also some African Americans living as free people in the United States, though the majority lived outside of the South due to Southern state laws which enabled white enslavers to "recapture" anyone not perceived as white and force them into slavery. Following

27492-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked

27666-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling

27840-399: Was a United States Air Force enlistee, and his mother Diane Kilpatrick was a waitress and dancer who had her first son when she was 15. Shamrock had three brothers and grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia . He was often left to fend for himself, and, without his parents' supervision or guidance, got into many fights. His father abandoned his family when Shamrock

28014-643: Was able to retain his title by pinning Goldust after Shamrock and Venis were counted out while brawling outside the ring. In early mid-1999, the Corporation began feuding with The Undertaker and his Ministry of Darkness , with The Undertaker's minions repeatedly ambushing Shamrock and kidnapping Ryan, sacrificing her on The Undertaker's symbol. After breaking away from the Corporation, thus turning face once more, Shamrock went on to feud with The Undertaker at Backlash and lost. After losing to The Undertaker, Shamrock, Big Show , Mankind and Test formed The Union ,

28188-460: Was also controversial, as the referee did not see the tap and ordered the two fighters to continue fighting after Gracie had let go of the hold. Shamrock paused for a few seconds but declined, admitting to the ref that he tapped out and that it would not be fair for him to continue fighting. After the fight, Shamrock admitted that he had underestimated Gracie. In 2008 he said: "I didn't know who Royce Gracie was... When I saw him in his gi, I thought he

28362-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in

28536-562: Was five. His mother married an Army aviator named Bob Nance, and the newly formed family moved to Napa, California , Nance's hometown. Shamrock and his brothers were outsiders in this community, coming from a poor background and speaking in a Southern accent . They continued to cause trouble and get into fights and began using drugs. Nance, who fought in the Vietnam War, joined the local fire department and also worked in roofing and upholstery. Shamrock became involved in and excelled at sports at

28710-567: Was inducted into the Impact Hall of Fame . On March 17, ICU interrupted Shamrock's interview with Josh Mathews . The mysterious figure threw a fireball into Shamrock's eyes. He took off the mask and it was revealed to be Sami Callihan . Callihan would take his phone and the lights would go off and he would disappear. The feud would culminate at Rebellion 2020 Night 1 in an Unsanctioned match , where Shamrock submitted Callihan to an ankle lock . Ken Shamrock turned heel when he aligned himself with Sami Callihan and attacked Eddie Edwards before leaving

28884-408: Was marketed by the UFC as the ultimate rematch between two-time champion Royce Gracie and #1 contender Shamrock. Shamrock's first fight, now wearing better shoes, was against top ranked judo practitioner Christophe Leininger . Shamrock's next fight was in the semifinals against kickboxer Felix Mitchell. Shamrock defeated Mitchell with the popularized rear naked choke. With this win, Shamrock advanced to

29058-568: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before

29232-501: Was put on a match against Masakatsu Funaki next. UWF folded shortly after, and Shamrock followed Funaki and other wrestlers to its successor promotion, Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi , led by Yoshiaki Fujiwara . Even though he had not started his mixed martial arts career yet, Shamrock had his first fighting experience in Fujiwara Gumi, as the results of many matches were chosen by having the wrestlers partake in competitive grappling at

29406-623: Was so much better than they were. And I'm not going to go in there and abuse these guys." He defeated world kickboxing champion Maurice Smith and Alex Cook in the opening round of the 16-man King of Pancrase Tournament and Masakatsu Funaki and Manabu Yamada in the Second round to become the first King of Pancrase in December 1994. With this win, Shamrock became the first ever foreign champion in MMA history in Japan. He then defended his King of Pancrase title against Bas Rutten in 1995, submitting him with

29580-502: Was some karate guy [with no grappling skills]." On the other hand, in 2015 Shamrock said he had watched the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu: In Action before the event and showed it to Funaki and the rest: "So one thing led to another, they started to support me on it- they did know that that gi meant a lot- but when they saw it too they thought "Yeah, you'll be able to beat this guy pretty well." And I had confidence, too." Anyway, he put

29754-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted

29928-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among

30102-614: Was to beat on him with punches... If I could open a cut and get him to start pouring blood, I could get a referee stoppage. It might not have been the best plan going into a fight, but considering the options it seemed like the best option available. And it turned out fine. I battered him around for the duration of the match, the bout was declared a draw and when Oleg recovered he went on to fight in Pancrase." Professional wrestling 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling )

30276-456: Was uncomfortable fighting Taktarov, as Oleg trained with the Lion's Den and he did not wish to injure his friend and teammate. In Beyond the Lion's Den , Shamrock states; "In addition to being his friend, I was also trying to get him into Pancrase and if I broke his leg it would be a while before he could recover and he needed the money. I figured my best chance of winning without seriously hurting him

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