YouTube Policy Update: WWE Ads Back, WCPW Forced to Cancel Shows

The wrestling world has taken a beating on YouTube recently after inadvertently being affected by a massive advertising boycott on the website. Most videos about the entire pro-wrestling sport have been categorized as “restricted-content”, and while WWE’s YouTube channel appears to have worked some sort of arrangement out, other wrestling promotions have not been as lucky. If they have any adsense left at all on their videos, then they probably aren’t making as much as they would have been several months ago. Some indy wrestling promotions relied very heavily on YouTube advertising revenue in order to generate a profit.
Case in point, WCPW (What Culture Pro Wrestling) is currently one of the most popular indy wrestling shows available today. It was announced effective immediately that WCPW Loaded, their free weekly show, has been cancelled for the foreseeable future. The company has cancelled a handful of shows and has refunded those who purchased tickets for the upcoming shows. WCPW cites the loss of advertisement revenue as the primary reason for the show’s hiatus. The company revealed that an uploaded video featuring a match between Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Alberto El Patron received over 1,000,000 views, but only generated about $44 dollars for the company. Before the advertisement losses, that video likely would have earned the upstart wrestling company a few thousand dollars.
The “Adpocalypse” as it’s been dubbed, has taken a huge toll on YouTube content creators involved in all genres. This has led to a serious change in policy from YouTube which has been devastating to pro wrestling-related videos. WWE’s YouTube videos are able to play with ads before each one as the company’s videos are classified as “Sports-Entertainment”. The decision to halt the weekly show was something WCPW “absolutely did not want to make”. Nevertheless, the company has cancelled their shows for the summer, however, their pay-per-views and Pro Wrestling World Cup are still scheduled to go on as planned.