Google is apparently not a fan of professional wrestling anymore. What Culture Pro Wrestling is an independent pro wrestling promotion based out of the UK. Since 2014, they have been uploading wrestling related content on Google’s popular platform YouTube. Recently, YouTube has been trying to keep the content uploaded to the site “family friendly” in order to satisfy companies that pay to advertise on the site. YouTube’s newly released “Restricted Mode” lumps in wrestling channels with offensive content and has a massive impact on the revenue the channel can generate. YouTube introduced this policy because advertisements appeared on videos on the site were actually offensive and advertisers didn’t want to be associated with that content. While that may be understandable, it simply does not make sense for wrestling channels to be subjected to that system.
WCPW held an event called Fight Back on June 2nd and the logo for the event was similar to YouTube’s logo. The video of the event has since been taken down by YouTube and WCPW’s channel was issued a strike on their account. Much like baseball, if a channel receives three strikes they are out. In other words, WCPW’s popular YouTube channel is all of the sudden in danger of being completely removed from the site. As of now, WCPW has 174,000 subscribers on YouTube. In addition to receiving the strike, YouTube has also revoked WCPW’s ability to livestream their events.
Not only is Wrestling not monetizable on YouTube… apparently it's not welcome at all. We have now been issued with a "Strike". #FightBack pic.twitter.com/MAPpKVv1S0
— WCPW (@wcpw) June 3, 2017
"Your ability to live stream has been revoked."
— WCPW (@wcpw) June 3, 2017
Before the Fight Back event, Adam Blampied of WCPW delivered an impassioned speech about how wrestling brings people together. A brief “f*** you YouTube!” chant broke out during the beginning of the speech. Blampied asked people to share the video and sign a petition to ensure that professional wrestling gets the respect it deserves.
If you wish to sign the petition, you can do so by clicking here.
