title: Herculaneum

text: The atrium is covered and lacks the usual impluvium. It retains its original flooring of opus tesselatum and opus sectile. A highly adorned biclinium with frescoes in the fourth style and a spacious triclinium originally marble-floored are found off the atrium. Several further rooms, including the apsed alcove after which the house is named, are accessible via a corridor receiving daylight from a small courtyard.


title: Herculaneum

text: The Central Thermae (bathhouses) were built around the 1st century AD. Bathhouses were very popular at the time, especially in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Per common practice, there were separate bathing areas for men and women. The Thermae also served as a prominent cultural hub home to several works of art.


title: Herculaneum

text: The most famous among Herculaneum's luxurious villas, Villa of the Papyri was first identified as the magnificent seafront retreat belonged to consul Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, Julius Caesar's father-in-law; However, artefacts found at the site closely resemble standardised assortment and cannot conclusively identify the villa's owner. The villa stretches down towards the sea in four terraces. Piso, a literary patron of poets and philosophers, built there the only ancient library that has survived virtually intact.


title: Herculaneum

text: Between 1752 and 1754, a number of blackened, unreadable papyrus scrolls were serendipitously recovered from the Villa of the Papyri by workmen. These scrolls became known as the Herculaneum papyri or scrolls, the majority of which are today stored at the National Library, Naples. Although badly carbonized, a number of scrolls have been unrolled with varying degrees of success. Computer-enhanced multi-spectral infrared imaging helped make the ink legible. There is now a real prospect that it will be possible to read the unopened rolls using X-rays. The same techniques could be applied to the rolls waiting to be discovered in the as-yet unexcavated part of the villa, eliminating the risk of potential damage from unrolling. Later CT scan revealed the scrolls' fibres structure, sand, and other debris trapped in the scrolls. These findings help a safer unrolling. However, the text remains illegible.


title: Herculaneum

text: Two of the rolls stored at the French National Academy in Paris have been extensively examined by X-ray in summer 2009. However, the text imaging failed because Roman writers likely used carbon-based inks, essentially invisible to the X-ray scans. Similar later attempts all failed.


title: Herculaneum

text: In 2015, a team of scientists managed to increase the contrast between the carbon ink and the carbon-based papyrus using X-ray Phase Contrast Tomography, and read Greek words along the outer papyrus, marking "a revolution for papyrologists". While researchers can identify certain words on the scrolls, there is still a long way to go before the stories on the scrolls are unlocked.


title: Herculaneum

text: In 1980–82, excavations initially turned up more than 55 skeletons on the ancient beach (just in front the city walls) and in the first six so-called "boat sheds". Long before this finding, it was believed that the majority of the town's inhabitants had managed to flee, as only a few skeletons had been unearthed during all of the excavations. However, this startling discovery led to a shift in perspective. The last inhabitants waiting for rescue from the sea were probably killed instantly by the intense heat of the pyroclastic flow, despite being sheltered from direct impact. A study of victims' postures and the effects on their skeletons seemed to indicate that the first surge caused instant death as a result of fulminant shock due to a temperature of about . Extreme heat caused hands and feet to contract and perhaps fractured bones and teeth.


title: Herculaneum

text: After a period of finds mismanagement and deterioration skeletons further excavations in the 1990s uncovered a total of 296 skeletons huddled in 9 of the 12 stone vaults facing the sea and on the beach. While the town was almost completely evacuated, these people found themesleves trapped. The "Ring Lady" (see image), named for the rings on her fingers, was discovered there in 1982.


title: Herculaneum

text: Eventually, 340 bodies were identified in this area. Analyses of the skeletons suggest it was mainly men who died on the beach, while women and children sheltered and died in the boat houses.


title: Herculaneum

text: Recent chemical analyses of the remains provided further insights into the health and nutrition of Herculaneum's population.


title: Herculaneum

text: Casts of skeletons were also produced to replace the original bones after taphonomic study, scientific documentation and excavation. In contrast to Pompeii, where casts resembling the body features of the victims were produced by filling the body imprints in the ash deposit with plaster, the shape of corpses at Herculaneum could not be preserved due to the rapid vaporisation and replacement of the flesh of the victims by the hot ash (ca. 500 °C). A cast of the skeletons unearthed in chamber 10 is on display at the Museum of Anthropology in Naples.


title: Herculaneum

text: Of exceptional interest is the recent analysis of one of the skeletons (n. 26) discovered in 1982 on the beach next to a boat (on display in the boat pavilion). The remains belong to a military officer (with an elaborate dagger and belt), who was perhaps involved in a rescue mission.


title: Herculaneum

text: New digs beginning in 2021 will seek to uncover the ancient beach's western side, where additional skeletons may be discovered.


title: Herculaneum

text: Despite the extensive knowledge over Herculaneum, the city was long eclipsed by the better-known Pompeii. Although the cities are located a mere 13 km apart, Pompeii is often more popular in education systems than Herculaneum. Herculaneum was discovered in 1709, whereas Pompeii was not discovered until 39 years later, in 1748. After Pompeii was discovered, Russian painter Karl Bryullov created an oil painting titled "The Last Day of Pompeii" in 1830–1833, which inspired Edward Bulwer-Lytton to write his book "The Last Days of Pompeii" in 1834, both of which helped boost Pompeii's popularity. Pompeii's discovery caused excavations in Herculaneum to stop until the 1920s. This was likely because of the 20-meter-thick pyroclastic layer covering Herculaneum, while Pompeii was covered by "only" 4 meters of thinner, significantly easier to excavate ash.


title: Herculaneum

text: Harsh criticisms from Johann Joachim Winckelmann also influenced Herculaneum's excavations. Winckelmann, a well-respected traveler of the time, was frustrated by the difficulty in accessing findings and materials at Herculaneum. He did not like that the importance of cultural tourism was being ignored. He also strongly criticized the fact that excavated pieces were either taken to the King's palace, or destroyed, with no other options in place.


title: Herculaneum

text: He spoke passionately about the importance of archaeological context, and how the destruction of artifacts to prevent sales to foreigners could disturb or even destroy that context. Winckelmann worked tirelessly and successfully to end excavations in Herculaneum. Winckelmann's success is at least partially attributed to the young age of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. Ferdinand I ascended when his father took the throne elsewhere as Charles III of Spain, and the young king was unprepared to handle harsh public discourse. In an effort to deflect Winckelmann's criticism, Ferdinand slowed the excavations at Herculaneum.


title: Herculaneum

text: At the same time Herculaneum's excavations were coming to a halt, Pompeii's excavations were finally starting to pick up. Originally there had been a lack of artifacts due to the site being easier to excavate; this caused the site to have already been touched by looters who took many valuable artifacts. However, there was a major breakthrough when excavations finally struck the theatre of Pompeii. Due to the nature of Pompeii being closer to the surface, policies were adopted to keep the site open to visitors, effectively pleasing Winckelmann. With Pompeii's easily accessible 'open-air' excavations, it became an interesting tourist attraction that many people began to visit. On the other hand, Herculaneum had deep tunnels that had to be traversed by torchlight and was therefore a much less interesting attraction that was easily dismissed from people's minds.


title: Herculaneum

text: The volcanic ash and debris covering Herculaneum, along with the extreme heat, left it in a remarkable state of preservation for over 1,600 years. However, once excavations began, exposure to the elements began the slow process of deterioration. This was exacerbated by earlier excavation practices, which generally focused on valuable artefacts rather than preserving the archeological value of the site. Preservation of the skeletal remains became a top priority only in the early 1980s, under the direction of Dr Sara C. Bisel.


title: Herculaneum

text: Intensive tourism, vandalism, substandard management, and political ineptitude all contributed to the deterioration of numerous sites and buildings. Numerous building foundations have been weakened by water damage caused by modern Ercolano. Reconstruction initiatives have often proved counterproductive. However, recent conservation efforts have had greater success. Today excavations have been temporarily discontinued to direct all funding to conservation programs.


title: Herculaneum

text: A large number of artifacts from Herculaneum are preserved in the Naples National Archaeological Museum.


title: Herculaneum

text: After years of mismanagement, Herculaneum fell into a dire state. However, in 2001, the Packard Humanities Institute began the Herculaneum Conservation Project, a private–public partnership initially set to provide financial aid to local authorities addressing critical issues. The program eventually shifted to include providing skilled expert support and formulating a long-term plan for the site. Since 2001, the Herculaneum Conservation Project has been involved in multiple pilot conservation projects and has partnered with the British School at Rome for training students to maintain the site.


title: Herculaneum

text: One of the pilot projects started by the Conservation Project was on the tablinum that had been conserved by Maiuri's team in 1938. Over time water had managed to seep into the wall causing the paint to attach to the previously applied wax and curl away from the wall, stripping it of its color. However, after working in tandem with the Getty Museum, conservators have managed to create a technique where a series of solvents can be used to remove some of the wax and lessen the amount of buildup on the walls so that the paint no longer chips off of the walls.


title: Herculaneum

text: Herculaneum is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. UNESCO was drawn in by Herculaneum's public architecture. The spacious palaestra, two public baths, the College of the Priests of Augustus, and a standard theatre. Herculaneum also had a seafront display and urban districts that had a very high level of preservation as well as great conservation of upper floors, all due to the pyroclastic material that had so thoroughly covered the city.


title: Herculaneum

text: With all of this impressive preservation that Herculaneum had, the site met UNESCO's criteria III, IV, and V; allowing the site to become a UNESCO-protected site. Herculaneum and the neighboring city of Pompeii, as well as the surrounding villas, are some of the most well-preserved Roman city ruins that have been documented at this time. UNESCO references how Herculaneum is a great example of both Roman urban and suburban settlements. UNESCO also praises how Herculaneum's urban, architectural, decorative, and traces of ancient daily life have helped archeologists piece together a timeline of Roman life, from 1st century BC to 1st century AD. The intense rapidness of the destruction of the city, along with the thick layers of pyroclastic material that covered the area, created nearly perfect conditions for most everything to be preserved.


