title: Frontier Developments

text: Frontier Developments is a British video game developer founded by David Braben in January 1994 and based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. Frontier is known for developing amusement park management simulators within multiple franchises owned by other companies which led to the development of the in-house titles "Planet Coaster" and "Planet Zoo", and has produced several games in David Braben's "Elite" series, including "Elite Dangerous". The company takes its name from the earliest titles in the Elite series with which it was involved, a port of and development of . In 2013, the company reincorporated as a public limited company and was listed on the AIM segment of the London Stock Exchange.


title: Frontier Developments

text: Frontier Developments' first game was the 1993 Amiga CD32 port of the largely successful "" followed by "", second sequel to the seminal 1984 game "Elite" by Acornsoft. The company describes the original "Elite" as a "Game by Frontier", in its back catalogue during the company's 2013 sale of shares to the public, with David Braben owning all rights to the game assigned to the company in 2008.


title: Frontier Developments

text: Between 2005 and 2011, Frontier developed "The Outsider", an action-adventure game set in Washington DC that Braben said would advance video game storytelling. "The Outsider" was cancelled in January 2011 after it was dropped by the publisher, Codemasters, leading to nearly 30 staff layoffs.


title: Frontier Developments

text: Frontier had been planning a new "Elite" sequel, under the working title "Elite 4", since 1998. The company completed a successful Kickstarter campaign at the end of 2012, where the new sequel's name "" was revealed. Early-access versions of the game have been playable by backers since December 2013. The full game was released to PC on 16 December 2014.


title: Frontier Developments

text: Frontier Developments has made many other games, including "Dog's Life", "Thrillville", and "RollerCoaster Tycoon 3". The company also made games for the Wallace and Gromit franchise, and has released "Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo", and for "". In 2008, Frontier released "LostWinds", a launch title for Nintendo's WiiWare platform. It received critical acclaim, scoring 81% on Metacritic. It was followed up with a sequel in 2009, entitled "", which scored 86% on Metacritic. In 2010, Frontier developed "Kinectimals" for Microsoft's Kinect controller on the Xbox 360. In 2011 "Kinect Disneyland Adventures" and "Kinectimals: Now With Bears" were developed, along with ports of "LostWinds" for iOS and "Kinectimals" for iOS and Windows Phone. In 2012, Frontier released "Coaster Crazy", and started to work on "" Kickstarter, which successfully closed at the start of 2013. In 2013, Frontier released Xbox One and Xbox 360 exclusive "Zoo Tycoon", published by Microsoft Studios, and launched backers alpha for "Elite: Dangerous" in December. In 2015 the company released "Screamride", a theme park construction and management simulation game for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The company has recently released "Planet Coaster", a construction and management simulation video game similar to the "RollerCoaster Tycoon" franchise. The game is the second major self-published franchises from Frontier along with the "Elite" series. Frontier announced that they will begin self-publishing all their future games, starting with "Planet Coaster".


title: Frontier Developments

text: Frontier opened a North American studio in August 2012 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada under the name Frontier Developments Inc. and headed by David Walsh. It closed in January 2015.


title: Frontier Developments

text: On 3 January 2017 TMZ reported that the company sued Atari for not paying the company enough for royalties for their game "RollerCoaster Tycoon 3"; Frontier reported that they only received $1.17 million when they needed $3.37 million. David Walsh confirmed the report in a GameSpot interview, stating that they had previously attempted to resolve the issue without legal action since April 2016.


title: Frontier Developments

text: On 6 February 2017 Frontier announced that they had acquired licensing rights from Universal Pictures to be used in their third self-published title, an "enduring movie franchise of global renown". This was later announced to be "Jurassic World Evolution," which released on 12 June 2018.


title: Frontier Developments

text: On 26 July 2017 the company announced Frontier Expo 2017, a press and community event focusing on "Elite: Dangerous", "Planet Coaster", and "Jurassic World Evolution". The event took place on 7 October 2017 at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, UK.


title: Frontier Developments

text: In March 10, 2020, Frontier announced that they had signed an agreement with Formula One to develop and release several management simulation games based on the F1 license. In this agreement, Frontier will release four games, starting from "F1 Manager 2022" in 2022.


title: Frontier Developments

text: On 10 June 2021, Frontier announced "Jurassic World Evolution 2" a sequel to their 2018 park builder game would be releasing in late 2021.


title: Frontier Developments

text: On 10 Mar 2022, Frontier announced they were cancelling all development of their latest version of "Elite Dangerous", "Odyssey", on consoles.


title: Frontier Developments

text: On 10 August 2022, Frontier announced David Braben was to step down from the position of CEO and take on a newly established executive role of President and Founder. Jonny Watts who has been with the company for 24 years, the last decade of which in the position of Chief Creative Officer was to become the new CEO. The changes were effective immediately. It was also announced that David Gammon would be retiring from his role as Chairman in December 2022 and David Wilton would take on this role at that time.


title: Frontier Developments

text: On 2 November 2022, Frontier announced that they had completed an acquisition of Complex Games following on from the success of "" which was published under the Frontier Foundry label six months prior.


title: Frontier Developments

text: In June 2019, Frontier announced that it would begin publishing games from third-party developers under a new label named Frontier Publishing. At Gamescom 2020, Frontier announced that their publishing label would be renamed to "Frontier Foundry", and that it would publish "Struggling" from Chasing Rats in 2020, and "Lemnis Gate" from Ratloop Games in 2021. They would also publish an upcoming project from Haemimont Games. This game was revealed to be named Stranded: Alien Dawn which will initially release as an Early Access title on Steam in October 2022 with a full release anticipated during 2023.


title: Frontier Developments

text: On 13 June 2021, Frontier announced Lemnis Gate would be released on 3 August 2021 with an open beta being scheduled for July 2021.


title: Frontier Developments

text: On 3 June 2021 during the Games Workshop Warhammer Skulls event, Frontier announced they would be publishing a reboot to the 1998 turn based game named Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters. The reboot is to be developed by Canadian developer Complex Games and published under the Frontier Foundry label. It is set to release in 2022.


title: Frontier Developments

text: Additionally Frontier announced a sequel to "" named "", developed by Okomotive and published under the Frontier Foundry label. The game was released in March 2022.


title: Frontier Developments

text: "Deliver Us Mars", set ten years after the events of "Deliver Us The Moon", was announced as part of the Future Games Show Spring Showcase on March 24, 2022. It features a new protagonist who reactivates her companion robot after an apparent ship crash on the planet of Mars. "Deliver Us Mars" is set to launch on both Epic Games Store and Steam PC storefronts, as well as Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4 consoles.


title: Frontier Developments

text: "The Great War: Western Front", a Real Time Strategy game developed by Petroglyph Games was announced as part of the Future Games Show during Gamescom on August 24, 2022. It is set to launch on the Epic Games Store and Steam PC storefronts in 2023.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Jeremy Fritz (born December 15, 1979) is a Canadian professional wrestler currently a free agent. He performs under the ring name Eric Young.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: In Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), now known as Impact Wrestling, Young wrestled from 2004 to 2016 and returned in 2020, During his time with the promotion he has won 14 championships, being a two-time World Champion, a one-time X Division Champion, a three-time Legends/Global/Television/King of the Mountain Champion and a seven-time World Tag Team Champion, being a two-time NWA World Tag Team Champion with Bobby Roode, and a four-time TNA/Impact World Tag Team Champion once with Kaz, once as a member of The Band with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (under the Freebird Rule), and twice as a member of Violent By Design with Deaner and Joe Doering (again under the Freebird Rule). He is also the only male to hold the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship, winning the title with ODB.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: After graduating from high school, Young began training with veteran wrestler Waldo Von Erich in Cambridge, Ontario. After training for ten weeks, he wrestled his debut match on October 14, 1998, in Benton Harbor, Michigan, facing his friend "Suicide" Sean Ball. He later received supplementary training from Scott D'Amore and Chris Kanyon. After four months, he had wrestled ten matches and was promoted to head trainer. After his training was complete, Young began working on the independent circuit. When wrestling infrequently, Young subsidised his income with a number of other jobs, including working in a pizza parlour, manufacturing brass horse harnesses, and sand casting. During his time in the Ontario independent scene, Young also owned and operated the Wrestleplex training facility out of Cambridge. Notable wrestlers to come out of the gym include Jake O'Reilly, Ontario mainstay Crazzy Steve, and World Wrestling Entertainment signee Shawn Spears.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On June 30, 2007, Eric secured the APWF Light Heavyweight Championship defeating former four-time NWA World Light Heavyweight Champion "Luscious" Rocky Reynolds in Oil City, Pennsylvania.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Young appeared on WWE television three times. The first was on an "WWE Velocity"; he teamed with future tag team partner Bobby Roode and were defeated by Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli. The second appearance was also on "WWE Velocity" in which he was announced as "Showtime" Eric Young; he lost to Sean O'Haire. He appeared the next day on "WWE Sunday Night Heat", losing a match to Val Venis.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: In January 2004 Young debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as a member of Team Canada. He took part in the World X Cup event, defeating Jerry Lynn, Mr. Águila and Taichi Ishikari in a ladder match. Team Canada were a regular feature on "Impact!" throughout mid-2004, feuding with the 3Live Kru.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the October 15, 2004 "Impact!", Young and Bobby Roode defeated Christopher Daniels and "Cowboy" James Storm for the NWA World Tag Team Championship. They held the titles until November 7, when they were defeated by the 3Live Kru (represented by Konnan and B.G. James) at Victory Road. They regained the titles a month later at Turning Point on December 5, defeating B.G. James and Ron Killings.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Young and Roode began feuding with America's Most Wanted in early 2005, and lost the NWA World Tag Team Championship to America's Most Wanted on January 16 at Final Resolution. Young began teaming with Team Canada member Petey Williams, and on April 24, 2005 they unsuccessfully challenged America's Most Wanted for the NWA World Tag Team Championship at Lockdown. After defeating Apolo and Sonny Siaki at Hard Justice on May 15, Williams and Young challenged and lost to new NWA World Tag Team Champions The Naturals at Slammiversary on June 19.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Team Canada began feuding with The Naturals and Lance Hoyt, with Young, Roode and A-1 defeating Hoyt and The Naturals at No Surrender on July 17. America's Most Wanted formed a loose alliance with The Naturals against Team Canada, with Young, Roode, Williams and A-1 defeating The Naturals and America's Most Wanted at TNA Sacrifice on August 14. After Williams renewed his pursuit of the X Division Championship, Young began teaming with A-1 on a regular basis. At Unbreakable on September 11, Young and A-1 faced America's Most Wanted, Alex Shelley and Johnny Candido and defending champions The Naturals in a four-way tag match. Young was able to pin both Candido and "Wildcat" Chris Harris, but Team Canada lost the match after Chase Stevens managed to pin A-1.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: At Bound for Glory on October 23, Young, A-1 and Bobby Roode defeated the 3Live Kru. After the match, their attempt to attack Konnan was foiled by Kip James. Later that night, Team Canada stopped 3Live Kru from saving Rhino from an attack by Planet Jarrett, and then helped Jarrett place Rhino in a casket which they had brought to ringside. As Team Canada and Planet Jarrett celebrated together, however, Team 3D entered the ring and, with the help of the now recovered 3Live Kru, drove Planet Jarrett and Team Canada from the ring. Young, who had been standing atop the casket, was hit with a 3D by Team 3D. He was then thrown into the casket in the place of Rhino, who in turn stood atop the casket, celebrating his earlier victory for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship over Jeff Jarrett. As a result of the events of Bound For Glory, Young, Roode and A-1 faced the 3Live Kru in a rematch at Genesis on November 13. Team Canada lost the match after Ron Killings pinned Young. The long-running feud between Team Canada and the 3Live Kru ended at Turning Point on December 11 when Young, Williams, Roode and A-1 defeated the Kru and Kip James (the "4Live Kru") after Konnan turned on his teammates.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: After the debut of TNA on Spike TV in October 2005, Young adopted a new character who was highly paranoid and afraid of almost anything and anybody. The character was introduced at the mock funeral staged by Planet Jarrett for Team 3D on the October 15, 2005 "Impact!", when Young was startled after Abyss crushed a box of tissues that were offered to him, and then speculated that the funeral parlour was haunted by a ghost named "Katie", a tongue-in-cheek reference to the WWE "Katie Vick" storyline. The simplest things began to frighten Young, including the pyrotechnics that accompanied Team Canada's entrance. The character drew comparisons to South Park characters Tweek and Butters, and was often used for comic relief. During an interview about the World X-Cup by SoCal Val during "TNA Global Impact!", Young stated "Foreigners frighten me. They're from other countries, and I don't know how to deal with that".


