I started watching wrestling via World Championship Wrestling, which means the two biggest statistics at that time were Goldberg’s undefeated streak and Ric Flair’s World Heavyweight Title reigns. Goldberg’s streak had just been broken a month before I started watching, but that didn’t stop the announcers from talking about it. Mostly because, in storyline, he was only defeated due to shenanigans outside the ring. However, Ric Flair’s title reigns continued to be promoted as a big achievement.

There were other things that I thought were important at that time too. Some of them were the total number of titles held and whether or not someone was considered a Grand Slam Champion. As WCW began to crumble and I began to watch the then World Wrestling Federation, titles slowly started to lose their value. Perhaps it’s because the company brought over all of WCW’s championships for the Invasion storyline. It seemed anybody could be any champion at that time. Of course you had guys who were Crusierweights, or Hardcore wrestlers, but if you threw one of Stone Cold’s beer cans into a crowded locker room you likely would hit a champion of some kind or another.

In addition to more titles than they knew what to do with, the WWF and now WWE went through several phases of hot-shotting title changes. Maybe they needed to pop a rating to help their television rights negotiations. Perhaps they were going to Mexico or the UK and needed a guy who is hot in that market to hold the title. Maybe the demographics were changing and we needed someone who could move numbers for children. No matter the reason, people started piling up title reigns left and right. Ric Flair’s prestigious 16 times as World Heavyweight Champion no longer seemed like this lofty number that made him unique. Not when you have multiple guys in their prime with several years left with 10 or more reigns.

It had devolved to the point where there was really one meaningful statistic left and it too was a Streak. The Streak as it had come to be known was The Undertaker’s winning streak at the Showcase of the Immortals, Wrestlemania. As it would turn out, I started watching WWF/E around the same time The Streak started being promoted every Spring. This time I was getting in on something at the beginning as opposed to the end. My first Wrestlemania was X8 in 2002. The Deadman would defeat Ric Flair to go 10-0. In the last 12 years WWE has taken many twists and turns to get to where it is today. Pushes have started and stopped, and the cast of characters has gone through many make-overs. But nobody could beat The Undertaker at the biggest show of the year.

I have gone on the record and stated that I don’t like the fact that John Cena wins all the time. It infuriates me. For a while he too had a winning streak at Wrestlemania, typically with championships on the line. I was annoyed year after year by his wins. I even had the same near fall reactions that usually accompanied The Streak.

So you might say: why were you a fan of The Undertaker’s streak? It’s actually two-fold and rather simple. First, The Undertaker was not always the main event nor was it always for a championship. Second, in the latter half of the last decade, The Deadman would return just for Wrestlemania. It’s far easier to get behind someone winning if you only see them win once a year – as opposed to them winning every month, or every week.

On April 6, 2014 at Wrestlemania XXX, The Streak was broken by Brock Lesnar.

If this was indeed supposed to be The Undertaker’s final match, I can live with it. I’m not thrilled about it but I can at least understand the intent. However, if they plan on having The Undertaker continue to wrestle his one match at Wrestlemania, then I don’t know what the point of this was. You could argue that a match against Sting could still be built up as one final dream match between a WCW Icon and a WWE Icon. But any other opponent would need something to actually feud with The Undertaker over and justify a match. Also, this now puts The Undertaker in the same position as other older wrestlers who return every year for Wrestlemania season. If he’s not defending The Streak, and not performing on other shows will people tolerate him taking someone else’s spot?

If I had my way, The Streak would never be broken. I would have had The Undertaker face Sting, John Cena, and one other individual, maybe Daniel Bryan or another young talent that the company can build around. Then he could retire with 25 wins on the company’s biggest stage.

WWE put over a lot of new faces at Wrestlemania XXX. The Shield decimated three Attitude Era main-stays. Cesaro body slamed the Big Show over the top rope to win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Lastly, Daniel Bryan defeated Triple H in the opener and then tapped out Batista to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event. If this is truly the dawn of a new era and ending The Streak was done by this design, then WWE has a lot of work to do in building up these new stars and others around them. We heard an awful lot about legacies at Wrestlemania. What will these new stars leave behind? What will we be upset to see end in the next 20 years? What stat will stand out? Will anything ever be as big as The Streak?

None of these things can be answered right now. As someone I know like’s to say, I guess we’ll have to wait… and see.