title: Herculaneum

text: However, this way of preservation has caused issues with the later excavations of the city. There is a constant risk of the uncovered remains starting to decay. The structures being excavated are centuries old, and some are beginning to rot away and cave-in in certain places. UNESCO implemented several measures to protect the site. All excavations in and around the site must be approved by the World Heritage authorities. UNESCO had Law No. 1089 passed for both Pompeii and Herculaneum in 1939 to protects all things with artistic and historical interest in the area. In 2004, Legislative Decree No. 42 was passed to extend Law No. 1089 to all areas surrounding Pompeii and Herculaneum. Not only does Herculaneum and its surrounding areas have preservation issues, but Herculaneum itself has many specific developmental restrictions, especially surrounding Mount Vesuvius. These restrictions limit what excavations can be done at the site, and they help to ensure the safety of the ancient city, which currently lies mostly under a modern town in the area.


title: Herculaneum

text: Not only does UNESCO have its own laws and restrictions, but they also have many connections with the Vesuvius National Park and with Man and the Biosphere Programme. With the Vesuvius National Park's ability to provide a broad setting of protection, and MAB Biosphere's designative abilities to provide the framework for further coordination, they both work together with UNESCO to protect the site to the best of their abilities. UNESCO on its own is also constantly working on reconstruction efforts, specifically those surrounding the structures that are currently already unearthed. While the conservation efforts are still ongoing, Herculaneum has gone from one of the worst preserved UNESCO sites at risk of being put on the endangered list to becoming "a textbook case of successful archeological conservation".


title: Urban planning

text: Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks and their accessibility. Traditionally, urban planning followed a top-down approach in master planning the physical layout of human settlements. The primary concern was the public welfare, which included considerations of efficiency, sanitation, protection and use of the environment, as well as effects of the master plans on the social and economic activities. Over time, urban planning has adopted a focus on the social and environmental bottom-lines that focus on planning as a tool to improve the health and well-being of people while maintaining sustainability standards. Sustainable development was added as one of the main goals of all planning endeavors in the late 20th century when the detrimental economic and the environmental impacts of the previous models of planning had become apparent. Similarly, in the early 21st century, Jane Jacob's writings on legal and political perspectives to emphasize the interests of residents, businesses and communities effectively influenced urban planners to take into broader consideration of resident experiences and needs while planning.


title: Urban planning

text: Urban planning answers questions about how people will live, work and play in a given area and thus, guides orderly development in urban, suburban and rural areas. Although predominantly concerned with the planning of settlements and communities, urban planners are also responsible for planning the efficient transportation of goods, resources, people and waste; the distribution of basic necessities such as water and electricity; a sense of inclusion and opportunity for people of all kinds, culture and needs; economic growth or business development; improving health and conserving areas of natural environmental significance that actively contributes to reduction in emissions as well as protecting heritage structures and built environments. Since most urban planning teams consist of highly educated individuals that work for city governments, recent debates focus on how to involve more community members in city planning processes.


title: Urban planning

text: Urban planning is an interdisciplinary field that includes civil engineering, architecture, human geography, politics, social science and design sciences. Practitioners of urban planning are concerned with research and analysis, strategic thinking, Engineering architecture, urban design, public consultation, policy recommendations, implementation and management. It is closely related to the field of urban design and some urban planners provide designs for streets, parks, buildings and other urban areas. Urban planners work with the cognate fields of civil engineering, landscape architecture, architecture, and public administration to achieve strategic, policy and sustainability goals. Early urban planners were often members of these cognate fields though today, urban planning is a separate, independent professional discipline. The discipline of urban planning is the broader category that includes different sub-fields such as land-use planning, zoning, economic development, environmental planning, and transportation planning. Creating the plans requires a thorough understanding of penal codes and zonal codes of planning.


title: Urban planning

text: Another important aspect of urban planning is that the range of urban planning projects include the large-scale master planning of empty sites or Greenfield projects as well as small-scale interventions and refurbishments of existing structures, buildings and public spaces. Pierre Charles L'Enfant in Washington DC, Daniel Burnham in Chicago, Lucio Costa in Brasilia and Georges-Eugene Haussmann in Paris planned cities from scratch, and Robert Moses and Le Corbusier refurbished and transformed cities and neighborhoods to meet their ideas of urban planning.


title: Urban planning

text: There is evidence of urban planning and designed communities dating back to the Mesopotamian, Indus Valley, Minoan, and Egyptian civilizations in the third millennium BCE. Archaeologists studying the ruins of cities in these areas find paved streets that were laid out at right angles in a grid pattern. The idea of a planned out urban area evolved as different civilizations adopted it. Beginning in the 8th century BCE, Greek city states primarily used orthogonal (or grid-like) plans. Hippodamus of Miletus (498–408 BC), the ancient Greek architect and urban planner, is considered to be "the father of European urban planning", and the namesake of the "Hippodamian plan" (grid plan) of city layout.


title: Urban planning

text: The ancient Romans, inspired by the Greeks, also used orthogonal plans for their cities. City planning in the Roman world was developed for military defense and public convenience. The spread of the Roman Empire subsequently spread the ideas of urban planning. As the Roman Empire declined, these ideas slowly disappeared. However, many cities in Europe still held onto the planned Roman city center. Cities in Europe from the 9th to 14th centuries, often grew organically and sometimes chaotically. But in the following centuries with the coming of the Renaissance many new cities were enlarged with newly planned extensions. From the 15th century on, much more is recorded of urban design and the people that were involved. In this period, theoretical treatises on architecture and urban planning start to appear in which theoretical questions around planning the main lines, ensuring plans meet the needs of the given population and so forth are addressed and designs of towns and cities are described and depicted. During the Enlightenment period, several European rulers ambitiously attempted to redesign capital cities. During the Second French Empire, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, under the direction of Napoleon III, redesigned the city of Paris into a more modern capital, with long, straight, wide boulevards.


title: Urban planning

text: Planning and architecture went through a paradigm shift at the turn of the 20th century. The industrialized cities of the 19th century grew at a tremendous rate. The evils of urban life for the working poor were becoming increasingly evident as a matter of public concern. The laissez-faire style of government management of the economy, in fashion for most of the Victorian era, was starting to give way to a New Liberalism that championed intervention on the part of the poor and disadvantaged. Around 1900, theorists began developing urban planning models to mitigate the consequences of the industrial age, by providing citizens, especially factory workers, with healthier environments. The following century would therefore be globally dominated by a central planning approach to urban planning, not necessarily representing an increment in the overall quality of the urban realm.


title: Urban planning

text: At the beginning of the 20th century, urban planning began to be recognized as a separate profession. The Town and Country Planning Association was founded in 1899 and the first academic course in Great Britain on urban planning was offered by the University of Liverpool in 1909. In the 1920s, the ideas of modernism and uniformity began to surface in urban planning, and lasted until the 1970s. In 1933, Le Corbusier presented the Radiant City, a city that grows up in the form of towers, as a solution to the problem of pollution and over-crowding. But many planners started to believe that the ideas of modernism in urban planning led to higher crime rates and social problems.


title: Urban planning

text: In the second half of the 20th century, urban planners gradually shifted their focus to individualism and diversity in urban centers.


title: Urban planning

text: Urban planners studying the effects of increasing congestion in urban areas began to address the externalities, the negative impacts caused by induced demand from larger highway systems in western countries such as in the United States. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicted in 2018 that around 2.5 billion more people occupy urban areas by 2050 according to population elements of global migration. New planning theories have adopted non-traditional concepts such as Blue Zones and Innovation Districts to incorporate geographic areas within the city that allow for novel business development and the prioritization of infrastructure that would assist with improving the quality of life of citizens by extending their potential lifespan.


title: Urban planning

text: Planning practices have incorporated policy changes to help address anthropocentric global climate change. London began to charge a congestion charge for cars trying to access already crowded places in the city. Cities nowadays stress the importance of public transit and cycling by adopting such policies.


title: Urban planning

text: Planning theory is the body of scientific concepts, definitions, behavioral relationships, and assumptions that define the body of knowledge of urban planning. There are eight procedural theories of planning that remain the principal theories of planning procedure today: the rational-comprehensive approach, the incremental approach, the transactive approach, the communicative approach, the advocacy approach, the equity approach, the radical approach, and the humanist or phenomenological approach. Some other conceptual planning theories include Ebenezer Howard's The Three Magnets theory that he envisioned for the future of British settlement, also his Garden Cities, the Concentric Model Zone also called the Burgess Model by sociologist Ernest Burgess, the Radburn Superblock that encourages pedestrian movement, the Sector Model and the Multiple Nuclei Model among others.


title: Urban planning

text: Technical aspects of urban planning involve the application of scientific, technical processes, considerations and features that are involved in planning for land use, urban design, natural resources, transportation, and infrastructure. Urban planning includes techniques such as: predicting population growth, zoning, geographic mapping and analysis, analyzing park space, surveying the water supply, identifying transportation patterns, recognizing food supply demands, allocating healthcare and social services, and analyzing the impact of land use.


title: Urban planning

text: In order to predict how cities will develop and estimate the effects of their interventions, planners use various models. These models can be used to indicate relationships and patterns in demographic, geographic, and economic data. They might deal with short-term issues such as how people move through cities, or long-term issues such as land use and growth. One such model is the Geographic Information System (GIS) that is used to create a model of the existing planning and then to project future impacts on the society, economy and environment.


title: Urban planning

text: Building codes and other regulations dovetail with urban planning by governing how cities are constructed and used from the individual level. Enforcement methodologies include governmental zoning, planning permissions, and building codes, as well as private easements and restrictive covenants.


title: Urban planning

text: An urban planner is a professional who works in the field of urban planning for the purpose of optimizing the effectiveness of a community's land use and infrastructure. They formulate plans for the development and management of urban and suburban areas, typically analyzing land use compatibility as well as economic, environmental and social trends. In developing any plan for a community (whether commercial, residential, agricultural, natural or recreational), urban planners must consider a wide array of issues including sustainability, existing and potential pollution, transport including potential congestion, crime, land values, economic development, social equity, zoning codes, and other legislation.


