No More Saban Brands

Source article here.

TLDR (am I doing that right?): Saban Brands closes its doors July 2nd.

Well, you knew the Hasbro deal had to come to this. And given that Saban Brands existed solely for the sake of getting Power Rangers off Disney and try to make it viable in the interim years before the recent acquisition, I don’t think it was any surprise that this company would not last long beyond that. Sucks for the guys and gals getting laid off as a result and I do wish them all the best in whatever future endeavors they pursue.

That having been said, this DOES put a lot into question what happens to a lot of the older stuff they do own, such as the Beetleborgs, VR Troopers, and that Next Mutation series. Is Shell-Shocked once again going to be the only semblance of Saban’s Ninja Turtles the world is going to see come July?

I shudder to think.

Power Rangers Reflections Redux #07 – Shell Shocked

Yeah, like you thought I’d go through life never talking about this.

The fourth episode of Power Rangers In Space featured the one and only official crossover story between the Power Rangers in any form and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in any form. And to say it was a disappointment would be stating the obvious. It’s been a while since I’ve seen this episode, so let’s give it a look and we can move on to better things… maybe.

The reason this crossover was possible is because during this time, Saban was putting out a live-action Ninja Turtles series called The Next Mutation, which had the Turtles fighting off not perennial villain Shredder or any of the familiar menagerie, but a monster called Dragonlord and his band of putties or grunts or whatever. And on top of that, we have a fifth (female) Turtle named Venus, who knows magic and stuff. Said female Turtle is said to be a controversial addition and I’ll spare my thoughts on both the Turtle and the show for another time.

But the point is that when people like to visualize this particular crossover combination, they usually visualize the original Mighty Morphin team going up against the classic quintet Turtles incarnation (of which there are many, so take your pick.) What you’re getting here is not the “colossal” event that it might’ve been or could’ve been; it’s just a crossover between two shows that happened to be on the air at the time… and it’s just another episode of Power Rangers overall, as there was no attempt to do a similar crossover on the Next Mutation show.

Of course, that would’ve been problematic to pull off since Next Mutation had a somewhat smaller budget compared to PRIS and also, both shows were filmed in different locations. It also explains why the Turtles here have different sounding voices and personalities in comparison to their show of origin. But I’m jumping ahead here… also, two paragraphs share the same first word… let’s break that pattern now.

Continue reading “Power Rangers Reflections Redux #07 – Shell Shocked”

4-Hour Plus PPVs? I Tap.

WWE Backlash was a pretty awful show, but the one bright spot was that it wasn’t a ten-hour show or anything. Well, turns out that was an accident.

Word has gone around that WWE sent their international broadcasters advance noting that starting with the Money In The Bank PPV, all WWE PPVs will start at 7 p.m. and have a run time of four hours or more. The exception would be Wrestlemania and Summerslam, which will undoubtably be ten-hour marathons featuring a bunch of shitty matches and even more failed attempts to try and get people to give a shit about Roman Reigns in a way that makes him feel like a big star and not just in a THIS TIME FOR SURE.

Yeah, well, you know what? I tap.

I showed a bit of weakness on the “road to Wrestlemania” and gave the B-shows a chance… and they failed miserably. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to watch a four-hour PPV where the best match on the card is the opening contest and the bed gets shat on afterwards. You know what? I’m perfectly content on using the WWE Network to watch a whole bunch of old wrestling PPVs that I haven’t seen in a long while or even at all. And if that’s all the wrestling musings I end up doing on this blog going forward, then I’m perfectly content with that.

So I will more than likely skip the Money In The Bank PPV… and the PPV after that… and who knows? Unless the Summerslam card stacks up to something worth a damn, I may as well skip that show too. Worst case scenario, I don’t touch another WWE PPV until the Royal Rumble. And if I do end up watching a show, it’ll be weeks after the fact when I’m bored and I need random background noise to keep me awake.

This saddens me, because we got all these great, talented guys on the WWE product. I like watching guys like Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan Danielson, Kevin Owens, and others. They do good stuff and can pull off some awesome material and it just irritates me that the creative monkeys not only give these guys little to work with, but also manage to find ways to make me uninterested in anything they do. In some ways, I get irritated at seeing AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura get turned into a joke despite being awesome appearances while watching WWE attempt to get people to accept Roman Reigns as THE Guy, only to turn it into a running gag that I can’t take seriously anymore. I’m all but glad to see Daniel Bryan Danielson back to doing what he loves doing and am hoping he gets some deep material to work with in the future, but doubt that he will. I’d want to be able to give the women a chance, but how can I when WWE decides to put the focus on their failed UFC charisma vacuum?

So yeah, unless there’s something worth watching, I’m done with WWE PPVs until the Rumble rolls along. I think I’ll stick with watching some of the older stuff. Sure, there might be some stinkers, but at least they’ll be interesting… unless the focus is on McSon-In-Law. Then, it’s going to suck.

WWE Unforgiven 2003

Yeah, fuck it. Let’s just get this shit over with. I don’t care.

That might not be the most “proper” way of starting a write-up, even on a personal blog, but watching these 2003 WWE PPVs have put me in such a miserable mood that I honestly don’t care if I show tact or not. These shows don’t deserve that level of respect and Unforgiven is another in a long line of 2003 shows that can suck the proverbial meat missile.

This is made even more sour by the fact that this post is following my tapping out over watching the current WWE product’s PPV offerings, which made me not care about stuff that I actually liked watching, but that’s WWE for you. They have a gold mine and then they turn it to shit. Good job, guys.

Like I said, let’s just get this crap over with.

Continue reading “WWE Unforgiven 2003”

The Wait Is Agonizing

First trip to the hospital for check ups on my leg… and the wait is painful. But perhaps not as painful as trying to type a small paragraph on a tiny tactile keyboard on your extremely fragile slab of a phone. Jesus Christ, how in the blue hell do you people put up with this crap? I’ll take one of those Blackberry things over this thing because at least that has some semblance of a proper keyboard.

Anyway, this is my morning after a long 3 day weekend and I am exhausted.

 

FOX Expected To Air WWE Smackdown In 2019

Source article can be read here.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Fox could very well be the new home of WWE Smackdown starting October 2019. The deal will not only ensure that Smackdown will air on FOX for five years, but the deal is estimated to be worth close to $1 billion. Now that’s a huge chunk of change right there.

Good news for WWE as they found a home for Smackdown and maybe Fox will give that show a good push in ads. Meanwhile, it looks like RAW will stay on USA network for the moment.