(After the Jump)

Shout! Factory officially announced their plans to release a Power Rangers DVD Box set. Last week, the release date and price for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season One, Volume One was released. However, Shout! had something better in store. Starting July 30, 2012, fans will be able to purchase the Box Set including all of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Seasons 1-3), Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, Power Rangers in Space, and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. That is the first seven seasons! It’s also what many fans consider the “Zordon Era.” Zordon, of course, was the mentor for the Rangers during the first several seasons, and while his part was minimal or reduced, his name still carried weight and several characters continued to cross over season after season. For instance, Season 7 is the last time we have an Alpha as a regular character, as well as Bulk, portrayed by Paul Schier. Paul did resume the role in Power Rangers Samurai, but that season is being released through Lionsgate and isn’t included in Shout! Factory’s deal with Saban Brands.

Now this box set is said to be 40 discs and includes bonus features including new interviews with members of the cast and crew. There was no mention of price in the release other than the Season One, Volume One being $19.93 (Get it?). So if we just gauge that they’ll charge $20 per 3 discs, than 40 discs would likely cost somewhere in the $260 range. That is unless they make an introductory price offer, or drop the price to move more box sets as opposed to individual seasons. Since Shout! Factory is partnering with Time Life for this box set release, they appear to be planning so sort of Television Infomercial. I actually think that’s a great idea because they could place it around kids blocks on numerous channels and spike interest in the product overall. I mean, there IS an Anniversary season approaching.

It will be interesting to see what they plan to do with the rest of the library. Shout! Factory has a deal in place for the first 17 seasons of the franchise. So that’s everything up to the last Disney season Power Rangers RPM. I’ve seen some people suggest that they might do two more box sets of 5 seasons a piece, but I wonder if they’re considering a 10 season box set for the remaining season. You have to remember in later Seasons the episode count is somewhere around 32 on average. Whereas MMPR has 155 if you include the Alien Rangers Mini Series. Let’s consider how many episodes we will get on the first box set.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – 155

Power Rangers Zeo – 50

Power Rangers Turbo – 45

Power Rangers in Space – 43

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy – 45

That’s 338 episodes on 40 discs. Let’s say 340 is our total they’ll allow for a box set.

Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue – 40 (300 left)

Power Rangers Time Force – 40 ( 260 left)

Power Rangers Wild Force – 40 (220 left)

Power Rangers Ninja Storm – 38 (182 left)

Power Rangers Dino Thunder – 38 (144 left)

Power Rangers SPD – 38 (106 left)

Power Rangers Mystic Force – 32 (74 left)

Power Rangers Operation Overdrive – 32 (42 left)

Power Rangers Jungle Fury – 32 (10 left)

Power Rangers RPM – 32 (22 OVER)

So as you can see, it’s close, but still over what the first box set has set as a benchmark. However, they could arguably throw in a few more discs and claim this is say a 45 disc set for the “Post Zordon Era.” If they split it into a 5 and 5 season box sets. There would be 196 episodes in Lightspeed Rescue through Dino Thunder and 166 episodes in SPD through RPM. The reason I think a “Post Zordon Era” box set is the better way to go is due to the fact that the latter seasons didn’t get very good promotion with Disney, and thus are not nearly as popular. Popularity and nostalgia is what’s going to drive these sales. With all of these episodes on Netflix, you have to package them in a way that’s going to sell the most. If you put the last 5 seasons with the popular seasons like Time Force, Ninja Storm, and Dino Thunder, you’ll sell more of them. Considering how close the episode count is for the first 7 seasons and the later 10 seasons, I think it just works out better from a marketing standpoint.

So what do you think of all this? Do you plan to buy the box sets? Single Seasons? Any other ideas for future box sets? Let me know what you think in the comments section or reach out on Facebook and Twitter!

-Jason Spencer

Source: http://tvshowsondvd.com/n/16925

Over the past several decades, advances in technology have allowed us to consume informational and entertaining content in numerous new and exciting ways. Additionally, it has provided us with the power to easily copy, change, manipulate, and share said content with virtually anyone we would like. One would think that with all the bright minds in charge of so many industries in this country that someone would have figured out how to take advantage of this bright new world we live in. Instead, the fear-ridden executives of the multi-billion dollar industries in this country want us to remain in the dark ages and only consume content how they tell us to.

In the United States Congress there are two related bills (Protect Intellectual Property Act in the Senate and Stop Online Piracy Act in the House) that aim to tackle the issue of copyright infringement inside and outside our country. Both bills take similar positions that would allow the government to go after web sites that they deem to be guilty of copyright infringement. The problem is their definition of being guilty. The bill (at least in the House version) claims that a web site which houses functionality that could be used for copyright infringement is essentially guilty of it. This definition is similar to old fashion witch trials: since we can’t rule out that you’re NOT a witch without burning you at a stake or attempting to drown you, you’re probably a witch. So they’re going to burn or drown any websites they think are guilty without due process. There were no re-trails for accused witches… because they were dead!