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Two weeks after Sting and Christian Cage defeated Jeff Jarrett and Monty Brown at Final Resolution, Sting made his "Impact!" debut and announced his retirement. Jarrett wasted no time in pointing out that "after one match with me, Sting took his ball and went home", and most of Planet Jarrett agreed with that assessment. Young, however, became convinced that Sting was not gone, and raised the ire of Jarrett and Scott D'Amore by frequently expressing that belief. In an attempt to persuade Young that Sting had left, Jarrett commissioned Alex Shelley to obtain footage of Sting at home with his children; however, this failed to allay Young's fears. He insisted that Sting would come back and get each of them, he would even go as far as to insist that the fellow Planet Jarrett members should not call him by his nickname "Showtime" any more, due to Sting's catchphrase ""It's showtime, folks!"". Young lost to Sting in the main event of the April 13, 2006 "Impact!". Young's paranoia did not always hinder his abilities during a match. He remained aggressive (even putting people through a table), would not hesitate to cheat, and was not afraid to capitalize on outside interference. He continued to be aided by Team Canada and Planet Jarrett.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: When Jim Cornette became the new face of management in TNA and said someone would be fired, Young was afraid it would be him. He was seen on "Impact!" holding an up a sign in the crowd that read "Don't fire Eric Young" as the fans chanted "Don't fire Eric!" along with him. On the June 29 "Impact!", Young wrestled like a classic fan favorite out of fear of being fired, and tried to prevent his fellow Canadians from doing anything underhanded. Cornette announced later that night Team Canada was now disbanded, but Young was more happy than upset because it was Earl Hebner who got fired, not Young. On the July 14 "Impact!", Team Canada lost an "all or nothing" match (their only chance to stay together), keeping Team Canada disbanded.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: At Victory Road, Team Canada joined together in the ring one last time. After running through how he felt about each member, Scott D'Amore stopped at Young. He then blamed Young for their demise and made him strip of any Team Canada items. D'Amore then said that he believed Eric Young would still be fired as he was to blame for Team Canada's end. Young then remained in the ring after the others had left and began a secret petition with the fans to keep his job. He would soon start being announced as hailing from "An Undisclosed Location". Young continued to be worried about his job/employment security, creating his own "Don't Fire Eric" T-shirts for sale.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Young's paranoia proved warranted yet again as he was fired on the October 5 "Impact!" after being hit with a golf club by Larry Zbyszko causing Young to lose a "Loser gets fired" match. Due to Zbyszko's interference, however, Jim Cornette gave Young a chance to get his job back by facing Zbyszko in a "Loser Gets Fired" match at Bound for Glory. Young won and got his job back avoiding the unemployment line in the process. On the Genesis pre-show, Young scored an upset by defeating Team Canada captain Robert Roode. This infuriated Roode and on the following "Impact!", Roode cut a promo against Young. The match started a six-month rivalry between the two.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Young, then dubbed the "Paranoid Pied Piper of TNA" by announcer Mike Tenay, would soon be challenged to a bikini contest by Roode's associate, Ms. Brooks. Young accepted and beat Ms. Brooks in a bikini contest at Turning Point on December 10, 2006, by wearing a SpongeBob SquarePants bikini. Young continued his feud with Robert Roode and Ms. Brooks, with Ms. Brooks trying to get Young to join "Robert Roode Inc.". Finally, at Against All Odds Ms. Brooks seduced Young into signing a contract with "Robert Roode Inc.". This consequently sent him into a shoot angle where he was systematically humiliated every week by Roode, by having to clean toilets for Roode's own personal use, and getting illegally involved in Roode's matches. Young was forced to perform these tasks because the contract Young signed gave Roode control over his TNA contract as well, so if he was fired from Roode, Inc., he was fired from TNA as well. He eventually began to fight back the orders of Roode, in part due to the advice of a mysterious "friend". On the April 26, 2007 "Impact!", the "friend" was revealed as Jeff Jarrett. Young eventually sued Roode for breach of contract and subsequently defeated Roode at Slammiversary via an inside cradle, after Gail Kim took out Ms. Brooks. At Victory Road, Young and Kim would defeat Roode and Ms. Brooks in a Mixed Tag Team match. Around this time, Young would be billed as from "Freedomland, USA", a reference to Young being free from his contract with Roode.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the August 2, 2007 "Impact!", Roode had Young tarred and feathered on national television in the Impact Zone. On August 8, on "TNA Today", Young commented on the humiliation he felt when he was tarred and feathered, and then challenged Roode to a "Humiliation Match" at Hard Road to Justice. Roode would eventually go on to accept the challenge begrudgingly. Roode won the match, but Gail Kim came to Young's aid. Roode attempted to attack her, but accidentally knocked Ms. Brooks out instead causing her kayfabe injuries. Roode retreated up the ramp, leaving a semi-conscious Ms. Brooks to be tarred and feathered by Young and Kim for fun.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: When Adam "Pacman" Jones joined TNA, Young was desperate to get an autograph, but ended up getting attacked by Ron Killings and spray painted by Pacman. Young started teaming up with Shark Boy on a consistent basis, nearly winning the number one contenders spot to the Tag Team Championship. Young was Judas Mesias' opponent in his official debut match, and was badly injured despite Shark Boy's rescue attempt. On the October 4 edition of "Impact", Young faced and defeated James Storm in a Gauntlet match when he reversed Storm's sleeper hold into a pin. At Bound for Glory, Young won the 15 men Fight for the Right Battle Royal by pinning Robert Roode with a small package to win the first round. He was eliminated from the tournament in the second round after being pinned by Storm. From there, Young and Storm engaged in a storyline which saw them compete in beer drinking contests, most notably at Genesis, where Young took Storm's World Beer Drinking Championship belt after Storm passed out. Young defended the belt on the last "Impact!" before Turning Point in a 60-second speed drinking contest and won, but was assaulted by Storm. He went on to defeat both Storm and the Angle Alliance, the latter as Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash's replacement partner for Scott Hall in matches at Turning Point.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the February 28 edition of "Impact!", Young lost the Beer Drinking Championship in a ladder match to James Storm. Young then participated in a feud with Rellik, losing to Rellik on "Impact!". This then led to a match at Destination X with Young teaming up with Kaz to defeat Rellik and Black Reign in a tag match. It was at this pay-per-view that Young debuted a new superhero gimmick under the name "Super Eric", which was supposed to be his alter-ego. At Lockdown, he and Kaz won "The Cuffed in a Cage" match to earn a future Tag Team Championship match. On the April 17 "Impact!", Young (who left the match and returned as Super Eric) and Kaz won the World Tag Team Championship, but later in the night were stripped of the titles due to Young not admitting he was Super Eric. On the May 1 "Impact!", he teamed up with A.J. Styles, who was desperately looking for a partner backstage, and won against The Rock 'n Rave Infection. He and Styles went to Sacrifice, as part of the Deuces Wild Tournament to crown new Tag Team Champions, but lost to the eventual winners The Latin American Xchange.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Young started a gimmick where he would look around the streets of Memphis, Tennessee for Elvis. The gimmick took a hiatus at Slammiversary, after Awesome Kong attacked a fake Elvis impostor. He revived the Super Eric gimmick on the July 17 "Impact!" and joined Curry Man and Shark Boy as part of a Justice League parody, called "The Prince Justice Brotherhood", which was at the same time making fun of the former ring name of TNA wrestler Abyss. At Bound for Glory IV, Super Eric competed in a Steel Asylum match, which was won by Jay Lethal.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the October 30 "Impact!", A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe created a stable called The TNA Frontline, which was a group which formed a faction of younger wrestlers to oppose the Main Event Mafia. This group included wrestlers like Eric Young, Jay Lethal, Consequences Creed, Petey Williams, O.D.B. and The Motor City Machine Guns. His character evolved as well, as he was no longer paranoid and began showing confidence and leadership abilities. He also stopped being startled by his pyrotechnics. On the November 13 "Impact!", Young defeated Sheik Abdul Bashir to win the TNA X Division championship after Bashir shoved TNA Official Shane Sewell to the mat, leading to Sewell attacking Bashir, which gave Young an opportunity to hit the Death Valley driver on Bashir and pin him. The following week on "Impact!", however, Young was stripped of his X Division Championship due to Sewell's interference, and the title was awarded back to Bashir. Young was awarded a championship match against Booker T for his TNA Legends Championship but lost due to the interference from Sharmell. At Final Resolution Sewell once again helped Young defeat Bashir for the X Division Championship. Due to the controversial ending of the match he was stripped of the championship by Jim Cornette, who set up a tournament for the vacant title. Young defeated Bashir in the first quarter-final match of the tournament to move on to the semi-finals. He then lost to Alex Shelley controversially after Chris Sabin interfered to see The Motor City Machine Guns face off in the final, which was won by Shelley.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On March 20, 2009, Young appeared on Danny Bonaduce's morning radio show on WYSP in Philadelphia where it was announced that the two of them would wrestle each other at Lockdown. Young bad-mouthed Bonaduce and slapped him twice in the face before being pushed out of the room. At the Lockdown pre-show, Young defeated Bonaduce. After the bout, Bonaduce attacked Young before Rhino came to the ring to aid Young and then hit the Gore on Bonaduce.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Young began to show frustration over losses to the likes of Sting and Jeff Jarrett. On the May 28 "Impact!", Young turned heel after attacking Jarrett, who had just defeated him in a King of the Mountain qualifying match. The following week he confronted Jarrett and made implications to him paying more attention to wrestling than to his daughters just like his father, which led to Jarrett slapping him and starting a brawl. The following week Young's good friend Jeremy Borash confronted him in an interview which resulted in Young slapping JB down. At the Slammiversary pre-show, the heel turn was signified even further when he walked out on his tag team partner Rhino in a match against The British Invasion of Doug Williams and Brutus Magnus. His rivalry with Rhino would continue until Young defeated Rhino after a distraction from Rhino's protege Jesse Neal. He would then be chosen by Kurt Angle to be the special guest referee in a 3-way match where Angle faced Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley. Throughout the match he would perpetually slow count all of Jarrett's pinfall attempts and at the end of the match when Angle locked the ankle lock on Foley he ordered for the bell to be rung even though Foley did not tap out or pass out. After the match, Young got beaten down by Jarrett.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the July 23, 2009, edition of "Impact!", Young apologized for his crude remarks and personal issues with Jeff Jarrett, and wished Mick Foley best of luck in his match against Kurt Angle that night for the ownership of TNA and stated "If you lose TNA, I lose TNA. If I lose TNA, I lose everything." Foley allowed Young to join the team of A.J. Styles, Daniels, James Storm, and Robert Roode to face the British Invasion, Kiyoshi, and Sheik Abdul Bashir in a ten-man tag team match. However, in the conclusion of the match, he turned on the TNA originals by hitting Styles with a spike piledriver and allowing him to be pinned. Eric Young then became leader of a new faction named World Elite, consisting of himself (representing Canada), Bashir (representing Iran), Kiyoshi (representing Japan), and The British Invasion (representing the UK). The following week, Young helped Doug Williams and Brutus Magnus win the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Team 3D. On the August 6 "Impact!" it was revealed that Kurt Angle and Eric Young had made a deal to turn the Main Event Mafia and the World Elite factions into one super faction. That same night Young debuted a new look shaving his head and wearing new attire in a match where he defeated Daniels. On the September 10 edition of "Impact!", World Elite recruited Homicide (representing Puerto Rico) into their group, turning him heel in the process. On the October 1 edition of "Impact!" the alliance between World Elite and Main Event Mafia came to an end in an all out brawl between the two factions. At Bound for Glory Young pinned Kevin Nash in a three-way dance, which also included Hernandez, to win the TNA Legends Championship. On the October 29 edition of "Impact!", Young made his first title defense, losing to Bobby Lashley by disqualification. After the match, Young renamed the Legends Championship to the "TNA Global Championship" and claimed he would not defend it on U.S. soil or against any American wrestler. On the November 19 edition of "Impact!" Kevin Nash congratulated Young on outsmarting him the previous month and joined World Elite. On January 27, 2010, Young lost the Global Championship to World Elite teammate Rob Terry at a house show in Cardiff, Wales. Since the beginning of 2010 World Elite has not appeared together and the only sign of there still being an alliance between its members, apart from the British Invasion, has been Young teaming up with Kevin Nash on the January 21 edition of "Impact!" in a losing effort against The Nasty Boys.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the February 11 edition of "Impact!" Young started showing signs of a face turn after standing up for Kevin Nash after The Band of Scott Hall and Syxx-Pac had turned on him the previous week. The following week Young and Nash brawled with Hall and Syxx-Pac and on the March 8 edition of "Impact!" Young defeated Syxx-Pac in a singles match, solidifying his status as a face. At Destination X Young and Nash faced Hall and Syxx-Pac in a tag team match, where the Band's TNA futures were on the line. In the end Nash turned on Young and helped the Band pick up the victory, which finally gave them contracts with the company. On the March 29 edition of "Impact!" Nash offered Young a spot in the Band, claiming that what happened in Destination X was just business and nothing personal. Young refused the offer and in the main event of the evening, teamed up with Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy to defeat the Band in a six-man tag team steel cage match. At Lockdown Nash defeated Young in a steel cage match. On the May 3 edition of "Impact!", Young turned heel once again by turning on Team 3D and joining The Band. The following week Nash cashed in his "Feast or Fired" contract and teamed with Hall to defeat Matt Morgan for the TNA World Tag Team Championship Nash named Young one third of the champions under the Freebird rule. At the June 14 tapings of the June 17 edition "Impact!" The Band was stripped of the Tag Team Championship, due to Scott Hall's legal problems. The following day it was reported that Hall had been released from his contract with TNA. On the June 24 edition of "Impact!" Young and Nash decided to part ways, as Nash intended to go after Hogan, whom he blamed for what had happened to Hall and Waltman, and did not want Young to get into trouble for it.