WWE vice president Ed Wells spoke at length about the WWE Japan office he runs in an interview with JapanToday.com. "We are positioned in both the sports and entertainment realms," Wells said. "Our fans don’t consider us sports. They know we are entertainment and tune in to see a drama. All of our programming is storyline based with wrestling at the heart of it. I would say our competition around the world is not other pro wrestling leagues. Rather it is Hollywood dramas such '24,' 'Lost,' and 'Heroes.'

Wells also noted that Raw is the company's top brand. "Raw is the premier brand right now," he said. Smackdown and ECW each have very popular stars and there is a draft once a year which moves some of our biggest stars. Every four or five weeks, we have a special pay-per-view event. So fans watch our programming regularly, following the story and then the story climaxes at a pay-per-view event. And at those events, you’ll see all the stars coming together from the three brands." To read the full interview, visit JapanToday.com. [Thanks to Dot Net reader Jason Packman]

Powell's POV: The story notes that there is a delay in WWE programming airing in Japan due to subtitling issues. For instance, the SummerSlam viewing party is scheduled for Sept. 7. In other words, it's possible that Wells hasn't been able to watch the current shows to pick up on how inferior Raw is to Smackdown these days. All lame attempts at humor aside, it is interesting to know that WWE still positions Raw as the top brand.

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