When I say functionality that could be used for copyright infringement you may think file sharing, peer-to-peer, torrents or something of that sort. That is probably the most obvious form of it. However, there are less obvious cases that can be seen as a problem, particularly by the entertainment industry. Have you ever changed your Facebook picture to something like a comic book character or a cartoon? Remember when you had to check the box that says you “Agree to the Terms and Conditions?” Well one of those conditions is that you only upload photos you have the right to use! So that means just having the basic functionality of a photo upload feature counts towards enabling copyright infringement. If we break it down a step further, have you ever seen people abuse comment boxes? There are people who post things that obviously are not theirs. It could be a picture again, or it could be something like song lyrics or a quote from a news site that they didn’t cite. So user comments are potentially copyright infringement. Now think about how many websites in 2012 have the ability to interact with their users via a simple comment box. That’s probably half the net right there!

If you think this is just hyperbole or exaggerated by any means, I really don’t think that’s the case and there is precedence to think that it’s not. In the past several months several cases have come to light where members of the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America have abused their power under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Under said Act, if someone infringes on your copyright, then you give notice and the content has to be removed. This is why several videos are taken off of YouTube seemingly on a daily basis. The most recent example of the abuse of this power was when news broke that Universal Music Group had requested a video by MegaUpload be removed due to the use of artists in the song. However, MegaUpload had made the deals and had every right to use the featured artists. Later, in a lawsuit that followed, it was revealed that Universal Music Group had a “secret agreement” with YouTube where they could remove videos not limited to their own copyrights. Essentially, they were given their own set of keys and could do whatever they wanted to whatever videos they pleased. In a slightly different case, an independent film maker had his trailer removed from YouTube and it was later revealed that the film studios were using specialized scripts programmed to search YouTube keywords that matched a set list and if they found matches they would submit take down requests. So in other words, a robot with a limited AI setup looked at keywords only and decided that they owned something and the real author didn’t. This is clearly an abuse of power on both parties’ parts; with no real claim to the material, they decided knowingly, or unknowingly, to assert their authority as entertainment juggernauts to take down these works.

I used the term entertainment juggernauts a moment ago to verbally represent how big these companies are. These are huge companies that make a ton of money annually, probably even monthly! That’s been a major talking point in the debates on these bills, strangely on their defense. There is a claim that all the copyright infringement that takes place on the internet is costing them in the range of billions yearly. That cannot feasibly be possible. Considering the Recording Industry Association of America already was caught publically lying about its damages in its legal battle with LimeWire, I’m surprised the numbers being tossed around are not being more seriously scrutinized. For those who might have forgotten, LimeWire was brought down for copyright infringement when their peer-to-peer file sharing service became primarily used for music. When asked for an estimate of damages, the RIAA claimed they were owed $75 Trillion in damages. The judge called this “absurd” and many noted that this claim was more than the US GDP!

One key argument against these bills has pointed to the increased risk and liability that will be thrust upon existing companies and future companies. Many believe this will stifle creativity and prevent future innovations in technology. This could mean the next generation of Facebook, Netflix, Hulu, or even iTunes may never be invented. Someone used the analogy that instead of two guys in a garage you instead need 12, 2 programmers and 10 lawyers! Instead of fighting the growing use of new technologies, the RIAA and the MPAA should become more flexible, and adapt their business model to work within this new environment. People still pay money for convenience; I think iTunes has made that pretty clear. With the overwhelming popularity of Apple devices and the number of paid downloads they see, it’s hard to say that the idea of paying to download something is not possible. Also, with Netflix, users pay a fee to be able to stream content to their computer or televisions. Suddenly, all the shows that were once taken off of YouTube are back within reach, and in much better quality too! Quality does make a difference. If the content is available people tend to gravitate towards the best quality they can get. So if it’s out there and reasonably priced, chances are they’ll buy it and not steal it.

Let’s not forget about security in all of this. For some time the government has been trying to develop what is known as the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), which would help make data transfers more secure within the DNS helping to prevent them from being forged by those who wish to attack websites or companies. It’s a cyber-security no-brainer. With more secure channels to exchange data, it’s harder for cyber terrorist to forge a DNS, or launch other forms of attacks. SOPA/PIPA allow for entire websites within DNS to be essentially killed, which would cause massive holes of data and make it ridiculously difficult to achieve the goals of DNSSEC. Some have said if the bills pass, they will essentially not deploy DNSSEC due to the liability. So the government is perfectly fine with wasting several years of research and development to prevent real cyber security threats, all so they can get their hands on the almighty kill switch and help the big entertainment companies.