title: Urban planning

text: The importance of the urban planner is increasing in the 21st century, as modern society begins to face issues of increased population growth, climate change and unsustainable development. An urban planner could be considered a green collar professional.


title: Urban planning

text: Some researchers suggest that urban planners around the world work in different "planning cultures", adapted to their local cities and cultures. However, professionals have identified skills, abilities and basic knowledge sets that are common to urban planners across national and regional boundaries.


title: Urban planning

text: The school of neoclassical economics argues that planning is unnecessary, or even harmful, because market efficiency allows for effective land use. A pluralist strain of political thinking argues in a similar vein that the government should not intrude in the political competition between different interest groups which decides how land is used. The traditional justification for urban planning has in response been that the planner does to the city what the engineer or architect does to the home, that is, make it more amenable to the needs and preferences of its inhabitants.


title: Urban planning

text: The widely adopted consensus-building model of planning, which seeks to accommodate different preferences within the community has been criticized for being based upon, rather than challenging, the power structures of the community. Instead, agonism has been proposed as a framework for urban planning decision-making.


title: Urban planning

text: Another debate within the urban planning field is about who is included and excluded in the urban planning decision-making process. Most urban planning processes use a top-down approach which fails to include the residents of the places where urban planners and city officials are working. Sherry Arnstein's "ladder of citizen participation" is oftentimes used by many urban planners and city governments to determine the degree of inclusivity or exclusivity of their urban planning. One main source of engagement between city officials and residents are city council meetings that are open to the residents and that welcome public comments. Additionally, there are some federal requirements for citizen participation in government-funded infrastructure projects.


title: Urban planning

text: Many urban planners and planning agencies rely on community input for their policies and zoning plans. How effective community engagement is can be determined by how member's voices are heard and implemented.


title: Urban planning

text: Participatory planning in the United States emerged during the 1960s and 1970s. At the same time, participatory planning began to enter the development field, with similar characteristics and agendas There are many notable urban planners and activists whose work facilitated and shaped participatory planning movements. Jane Jacobs and her work is one of the most significant contributions to participatory planning because of the influence it had across the entire United States. There has also been a recent emergence in engaging youth in urban planning education.


title: R-Truth

text: Ronnie Aaron Killings (born January 19, 1972) is an American professional wrestler and rapper. He is currently signed to WWE, performing on the Raw brand under the ring name R-Truth.


title: R-Truth

text: Killings worked for World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) as K-Kwik from 1998 to 2002, forming a team with "Road Dogg" Jesse James, and winning the WWF Hardcore Championship twice. After his release in 2002, he joined Jeff Jarrett's new promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). As Ron "The Truth" Killings, he headlined numerous pay-per-view (PPV) events and won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship twice (being the first African-American titleholder) and the first African-American world champion in TNA history. He also formed 3 Live Kru with BG James (formerly Road Dogg) and Konnan and the trio held the NWA World Tag Team Championship twice. Killings established Team Pacman with football player Adam Jones and won the TNA World Tag Team Championship before leaving TNA in late 2007.


title: R-Truth

text: Killings returned to WWE in 2008 and was rebranded as R-Truth, winning the WWE United States Championship, and the WWE Tag Team Championship (with Kofi Kingston) over the next several years. He headlined multiple WWE pay-per-view events during the early 2010s, including matches for the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship. He was thereafter used in comedic roles and primarily wrestled on the undercard until 2018, when he teamed with Carmella to win the second edition of "Mixed Match Challenge". He then captured the United States Championship for a second time in 2019. Later that year, he won the newly instated WWE 24/7 Championship, and holds the record for the most reigns at 53.


title: R-Truth

text: Ronnie Aaron Killings was born on January 19, 1972, in Charlotte, North Carolina. To make extra money in his early 20s, Killings would sell cocaine on the streets for extra income. From a young age, Killings had developed a love for hip hop and breakdancing and attended Harding University High School where he competed in football alongside future MLB second baseman Ray Durham. Killings also competed in track and field, and was talented at both sports, receiving various college scholarships, but turned them down to further pursue a career in music. Killings graduated high school at 18, but he also continued dealing drugs in order to help his music career financially and was arrested four different times, spending small amounts of time in jail before eventually spending 13 months incarcerated. Killings spoke in an interview with Lilian Garcia that after this incident, he was finished with that lifestyle.


title: R-Truth

text: Jackie Crockett of the National Wrestling Alliance met Killings at a halfway house after Killings' release from prison, and tried to convince Killings to become a professional wrestler, but he was determined to focus on his music career. Killings spent two years working on his music career and then contacted Crockett once more and expressed an interest in becoming a wrestler. Crockett, by now the senior cameraman for World Championship Wrestling, took Killings to several WCW and Pro Wrestling Federation events, introducing him to wrestling personalities.


title: R-Truth

text: Killings debuted in the Pro Wrestling Federation (PWF) in 1997 as a manager, then spent three years traveling and training with Manny Fernandez. In 1999, he debuted in NWA Wildside as K-Krush, where he was awarded the newly created NWA Wildside Television Championship on December 12. In 2002, he wrestled for Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) as K. Malik Shabaz.


title: R-Truth

text: At the urging of Rick Michaels, Killings sent a promotional videotape to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He was signed to a two-year developmental contract in 1999 and under the ring name K-Kwik was assigned to Memphis Championship Wrestling, a WWF developmental territory. On April 12 in Robinsonville, Mississippi, he won a battle royal to claim the vacant Southern Heavyweight Championship. He lost the title to a masked Jerry Lawler on May 24 in Tunica, Mississippi, but reclaimed it from Joey Abs several months later in Memphis, Tennessee on August 19. His second reign ended on November 3, when he lost to Steve Bradley in Manila, Arkansas.


title: R-Truth

text: K-Kwik was then promoted to the main roster and put in a tag team with Road Dogg. He debuted on the November 13, 2000 episode of "Raw is War", attacking William Regal during a match against Road Dogg. K-Kwik and Road Dogg began rapping together, performing a song called "Gettin' Rowdy" as they approached the ring. Upon the return of Road Dogg's former partner Billy Gunn later that month, K-Kwik was involved in a D-Generation X quasi-reunion. At Survivor Series, K-Kwik teamed with former DX members Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, and Chyna to face The Radicalz in a Survivor Series match. K-Kwik was eliminated and the Radicalz went on to win the match. At Armageddon, K-Kwik and Road Dogg took part in a four-way tag team match for the Tag Team Championship, which was won by Edge and Christian. After Road Dogg was suspended in December and eventually released on January 26, 2001, K-Kwik became a singles competitor and a successful mainstay on "Jakked". He took part in the 2001 Royal Rumble, but was eliminated by Big Show. K-Kwik then began competing in the hardcore division. He defeated Raven for the Hardcore Championship on February 3, but lost the title to Crash Holly that same evening under the title's 24/7 rules. He defeated Raven for the title a second time on the following night, but once again he lost the title to Holly within the space of several hours. K-Kwik became somewhat of a background figure of "The Invasion" angle during the summer months, often seen in dressing rooms and watching television with other superstars during inter-promotional matches. He was released from the WWF the following year.


title: R-Truth

text: Killings signed with the Nashville, Tennessee-based Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion in June 2002, and appeared on the first weekly TNA pay-per-view on June 19 as K-Krush. Killings immediately established himself as a heel by harassing NASCAR drivers Sterling Marlin and Hermie Sadler until he was attacked by Brian Lawler. Later that same evening, he participated in the Gauntlet for the Gold match, but was eliminated by Malice. The following week, Killings lost to Christopher after Marlin and Sadler interfered in their match. On July 3, Killings and Jeff Jarrett defeated Christopher and Scott Hall after Christopher turned on Hall during the match, aligning himself with Killings and Jarrett. On July 10, Killings defeated Hermie Sadler in a squash match. The decision, however, was overturned after Killings continued to attack Sadler after he had been awarded the match.


title: R-Truth

text: On the July 17 TNA pay-per-view, Killings delivered an angry promo in which he implied that he had been held back as a result of his race. He then stated that he was to be referred to as "The Truth". Killings eventually began using his own name, referring to himself as Ron "The Truth" Killings. Killings defeated Ken Shamrock for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at NWA-TNA 8 on August 7, thus becoming the first-ever, and to date only, recognized African-American NWA World Heavyweight Champion in history, and the fourth African American in professional wrestling history to win a World Heavyweight title. He successfully defended the title in matches with Monty Brown, Jerry Lynn, Low Ki, Curt Hennig, and Scott Hall before losing on November 20 to Jeff Jarrett who had the help of Vince Russo. As a result of Russo's involvement, Killings turned into a face. In subsequent months, Killings feuded with Sports Entertainment Xtreme before turning into a heel once again by attacking Jarrett on March 19. He later introduced Nelson Knight as his bodyguard.


title: R-Truth

text: Between May and June, Killings began teaming with Konnan and former WWE ally B.G. James. In July the trio formed a faction known as the 3 Live Kru. The Kru first wrestled as a unit on August 13, 2003, defeating The Disciples of the New Church (Sinn, Vampire Warrior, and Devon Storm). The Kru soon went after the NWA World Tag Team Championship. On November 26, the Kru defeated Simon Diamond, Johnny Swinger, and Glenn Gilberti in a six-man tag team match with the vacant NWA World Tag Team Championship on the line. The NWA World Tag Team Championship was held by all three members of the Kru as part of the Freebird Rule until January 28, 2004, when they were defeated by Redshirt Security (Kevin Northcutt and Legend).


