WCPW Cancel ‘Loaded’ Shows due to YouTube Ad Policy

WCPW recently announced that their free weekly ‘Loaded’ shows would be making a return to the What Culture YouTube channel in June, unfortunately this will no longer be the case.

YouTube recently made a change to their Advertising Policy and as such has deemed Professional Wrestling ‘non advertiser friendly.’ This has caused a seismic shift in the revenue that can be generated for wrestling content on the video sharing platform.

To put this in to context WCPW released a match from their recent Pro Wrestling World Cup show between Rey Mysterio and Alberto El Patron. As of writing that video has had around 1 Million views and the ad revenue it has generated is a paltry $43.

What Culture released the following statement on their own YouTube channel as well as a video confirming the cancellation of their shows:

“In a decision that has not been made lightly, WCPW must today announce that the forthcoming weekly Loaded shows at Manchester’s Bowlers Exhibition Centre will no longer be going ahead.

Effective immediately, our June 9, June 16, June 23, June 30, July 14, July 28, August 4, August 11, and August 18 shows have been pulled from our events pages, and refunds will be issued automatically to anyone who has purchased tickets to these events.

All other announced dates, including our PPVs and all Pro Wrestling World Cup dates are unaffected by this. Our initial June 2 show will also be going ahead as scheduled, and all tickets purchased for this are still valid.

This is a decision that we absolutely did not want to make, but unfortunately it has been taken out of our hands by YouTube.

Owing to a change in their monetisation policy, which has now classified wrestling as “non-advertiser friendly”, it is no longer financially viable for WCPW to produce a weekly free show of the quality our fans deserve.

Since the change the WCPW YouTube channel has seen its advertising income decimated, with our recent match between Alberto El Patron and Rey Mysterio Jr earning only $44 despite receiving over 1,100,000 views. This is a reduction of around 98% in what would have been Loaded’s main source of revenue.

Without that money, it is simply not possible to organise, set-up, manage, produce and edit a free-to-air show on the scale we had intended, and we’ve been left with no choice but to alter our business model. We’re not alone in this either, as other promotions, journalists, and fans have seen their ability to make a living from their content jeopardised entirely by this change.

While we support YouTube in their endeavours to make the site a safer and more tolerant place to visit, we reject entirely the classification of wrestling as a whole as “inappropriate content”. As such, in the coming weeks WCPW will be partnering with other like-minded individuals and organisations to start a campaign aimed at reversing this sweeping change.

Wrestling is not about violence. Wrestling is about scripted entertainment, amazing feats of athleticism and, most of all, story-telling. We want to thank all of our fans for their continued support, and we hope to have more positive news for you soon.”