Another point that some bloggers have talked about to some detail is the fact that many of the supporters of both bills don’t even adhere to our current copyright laws. Yet these are the people we task with creating new, stricter copyright laws! Several senators were proven to have taken personal photographs from Flickr to use as background images on their Twitter accounts without notifying the owners of the photos. When contacted one person was actually offended because she is actually in the photo used, and she can’t honestly say she wants to be associated with the senator’s beliefs. Another interesting case was a senator’s web site which featured a political cartoon of a “Government Pig.” The original artwork can be found online featuring a copyright symbol followed by the artist name. Interestingly enough, the copyright symbol and artist’s name has been removed from the senator’s website and the artist claims he was never contacted about it nor did he grant permission for it to be used. Even though the personal web site of the senator doesn’t facilitate copyright infringement, twitter surely does by means of allowing photo uploads. Thus, the senators violated the very same copyright laws as the rest of us.

One area of emphasis that I don’t think is getting the attention that it should is the idea of a remix culture in our society. When people are fans of something they often want to do something with it. Sometimes they draw their favorite characters, sometimes they write fan fiction, and other times they make video tributes. None of which detracts from the original subject matter. The original person was a fan of the product. So whoever finds their derived works is probably a fan too, and isn’t going to stop being a fan and suddenly focus solely on the derived works of other fans! There needs to be revision to the copyright laws in this country. When they were originally written, the life expectancy wasn’t what it was today, and they definitely didn’t have computers, or the Internet. While the discussion has largely focused on piracy, some of the talk should also extend to derivative works whether it is written, drawn, photoshopped, or edited together. As long as it isn’t intended to undermine profits, it should be allowed.

Perhaps under new copyright laws, new technology could emerge that will once again change the way we consume our content and yet not be deemed illegal. Every time we make new advances, the same people who are crying foul today will cry foul again, until they make some major changes. You can look back and count the VCR, the Tape Recorder, CD burners, DVD burners, YouTube, and probably more that caused the entertainment industry to be turned upside down. As technology changes so should the business models of our content producers. If we’re consuming it differently, you should find different ways to deliver it.

The very bottom line in all of this really comes down to due process. Companies should have to prove that the accused has cost them something, or stolen from them. Then it should be looked at in terms of scale. Does a 30 second YouTube video honestly hurt a multi-billion dollar company? The punishment should fit the crime, and people should be considered innocent until proven guilty. That’s been a law since this country was founded. If we’re going to keep and enforce an archaic copyright system, should we not do the same to our basic rights? Think about it.

Sources:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/223431/riaa_thinks_limewire_owes_75_trillion_in_damages.html

http://www.vice.com/read/pipa-supporters-copyright-violations

http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/01/18/sopa-blackout-internet-censorship_n_1211905.html

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111214/18263517094/umg-megaupload-case-gets-even-stranger-william-says-he-didnt-authorize-takedown.shtml

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So here are my thoughts on the 2011 WWE Draft (Lottery).

On the RAW babyface side…

Teasing John Cena going to Smackdown, talking it up for nearly two hours, and then pulling it back at the last minute reeks of “Haha, you smart marks, that’ll show you” booking. It doesn’t make me angry, but it’s a prime example of WWE focusing on stupid things that seem to be on the show to amuse themselves rather than to get someone over or sell a pay per view. I actually really would have liked to see Cena on Smackdown, interacting with a lot of new characters.

Rey Mysterio to RAW I actually really like, especially swapping him for Sin Cara. Rey as the number two babyface on the brand is a great spot for him considering his injuries, and if they want to do an occasional super-team with he and Cena I think that would be a lot of fun. One thing I was hoping for was, after he was “drafted”, was to have he and Sin Cara team up to take on Slater and Gabriel, or really any two heels. The masked men would do their big spots, win impressively, then IMMEDIATELY have Sin Cara drafted to Smackdown, which was the end result anyway. This way you tease a great new team and have people actually wanting to see them together, which you give them down the line. And Sin Cara on Smackdown, given that it’s a taped show, just makes sense while he’s still getting the hang of the size of the WWE ring and working with real ropes as opposed to cables.

Big Show is a lateral move, and he’s allowed to be on both brands right now as half of the tag team champions.

Kofi over to RAW is tough, because he already wasn’t getting pushed on Smackdown, where there’s less depth. I don’t know what he did or who doesn’t like him, but he’s woefully underutilized.