title: R-Truth

text: After several abortive attempts to regain the tag title, the Kru began supporting Killings' bid to become NWA World Heavyweight Champion. On June 9, NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett took part in a "3 Live Kru Challenge" which saw him face Konnan, James and Killings in three subsequent matches. Jarrett defeated Konnan in a strap match and James in a "trailer park trash match" (hardcore match), but lost to Killings in a "Ghetto Justice match". On May 19, Killings faced NWA World Heavyweight Champion A.J. Styles, Raven, and Chris Harris in a four-way title match. He won the bout, becoming a two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, after Jarrett hit Styles with a guitar. His reign lasted until June 2, when Jarrett defeated him in a King of the Mountain match which also included Harris, Styles, and Raven. The Kru went on to feud with Jarrett's mercenaries, the Elite Guard (Chad Collyer, Hotstuff Hernandez, and Onyx). On July 14, the 3 Live Kru, Dusty Rhodes, and Larry Zbyszko defeated Jarrett, Ken Shamrock, and the Elite Guard in a ten-man tag team match. The Kru began feuding with Team Canada in August. At Victory Road on November 7, Konnan and James defeated Team Canada members Bobby Roode and Eric Young for the NWA World Tag Team Championship. After Konnan suffered an injury, Killings and James lost the title to Team Canada at Turning Point on December 5. Throughout early-2005, the Kru feuded with Michael Shane and Kazarian, Team Canada, and The Naturals.


title: R-Truth

text: Dissension arose after James' former tag team partner from the WWE, Billy Gunn, joined TNA as "The New Age Outlaw" and began trying to convince James to reform their former tag team, the New Age Outlaws. Killings and Konnan feuded with The Outlaw and Monty Brown, with James's loyalties divided. Brown and The Outlaw, who had by now renamed himself "Kip James" as a psychological ploy, defeated Killings and Konnan at No Surrender on July 17, with James declining to help either team. Killings and Konnan became increasingly frustrated, at one point referring to themselves as the "2Live Kru", although Killings repeatedly attempted to act as a mediator between James and Konnan. The two teams faced one another in a No Surrender rematch on August 14 at Sacrifice, with James appointed special guest referee by Director of Authority, Larry Zbyszko. James reaffirmed his loyalty to the Kru by attacking Kip, enabling Konnan to pin him and win the match. The 3 Live Kru won a six-man tag team match against The Diamonds in the Rough at Unbreakable on September 11. After "Impact!" premiered on Spike TV on October 1, Kip James entered the picture once more, but appeared to be helping 3LK this time. He refereed a Hockey Stick Fight at Genesis on November 13, which 3LK won. Kip James later joined the stable, which became known as the 4 Live Kru. On December 11 at Turning Point, the 4 Live Kru faced Team Canada in an eight-man tag match. In the course of the match, Konnan hit Kip and B.G. James with chair shots, enabling Bobby Roode to pin Kip. He then attempted to celebrate with Killings, who appeared shocked by Konnan's actions. Killings later told Konnan he was done with the Kru.


title: R-Truth

text: Following the breakup of the 3 Live Kru, Killings began competing as a singles wrestler once more. He briefly aligned himself with Sting in March, teaming with Sting, A.J. Styles, and Rhino as "Sting's Warriors". At Lockdown on April 23, Sting's Warriors defeated Jarrett's Army in a Lethal Lockdown match. On the May 25 episode of "Impact!", Killings defeated Monty Brown to qualify for a King of the Mountain match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at Slammiversary on June 18. At Slammiversary, however, Killings failed to win the championship. Killings then teamed with Lance Hoyt in the following months, even participating, but losing, in a Battle Royal at No Surrender. On November 19 at Genesis, Killings and his tag team partner Lance Hoyt defeated Austin Starr and Alex Shelley with Kevin Nash at ringside. He then took time off the active roster due to injury. Killings returned to action at Slammiversary, teaming with James Storm in a losing effort against Frank Wycheck and Jerry Lynn.


title: R-Truth

text: On June 19, Killings tried to resign from TNA, intending to work for the Mexican AAA. Amidst more dissension backstage, however, TNA refused to release Killings. He returned to TNA on August 12 at Hard Justice, confronting football player Adam Jones. At No Surrender, Adam "Pacman" Jones and Ron Killings defeated Sting and Kurt Angle to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship. At Bound for Glory, A.J. Styles and Tomko defeated him and Jones' replacement, Rasheed Lucius "Consequences" Creed, for the World Tag Team Championship. In December, he worked out a deal for his release from the company.


title: R-Truth

text: In 2008, Killings re-signed with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), formerly the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and re-debuted on the SmackDown brand under the ring name R-Truth on August 29, as a face, defeating Kenny Dykstra. WWE completely ignored his past with the company and his Hardcore Championship reigns until January 2009 when WWE.com briefly acknowledged his appearance in the 2001 Royal Rumble. The K-Kwik character was acknowledged again at SummerSlam in 2010, when commentator Matt Striker made a passing reference to his past. At Cyber Sunday, he, along with Festus and Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP), was a voting option to challenge United States Champion Shelton Benjamin for the title. He received 59% of the vote to get the match, but lost. On December 8, he won the Slammy Award for the Best Musical Performance.


title: R-Truth

text: On the July 10, 2009 episode of SmackDown, R-Truth debuted a new prankster character known as Ricky, in a sleeveless T-shirt and a set of fake teeth trying to get into the Rabobank Arena. The character was soon scrapped and R-Truth began a feud with the debuting Drew McIntyre on the August 28 episode of "SmackDown". This feud set up a match at Hell in a Cell, which he lost. On the October 23 episode of "SmackDown", R-Truth, Finlay, Matt Hardy and The Hart Dynasty defeated JTG, Eric Escobar, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre in a five-on-four handicap match to qualify as the representatives of Team SmackDown at Bragging Rights. At the event, Team SmackDown defeated Team Raw. On the February 5, 2010 episode of "SmackDown", after defeating Mike Knox, R-Truth qualified for an Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber, which he was eliminated by CM Punk. At WrestleMania XXVI, R-Truth teamed with John Morrison to face ShoMiz (Big Show and The Miz) for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship in a losing effort.


title: R-Truth

text: On April 26, R-Truth was drafted to Raw as part of the 2010 WWE draft. He began a feud with Ted DiBiase after DiBiase offered him a job as his personal assistant, which R-Truth declined with a slap. Two weeks later, during a match with William Regal, R-Truth was attacked by Carlito and Primo, who were paid off by DiBiase after the assault. R-Truth went on to wrestle and defeat DiBiase at Over the Limit on May 23. The next night on Raw, R-Truth defeated The Miz to win the vacant United States Championship, giving him his first singles championship since returning to WWE. On the June 14 episode of "Raw", R-Truth lost the United States Championship to The Miz in a fatal four-way match also featuring John Morrison and Zack Ryder. He invoked his rematch clause at Fatal 4-Way, but was unsuccessful.


title: R-Truth

text: At SummerSlam, R-Truth was part of Team WWE, defeating The Nexus. On the October 11 episode of "Raw", he defeated Ted DiBiase to qualify for Team Raw at Bragging Rights to face Team SmackDown. Team Raw lost the match for the second consecutive time. In December, R-Truth mentored Johnny Curtis in the NXT's fourth season. In January 2011, R-Truth competed in the 2011 Royal Rumble match, but was eliminated by CM Punk. On March 1, Curtis won the fourth season of "NXT". As winners, R-Truth and Curtis won the right to challenge for the Tag Team Championship.


title: R-Truth

text: On the April 11 episode of "Raw", R-Truth became the number one contender for the WWE Championship along with John Cena via double disqualification after The Miz and Alex Riley attacked both of them during a number one contender's gauntlet match. R-Truth had previously defeated Dolph Ziggler and John Morrison prior to facing Cena at the end of the gauntlet. The anonymous Raw General Manager stated that, due to interference from Miz and Riley, R-Truth and Cena would both compete for the WWE Championship at Extreme Rules in a steel cage match. On the April 18 episode of "Raw", Morrison questioned R-Truth about his capability to compete in a match like this and challenged R-Truth to a match for his spot. Later that night, after Morrison won the match, R-Truth attacked Morrison, turning heel in the process. The following week on "Raw", R-Truth stated that he was done entertaining the fans as popularity did not get him any titles. At Extreme Rules on May 1, R-Truth prevented Morrison from escaping the cage during the main event for the WWE Championship, ultimately costing him the title. On the May 9 episode of "Raw", R-Truth revealed that his attack on Morrison had led to him being hospitalized before then attacking Rey Mysterio at the end of the show. On the May 16 episode of "Raw", R-Truth accused Mysterio of being a "thief" and stealing his chance at the WWE Championship. R-Truth then attacked a weakened Mysterio, who had just finished a match with Alberto Del Rio. R-Truth faced Mysterio at Over the Limit, where he was victorious. After subsequent episodes of ranting and raving over John Cena's popularity, he harassed a young fan and his father on the May 30 episode of "Raw", throwing a cup of soda in the father's face after a countout win over Cena. After "Raw" went off the air, the anonymous Raw General Manager scheduled a WWE Championship match between the two, on the condition that R-Truth apologize for his behavior the next week. On the June 6 episode of "Raw", R-Truth made his way out to the ring, singing a song about "Little Jimmy" (referring to the children in attendance) and wearing a Confederate soldier's uniform, before apologizing for his actions. In the ensuing title match at Capitol Punishment, R-Truth was unsuccessful in winning the WWE Championship.