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: At the July 12, 2010, tapings of "Xplosion", Young made his return to singles competition, losing to Suicide. In the finish of the match Young took a bump on his head and on the July 29 edition of "Impact!" he re-emerged as a face, returning to his comic relief roots with a gimmick of a mentally challenged person, teaming with Orlando Jordan and costing him their tag team match against Ink Inc. (Jesse Neal and Shannon Moore), after throwing a mannequin in the ring, which he had first tagged into the match. The following week Young's antics provided a distraction, which cost Jordan his match against D'Angelo Dinero. Young kept teaming with Jordan the following months, appearing exclusively on "Xplosion", before returning to "Impact!" on the October 7 live edition, where they defeated Ink Inc., after a low blow by Jordan. However, after the match Young announced that they were forfeiting the match due to the finish and suggested they set up a rematch at Bound for Glory. In storyline, Young's mental issues made him completely unaware of Jordan's bisexual orientation and interest in him. At the pay-per-view Young's antics cost him and Jordan the match against Ink Inc. On the November 4 edition of "Impact!" Young and Jordan were featured in a segment, where they tried to get help from a specialist to improve their relationship with one another. This ended up being Fritz's final appearance for the company on his old contract, which expired shortly thereafter. On November 12 it was reported that Fritz had re-signed with the promotion. Young and Jordan returned to "Impact!" on December 16, defeating Generation Me (Jeremy and Max Buck) in a tag team match. Prior to the match Young appeared with the old TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt, which had been thrown away by Immortal, when they introduced the newly designed version of the belt. The following weeks, Young kept walking around with the belt, claiming to be the World Heavyweight Champion. On April 17 at Lockdown, Young and Jordan were unsuccessful in becoming the number one contenders to the TNA World Tag Team Championship in a four tag team steel cage match, which was won by Ink Inc.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the May 12 edition of "Impact!", Young took part in a number one contender's battle royal. After eliminating TNA Television Champion, Gunner, Young jumped out of the ring and left the arena with his title. On May 17 at the tapings of the May 26 edition of "Impact Wrestling", Young admitted that he had mistakenly taken Gunner's title and agreed to lie down for him in the ring, but ended up double crossing him and pinning him to win the TNA Television Championship, the title formerly known as the TNA Legends and Global Championship, for the second time, which made him the second person to hold the title under all three of its incarnations. On July 10 at Destination X, Young teamed with the returning Shark Boy to defeat Generation Me in a tag team match. As the new Television Champion, Young started a storyline, where he claimed that the title could only be defended against television stars, making a challenge towards "American Gladiators" alum Matt Morgan and "defending" the title against TNA producer and former cast member of "The Wonder Years", Jason Hervey, in a backstage assault, before embarking on a several-week-long trip to Hollywood to find Scott Baio. The trip culminated in a comedy segment on the August 25 edition of "Impact Wrestling", where Young pinned Baio to, in his mind, successfully defend the Television Championship. Young returned to in-ring action on the September 8 edition of "Impact Wrestling", when he successfully defended the Television Championship against Robbie E. After another successful title defense against Robbie on the October 27 edition of "Impact Wrestling", Young was attacked by both Robbie and his bodyguard Rob Terry, which led to him announcing that he was going to bring Ronnie from the television show "Jersey Shore" to face them the following week. On November 1, Young became the longest reigning TNA Television Champion in history by breaking the previous record of 167 days, held by Rob Terry. On the November 3 edition of "Impact Wrestling", Young and Ronnie were attacked by Robbie E and Rob Terry, which led to a tag team match the following week, where Ronnie pinned Robbie for the win. On November 13 at Turning Point, Young lost the Television Championship to Robbie E, following interference from Rob Terry, ending his reign at 180 days. On December 11 at Final Resolution, Young failed to recapture the title from Robbie E in a rematch.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the December 22 edition of "Impact Wrestling" Young teamed up with ODB in the Wild Card Tournament, advancing to the semi-finals after a win over Anarquia and Shannon Moore. The following week, the team was eliminated from the tournament by Magnus and Samoa Joe. After this loss, Young would pursue a storyline relationship with ODB and the two would begin a feud with Angelina Love and Winter. Young and ODB defeated Love and Winter in a tag team match on the January 26 edition of "Impact Wrestling". On the March 8 "Impact Wrestling", Young and ODB defeated Gail Kim and Madison Rayne to win the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship, making Young the first male wrestler to have held the title and the first wrestler to have held all of TNA's exclusive tag team titles; the NWA World Tag, TNA World Tag and TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships. After the match, ODB accepted Young's marriage proposal.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Young and ODB made their first title defense two weeks later, when they defeated Mexican America (Rosita and Sarita). Young's and ODB's wedding ceremony took place on the April 12 "Impact Wrestling". Three days later at Lockdown, Young and ODB defeated Rosita and Sarita in a steel cage match to retain the Knockouts Tag Team Championship. On May 13 at Sacrifice, Young was defeated by Crimson in a singles match. Afterwards, Young took a hiatus from TNA to film his upcoming Animal Planet program. During the hiatus, Young and ODB became the longest reigning Knockouts Tag Team Champions in history by surpassing The Beautiful People's reign of 141 days on July 19. Young returned to TNA on the August 30 "Impact Wrestling", reuniting with ODB after her match with Madison Rayne. Young made his in-ring return on November 11 at Turning Point, teaming with ODB to defeat Tara and Jesse in a non-title mixed tag team match. On the following "Impact Wrestling", Young was defeated by Jesse in a singles match. The following week during the TNA Turkey Bowl, Young pinned Jesse in a three-way match, which also included Robbie E and forced Jesse to wear a turkey suit as part of the Thanksgiving theme. After the match, both he and ODB were ambushed by the Aces & Eights and they proceeded to injure Young by hitting his exposed ankle with a ball-peen hammer, while ODB was handcuffed outside the ring and forced to watch. Young returned on the February 28, 2013, episode of "Impact Wrestling", being revealed as the final member of Sting's Lethal Lockdown team and attacking their opponents, Aces & Eights. On March 10 at Lockdown, Team TNA, consisting of Young, James Storm, Magnus, Samoa Joe, and Sting defeated Aces & Eights, consisting of Devon, DOC, Garett Bischoff, Knux, and Mr. Anderson in a Lethal Lockdown match, with Young pinning Knux for the win.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the June 20 "Impact Wrestling", Young and ODB were stripped of the Knockouts Tag Team Championship by Brooke Hogan due to Young being a male, ending their reign at a record 478 days. The titles were then retired on June 27.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the September 19, episode of "Impact Wrestling" Young then returned to singles action when he defeated Robbie E. In September 2013, Young began working and teaming with Joseph Park. On the September 26, episode of "Impact Wrestling" Young along with ODB and Joseph Park defeated The BroMans (Jessie Godderz and Robbie E) and Gail Kim in a six-person mixed tag team match. At the Bound for Glory pre-show, Eric Young and Joseph Park competed in a tag-team gauntlet match for be the number one contenders to the TNA World Tag Team Championship later that night. However, after eliminating Bad Influence, the team was eliminated by the BroMans. Later, during the PPV, he was attacked by Bad Influence, but was saved by Abyss. On the October 31 episode of "Impact", Abyss came to the aid of Eric Young again after he was attacked by Bad Influence, and proved he is no threat to Eric Young. However, on December 5, 2013, Bad Influence revealed the Parks' Law Firm closed 15 years ago. Next week, Park and Young defeated Bad Influence. After the match, Young said to Park that he was Abyss. On December 26, 2013, Young booked a Monster's Ball match between Bad Influence and Park and gave Janice to Park. Joseph won the match when he turned into Abyss. On February 6, 2014, Abyss defeated Young in a Monster's Ball match. However, during the match, Young stripped Abyss' mask, revealing to Park that Abyss and Joseph are the same person. Abyss went on to turn heel as he aligned with Magnus. On March 27 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Young lost to Samoa Joe by knockout/submission.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the April 10 edition of "Impact Wrestling", after winning a battle royal earlier in the night to become number-one contender, Young defeated Magnus to become TNA World Heavyweight Champion for the first time in his career. The victory also makes Young the seventh Triple Crown Champion and the fourth Grand Slam Champion in TNA. The following week, Young successfully made his first title defense against Abyss in a Monster's Ball match. At Sacrifice, Young defeated Magnus in a rematch for the title. Proclaiming himself a fighting champion, he successfully defended the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Bobby Roode on the following "Impact Wrestling". On the May 8 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Young and Roode agreed to have a rematch, but TNA Director of Operations MVP declined the match and promised Young that he would reveal his opponent at June's Slammiversary event. MVP revealed himself as the opponent, which was shown when he attacked the champion. On May 15, Young challenged MVP to a match, which he agreed, but was disqualified when Kenny King attacked Young. Bobby Lashley pretended to help Young, but he speared him. On June 5, Young, Bully Ray, Austin Aries and Samoa Joe defeated MVP, Kenny King, Bobby Lashley and Ethan Carter III in an eight-man tag team First Blood match. As Aries and Joe had been among MVP's harshest critics, they were put in matches against MVP associates King and Lashley respectively in singles matches at the PPV. MVP was later injured and not able to compete at the PPV, TNA announced on their website Friday before the PPV, that the match will now be a three-way cage match for the title, with the winners of Lashley vs. Samoa Joe and Austin Aries vs. Kenny King qualifying for the match. At Slammiversary XII, Young successfully defended his TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Lashley and Aries. On the June 19 edition of "Impact Wrestling", Young lost the title to Lashley. On the July 3 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Young had a rematch but failed to regain the title.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the January 7, 2015 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Young turned heel when he saved Bobby Roode from an attack by MVP, Kenny King, Low Ki and Samoa Joe, but instead hit Roode with a chair, costing Roode his match against Lashley, as well as the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. On the following night's tapings of the January 16 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Young defeated Bobby Roode thanks to help from The Beat Down Clan, and assisted the group in beating down World Heavyweight Champion Lashley, who refused to become a part of the new group. Young and Roode would then face off in a variety of matches, including a steel cage match at Lockdown and a Last Man Standing match, both of which Roode won. The feud ended when Young defeated Roode in a submission match using the figure-four leglock. At Slammiversary, Young competed in a King of the Mountain match for the TNA King of the Mountain Championship, against Jeff Jarrett, Matt Hardy, Drew Galloway, and Bobby Roode, but lost the match.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: At Bound for Glory, Young faced a returning Kurt Angle in a No Disqualification match but lost. During October and November (taped in July), he participated in the TNA World Title Series, where he ended first of his block, tied with Bobby Roode, advancing to the round of 16, but was defeated in the semi-finals by Matt Hardy. On the January 12, 2016 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Young defeated Roode to win the TNA King of the Mountain Championship for a record-breaking third time. With this victory, Young is the only wrestler to have held the title in all four of its incarnations. On the January 26 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Young formed an alliance with Bram, attacking Jeff Hardy and piledriving him through a table. Eric Young and Bram entered in a feud against Beer Money, after a returning James Storm saved Bobby Roode from an attack of the duo. Eric Young and Bram were defeated by Beer Money at TNA One Night Only, and once again at Lockdown in a Six Sides of Steel match, thus ending the feud. Young entered in a short feud against Jeff Hardy, who defeated him on the March 15 episode of "Impact Wrestling" in a match to become the number one contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Young was defeated by Hardy once again in a Six Sides of Steel match on the April 5 episode of "Impact Wrestling". The following week, Young and Bram were defeated by Beer Money in a match for the TNA World Tag Team Championship, which also included Decay and the BroMans. During the match, Bram unintentionally hit Young. On the April 17 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Eric Young declared that he left TNA with the TNA King of the Mountain Championship with Bram. However, Bram refused, which resulted in Young attacking him. At , Eric Young lost the title to Bram in a Falls Count Anywhere match.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Though not under contract, Young appeared on the May 4, 2016 episode of "NXT", confronting NXT Champion Samoa Joe. Young then faced Joe in the main event, losing by submission.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On the October 12, 2016 episode of "NXT", Young officially debuted as leader of the villainous stable Sanity, along with Alexander Wolfe, Sawyer Fulton, and Nikki Cross. After Fulton suffered an injury in November, he was replaced by Killian Dain on January 18, 2017 episode of "NXT". Young then feuded with Tye Dillinger, who rejected an invitation to join the group. Young defeated Dillinger at , and Sanity defeated Dillinger, Kassius Ohno, Roderick Strong, and Ruby Riot in an eight-person mixed tag team match at , but Young lost to Dillinger in a steel cage match on the April 19 episode of "NXT", ending their feud. At on August 19, Young and Wolfe defeated The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar) to win the NXT Tag Team Championship. At , Sanity lost the WarGames match to The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O'Reilly), that also involved The Authors of Pain and Roderick Strong. On the December 20 episode of "NXT", Sanity lost the title to The Undisputed Era, ending their reign at 123 days.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On April 17, 2018, Young and the rest of Sanity, except for Nikki Cross, were drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up. They debuted on the June 19 episode of "SmackDown Live", where they attacked The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso). The next week on "SmackDown Live", Young made his main roster in-ring debut by answered United States Champion Jeff Hardy's open challenge, which he won by disqualification after The Usos ran in, leading to a six-man tag team match, where Sanity lost. At Extreme Rules, Sanity defeated The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) in a tables match. At Survivor Series, they made up part of Team SmackDown as they took on Team Raw, and they would go on to win the match, although they were eliminated from match. On the April 2, 2019 episode of "SmackDown Live", Sanity lost to The Miz in a handicap falls count anywhere match, in what would be their final match as a stable. A WWE.com article blamed their lack of success on "SmackDown" on being "in the same division as The New Day, The Usos, The Bar, and The Bludgeon Brothers."


