Pro wrestling-Youtube sucks.
It’s not any of the content creators’ fault though. The wrestling industry just hasn’t yet learned the same lesson that the sports industry has, that maybe, just maybe, loosening up on copyrights and letting content creators create content revolving around your product might actually help more people appreciate your product at the end of the day.
Right now WWE, with its extensive archive that covers the NWA, AWA, WCW, and ECW, is at least letting people employ some fair use. And that’s given good rise to guys like Brian Zane, who employ a Nostalgia-Critic style formula to criticizing bad or strange pro-wrestling angles. It has also allowed magazines like Wrestletalk, Cultaholic, and WhatCulture to rise to prominence.
(the last of which I’m actually published on, so uh yeah, check it out.)
Granted there’s still a ton of trash out there, mainly in the form of bloated podcasts from abrasive fans, or former workers who just like to moan about an industry where every company worth a damn has given them the pink slip. But if you’re trying to get into wrestling as a whole, rather than just WWE, you’re SOL, LOL.
In all seriousness though, there was actually a thriving scene for content that centered on other wrestling promotions back in the halcyon days of 2017. Being The Elite followed Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson, two prolific tag team wrestlers known as the Young Bucks who were working with Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Ring Of Honor, and various other independent promotions. Real Neat Puro and Showbuckle provided much-needed perspective to foreign fans who wanted to get into New Japan Pro Wrestling, the latter of which actually got shouted-out by their English language commentary for making a particularly good video essay on their ace wrestler, Tetsuya Naito, before getting promptly copyright stricken by NJPW for using their content to educate fans on their product, the audacity.
Hell, I even got a copyright strike for a vaporwave edit I made for Katsuyori Shibata.
DaveKnowsWrestling first distinguishes himself as a fantastic wrestling youtuber who isn’t Brisith.
Editor’s note: We here at GSC currently have no issue with our many readers across the pond. We just seriously find it weird how many Brits are interested in pro-wrestling enough to start a Youtube channel about it. Seriously, Whatculture, WrestleTalk, PartsFunKown, Cultaholic, Wrestlelamia. What’s the deal? Again, not that there’s anything wrong with that. We just thought you’d be making videos about soccer *ahem* football or something.
Dave also does well by looking at wrestling in a much more broad sense. Very rarely is it that he uses a specific promotion like WWE, AEW, or NJPW as the focus of his videos. He looks at pro wrestling in a much more broad sense, breaking down things like different wrestling styles, how an event is formulated, tropes of the medium, and what makes a match type special. This makes his videos super accessible, especially for someone that actually wants to get into pro-wrestling and understand it better.
He explains everything with a simple lexicon that isn’t cluttered by industry-jargon and has quick editing to keep videos digestible. He mostly stays under the ten-minute mark. Dave also has podcast level sound quality, making these videos easy to have on in the background of some other activity.
In terms of his takes, Dave is able to shoot from the hip unabashedly, not caring for what the pundits or fans have to say whenever he drops an Honest Promo video. These videos aren’t posted for contrarian shock value, instead using a grounded sense of informed taste to explain why he likes or dislikes something.
Fact is, he’s a man of own well-formed opinions, and very enthusiastic about sharing them with other people. Unlike other wrestling Youtubers who are concerned with increasing the strength of their brand, getting the approval of fans who think they’re “in the know”, copying others, or making sure people enjoy wrestling in the same way that they do, Dave wants to enable his audience to enjoy wrestling as much as they can, in the way that they will.
If you enjoy Dave give him a follow on twitter, subscribe to his YouTube channel, and throw a couple bones to his Patreon!