title: R-Truth

text: On the August 22 episode of "Raw", R-Truth and The Miz attacked Santino Marella before his match and then proceeded to cut a promo bashing Triple H about not using them properly. On the August 29 episode of "Raw", R-Truth interfered in The Miz's match and both of them attacked CM Punk. On the September 5 episode of "Raw", R-Truth and Miz challenged Air Boom (Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston) to a match for the Tag Team Championship at Night of Champions, but were disqualified after Miz assaulted a referee during the match. R-Truth and Miz were subsequently fired by Triple H the following night on "Raw". At Hell in a Cell, R-Truth and Miz attacked Alberto Del Rio, CM Punk, John Cena and referees after the WWE Championship match ended. After this, the entire WWE roster came out to find a way into the cell before police officers were able to get the door open and arrest them. On the October 10 episode of "Raw", R-Truth and The Miz were reinstated by John Laurinaitis. At Vengeance, Awesome Truth defeated CM Punk and Triple H in a tag team match, due to interference from Kevin Nash. Later that same night they attacked John Cena during his WWE Championship match with Alberto Del Rio, costing him the match. On November 20 at Survivor Series, Awesome Truth were defeated by Cena and The Rock. The following night on "Raw", Cena instigated an argument between R-Truth and Miz, which ultimately led to the team's dissolution as Miz attacked R-Truth with a Skull Crushing Finale onto the stage. Following the event, Killings was suspended for 30 days for violating the Wellness Policy.


title: R-Truth

text: On the December 26 episode of "Raw", R-Truth returned to attack Miz after the latter lost to John Cena via countout, turning face once again in the process. This was followed by back-and-forth assaults on the two throughout January. R-Truth entered the Royal Rumble Match at entry #3, but was eliminated by The Miz. R-Truth wrestled for the WWE Championship against CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston and The Miz at Elimination Chamber. He was eliminated by defending champion CM Punk.


title: R-Truth

text: R-Truth then began to contend for the WWE Tag Team Championship with Kofi Kingston and competing against Primo and Epico and Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger, which they both won and lost respectively. On the February 27 episode of "Raw", R-Truth and Kingston failed to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship from Primo and Epico in a Triple Threat Tag Team Match, also involving Ziggler and Swagger. At WrestleMania XXVIII, R-Truth and Kingston were members of Team Teddy to face Team Johnny in a twelve-man tag team match to determine the general manager of both brands, which was eventually won by Team Johnny. On the April 30 episode of "Raw", R-Truth and Kofi Kingston defeated Primo and Epico to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. At Over the Limit, R-Truth and Kingston successfully defended the title against Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger and then again in a rematch on the May 28 episode of "Raw". In the pre-show of Money in the Bank, R-Truth and Kingston defeated Hunico and Camacho in a non-title match. The following night on "Raw", they successfully defended the Tag Team Championship against The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil), and again at SummerSlam. At Night of Champions, R-Truth and Kingston lost the Tag Team Championship to the team of Kane and Daniel Bryan and failed to regain the titles from the new champions the following night on "Raw". After the show, R-Truth and Kingston dissolved their tag team.


title: R-Truth

text: R-Truth began feuding with United States Champion Antonio Cesaro on the October 29 episode of "Raw", after saving former tag partner Kofi Kingston from a post-match assault from Cesaro and The Miz. The following week, R-Truth teamed with Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara to defeat Cesaro and The Prime Time Players, with R-Truth pinning Cesaro for the win. R-Truth faced Cesaro for the United States Championship on November 18 at Survivor Series, but was unsuccessful in winning the title. On the following episode of "SmackDown", R-Truth defeated Cesaro in a non-title match. On the December 3 episode of "Raw", R-Truth was again unsuccessful in capturing the United States Championship from Cesaro in fatal-four-way match, also involving Kofi Kingston and Wade Barrett. On December 16 at , R-Truth failed again to capture the United States Championship from Cesaro and sustained an injury. He returned on the February 18, 2013 episode of "Raw", saving Kofi Kingston from Damien Sandow. At Battleground, R-Truth unsuccessfully challenged Curtis Axel for the Intercontinental Championship.


title: R-Truth

text: On the November 18 episode of "Raw", R-Truth teamed with Xavier Woods, who he had teamed previously with in TNA, to defeat 3MB (Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal), who were for that night called The Rhinestone Cowboys. On the November 29 episode of "SmackDown", R-Truth and Woods began a feud with Brodus Clay after Clay took offense to Woods using his entrance music and The Funkadactyls as his managers earlier in the week on "Raw". On the December 2 episode of "Raw", R-Truth and Woods defeated Tons of Funk (Clay and Tensai) in a rematch after Woods pinned Clay. At , R-Truth defeated Clay after Clay was distracted by Tensai leaving after having enough of Clay's behavior. At Extreme Rules on May 4, 2014, R-Truth and Woods was defeated by Alexander Rusev in a 2-on-1 handicap match. After that loss, R-Truth and Woods' team quietly disbanded.


title: R-Truth

text: At Royal Rumble on January 25, 2015, R-Truth entered the Royal Rumble match at number 2, but was eliminated by Bubba Ray Dudley. At Fastlane, Dean Ambrose stole Bad News Barrett's Intercontinental Championship belt. Over the next few weeks, various wrestlers gained possession of the belt including R-Truth, Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan, Luke Harper and Stardust. Subsequently, a multiple-man ladder match for the title involving these wrestlers was scheduled for WrestleMania 31. At the event, R-Truth was unsuccessful in winning the championship. On the April 27 episode of "Raw", R-Truth took part in the 2015 King of the Ring tournament, defeating Stardust in the first round. The following night on the WWE Network, R-Truth lost to Bad News Barrett in the semi-finals. R-Truth defeated Stardust at Payback pre-show. R-Truth participated in the Elimination Chamber match for the vacant Intercontinental Championship, but was eliminated by Ryback, who later won the match. During the match, R-Truth eliminated King Barrett, starting a feud between the two. In the following weeks, R-Truth mocked Barrett, wearing his royal crown and cape while referring to himself as "King What's Up". At the Money in the Bank pre-show, R-Truth defeated Barrett. At the Battleground pre-show, R-Truth faced Barrett in a "Battle for the Crown" match, where if Barrett lost, R-Truth would receive Barrett's crown, R-Truth failed to win the match, which ended their feud.


title: R-Truth

text: At the 2016 Royal Rumble match, R-Truth brought a ladder into the ring and climbing it, incorrectly believing the match to be the Money in the Bank ladder match. (This was part of a character trend where he was at least one PPV behind on everything.) Upon realizing his error, R-Truth was eliminated by Kane. In the following weeks on "Raw" and "SmackDown", Goldust approached R-Truth and proposed they form a tag team to no avail. At the Fastlane pay-per-view, Goldust came down to aid R-Truth at ringside in his match against Curtis Axel, inadvertently distracting R-Truth before Axel rolled him up for the win. After multiple attempts from Goldust, ending with R-Truth denying his request, R-Truth began to apologize and attempt to form a tag team with Goldust, with Goldust denying R-Truth. At WrestleMania 32, R-Truth entered André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal but was eliminated by Adam Rose and Heath Slater. For a number one contender's tag team title tournament, on the April 13 episode of "SmackDown", he was scheduled to team with Goldust for the match but was replaced by Fandango due to a refusal to team with R-Truth by Goldust. A week later, R-Truth aligned himself with Tyler Breeze due to Goldust's alliance with Fandango. On the May 2 episode of "Raw", Breeze defeated Goldust after interference by R-Truth. A week later on "Raw", R-Truth defeated Fandango, with Breeze in R-Truth's corner. On the May 12 episode of "SmackDown" R-Truth and Breeze faced Goldust and Fandango. During the match, R-Truth and Goldust refused to fight each other. As a result, Breeze and Fandango attacked Goldust as Fandango allowed Breeze to pin Goldust for the win. R-Truth attempted to rescue Goldust from the attack, only to get beaten down by the two along with him. The next week on "Raw", R-Truth and Goldust debuted as The Golden Truth against Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango) in a losing effort after R-Truth unintentionally kicked Goldust. Afterwards, Golden Truth started a losing streak, losing to the likes of Breezango and The Dudley Boyz. Golden Truth earned their first victory after defeating Breezango at the Money in the Bank event on June 19. On July 19, as part of the 2016 WWE draft, R-Truth, along with Goldust, was drafted to Raw brand. In November, The Golden Truth joined team Raw, but lost their spots a week later when R-Truth sold their spot to The Shining Stars for tickets to Puerto Rico. On the November 7 episode of "Raw", The Shining Stars defeated The Golden Truth to join Team Raw. On April 2, 2017, R-Truth and Goldust competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but failed to win.


title: R-Truth

text: On the May 15 episode of "Raw", during a promo, Goldust attacked R-Truth, ending The Golden Truth. On the June 26 episode of "Raw", R-Truth and Goldust had a brawl before their match even started. R-Truth was defeated by Goldust in a singles match on the July 10 episode of "Raw". On the August 28 episode of "Raw", R-Truth competed in an Intercontinental Championship number one contender's Battle Royal, which was won by Jeff Hardy. In October, reports suggested R-Truth suffered an arm injury during a match against Elias at a live event. R-Truth reportedly underwent surgery on October 26.


title: R-Truth

text: On April 17, 2018, R-Truth was moved to SmackDown brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up. During the summer, R-Truth involved himself in angles with then SmackDown Women's Champion Carmella, claiming that he would have got a chance against United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura by pinning Carmella (since Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair had both got a chance against Carmella's title by defeating her in non–title matches); R-Truth was eventually granted a match against Nakamura, but lost. On the September 4 episode of "SmackDown Live", Carmella finally agreed to manage R-Truth in his match against The Miz to avoid his wife Maryse's interference. R-Truth eventually won the match thanks to a distraction from Miz and Maryse's enemies Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella, which was also his first televised singles win since May 2016. Shortly after, Carmella started managing R-Truth and the two participated in season two of Mixed Match Challenge. Despite losing three matches before defeating Rusev and Lana to qualify into the playoffs, R-Truth and Carmella went on to defeat Jeff Hardy and Charlotte Flair in the quarter–finals and The Miz and Asuka in the semi–finals. In the finals of the Mixed Match Challenge, that took place on December 16 at , R-Truth and Carmella defeated Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox, earning both the number 30 spots for their respective Royal Rumble matches at the Royal Rumble. On the January 8, 2019 episode of "SmackDown", R-Truth faced WWE Champion Daniel Bryan in a non-title match in a losing effort.