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On April 15, 2019, Young was drafted to Raw brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up, separating him from Sanity. His first appearance as a part of the brand was on the May 20 episode of "Raw", when he was involved in a scramble to crown the first ever WWE 24/7 Champion, which was ultimately won by Titus O'Neil. In the following months, Young primarily competed on "Main Event" and suffered many losses and on "Raw" against the likes of Aleister Black and Andrade. On April 15, 2020, Young was released from his WWE contract as part of budget cuts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: At Slammiversary on July 18, 2020, Young made his return to TNA, now known as Impact Wrestling, as a surprise participant in a five-way match for the Impact World Championship where he eliminated Trey before being eliminated himself by Rich Swann. He then proceeded to attack Swann with a steel chair and injure Swann's knee. Following this, he began feuding with Eddie Edwards for the Impact World Championship. On the September 1 episode of "Impact", Young defeated Edwards to win the Impact World Championship for the second time. At Victory Road, Young successfully defended the title against Edwards. Young would then continue his feud with Swann after he returned from injury challenging him for the Impact World Championship at Bound for Glory which Young accepted. At the event, Young lost the title to Swann.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: After losing the title, Young was booked as the leader of a new stable, Violent By Design (VBD). During the last months of 2020 and early months of 2021, the stable included Joe Doering (who made his debut at Turning Point), Deaner (who joined them after he turned on his partner, Cousin Jake), and Rhino. On March 29, Young tore his ACL, but continued to appear alongside VBD. After VBD members Doering and Rhino won the Impact World Tag Team Championship, Young declared the titles belonged to VBD as a group, and as leader, he would decide who defended them, thus giving him and Deaner a share of the titles under the Freebird Rule. At Slammiversary, VBD would lose the titles to The Good Brothers in a four-way tag team match.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: After failing to regain the tag titles at Emergence, Young put the blame on Rhino and they tortured him to cure him of "the sickness". On the September 16 episode of "Impact!", Young, Deaner, and Doering attacked Rhino, thus kicking him out of the VBD. In the following weeks, VBD started a feud with Rhino's former tag team partner Heath when he saved Rhino from a potential attack by VBD. At Bound for Glory, Doering and Deaner lost to Heath and Rhino. On the October 28 episode of "Impact!", Young returned from injury, attacking Heath and Rhino. On November 20, at Turning Point, he teamed with Doering to defeat Heath and Rhino in a rematch.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On January 8, 2022, at Hard To Kill, VBD teamed with The Good Brothers to take on Eddie Edwards, Rich Swann, Willie Mack, Heath and Rhino in a 10-man Hardcore War match in a losing effort. At No Surrender, Young lost to Bullet Club leader Jay White in a match of faction leaders. On March 5, at Sacrifice, VBD defeated The Good Brothers to win the Impact World Tag Team Championship for the second time. VBD then lost the Impact World Tag Team Championships to the Briscoes On the May 12 episode of "Impact!", Young won a Gauntlet for the Gold to get an Impact World Championship match against Josh Alexander at Slammiversary. At the event, Young failed to defeat Alexander for the title. On the December 1, 2022 edition of Impact Wrestling, Young was "stabbed" by Violent By Design stablemate Deaner, following that it was reportedly that Young's contract with Impact had expired thus ending his second tenure with the promotion.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Young appears as a playable character in the video games "TNA iMPACT!," "WWE 2K18," "WWE 2K19" and "WWE 2K20".