Chris Masters to RAW is meaningless.

JTG to RAW is meaningless.

Beth Phoenix seems to be coming over to RAW to set up whatever they’re going to do with the incoming Kharma (Amazing/Awesome Kong), so they seem to at least have an idea behind it, which is a positive.

Kelly Kelly moving over is probably good for her, as she’s very likable and seems to have star potential in some capacity.

On the RAW heel side…

Alberto Del Rio coming over is a big deal for him and possibly disastrous for The Miz, as he seems poised to take the top spot. He’s just more impressive than The Miz in almost every way, and a big part of it is that I believe that he’s a bad ass who can back up his talk. Miz is not very imposing, nor does he ever do anything particularly clever, and to be an effective heel, you kind of need at least one of the two. ADR versus Cena is a program I can actually get myself revved up to watch, whereas I’m begging for Cena versus Miz to end already.

Jack Swagger to RAW seems kind of pointless as he’s mostly been utilized as Michael Cole’s stooge and thus was often on RAW to begin with. Add to that, Cole commentates on both shows. Will we continue to see Swagger on both brands? If so, why move him in the first place?

Drew McIntyre’s switch to RAW I see as the heel version of Kofi Kington. He wasn’t doing all that well on Smackdown and RAW is a bigger league. He did have a budding romance story going with Kelly Kelly on the old brand, so perhaps they’ll follow up on it here and give them both something to do. Probably not.

Tyler Reks to RAW. Didn’t even know what brand he was on to begin with as he never appears on TV. Meaningless.

On the Smackdown babyface side…

Randy Orton joins the brand and is immediately in the top spot, something he really couldn’t lay claim to while sharing a show with John Cena. Maybe this will light a fire under Randy as he’s been killing me lately with his promos and his matches. It does immediately marginalize Christian, but hopefully it will just lead to him going heel and feuding with Orton on top.

I covered Sin Cara in the Rey paragraph above, but I’ll reiterate that I think he can really flourish on this show.

Daniel Bryan moving over to Smackdown is, next to the Rey for Cara trade, my favorite move of this year’s festivities. Smackdown is a lower pressure environment, and also features longer average matches. Daniel Bryan may actually get a chance to improve his lot and make something of himself on Friday nights. Here’s hopin’.

Great Khali is generally only around part time anyway, and pretty much a non-factor at this point.

Yoshi Tatsu is sadly another one that is probably meaningless, but he’s very underrated by WWE.

Natalya making the switch might be good for her, but it’s hard to say. They seemed to be pushing her fairly well on RAW last year before suddenly giving up.

Tamina moves, nobody cares, her romance with Santino appears to be over. Boo hoo.

And finally, on the Smackdown heel side…

Sheamus moves over as the United States champion in a bit of a surprise, if only because it puts both secondary titles on the same brand. Maybe they’ll unify them into one belt soon, though Sheamus versus Wade Barrett would be an odd feud indeed. Generally, I think Sheamus will do well if only because Smackdown really needs good heels and he can be, and has been, a top guy before.

Mark Henry comes to Smackdown on the heels (no pun intended) of a turn Monday night. I like Mark Henry as a heel, actually. I think he can be very effective in that role, but he’s been around since 1996, and never really gotten over at a high level. I just think he’s too associated with being a midcard act to really break through as a main event guy now. Though I’m sure they’ll give it a try for a few weeks.

Alex Riley has been moved over, separated from The Miz, his safety net. They’ll probably try something with him short-term, it won’t work, and he’ll be wrestling prelims until being sent back down to developmental for seasoning.

Ted DiBiase, non-factor. He’s been buried for months.

Tyson Kidd, ditto that for him. At least Ted’s usually on TV.

William Regal being drafted I was surprised by, just because I don’t think he actually wrestles anymore, even on Superstars. He’s the color commentator for the NXT program. Now, him being drafted may mean someone saw him on an official roster list and just decided to move him, or it could be that someone came up with an idea for him on Smackdown. I’m badly hoping it’s the latter as I think there’s still plenty of life in Regal as a useful, contributing member of the roster.

Jimmy and Jey Uso: WWE doesn’t care about tag teams. They are a tag team. May not be a bright future for them.

And finally, Alicia Fox comes over on the Diva side. Probably better, Smackdown is thin on heel women, especially with LayCool splitting up and one of them presumably coming out on the wrong side of a Loser Leaves Smackdown match at Extreme Rules.

PHEW. There it is, my analysis of every roster member moving around Monday and Tuesday in the 2011 WWE Draft.