title: R-Truth

text: At the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, R-Truth was attacked by Nia Jax during his entrance, who subsequently took his spot in the Men's Royal Rumble. As compensation for being attacked at the Royal Rumble, R-Truth received a United States Championship match on "SmackDown", in which he defeated champion Shinsuke Nakamura with a surprise roll-up to capture his second United States Championship, in his first championship win since April 2012. Immediately after the match, R-Truth was challenged by previous champion Rusev but retained the title with another roll-up. After the match, R-Truth was attacked by Nakamura and Rusev. On the February 26 episode of "SmackDown", R-Truth issued an open challenge for his United States Championship, which was answered by Andrade and Rey Mysterio. He retained the title in a triple threat match. The following week, another open challenge was answered by Mysterio, Andrade, and Samoa Joe. In the ensuing fatal-four-way match, R-Truth lost the title to Joe, ending his reign at 35 days. In a rematch between the same four men at Fastlane, Joe retained the title.


title: R-Truth

text: On the May 20 episode of "Raw", WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley unveiled the new WWE 24/7 Championship, a title similar to the Hardcore Championship, which also uses the "24/7 rule". Later that night, Truth pinned previous champion Robert Roode in the arena's parking lot to win the title and become the first superstar to win both the Hardcore Championship and 24/7 Championship.<ref name="5/20/19"></ref> The following weeks led to both Truth and Carmella regularly appearing on both "Raw" and "SmackDown Live" as part of the 24/7 rule and at more unconventional times and locations (filmed and published on WWE social media), where they would try to flee from other wrestlers wanting to win the title. This led R-Truth to lose the title to multiple superstars such as Heath Slater, Cedric Alexander, Mike Kanellis, Shelton Benjamin, The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson), twice to Jinder Mahal, three times each to Akira Tozawa, Drake Maverick, EC3, Elias, seven times to Mojo Rawley, and usually regain it hours or even minutes later.<ref name="6/4/19"></ref>


title: R-Truth

text: Truth went on to become a 53-time 24/7 Champion, and became the first of only twelve people to stay as champion for over 24 hours. Within the first month of its existence, the 24/7 Championship segments would become the highest viewed videos of both "Raw" and "SmackDown" online, garnering millions of views each. Also, R-Truth was voted by WWE fans as their favorite champion in June 2019. Over the course of the next year, he won the title 52 times, also including to sports presenter Rob Stone, NBA player Enes Kanter, and race car driver Kyle Busch. As part of the 2019 draft, Truth was drafted to Raw, splitting him from Carmella, who remained on SmackDown. On February 27, 2020, at Super ShowDown, Truth competed in the gauntlet match for the Tuwaiq Trophy, where he defeated Bobby Lashley, Andrade, and Erick Rowan, but lost to AJ Styles following an assault from Rowan. At Money in the Bank, he was quickly defeated by Lashley. Throughout 2021 and 2022, R-Truth continued to be present in segments for the 24/7 Championship until November 7, 2022, where the 24/7 Championship title was retired. As WWE 24/7 Champion, Truth had the most reigns at 53 and the longest combined reign at 425 days.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Peter Jonathan Hitchens (born 28 October 1951) is an English author, broadcaster, journalist, and commentator. He writes for "The Mail on Sunday" and was a foreign correspondent reporting from both Moscow and Washington, D.C. Peter Hitchens has contributed to "The Spectator, The American Conservative", "The Guardian", "First Things", "Prospect", and the "New Statesman." He has published numerous books, including "The Abolition of Britain", "The Rage Against God", "The War We Never Fought" and "The Phoney Victory".


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Previously a socialist and supporter of the Labour Party, Hitchens became more conservative during the 1990s. He joined the Conservative Party in 1997 and left in 2003, and has since been deeply critical of the party, which he views as the biggest obstacle to true conservatism in the UK. Hitchens describes himself as a Burkean conservative, social democrat and Anglo-Gaullist. His conservative Christian political views, such as his opposition to same-sex marriage and support of stricter recreational drug policies, have been met with criticism and debate in the United Kingdom.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Peter Hitchens has criticised the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially lockdowns and mandates that the public wear face masks. He has been accused of promoting misinformation about the pandemic and public health restrictions by several sources.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Peter Hitchens was born in Malta, where his father, Eric Ernest Hitchens (1909–1987), a naval officer, was stationed as part of the then Mediterranean Fleet of the Royal Navy. His mother, Yvonne Jean Hitchens (née Hickman; 1921–1973) had met Eric while serving in the Women's Royal Naval Service (Wrens) during World War II.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: As a boy, Hitchens wanted to be an officer in the Royal Navy, following his father. However, when he was 10, he learned he had a lazy eye that could not be corrected, thereby barring him from serving in the Royal Navy.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens attended Mount House School, Tavistock, the Leys School, and the Oxford College of Further Education before being accepted at the University of York, where he studied Philosophy and Politics and was a member of Alcuin College, graduating in 1973.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens married Eve Ross in 1983. They have a daughter and two sons. Their elder son, Dan, was editor of the "Catholic Herald", a London-based Roman Catholic newspaper. Hitchens lives in Oxford.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens was brought up in the Christian faith and attended Christian boarding schools but became an atheist, beginning to leave his faith at 15. He returned to church later in life, and is now an Anglican and a member of the Church of England.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens has Jewish descent via his maternal grandmother, a daughter of Polish Jewish migrants. His grandmother revealed this fact upon meeting his wife Eve Ross. Though his brother Christopher was quick to embrace his Jewish identity following the principle of matrilineal descent, Peter noted that they were only one-32nd Jewish by descent and has not identified as Jewish himself.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens' only sibling was the journalist and author Christopher Hitchens, who was two years older. Christopher said in 2005 that the main difference between the two was belief in the existence of God.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Peter was a member of the International Socialists (forerunners of the modern Socialist Workers' Party) from 1968 to 1975 (beginning at age 17) after Christopher introduced him to them.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: The brothers fell out after Peter wrote a 2001 article in "The Spectator" which allegedly characterised Christopher as a Stalinist. After the birth of Peter's third child, the two brothers reconciled.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Peter's review of his brother's book "God Is Not Great" led to a public argument between the brothers but no renewed estrangement. In the review, Peter wrote that his brother's book made a number of incorrect assertions.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: In 2007, the brothers appeared as panellists on BBC TV's "Question Time", where they clashed on a number of issues. In 2008, in the US, they debated the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the existence of God. In 2010 at the Pew Research Center, the pair debated the nature of God in civilisation.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Christopher died in 2011; at a memorial service held for him in New York, Peter read St Paul's Philippians 4:8, which Christopher had read at their father's funeral.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: He joined the Labour Party in 1977 but left shortly after campaigning for Ken Livingstone in 1979, thinking it was wrong to carry a party card when directly reporting politics, and coinciding with a culmination of growing personal disillusionment with the Labour movement.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens began his journalistic career on the local press in Swindon and then at the "Coventry Evening Telegraph". He then worked for the "Daily Express" between 1977 and 2000, initially as a reporter specialising in education and industrial and labour affairs, then as a political reporter, and subsequently as deputy political editor. Leaving parliamentary journalism to cover defence and diplomatic affairs, he reported on the decline and collapse of communist regimes in several Warsaw Pact countries, which culminated in a stint as Moscow correspondent and reporting on life there during the final months of the Soviet Union and the early years of the Russian Federation in 1990–92. He took part in reporting the UK 1992 general election, closely following Neil Kinnock. He then became the "Daily Express" Washington correspondent. Returning to Britain in 1995, he became a commentator and columnist.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: In 2000, Hitchens left the "Daily Express" after its acquisition by Richard Desmond, stated that working for him would have represented a moral conflict of interest. Hitchens joined "The Mail on Sunday", where he has a weekly column and weblog in which he debates directly with readers. Hitchens has also written for "The Spectator" and "The American Conservative" magazines, and occasionally for "The Guardian", "Prospect", and the "New Statesman".


title: Peter Hitchens

text: After being shortlisted in 2007 and 2009, Hitchens won the Orwell Prize in political journalism in 2010. Peter Kellner, one of the Orwell Prize judges, described Hitchens's writing as being "as firm, polished and potentially lethal as a Guardsman's boot."


title: Peter Hitchens

text: A regular on British radio and television, Hitchens has been on "Question Time", "Any Questions?", "This Week", "The Daily Politics" and "The Big Questions". He has authored and presented several documentaries on Channel 4, including critical examinations of Nelson Mandela and David Cameron. In the late 1990s, Hitchens co-presented a programme on Talk Radio UK with Derek Draper and Austin Mitchell.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: In 2010, Hitchens was described by Edward Lucas in "The Economist" as "a forceful, tenacious, eloquent and brave journalist. He lambasts woolly thinking and crooked behaviour at home and abroad." In 2009, Anthony Howard wrote of Hitchens, "the old revolutionary socialist has lost nothing of his passion and indignation as the years have passed us all by. It is merely the convictions that have changed, not the fervour and fanaticism with which they continue to be held."