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: Fritz has hosted his own television program, "", on the Animal Planet channel. After the first season ran successfully from July to September 2012, the show returned for a second season from June to August 2013.


title: Eric Young (wrestler)

text: On April 26, 2014, Fritz announced that he would host "No Limits", scheduled for May 30 on Animal Planet. The show ran for one season, beginning on May 30, 2014. The show consisted of Fritz taking part in various extreme sports and other activities.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Breel Donald Embolo (born 14 February 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Monaco and the Switzerland national team.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Born in Cameroon, Embolo moved with his family to France before finally settling in Switzerland. After working his way through their junior teams, Embolo made his professional debut for Basel in March 2014, and won the Swiss Super League in all three of his first seasons before moving to Schalke 04 for a reported fee of €20 million. Shortly after moving to the Bundesliga, he suffered an ankle injury that ruled him out for nearly a year. He later played in Germany for Borussia Mönchengladbach and in the French Ligue 1 for Monaco.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Embolo made his senior international debut in 2015, earning over 60 caps. He represented Switzerland at the UEFA European Championship in 2016 and 2020, and at the FIFA World Cup in the 2018 and 2022.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Embolo was born on 14 February 1997 in the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé. His parents separated when he was young, and at the age of five or six, his mother moved to France where he attended school. Whilst there she met her future husband, a Swiss national. The following year, the family moved to Basel in Switzerland.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Embolo received Swiss citizenship on 12 December 2014. His girlfriend Naomi gave birth to their daughter Naliya in June 2018.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Embolo started his youth football with Nordstern. At the age of ten, Embolo failed his first trial with Basel, so he moved to the Old Boys. He was finally allowed to join the FCB youth sytem in their U-13 team. In the 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons he played in Basel's U-16. With the U-16 team he won the Swiss Championship title twice at this level. He received various individual prizes, such as the Basel youngster of the year 2013. On 8 March 2013, just three weeks after his 16th birthday, he signed his first professional contract with the club. In summer 2013 he advanced to play in their U-18 and U-21 teams.


title: Breel Embolo

text: During the winter break of their 2013–14 season, Embolo advanced to Basel's first team under head coach Murat Yakin. After appearing in two test games, Embolo made his professional debut on 13 March 2014 as a 90th-minute substitute for Geoffroy Serey in the Europa League round of 16 first leg at St. Jakob-Park.<ref name="fcb-achiv-2013/14-UEL-FCB-Salzburg"></ref> The match against Red Bull Salzburg ended in a goalless draw. Three days later on 16 March, he made his domestic league debut with the team in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park, coming on as a substitute in the 85th minute. Embolo scored his first goal for the team just four minutes later, it was the final goal of the game as Basel won 5–0 against Aarau.<ref name="fcb-achiv-2013/14-FCB-FCA"></ref> At the end of the 2013–14 Super League season he won the league championship with Basel; they also reached the final of the 2013–14 Swiss Cup, but Embolo sat on the bench as they were beaten 2–0 by Zürich after extra time.


title: Breel Embolo

text: In their 2014–15 season new head coach was Paulo Sousa. The season ran well for Basel and their new young striker. Under Sousa, Embolo advanced to becoming a regular player and a regular goal scorer. Basel entered the Champions League in the group stage. On 4 November 2014, he scored his first goal in the UEFA Champions League, opening a 4–0 home group win against Ludogorets Razgrad. The team reached the knockout phase on 9 December 2014, as they managed a 1–1 draw at Anfield against Liverpool.<ref name="BBC-2014/15-UCL-Liverpool-FCB"></ref> But they were knocked out of the competition by Porto in the round of 16. In the second round of the 2014–15 Swiss Cup, the match on 21 September in the Schützenwiese, Embolo scored his first hat-trick for the team as they won 4–0 against Winterthur to advance to the next round.<ref name="fcb-achiv-2014/15-Cup-Winterthur-FCB"></ref> Basel reached the cup final, however, for the third consecutive season they finished the competition as runners-up. During the 2014–15 league season, in the match at home on 12 April 2015, Embolo scored his first domestic league hat-trick as Basel won 5–1 against Zürich.<ref name="fcb-achiv-2014/15-FCB-FCZ"></ref> At the end of the season Basel won the championship for the sixth time in a row.<ref name="fcb-aktuell-2014/15-Championship"></ref> After winning the title, Embolo called Raphael Wicky, the club's under-18 manager, and requested that he play their remaining games now the senior season was over.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Basel hired Urs Fischer as their new head coach for their 2015–16 season. Basel started in the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League in the third qualifing round. But despite an Embolo goal in the play-off round against Maccabi Tel Aviv they were knocked out of the competition on the away goals rule. Basel continued in the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League group stage. Embolo achieved two goals in eight appearances and the team completed the group stage coming top in table. Late into the 2016 January transfer window, VfL Wolfsburg made a bid for Embolo, but it was rejected by Basel. The bid was reported to be close to €27 million. Under head coach Fischer, Embolo won a third consecutive Swiss championship at the end of the 2015–16 Super League season. For the club it was the seventh title in a row and their 19th championship title in total.<ref name="SRF-2015/16-19. Title"></ref> In June 2016, Embolo was described by "FourFourTwo" as "one of Europe's hottest prospects".


title: Breel Embolo

text: On 26 June 2016 Basel announced that Embolo would leave the club and that he had signed a five-year contract. It was agreed not to disclose the terms of the transfer. During his time with their first team, Embolo played a total of 114 games for Basel scoring a total of 40 goals. 61 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, six in the Swiss Cup, 24 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 23 were friendly games. He scored 21 goals in the domestic league, six in the cup, four in the European games and the other 23 were scored during the test games.


title: Breel Embolo

text: On 26 June 2016, Bundesliga side Schalke 04 confirmed the signing of Embolo from Basel on a five-year deal, for a reported fee of €20 million plus add-ons. He made his debut on 20 August in the first round of the DFB-Pokal away to sixth-tier FC 08 Villingen, starting and scoring in a 4–1 victory. A week later he made his league debut in a 1–0 loss at Eintracht Frankfurt, replacing Franco Di Santo at half time in the season opener.


title: Breel Embolo

text: He scored his first league goals for the Gelsenkirchen-based club on 2 October, a brace in a 4–0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach. Eleven days later in his next match against Augsburg, he suffered a serious injury following a foul from Kostas Stafylidis, a complicated ankle fracture, ruptured syndesmosis and medial collateral ligament damage which ruled him out for the remainder of the season.


title: Breel Embolo

text: On 16 September 2017, Embolo made his return after missing nearly a full year of football, coming on as an 80th-minute substitute for Amine Harit in a 2–1 win at Werder Bremen.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Embolo signed for fellow Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach on 28 June 2019 on a four-year contract. He made his debut in the first round of the DFB-Pokal on 9 August, coming on at half time for Jonas Hofmann in a 1–0 win at SV Sandhausen. Fifteen days later, again from the bench, he scored his first goal for the club in a 3–1 win at Mainz 05.