It’s becoming more and more a known fact that Vince McMahon has a love-hate relationship with wrestling. The bottom line essentially is that he doesn’t want it to be known as “wrestling” but simply entertainment. That’s fine to an extent, after all the athletes in the ring have not been referred to as wrestlers for quite some time, and the championship cannot be called a belt. Instead the athletes are Superstars and Divas and the championship is a title. Aside from the fact that a title is an intangible object, I really have no problem with that vernacular unless the context of the story or scripts causes it to sound childish, goofy, or otherwise incorrect. For example the line “Edge and Christian are one of the most decorated tag teams in entertainment history!” Really? I’m pretty sure they’ve only ever been wrestlers so as much as they may hate it, wrestling history was definitely more appropriate. Plus I’m sure the likes of Batman and Robin would dispute the claim.

However, Vince McMahon apparently wants to take his decree against wrestling nomenclature a step further. Presumably after a blow up over the announcement was made by TVweek (dot) com that actor and comedian Drew Carey would be inducted into a Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame, and one of his employees was embarrassed in her argument to get the phrase removed from the article. Yesterday news broke that meetings had taken place for the company to follow the lead of fast food chain KFC, and rebrand the company as only the initials. Meaning the company would cease to be World Wrestling Entertainment, and instead simply WWE. That’s right. Letters… that mean… nothing!

I was unaware of the supposed “rebranding” of KFC, but just like WWE’s strategy, it doesn’t seem to me like it’s going to work. KFC used to (and in my opinion, still does) stand for Kentucky Fried Chicken. I’m assuming that once they launched their new line of grilled chicken products that they wanted to cease using the name. However, they still in fact serve fried chicken, and they are still in fact a company that was founded and started in the state of Kentucky. Thus… the name still applies. You still serve and still are Kentucky Fried Chicken. You just serve more than that now.

It might be different if the original acronym was somehow made into a pronounceable word like NASCAR. It may not be pronounced or written N.A.S.C.A.R. but it is, in fact, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. You cannot pronounce KFC nor WWE without sounding somewhat uneducated or mentally challenged.

WWE’s argument for the change is much weaker than KFC’s. They are not changing their product as drastically as KFC did. KFC launched a whole new product that accounted for half of their menu. Everything they offer now comes in either fried or grilled form. In fact WWE has offered other media products such as Movies and Music for a few years now. So if we discount Movies and Music which did in fact already exist, but were not the primary focus of the company, let’s see what else WWE does.

They feature multiple shows on cable television and the Internet that feature grown men and women, in what has been perceived to be known as a wrestling ring, performing wrestling holds that most of them learned at a wrestling academy or a developmental wrestling promotion. Sure seems like wrestling to me.

They also feature an On Demand service that features their video library. A good portion of this library was not originally their footage, but footage they purchased from collapsed or bankrupt organizations. Let’s see the list according to Wikipedia.

American Wrestling Association (1957-1991)
Georgia Championship Wrestling (1944-1985)
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1994-2001)
Eastern Championship Wrestling (1992-1994)
Ohio Valley Wrestling (1998-2008)
Florida Championship Wrestling (2007-Present)
Smoky Mountain Wrestling (1992-1995)
Stampede Wrestling (1948-1989)
Ultimate Pro Wrestling (1998-2007)
Championship Wrestling from Florida (1961-1987)
World Championship Wrestling (1988-2001)
Eastern States Championship Wrestling (1945-1973)
Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (1973-1988)
Central States Wrestling (c. early 1950s-1986)
Championship Wrestling from Georgia (1984-1985)
St. Louis Wrestling Club (1959-1985)
World Class Championship Wrestling (1966-1988)
Maple Leaf Wrestling (1930-1995)

That’s quite the list, and quite a lot of wrestling footage for a company that has nothing to do with it.

Let us also not forget that this weekend is the biggest event WWE puts on all year, the 27th edition of Wrestlemania. How exactly are they going to push that under the rug?

I’m a wrestling fan. I don’t have a problem with the term, nor do I really know anybody who does. I don’t know anyone who if they somehow figured out this not so well kept secret that WWE is in fact a wrestling company they would be disgusted and stop watching. People know it’s wrestling. If they like it, they like it. If they don’t, they don’t. WWE is not going to gain any new fans just because they’re perceived as not wrestling. In fact they are probably going to receive more negative publicity as they did with TVweek (dot) com for having a self inflicted identity crisis!