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens reported from Somalia at the time of the United Nations intervention in the Somali Civil War.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens describes himself as a Burkean conservative, a social democrat and more recently, a Gaullist. In 2010, Michael Gove, writing in "The Times", asserted that, for Hitchens, what is more important than the split between the Left and the Right is "the deeper gulf between the restless progressive and the Christian pessimist." Hitchens joined the Conservative Party in 1997 and left in 2003. This was when he challenged Michael Portillo for the Conservative nomination in the Kensington and Chelsea seat in 1999.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: He has been consistently dismissive of the modern UK Conservative Party since the 1990s. This is because he believes that the party has since then abandoned true social conservatism. His view is that conservatism should embody a Burkean sense of public duty, conscience and the rule of law, which he sees as the best guarantee of liberty. Furthermore, this view holds a general hostility to hasty reforms and adventurism. This was central to his criticism of many policy proposals by the New Labour government, which he viewed as attacks on liberty and facets of a constitutional revolution. He believes the Conservative Party should be a defender of establishment institutions such as the Church of England and the Monarchy, but has shifted to social liberalism instead. He believes that atheism, along with cultural liberalism, are the causes of the systematic undermining of Christianity. Hitchens has written "The left's real interests are moral, cultural, sexual and social. They lead to a powerful state. This is not because they actively set out to achieve one." He also believes that the First World War and the devolution of marriage are the causes of the demise of Christianity in Europe.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: In his book "The Cameron Delusion", Hitchens argues that in the last few decades, the party has become virtually "indistinguishable from Blairite New Labour". He thinks the Conservative Party is now just a vehicle for "obtaining office for the sons of gentlemen" and he loathes the party. Hitchens's claim that the "Conservatives are now the main Left-wing party in the country" in his "Mail on Sunday" column has been met with much criticism.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: He is in favour of capital punishment, and was the only British journalist to attend and write about the execution of British-born Nicholas Ingram in America in 1995.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens has been a prominent member of the campaign to clear the name of the late Bishop of Chichester, George Bell from allegations of child sexual abuse. He has argued that the Church of England convicted him in what he described as a kangaroo court, and stated his wish that allegations are not treated as proven facts.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens takes a critical stance on many wars. He was opposed to the Kosovo and 2003 Iraq War, on the grounds that neither was in the interests of either Britain or the United States, and opposed the war in Afghanistan.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: He believes that the UK should never have joined in World War I, and is very critical of the view that World War II was "The Good War". His view on World War II is laid out in his book "The Phoney Victory", in which he argues that the UK entered World War II too early, and that the UK overly glorifies World War II. He argues that while the allies were, indeed, fighting a radical evil, they sometimes used immoral methods, such as the allies’ carpet bombing of German civilians. He believes that Britain's entry into World War II led to its rapid decline after the war. This was because, among other things, it could not finance the war and was not prepared. As a result, it had to surrender much of its wealth and power to avoid bankruptcy. Hitchens' views on the UK in World War II been met with criticism by historians, with Richard J. Evans describing his book "The Phoney Victory" as 'riddled with errors'.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: However, Hitchens is not anti-war since he believes that this position often leaves countries unprotected and defenceless in times of war. Instead, he argues that military power and the threat of war can be necessary deterrents against war.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens wrote about his concern of the use of security (anti-terrorism) legislation and increased police powers under New Labour, and how it has been used to suppress civil liberties; in Channel 4's "Dispatches", Hitchens said the result of this legislation was that Britain ended up "sleepwalking into a Big Brother state".


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Peter Hitchens is very critical of the European Union and has argued for many years that Britain would be better off outside it. In 2017 he endorsed the Flexcit model proposed by Richard North and Christopher Booker as the most sensible and moderate way to leave the EU while remaining in the European Economic Area to preserve the economic benefits of EU membership. However, he did not vote in the 2016 UK EU referendum because he is critical of referendums. Instead of a referendum, he argued that a leave decision would be best done by voting into power a political party whose manifesto committed the country to withdrawal by an act of Parliament.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens was against the MMR vaccine following the Lancet MMR autism fraud. He asked in a 2001 article: "Is it really our duty to risk our children's lives with this jab?" In 2013, he defended this earlier article, saying he was criticising "State bossiness in an age that has seen a catalogue of mistakes, panics and mysteries in the world of disease and medicine" and referred to the thalidomide scandal. He has defended discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: After being vaccinated against COVID-19 in 2021, Hitchens rejected accusations he is an anti-vaxxer, but said that he was "more or less forced to have an immunisation I would not normally have bothered with".


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens has written about the enforcement of drug laws, most notably in his book "The War We Never Fought" (2012). He advocates harsher penalties properly enforced for possession and illegal use of cannabis, claiming that "cannabis has been mis-sold as a soft and harmless substance when in fact it's potentially extremely dangerous." He is opposed to the decriminalisation of recreational drugs in general. In 2012, Hitchens gave evidence to the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee as part of its inquiry into drugs policy, and called for the British government to introduce a more hard-line policy on drugs. Hitchens disagrees with the notion of drug addiction, arguing that it goes against the notion of free will. He says: "People take drugs because they enjoy it."


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens has strongly criticised the transgender rights movement, claiming that it promotes zealotry and that changes in traditional gender roles in society are "destroying truth itself".


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens was one of the most outspoken opponents of same-sex marriage in 2013, the year before same-sex marriage was legal in Britain. However, in speaking to "Guardian" journalist Owen Jones in 2015, he said his real issue was with the decline of heterosexual marriage in society and the legalisation "of what was in effect no-fault divorce", and that same-sex marriage is "a side-effect ... It's a consequence of the collapse of heterosexual marriage, and I regret now getting involved in the argument about same-sex marriage, because it was a Stalingrad, a diversion. Why is one worrying about a few thousand people who want to have same-sex marriages, without being at all concerned about the collapse of heterosexual marriage, which involves millions of people, and millions of children?"


title: Peter Hitchens

text: In 2019, the University of Buckingham organised a "free-speech society" after Hitchens' "no-platforming" by the University of Portsmouth over his views on gay rights, which they believed would cause conflict with LGBT events on campus. Hitchens was the first guest invited by the society to address students. In response to his being no-platformed by the University of Portsmouth, Hitchens was invited by the Archivist and the Head of History and Politics at The Portsmouth Grammar School to give a short talk on "The myth of Russian aggression" to Sixth Form pupils.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens has claimed that "the greenhouse effect probably doesn't exist" and that the scientific consensus linking global warming to human activity has not been proven, describing it as "modish dogma". He has criticised wind power in the United Kingdom and argued in 2015 that its expansion put the UK at risk of blackouts.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: He has particularly criticised COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK, suggesting they would have negative consequences and questioning their epidemiological efficacy. He has been described as a "lockdown sceptic". Full Fact evaluated his statement, where he said it was "not possible” for the first lockdown in March to cause the peak in daily infections and deaths to decline, in a fact-checking article, and concluded that this was "wrong" based on available evidence. Hitchens' view was also disputed by Paul Mason in the "New Statesman." George Monbiot in "The Guardian" also critiqued Hitchens' views. Daniel Hannan meanwhile expressed agreement with Hitchens in "The Daily Telegraph". A tweet by Hitchens stating four fifths of cases were asymptomatic was also described as "misleading" by "Voice of America". Hitchens criticised Imperial College London modelling, which suggested that there could be up to 500,000 COVID-19 deaths if the government did not impose a lockdown.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: He has been against the mandatory wearing of face masks during the pandemic, referring to them as "muzzles". He also believes that government mandates to wear face coverings are oppressive.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens has advocated for English nationalism, arguing that the United Kingdom should be dissolved and England should become an independent country once again.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: In 2010, Hitchens argued that Crimea should be part of Russia rather than Ukraine, on the basis that the region is historically Russian. In November, 2022, he criticised the "virulent nationalism" in Ukraine, comparing it to the civic nationalism in Scotland, and stated it is easier "to be a non-Scot in Scotland" than "an ethnic Russian in Ukraine" due to the "ugly strain of Ukrainian nationalism that made life difficult for ethnic Russians in Ukraine."


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens is the author of "The Abolition of Britain" (1999) and "A Brief History of Crime" (2003), both critical of changes in British society since the 1960s. A compendium of his "Daily Express" columns was published as "Monday Morning Blues" in 2000. "A Brief History of Crime" was reissued as "The Abolition of Liberty" in April 2004, with an additional chapter on identity cards ("Your papers, please"), and with two chapters – on gun control ("Out of the barrel of a gun") and capital punishment ("Cruel and unusual") – removed.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: "The Broken Compass: How British Politics Lost its Way" was published in May 2009, and "The Rage Against God" was published in Britain in March 2010, and in the US in May.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: Hitchens's book "The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment's Surrender to Drugs", about what he sees as the non-existence of the war on drugs, was published by Bloomsbury in the autumn of 2012.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: In June 2014, Hitchens published his first e-book, "Short Breaks in Mordor", a compendium of foreign reports.


title: Peter Hitchens

text: "The Phoney Victory: The World War II Illusion" was published in August 2018 by I.B. Tauris. It addresses what Hitchens views as the national myth of the Second World War, which he believes did long-term damage to Britain and its position in the world. It was negatively reviewed by the historian Richard Evans in the "New Statesman", who described the book as "riddled with errors".