title: Breel Embolo

text: On 27 October 2021, Embolo scored twice in a 5–0 surprise win over FC Bayern Munich in the cup second round – Bayern Munich's biggest ever defeat in the DFB-Pokal, and their first ever cup elimination to "Gladbach".


title: Breel Embolo

text: On 15 July 2022, Embolo joined Ligue 1 club Monaco for a four-year deal. The transfer fee paid to Mönchengladbach was reported as a little over €12 million. He made his debut on 2 August in a Champions League third qualifying round first leg at home to PSV Eindhoven, as a 76th-minute substitute for Aleksandr Golovin, while his first league game four days later was a start in a 2–1 win at Strasbourg. On 13 August, he scored his first goal to equalise in a 1–1 draw with Rennes at the Stade Louis II.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Embolo made four appearances for the Switzerland U16 national team. He scored his first international goal on 1 November 2012 in the 3–0 away win against the Ukraine U16. He was also eligible to play for Cameroon, however in December 2014 he pledged his international allegiance to Switzerland.


title: Breel Embolo

text: He made his senior international debut on 31 March 2015, replacing Josip Drmić after 56 minutes of an eventual 1–1 friendly draw against the United States in Zürich. On 9 October, he scored his first international goal, a penalty in a 7–0 win over San Marino at the AFG Arena in St Gallen, converting after Alessandro Della Valle fouled Eren Derdiyok; the result qualified the Swiss to UEFA Euro 2016. In the same game, he also set up Michael Lang for the first goal and won a spot-kick scored by Johan Djourou.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Embolo was selected by manager Vladimir Petković for the final tournament in France. A substitute in the first two group games, he then started against the hosts in a goalless draw in Lille and came off the bench in the last 16, a 1–1 draw and penalty shootout loss to Poland.


title: Breel Embolo

text: In qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Embolo scored once to open a 2–0 win over European champions Portugal at his former club ground in Basel. Petković named him for the squad to compete in the finals in Russia.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Embolo scored once in UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying, putting the Swiss 3–0 up in an eventual 3–3 draw at home to Denmark on 27 March 2019. At the finals, held in 2021, he scored the opener in their first group game, a 1–1 draw with Wales in Baku.


title: Breel Embolo

text: In Switzerland's first game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup against Cameroon, Embolo scored the only goal, becoming the first player in tournament history to score a goal for their adopted country against their nation of birth. Out of respect, he chose not to celebrate, standing still with his hands up to his face as his teammates mobbed him and did the more vigorous celebrating.


title: Breel Embolo

text: UEFA.com writer Steffen Potter praised Embolo as a complete striker: "He is powerful, technically strong and decisive. He has explosive pace and is a composed finisher." Fabian Frei, who was a midfielder for FC Basel at the same time with Embolo, complimented him as well, for keeping his feet on the ground.I think he is a sensation – playing like that aged 17. I like him as a person as much as I do as a player. His feet will stay on the ground – he won't be shooting from 50 metres to score the goal of the season. You can give him good advice and he is ready to take it without getting angry.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Embolo has cited Mario Balotelli as one of his inspirations. Both players like to lurk between defenders and both have great control allied to physical prowess.


title: Breel Embolo

text: Embolo can also play in midfield; according to David Lemos of Radio Télévision Suisse he resembles N'Golo Kanté in this role, using his power to retrieve the ball and give it to the attackers.


title: Breel Embolo

text: At the age of 18, he created the Embolo Foundation to support refugee children in Switzerland and disadvantaged youth in his birth country of Cameroon.


title: The Wombles

text: The Wombles are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures created by Elisabeth Beresford and originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. They live in burrows, where they aim to help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in creative ways. Although Wombles supposedly live in every country in the world, Beresford's stories are primarily concerned with the lives of the inhabitants of the burrow on Wimbledon Common in London, England.


title: The Wombles

text: The characters gained a higher national profile in the UK in the mid-1970s as a result of the popularity of a BBC-commissioned children's television show which used stop-motion animation. A number of spin-off novelty songs also became hits in the British music charts. The Wombles pop group was the idea of British singer and composer Mike Batt.


title: The Wombles

text: The Womble motto is "Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish". This environmentally friendly message was a reflection of the growing environmental movement of the 1970s.


title: The Wombles

text: Elisabeth Beresford took her young children for a Boxing Day walk on Wimbledon Common, where her daughter Kate repeatedly mispronounced it as "Wombledon Common" ("Ma, isn't it great on Wombledon Common?"), sparking the idea of the Wombles in her mother's mind. On getting home, Beresford wrote down the idea and started developing the characters and storylines. She developed most of her Womble characters around members of her family, and named them after places the family had associations with.


title: The Wombles

text: Wombles are essentially burrowing animals. Beresford's original book describes them as "a bit like teddy bears to look at but they have real claws and live beneath Wimbledon Common". As they mostly live in long-established burrows, they rarely use their claws even for digging. Their size and physical appearance has changed somewhat over the years: in the original editions of the books, Wombles are pictured as bear-like and between 3 and 5 feet (about 1–1.5 metres) in height, making them only slightly smaller than adult humans. This changed with the TV series, in which they were portrayed as being about knee-high to humans, with pointy snouts like those of hedgehogs. In the book and movie "Wombling Free" they are described as "short, fat, and furry", roughly between three or four feet (about 1 metre) in height.


title: The Wombles

text: Wombles are herbivores and are very fond of mushrooms. They eat a variety of plants, fungi, and tree products that human beings cannot (or will not) eat, so daisy buns, moss pie, acorn juice, fir-cone soufflé, elm bark casserole and grass bread sandwiches are part of the Womble menu – augmented by any food left behind on the Common by human beings. All Wombles are strong swimmers and can even survive for long periods in ice-cold water. Several sub-species of Womble are revealed throughout the books: the "Loch Ness Monster" is actually part of a clan of water Wombles and the yeti of the Himalayas are giant snow-white Wombles. Wombles have a sixth sense which allows them to sense green spaces and wildlife: this is first mentioned in the "Wandering Wombles" but developed to a keen long-range telepathic sense by Dalai Gartok Womble in "The Wombles Go Round The World".


title: The Wombles

text: Wombles are long-lived. In "The Wombles", Great Uncle Bulgaria recalls being "a young Womble" at the time of Queen Victoria's coronation in 1837. In the feature-length special "World Wide Womble Day" Great Uncle Bulgaria's 300th birthday is celebrated.


title: The Wombles

text: Though it is stated that Wombles live all around the world, Beresford's collection of stories, as well as the television series and the music, focus on a group living in Wimbledon Common in London, England, with the sole exception of "The Wombles Go Round The World".


title: The Wombles

text: Wombles care for and educate their young at a communal level. As with human children, immature Wombles are taught reading, writing and athletic skills, which they learn by playing a game called "Wombles and Ladders". (Some older Wombles play this game too, though most regard it as childish.) Below a certain (unspecified) age, all Wombles are nameless; upon being deemed to be of working age, a Womble chooses his or her name by looking through Great Uncle Bulgaria's large atlas until they find a name that suits them. Some, Bungo for example, "merely shut their eyes tight and point and hope for the best." They then leave Miss Adelaide's "Womblegarten" and join in the communal work of the burrow, which is mostly clearing up and recycling human refuse.


title: The Wombles

text: Wombles are very careful to keep their existence secret from human beings – at least in the books and TV series – fearing that discovery of their existence will lead to the Great Womble Hunt. For the most part, adult human beings rarely take notice of them, or fail to distinguish them from humans. In the movie "Wombling Free" this is reversed as the Wombles seek to get humans to listen to their pleas to "make good use of bad rubbish".


title: The Wombles

text: Wombles generally have a low opinion of other animal species, though they are never unkind to them. They have a poor opinion of humans in general, though there are exceptions, such


title: The Wombles

text: as royalty, especially the Queen. They also have a respect for human literature; the Wimbledon Wombles maintain a large library of books left by humans on the Common, and Great Uncle Bulgaria is fond of reading "The Times".


title: The Wombles

text: All of these were out of print for many years until they were republished by Bloomsbury, from 2010 to 2011, along with the 1973 short-story collection "The Invisible Womble", with all-new illustrations by Nick Price. The last two books are less well-known than the original four, perhaps because they appeared after the successful television series began. In "The Wandering Wombles", the setting moved from Wimbledon Common to Hyde Park in central London, but "The Wombles to the Rescue" saw them return to Wimbledon Common.


title: The Wombles

text: Four of the books were illustrated by Margaret Gordon. "The Wombles at Work" (1973) was illustrated by Barry Leith, who worked on set design for the original FilmFair series. The appearance of the Wombles in the books followed the design of the Ivor Wood TV puppets, with the exception of original editions of "The Wombles" (1968) and first printings of "The Wandering Wombles", which preceded the TV series and depicted the Wombles as teddy bear-like creatures. When the 1973 animated Wombles series was in pre-production, a decision was made to change the design of the characters so that they did not resemble teddy bears, as it was felt that there were too many children's shows with teddy bear characters. There is a reference in the first book to dark brown being the colour of their fur (with the exception of the oldest Wombles whose fur turns white) but this was changed to silvery grey, save for the neck, which is black. Some of the toys and book illustrations do not show the black fur on the neck.


title: The Wombles

text: Beresford wrote a collection of short stories entitled "The Invisible Womble and Other Stories" (1973); these stories were based on episodes from the TV series, although they occasionally refer to events in the novels.


title: The Wombles

text: In addition to these books, many annuals, picture books and children's early readers have been published over the years, some of which were also written by Beresford.


title: The Wombles

text: A stop-motion animated series of five-minute episodes was made between 1973 and 1975, along with two half-hour specials. Narration and all Womble voices for these were provided by Bernard Cribbins.


title: The Wombles

text: Further animated episodes, using new animation models and sets, were made by Cinar/Filmfair in 1998–1999. These were ten minutes long and had several Canadian actors provide the voices. Background music was adapted from the Wombles' records along with new compositions.