What’s even more sad is that the other top 3 companies putting on wrestling shows in the United States embrace that identity, yet they don’t have the term in their name. Total Nonstop action, Ring of Honor, and Dragon Gate USA are nowhere near WWE’s popularity. Some might say they’re not even in the same league. But at least they’re not trying to hide themselves, or say they’re something that they’re not. They’re not trying to fool anyone.

Just as Vince has a love-hate relationship with wrestling, I have a love-hate relationship with WWE. Sometimes they do these amazing things like Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker at Wrestlemanias 25 and 26 and I love it. Then they do stuff like this, and I hate them for being so ridiculously stupid and out of touch. On one hand I want them to succeed and perhaps send us into a new boom period. On the other hand, I wish they would finally learn from these stupid mistakes.

Then again WWE only seems to learn lessons through failure and competition. I don’t get to see much Ring of Honor, and I have more or less been boycotting TNA recently. But I hold out hope that these two promotions along with Dragon Gate USA can eventually make their presence known and let the world know that they are here, they are wrestling.

Since I spent so much time either working on my Power Rangers fan fiction project: Legend Untold (Look in the Entertainment Section), as well as researching and re-watching the beginnings of the franchise. I decided I would make a concerted effort to watch Power Rangers Samurai and see what Haim Saban had in store for the franchise he had created. Additionally, I decided I would watch the new Sentai Series TOEI was producing, the 35th installment, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. After watching both for about 7 weeks I can see very clear differences in how Saban and TOEI approach the series.

From the very beginning Power Rangers has been a kid’s show and has featured a certain level of cheesiness to it. However, Samurai seems to have cranked up the amount of cheese they’re adding. If I hadn’t watched the first six seasons of the series, I may have just brushed it off as me being older. I suppose some might say it’s because I have nostalgic feelings for the early years. I can honestly say I don’t think that’s the case. Watching the older episodes, I would have moments where I would laugh at something that wasn’t supposed to be funny or cringe at a stupid plot point, but it didn’t seem to detract from the show’s “enjoyability” factor. Samurai feels very different, as it should as a separate entity in the series, but it’s not a good different. With the exception of one or two characters, most of them seem very rigid. Think about your class mates in high school when reading aloud in class, or performing nervously in a school play. That’s about the same performing ability some of the actors appear to have. Now, I’ve read online a couple of times that it’s believed the producers and directors have asked the cast to talk like they would to children, which I guess could be seen as an excuse. If that is the case, and people want to use that excuse, I would like to direct their attention to Hector David, Jr. who portrays Mike, the Green Ranger. Even if his lines are corny or written for a child, he still delivers it like a pro and it makes his character seem more human than the others. Aside from acting chops, which the show arguably has had issues with before; the whole story dynamic seems off to me. This might just be caused by one essential problem, the fact that we never got an introduction episode. The only thing I know is that the bad guys were gone, and somehow they came back, and that the power the Rangers possess is passed down from family members. Oh, and they’re apparently not allowed to do anything but be Rangers unless they get permission from their Mentor guy, who they ironically call “Mentor.” I don’t exactly get why there are missing Zords, or why they need special Kanji symbols, or why there are numerous discs floating around that anyone can seemingly use. I might be a tad bit on the nit-picky side, but I want the plot to flow and tell a story, not be convenient based on Sentai footage. Perhaps if that was better the dialogue between characters wouldn’t matter because one could just focus on the story. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers didn’t offer many arching plot points, but the ones they did were better than this. Even filler episodes (I know this term is debatable) either allowed for some character growth or didn’t distract you from the overall story. I guess time will tell if Samurai will get any better, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly disappointed with it so far.

I have never watched a season of Super Sentai start to finish. Likewise, I have never watched an episode of Super Sentai before I saw the adapted season of Power Rangers. I must say though, I am really enjoying Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. I haven’t even watched an episode with sub titles and I enjoy it! The characters are very well portrayed by their actors, and I think it makes the show very unique. For those unaware of the show, Gokaiger has a pirate theme, as well as an anniversary theme. The main characters are space pirates who have I guess captured or were given access to powers of past Sentai teams. Their morpher, is of course a phone, but it has a key slot where they can insert different keys that represent different Ranger powers. In addition to this fan-boy friendly theme and story, the fight scenes are absolutely incredible. Even if you can’t find sub titled episodes you can appreciate the stunt choreography they’re pulling out for this show. Having not seen past Sentai and only 6 full Power Ranger seasons, I wasn’t fully aware of this, but the show’s producers are going out of their way to make sure they accurately portray each past team when the Gokaigers change into them, even down to their specific fighting styles. Go stunt people! I can’t comment on the dialogue since I have not seen sub titled episodes, and frankly there is probably a culture difference between Japan and the United States that would probably muck up a comparison. One thing I will comment on is the seemingly lack of dialogue in fight scenes. People have been a bit annoyed by the cheesy one-liners during fight scenes in Samurai that just seem unnecessary. I would agree, and I would point to how Gokaiger seems to stick with the basic “Hi-ya!” jargon we probably all imitated from Season 1 of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. However, one characteristic that Gokaiger has that benefits them in this case is their fighting attitude. Sometimes they may have an “I don’t really care” mentality others they have a sense of showmanship so their physical actions and body language do more for the show than any one-liner could.