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: Men in Black (also known as MIB) is a series of American science fiction action comedy films directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and based on the Malibu / Marvel comic book series "The Men in Black" by Lowell Cunningham, which was itself based on the conspiracy theory. The first film, "Men in Black", was released in 1997, the second film, "Men in Black II" in 2002, the third film, "Men in Black 3" in 2012, and the fourth film, a spin-off "" in 2019. Amblin Entertainment and MacDonald/Parkes Productions produced all four films and distributed through Columbia Pictures.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: "Men in Black" is the first film in the series. The film follows the exploits of Agent J and Agent K, members of a top-secret organization established to monitor and police alien activity on Earth. After Agent K hand-picks James D. Edwards from the NYPD and recruits him for MiB, the two Men in Black find themselves in the middle of the deadly plot by an intergalactic terrorist who has arrived on Earth to steal a power source of unimaginable power. In order to prevent worlds from colliding, the MiB must track down the terrorist and prevent the destruction of Earth. It's just another typical day for the Men in Black. The film was released on July 2, 1997, to positive reviews and grossed $589 million worldwide.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: "Men in Black II" is the second film in the series, set five years after the first. For Agent J, it is another day at the office, monitoring, licensing and policing all alien activity on Earth. Agent K retired from MiB after the events of the first film and has returned to his former life. One day, J receives a report of an unauthorized landing of an alien spacecraft near New York. It is an old enemy of MiB, a Kylothian named Serleena, who is searching for a powerful artifact called The Light of Zartha. J investigates and realizes that it requires knowledge of events that only K possesses. After other recruited MiB agents fail to meet J's standards as a partner, J decides to bring back K and restore K's memory as an MiB agent to try and stop Serleena. The film was released on July 3, 2002, to mixed reviews and grossed $441 million worldwide.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: "Men in Black 3" is the third film in the series and was released on May 25, 2012, to positive reviews and grossed over $624 million worldwide. When a notorious alien criminal Boris the Animal escapes LunarMax Security Prison to seek revenge on K for capturing him in 1969, he is able to use secret time-travel technology to go back in time and undo the events of his defeat, resulting in a new timeline where K is killed during his fight with Boris and Earth is now vulnerable to an invasion from his species. With J the only one who remembers the original history, he must go back in time to join forces with the younger K and ensure that events play out as they should.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: In the spin-off film, a rookie MIB recruit Molly Wright and Agent H from MIB UK branch investigate the activities of the shape-shifting alien duo Twins who are seeking a dangerous artifact, only to discover that there is a more dangerous threat: a mole in the agency. Agent O from "Men In Black 3" returns and Frank the Pug appears in the cameo after appearing in the first two films. The film was released on June 14, 2019. Unlike its predecessors "Men in Black: International" received mostly negative reviews and was a box office disappointment, grossing only $253 million worldwide, making it the lowest grossing film in the series.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: The film is loosely based upon the comic book "The Men in Black" by Lowell Cunningham. Producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald optioned the rights to "The Men in Black" in 1992 and hired Ed Solomon to write a very faithful script. Parkes and MacDonald wanted Barry Sonnenfeld as director because he had helmed the darkly humorous "The Addams Family" and its sequel "Addams Family Values". Sonnenfeld was attached to "Get Shorty" (1995), so they approached Les Mayfield to direct, as they had heard about the positive reception to his remake of "Miracle on 34th Street". They actually saw the film later and decided he was inappropriate. "Men in Black" was delayed so as to allow Sonnenfeld to make it his next project after "Get Shorty".


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: Much of the initial script drafts were set underground, with locations ranging from Kansas to Washington DC and Nevada. Sonnenfeld decided to change the location to New York City, because the director felt New Yorkers would be tolerant of aliens who behaved oddly while disguised. He also felt much of the city's structures resembled flying saucers and rocket ships. Production designer Bo Welch designed the MIB headquarters with a 1960s tone in mind, because that was when their organization is formed. He cited influences from Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, who designed a terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Being the arrival point of aliens on Earth, Welch felt MIB HQ had to resemble an airport.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: ILM provided most of the special effects. Rick Baker led the special effects of the film, which was the most complex in his career to date. He had to have approval from both director Barry Sonnenfeld and executive producer Steven Spielberg: "It was like, 'Steven likes the head on this one and Barry really likes the body on this one, so why don't you do a mix and match?' And I'd say, because it wouldn't make any sense". Sonnenfeld also changed a lot of the film's aesthetic during pre-production: "I started out saying aliens shouldn't be what humans perceive them to be. Why do they need eyes? So Rick did these great designs, and I'd say, 'That's great — but how do we know where he's looking?' I ended up where everyone else did, only I took three months".


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: Filming began in March 1995. Five months into the shoot, the crew realized their ending was unexciting. It was originally meant to be a humorous existential debate between Agent J and the Bug, and five potential replacements were discussed. One of these had Laurel Weaver being neuralyzed and K remaining an agent. The change to a fight sequence annoyed Rick Baker, as their animatronic Bug had to be replaced with computer-generated imagery. Further changes were made during post-production to simplify the plotline involving the possession of the tiny galaxy. The Arquillians would hand over the galaxy to the Baltians, ending a long war. The bugs need to feed on the casualties of the war and steal it to continue the war. Through changing of subtitles, the images on MIB's main computer and Frank the Pug's dialogue, the Baltians were eliminated from the plot. Earth goes from being potentially destroyed in the crossfire between the two races into being possibly destroyed by the Arquillians to prevent the bugs getting the galaxy.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: Despite some initial involvement from David Koepp (who left to work on "Spider-Man"), the script for "Men in Black II" was written by Robert Gordon and later revised by Barry Fanaro (who added pop culture references, something which Gordon had deliberately avoided). Sonnenfeld took issue with the producers' focus on the love story between Will Smith's and Rosario Dawson's characters, saying that "I learned on "Wild Wild West" that audiences didn't want to see Will as the straight man. And until Tommy comes back into the movie, by definition Will's the straight man". Fanaro condensed the first part of the film and brought Agent K in earlier. The climax of the second film was originally to have taken place at New York City's World Trade Center, but was changed following the destruction of the buildings in the September 11 attacks. This also led to the ending being refilmed.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: Supervising sound editor Skip Lievsay used a Synclavier to recreate and improve the original recording of the neuralyzer sound effect from the first film (which was the sound of a strobe flash as it recycles) by removing some distortion. For some of the scenes with the Serleena creature, the sound crew "took tree branches, put them inside a rubber membrane and pushed that around and added some water." For the special effects scene where the subway train is attacked by Jeff the Worm, a specially designed vise was used to crush a subway car and make it look as if it had been bitten in half.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: The premise of the third film was first proposed to Sonnenfeld by Smith during the filming of "Men in Black II" in 2002, with Smith suggesting that his character, Agent J, travel back in time to save his partner, Agent K, while at the same time exploring Agent K's backstory. Sonnenfeld said the idea "turned out to be a very long process of development, mainly because of the knotting [sic] issues of time travel..." The film was first announced on April 1, 2009, by Sony Pictures Entertainment president Rory Bruer during a Sony ShoWest presentation. By October, Etan Cohen had been hired to write the screenplay. As of March 2010, Will Smith remained undecided whether to join this film or another, "The City That Sailed". Sonnenfeld in May confirmed the return of the protagonists played by Tommy Lee Jones and Smith. Both had expressed interest in 2008 in reprising their roles. Other staff includes Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald as producers, with Steven Spielberg as executive producer; all were producers of the two previous films.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: In June, writer David Koepp was hired to rewrite the Cohen script. In June, the fan site SonyInsider.com posted what it described as a "clip [that] debuted at an exclusive Sony 3D TV launch event at Sony Pictures Studios", showing Smith dressed as Agent J wearing 3-D glasses and stating: "I know what you're thinking — 'M.I.B.', 3-D, we're going to be blowing stuff up and all that. But that's not really what we're doing right now. We're here for one purpose, and for one purpose only: Just to let you know that I'm about to make 3-D look good". A teaser poster for the film was also released on September 21. A third writer, Jeff Nathanson, was hired in November to rewrite the time-travel segment of the script in which the story takes place in 1969. Nathanson and Koepp, along with producer Spielberg, had previously worked together on the 2008 film "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: In 2018, Chris Hemsworth was attached to star in the film, directed by F. Gary Gray. Tessa Thompson joined the cast, while Liam Neeson was cast as the head of the UK branch of the agency. The film's script was written by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway and would be produced by Laurie MacDonald and Walter Parkes. Kumail Nanjiani, Rafe Spall, and Les Twins were added to the cast of the film. Danny Elfman, who scored the first three "Men in Black" films, returned to compose the score for the film alongside Chris Bacon.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: Principal photography on the film began on July 9, 2018, at Leavesden Studios and on location in London, and continued in Morocco, Italy, and New York City. Emma Thompson reprised her role as Agent O in the film. Rebecca Ferguson joined the cast of the film. Filming was wrapped on October 17. Visual effects for the film were provided by Double Negative and supervised by Alessandro Ongaro with the help of Rodeo FX, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Method Studios.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: "Men in Black" won the Academy Award for Best Makeup, and was also nominated for Best Original Score and Best Art Direction. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe of Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, having a 92% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes film critic website. Following the film's release, Ray-Ban said that the sales of their Predator 2 sunglasses (worn by the organization to deflect neuralyzers) tripled to $5 million.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: The second film received mixed reviews from critics, gaining a 39% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, as opposed to the 92% rating given for its predecessor, based on 197 reviews and a Metacritic score of 49. A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" said that "within the trivial, ingratiating scope of its ambition, though, the sequel is pleasant enough", and, noting the huge array of aliens designed by Rick Baker, said that the film "really belongs to Mr. Baker". A review in "The Hindu" called the film "worth viewing once". Another review from Digital Media FX magazine praised the spaceships as looking very realistic, but criticized many of the simpler visual effects such as the moving backgrounds composited behind the car windows using blue-screen (which it called a throwback to the special effects of earlier decades). In August 2002, "Entertainment Weekly" placed the Worm Guys among their list of the best CG characters, and said that the enlarged roles of both Frank the Pug and the Worm Guys in "Men in Black II" was beneficial for the "tiring franchise". The film earned a Razzie Award nomination for Lara Flynn Boyle as Worst Supporting Actress.


title: Men in Black (film series)

text: "Men in Black 3" received mostly positive reviews from film critics. The film holds a 69% approval rating on the Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 6.06/10, based on an aggregation of 244 reviews. It has a score of 58% on Metacritic based on 38 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, in particular praising Josh Brolin's role as the young Agent K, which he cites as an excellent example of good casting. Ebert also praised the "ingenious plot, bizarre monsters, audacious cliff-hanging" and the "virtuoso final sequence". Richard Roeper gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars while saying: "It's that rare threequel that doesn't suck. Great special effects, surprising amount of heart". A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" also gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars and commented: ""Men in Black 3" arrives in the multiplexes of the world with no particular agenda. Which may be part of the reason that it turns out to be so much fun". Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" noted that "Sonnenfeld and Cohen move their baby along with an integrity and gait that ought to serve as a blueprint for other filmmakers faced with the particular challenges of reviving big-ticket and time-dated hunks of pop culture". Rafer Guzman of "Newsday" wrote: "The franchise is no longer the zenith of blockbusterism, and the gooey effects from Hollywood veteran Rick Baker look overly familiar, but "Men in Black 3" remains an amiable comedy with some fondly familiar faces".