title: The Wombles

text: A CGI animated series of 52 episodes, under the guidance of Mike Batt's Dramatico Productions, who bought the rights to The Wombles for Channel 5's preschool slot "Milkshake!", was announced in 2013, intended for airing in 2015. Ray Winstone and Cribbins were confirmed as the voices of this new series. Only two of the planned episodes were screened, however, at the Cambridge Film Festival in November 2016. Batt filed for bankruptcy in September 2017, and resigned as director of Dramatico Productions.


title: The Wombles

text: Songwriter and producer Mike Batt wrote the series' theme tune, but negotiated the musical rights to the characters in place of the traditional composer's fee. In an effort to promote the Wombles' first single, he had his mother make him a Womble costume, which he wore for most of the working week. After the Wombles' first chart hit, he went on to perform and produce a number of successful novelty singles as The Wombles in the 1970s. They amassed eight Top 40 singles in the UK and reached No. 55 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart with 1974's, "Wombling Summer Party" single off of Columbia Records. They were awarded the "Music Week" Award for Top Singles Band of 1974. Reissues of the Wombles' music in the late 1990s and early 2000s also charted, extending their number of UK chart hits to thirteen.


title: The Wombles

text: Stop-motion animation is an expensive means of making a programme, due to the amount of time required. Animation production houses used to rely on international sales of their productions to cover costs, and merchandising was once considered a welcome bonus. Rising labour and production costs, however, have made merchandising a necessary revenue stream for any new programme. "The Wombles" TV series had originally been commissioned because of the popularity of the stories on UK children's TV programme "Jackanory", with little thought given to merchandising, so the Wombles' initial merchandising was conducted in a haphazard way. Following the overwhelming success of merchandising for the "Star Wars" franchise, merchandising became the prime driver of and precursor to new productions. Prior to "Star Wars", the story had come first; and its popularity led to the commissioning of a TV series, followed by merchandise. After "Star Wars", the situation reversed itself, and toy design came first. Demand for Wombles merchandise in the UK was a driven by the popularity of the TV programme and books, but there were restrictions on toy advertising in the UK that kept TV merchandising in check.


title: The Wombles

text: The Wombles were merchandised in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Products include stuffed toys along with stationery, stickers, small figurines, bath soap, night lights, lamp shades, chocolate bars, gelatin pudding kits, posters, games, shirts, badges (buttons), cloth patches, and other items. The revival of the series in the late 1990s brought with it another wave of merchandise which included lunch boxes, umbrellas, flannels (face cloths), hot water bottle covers, slippers, a Steiff doll, and a set of postage stamps for Alderney, a Channel Island that served as the name for one of the Wombles and the home of Beresford until her death. More recently, the Wombles were part of a set of UK postage stamps honouring classic British children's TV programmes. In 2013, Mike Batt and Elisabeth Beresford's two children consolidated the merchandising copyrights to the Wombles in a new company, Wombles Copyright Holdings, of which Batt became the principal shareholder with creative control held by Beresford's heirs. This included the purchase of the "Wombles" TV series from DHX Media, who had acquired it with their purchase of Cookie Jar Entertainment in 2012.


title: The Wombles

text: A feature-length live-action movie "Wombling Free" was released in 1977, written and directed by Lionel Jeffries and starring The Wombles, David Tomlinson, Frances de la Tour and Bonnie Langford. A soundtrack album was released in 1978. A region 2 DVD of the film was released by Network in 2006, containing the film in its theatrical aspect ratio, the original theatrical trailer, and archive interviews with Jeffries, Tomlinson and Langford.


title: The Wombles

text: A feral pack of Wombles appeared in BBC comedy series "The Goodies" in the episode "The Goodies Rule – O.K.?", engaging in a fierce wrestling match with Bill Oddie.


title: The Wombles

text: Due to the Wombles' association with the area, some local sporting teams representing Wimbledon are sometimes affectionately nicknamed "the Wombles". These teams include the Ladies side of Wimbledon RFC, whose mascot is "Alderney", the Wimbledon Volleyball Club, and the Wombles Netball Club.


title: The Wombles

text: From 2000 to June 2003, Wimbledon F.C. used a Womble named "Wandle" as a club mascot, named after the local River Wandle. After the 2002 relocation of the club to Milton Keynes, the licence to use the character was not renewed beyond June 2003. In 2006, the club's Wimbledon successor, AFC Wimbledon, made a licensing deal with Beresford and launched its own Womble mascot. After a naming competition in which the final name was chosen by Elisabeth Beresford herself, AFC Wimbledon announced that the new Womble would be known as "Haydon", after Haydons Road, the nearest railway station to Wimbledon's original home ground, Plough Lane. Twelve years later, the club announced plans to return to their original neighbourhood; Haydons Road is also the closest station to their new ground.


title: The Wombles

text: Later character names for the film "Wombling Free" and second Wombles TV series developed in the same manner:


title: The Wombles

text: In the first book, Bungo is the youngest and least experienced of the team, and the story is mostly viewed through his eyes. Later Wellington (who was not introduced until the second book) took over the role of "new boy", and even later on, Shansi takes Bungo's place as the youngest working Womble. Alderney and Miss Adelaide appeared in the earlier books but were not included in the original 1970s TV series. Alderney was re-introduced in the later TV shows produced in the 1990s (the Channel Island of Alderney was actually Elisabeth Beresford's home at the time), along with Stepney (who appeared in none of the earlier versions).


title: The Wombles

text: The Wombles are parodied (as Rumbles - haughty, rat-like creatures that can't pronounce their 'R's) in Michael de Larrabeiti's novel .


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Phantasmagoria (, also fantasmagorie, fantasmagoria) was a form of horror theatre that (among other techniques) used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images, such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts, onto walls, smoke, or semi-transparent screens, typically using rear projection to keep the lantern out of sight. Mobile or portable projectors were used, allowing the projected image to move and change size on the screen, and multiple projecting devices allowed for quick switching of different images. In many shows, the use of spooky decoration, total darkness, (auto-)suggestive verbal presentation, and sound effects were also key elements. Some shows added a variety of sensory stimulation, including smells and electric shocks. Such elements as required fasting, fatigue (late shows), and drugs have been mentioned as methods of making sure spectators would be more convinced of what they saw. The shows started under the guise of actual séances in Germany in the late 18th century and gained popularity through most of Europe (including Britain) throughout the 19th century.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: The word "phantasmagoria" has also been commonly used to indicate changing successions or combinations of fantastic, bizarre, or imagined imagery.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: From French "phantasmagorie", from Ancient Greek φάντασμα ("phántasma", “ghost”) + possibly either αγορά ("agorá", “assembly, gathering”) + the suffix -ia, or ἀγορεύω ("agoreúō", “to speak publicly”).


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Paul Philidor (also known simply as "Phylidor") announced his show of ghost apparitions and evocation of the shadows of famous people as "Phantasmagorie" in the Parisian periodical "Affiches, annonces et avis divers" of December 16, 1792. About two weeks earlier the term had been the title of a letter by a certain "A.L.M.", published in "Magazin Encyclopédique". The letter also promoted Phylidor's show. Phylidor had previously advertised his show as "Phantasmorasi" in Vienna in March 1790.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: The English variation "Phantasmagoria" was introduced as the title of M. De Philipsthal's show of optical illusions and mechanical pieces of art in London in 1801. De Philipsthal and Philidor are believed to have been the same person.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Some ancient sightings of gods and spirits are thought to have been conjured up by means of (concave) mirrors, camera obscura or magic lantern projections. By the 16th century, necromantic ceremonies and the conjuring of ghostly apparitions by charlatan "magicians" and "witches" seemed commonplace.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: In the 1589 version of "Magia Naturalis", Giambattista della Porta described how to scare people with a projected image. A picture of anything that would terrify the beholder should be placed in front of a camera obscura hole, with several torches around it. The image should be projected onto a sheet hanging in the middle of the nascent dark chamber, where spectators wouldn't notice the sheet but only see the projected image hanging in the air.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: In his 1613 book "Opticorum Libri Sex," Belgian Jesuit mathematician, physicist and architect François d'Aguilon described how some charlatans cheated people out of their money by claiming they knew necromancy and would raise the specters of the devil from hell and show these to the audience inside a dark room. The image of an assistant with a devil's mask was projected through a lens into the dark room, scaring the uneducated spectators.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: While surviving slides and descriptions of lantern shows from the following decades included numerous subjects, scary pictures remained popular.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: The last decades of the 18th century saw the rise of the age of Romanticism. There was an obsession with the bizarre and the supernatural. This movement had elements of the bizarre and irrational, and included the rise of the Gothic novel. The popular interest in such topics explained the rise and, more specifically, the success of phantasmagoria for the productions to come.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: The magic lantern was a good medium with which to project fantasies as its imagery was not as tangible as in other media. Since demons were believed to be incorporeal, the magic lantern could produce very fitting representations.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: When magicians started to use the magic lantern in shows, some special effects were thought up. French physician, inventor and manufacturer of conjuring apparatus and scientific instruments Edmé-Gilles Guyot described several techniques in his 1770 book "Nouvelles récréations physiques et mathématiques", including the projection of ghosts on smoke.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: In the early 1770s in Leipzig, Germany, coffeehouse owner, charlatan, necromancer and leader of an independent Freemason lodge Johann Georg Schrepfer (or Schröpfer) performed ghost-raising séances and necromantic experiments for his Freemason lodge. For typical necromantic activity, he demanded his followers remain seated at a table or else face terrible dangers.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: He made use of a mixture of Masonic, Catholic, and Kabbalistic symbolism, including skulls, a chalk circle on the floor, holy water, incense, and crucifixes. The spirits he raised were said to be clearly visible, hovering in the air, vaporous, and sometimes screaming terribly. The highlight of his career was a séance for the court in the Dresden palace early in the summer of 1774. This event was impressive enough to still be described more than a century later in Germany and Britain.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Apparitions reportedly raised by Schrepfer over the years included Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, the beheaded Danish "traitors" Johann Friedrich Struensee and Enevold Brandt with their heads in their hands, and the Knights Templars' last Grand Master Jacques de Molay. During a séance in Dresden, Schrepfer ordered De Molay's spirit to take a letter to a companion in Frankfurt. De Molay obeyed and returned half an hour later with an answer signed in Frankfurt by the companion. Another spirit appeared engulfed in flames begging Schrepfer not to torture him so.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: In the early morning of October 8, 1774, Schrepfer reportedly committed suicide with a pistol in a park with five friends present. According to legend he was a victim of delusions about his necromantic abilities and convinced he could resurrect himself afterwards. However, there are several indications that he may actually have been murdered.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Most spectators of Schrepfer's séances were convinced that the apparitions they saw were real. No clear evidence of deceit seems to ever have been found, but critics have described several suspicions. The techniques that Schrepfer reportedly used for his elaborate effects included actors performing as ghosts, ventriloquism, hidden speaking tubes, glass harmonica sounds, aromatic smoke, camera obscura projections and/or magic lantern projections on smoke, concave mirror projections and staged thunder.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Schrepfer had been friends with pharmacist and Freemason Johann Heinrich Linck the Younger and regularly held lodge meetings at Linck's garden house. Linck could have been helping Schrepfer with drugs and chemicals and also knew about the workings of optical and acoustic devices. Linck owned a magic lantern which was decorated with a crucifix and a skull with wings.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Soon after Schrepfer's death, there was a boom of publications attacking or defending his supposed abilities to raise ghosts, expanding Schrepfer's fame across Europe. Several publications included explanations of techniques he might have used to conjure apparitions, which inspired several people to recreate Schrepfer's séances. Christlieb Benedikt Funk, Professor of Physics at the Leipzig University, was possibly the first to publicly recreate such ghost-raising demonstrations; however, he was ordered to stop by the university's authorities.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: The magician "physicist" Phylidor, also known as "Paul Filidort" and probably the same as Paul de Philipsthal, created what may have been the first true phantasmagoria show in 1790. After a first ghost-raising session in Berlin in 1789 led to accusations of fraud and expulsion from Prussia, Phylidor started to market his necromantic shows as an art that revealed how charlatans fooled their audiences. His improved show, possibly making use of the recently invented Argand lamp, was a success in Vienna from 1790 to 1792. Phylidor advertised these shows as "Schröpferischen, und Cagliostoischen Geister-Erscheinungen" (Schröpfer-esque and Cagliostro-esque Ghost Apparitions) and as "Phantasmorasi".