These are just some of my initial thoughts on both shows. My opinions may change moving forward, there are still lots of episodes left for both shows. If it were a competition, though, Gokaiger would be winning!

So some of you may be already aware of the perceived ego of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and I can now give you a perfect example!

As you can see on the left hand side of this page we have a Facebook Page for the site. (UPDATE: Now it’s the right side!) You may also know that on Facebook you can create what they call a “username” for your personal profile or a Facebook Page. Personally, I never really wanted a username on my personal profile, but I thought having one for the website’s Facebook Page seemed like a good idea.

When you have a Facebook Page you’re only really “logged in” as the page when you’re actually on it. Now they’ve changed this feature so you can set it to be your default account, but that would mean I couldn’t communicate as myself, but only as the website. That seemed silly, so I never tried it. Well there is an “Edit Page” button on the Facebook Page when I’m on it, just like there is an “Edit Profile” button one your personal profiles. So I clicked that button and was looking in the Basic Settings of the Facebook Page where I say a section for Usernames. It then said “Click Here to Get a Username,” so I did. Unbeknownst to me, I was redirected to a generic Usernames page that was not specific to my Facebook Page, but instead my overall account. So when I selected “soweweretold” as the username it instead applied it to my personal profile. I was mad. Furious, even. Now any visitor to facebook.com/soweweretold would be directed to my personal profile instead of the Facebook Page I had for the site!

So I decided that this could not stand, and it needed to be fixed pronto! I went to the bottom of the page and looked for a “Contact Us” section that every website on the freakin’ Internet seems to have. It did not exist. I decided to click the Help link and look there for contact information. That only seemed to give me an index to already answered questions. No luck there. So I thought, well surely there is an email address. Nope. Nothing posted anywhere.

I would like to say that I haven’t been on Myspace in forever and a day, but I do recall them having such an email address. One time my cousin’s account was hacked and Myspace suspended it, to her it looked deleted. So I emailed their support service and helped her get it cleared up with them. Her profile was restored and everyone was happy. The fact Facebook seemingly didn’t want people emailing them made me very frustrated.

So I then went to Google and searched for something like “Facebook Contact Info,” and I stumbled upon a phone number. I decided to call the California based company and explain my situation to them in hopes they would resolve it.

I got one of those automated messages telling me to push buttons or enter my party’s extension. The menu went like this…

For Customer Service, Press 1

I pressed 1, and heard the following message, “Facebook does not currently offer Customer Service.”

…

WHAT??

Well that being the most retarded thing I thought I heard, I redialed and listened further…

For Customer Service, Press 1
For Law Enforcement, Press 2

(I guess I could have claimed I found a Sex Offender using my website’s name)

For Businnes Development and Advertising, Press 3

Well, being that I’m trying to start my own business and use the name So We Were Told in association with it, I pressed 3. I was then told by the same automated system that they don’t currently offer phone support but I could email them at partners@facebook.com.

Really? They couldn’t just put that email address on the site? They made me call them, and then they tell me to email them. That seems a bit stupid to me.

So I email them and basically explain that I assumed since I clicked on “Get a Username” while on my Facebook Page that the name would be applied to that instead of my personal profile. I then stated that I considered “So We Were Told” my intellectual property since I own the domain soweweretold.com, and that I was in fact starting a business based on it.

I got a generic “We received your email, but we get so many we may not read it” message sent back.

I then found a way to change my username for my personal profile. Apparently they give you one “do over,” but now it says “soweweretold” is unavailable. Well of course it was. I had it. But I freed it so I could use it on something else! I then emailed Facebook again with that update, and ironically didn’t get the generic return email.

Three days later I still don’t have it.

So the lesson here is: Facebook is too egotistical to bother to help anyone other than Law Enforcement (because they have to) and their username system sucks!

If I am ever able to get us a Facebook username for the site’s Facebook Page, I will let you all know.