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Renowned German showman Johann Carl Enslen (1759-1848) is thought to have purchased Philidor's equipment when Phylidor left Vienna in 1792. He presented his own phantasmagoria shows in Berlin, with the King of Prussia attending a show on 23 June 1796. Enslen moved the lantern to produce the illusion of moving ghosts and used multiple lanterns for transformation effects. There were other showmen who followed in Phylidor's footsteps, including "physicist" Von Halbritter who even adapted the name of Phylidor's shows as "Phantasmorasie - Die natürliche Geister-Erscheinung nach der Schröpferischen Erfindung".


title: Phantasmagoria

text: From December 1792 to July 1793 "Paul Filidort" presented his "Phantasmagorie" in Paris, probably using the term for the first time. It is assumed Etienne-Gaspard Robertson visited one of these shows and was inspired to present his own "Fantasmagorie" shows a few years later.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: In October 1801 a phantasmagoria production by Paul de Philipsthal opened in London's Lyceum Theatre in the Strand, where it became a smash hit.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Étienne-Gaspard "Robertson" Robert, a Belgian inventor and physicist from Liège, became the best known phantasmagoria showman. He is credited for coining the word "fantascope", and would refer to all of his magic lanterns by this term. The fantascope was not a magic lantern that could be held by hand, but instead required someone to stand next to it and physically move the entire fantascope closer or further to the screen. He would often eliminate all sources of light during his shows in order to cast the audience in total darkness for several minutes at a time. Robertson would also lock the doors to the theater so that no audience member could exit the show once it had started. He was also known for including multiple sound effects into his show, such as thunder clapping, bells ringing, and ghost calls. Robertson would pass his glass slides through a layer of smoke while they were in his fantascope, in order to create an image that looked out of focus. Along with the smoke, he would also move most of his glass slides through his fantascope very quickly in order to create the illusion that the images were actually moving on screen.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Robertson's first "Fantasmagorie" was presented in 1797 at the Pavillon de l'Echiquier in Paris. The macabre atmosphere in the post-revolutionary city was perfect for Robertson's Gothic extravaganza complete with elaborate creations and Radcliffean décor.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: After discovering that he could put the magic lantern on wheels to create either a moving image or one that increased and decreased in size, Robertson moved his show. He sited his entertainment in the abandoned cloisters kitchen of a Capuchin convent (which he decorated to resemble a subterranean chapel) near the Place Vendôme. He staged hauntings, using several lanterns, special sound effects and the eerie atmosphere of the tomb. This show lasted for six years, mainly because of the appeal of the supernatural to Parisians who were dealing with the upheavals as a result of the French Revolution. Robertson mainly used images surrounded by black in order to create the illusion of free-floating ghosts. He also would use multiple projectors, set up in different locations throughout the venue, in order to place the ghosts in environments. For instance, one of his first phantasmagoria shows displayed a lightning-filled sky with both ghosts and skeletons receding and approaching the audience. In order to add to the horror, Robertson and his assistants would sometimes create voices for the phantoms. Often, the audience forgot that these were tricks and were completely terrified:


title: Phantasmagoria

text: In fact, many people were so convinced of the reality of his shows that police temporarily halted the proceedings, believing that Robertson had the power to bring Louis XVI back to life. Once the show was back, Robertson was exposed to the law again, this time in the form of a lawsuit against his former assistants who had started their own phantasmagoria shows using his techniques. It was this lawsuit in 1799 in which Robertson was required to reveal his secrets to the public and magic lantern shows popped up across Europe and in the United States shortly after, though many were not as elaborate as Robertson's.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Phantasmagoria came to the United States in May 1803 at Mount Vernon Garden, New York. Much like the French Revolution sparked interest in phantasmagoria in France, the expanding frontier in the United States made for an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear that was ideal for phantasmagoria shows. Many others created phantasmagoria shows in the United States over the next couple of years, including Martin Aubée, one of Robertson's former assistants.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Thomas Young proposed a system that could keep the projected image in focus for a lantern on a small cart with rods adjusting the position of the lens when the cart was wheeled closer or further away from the screen.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: John Evelyn Barlas was an English poet who had written for several phantasmagoria shows during the late 1880s. He used the pseudonym "Evelyn Douglas" for most of the works written for phantasmagoria. He has written several different works, most of them focusing on the idea of dreams and nightmares. Some of his works include "Dreamland, A Dream of China, "and "Dream Music". His work is known for including extravagant descriptions of settings with multiple colors. Most of Barlas' work also mentions flames and fire. The flames are meant to represent the burning of emotions laced throughout Barlas' poems, and fit well within the realm of phantasmagoria.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: By the 1840s phantasmagoria became already outmoded, though the use of projections was still employed, just in different realms:


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Before the rise of phantasmagoria, interest in the fantastic was apparent in ghost stories. This can be seen in the many examples of ghost stories printed in the 18th century, including "Admiral Vernon's ghost; being a full true and particular Account as how a Warlike apparition appeared last Week to the Author, Clad all in Scarlet, And discoursed to him concerning the Present State of Affairs" (1758). In this tale, the author's reaction to the ghost he sees is much like that of the audience members at the phantasmagoria shows. He says that he is "thunderstruck", and that "astonishment seized me. My bones shivered within me. My flesh trembled over me. My lips quaked. My mouth opened. My hands expanded. My knees knocked together. My blood grew chilly, and I froze with terror."


title: Phantasmagoria

text: French painters of the time, including Ingres and Girodet, derived ideas for paintings from the phantasmagoria, and its influence spread as far as J. M. W. Turner.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Walter Benjamin was fascinated by the phantasmagoria and used it as a term to describe the experience of the Arcades in Paris. In his essays, he associated phantasmagoria with commodity culture and its experience of material and intellectual products. In this way, Benjamin expanded upon Marx's statement on the phantasmagorical powers of the commodity.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Early stop trick films developed by Georges Méliès most clearly parallel the early forms of phantasmagoria. Trick films include transformations, superimpositions, disappearances, rear projections, and the frequent appearance of ghosts and apparent decapitations.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Modern-day horror films often take up many of the techniques and motifs of stop trick films, and phantasmagoria is said to have survived in this new form.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Maria Jane Jewsbury produced a volume entitled "Phantasmagoria, or Sketches of Life and Literature", published by Hurst Robinson & Co, in 1825. This consists of a number of essays on various subjects together with poetry. The whole is dedicated to William Wordsworth.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: "Phantasmagoria" is also the title of a poem in seven cantos by Lewis Carroll that was published by Macmillan & Sons in London in 1869, about which Carroll had much to say. He preferred that the title of the volume be found at the back, saying in a correspondence with Macmillan, "it is picturesque and fantastic—but that is about the only thing I like…" He also wished that the volume would cost less, thinking that the 6 shillings was about 1 shilling too much to charge.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: Phantasmagoria's influence on Disney can be found in the countless effects throughout the themed lands and attractions at the theme parks but are likely most memorable in the practical and projection effects of the Haunted Mansion (at Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland), and Phantom Manor (at Disneyland Paris), as well live shows such as "Fantasmic" (at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios), which feature film/video projections on water screens.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: A series of photographs taken from 1977 to 1987 by photographer and model Cindy Sherman are described as portraying the phantasmagoria of the female body. Her photographs include herself as the model, and the progression of the series as a whole presents the phantasmagoric space projected both onto and into the female body.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: The 1995 survival-horror video game "Phantasmagoria" is partly based upon these performances. In the game, several flashbacks are shown to fictional phantasmagorias performed by the magician Zoltan "Carno" Carnovasch. However, unlike the real shows, his are much more graphic and violent in nature and involve actual demons instead of projected ones.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: A few modern theatrical troupes in the United States and United Kingdom stage phantasmagoria projection shows, especially at Halloween.


title: Phantasmagoria

text: From February 15 to May 1, 2006, the Tate Britain staged "The Phantasmagoria" as a component of its show "Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination." It recreated the content of the 18th and 19th century presentations, and successfully evoked their tastes for horror and fantasy.