Wrestling and You Tube

A lot of wrestlers and wrestling companies have turned to You Tube to put themselves and their product out there.  Where previously it may have been difficult or expensive to get air time on a local channel and you were subject to early morning or late night hours for the most part, now with You Tube you can post your “Television” show each week and it is essentially available on demand for viewing consumption. 

WWE is all over You Tube posting a couple dozen new videos every week, but for me Zach Ryder and his “Z! True Long Island Story” was the first individual wrestler to use You Tube to get himself over with the fans.  And rightfully so, his show was creative and funny and had a few long lasting story arcs that made it interesting.  Ryder no longer produces new episodes. 

Colt Cabana was another pioneer of You Tube with two successful shows at different times that went well over 1 year.  The first was “Creative Has Nothing For You” launched in June 2011 and the second was “Worst Promo Ever” Launched in Feb 2013.  Both of these shows co-starred comedian Marty Derosa and while they only averaged 1 – 3 minutes in length they were quite hilarious.  Neither one of these shows are in production.  This is my all time favorite Worst Promo Ever

Kevin Steen’s “Weekend Escapades” was a different mold as it featured commentary from Steen as he was heading out on the road for that weekends shows and the video was innercut with footage from that weekend and concluded with a rap up of events that was filmed on his drive home.  That show debuted July 2013 and concluded about year later.  These shows averaged 10 – 20 plus minutes and at times could drag, but for the most part were pretty ingenious. 

The Joey Ryan and Candice LaRae produced “The Candice and Joey Show” premiered October 24, 2013 and is still active.  Their show’s concept is similar to “Weekend Escapades” as it is a show featuring footage filmed over a weekend of shows and also heavily features other wrestlers.  It’s a fun show and they average 10 – 15 minutes in length.

I recently discovered Brian Myers “Making Towns” and have only watched the first two episodes.  Debuting November 11, 2014 there are 13 episodes to date averaging about 10 minutes long.  He openly admits to stealing Kevin Steen’s format, which he did, but Myers also added graphics, a theme song, and screen graphics of who people are and their twitter accounts.  Brian Myers was in the WWE as Curt Hawkins and is now making a name for himself, once again, on the independent scene.

I’m sure there plenty more similar shows that I haven’t mentioned and if you know of one that is fantastic then please let me know.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one my favorites that isn’t on Facebook but instead is on Instagram.  Chuck Taylor’s Instagram page Chuckietea is almost entirely dedicated to wrestling matches featuring the 24/7 defense of the Hardcore Championship.  The catch, as it is Instagram the matches all have a 15 second time limit!  He has posted 90 so far the first 81 weeks ago and the last 14 weeks ago.   It’s possible he is done posting the matches, but you never know when one will pop up.  Either way if you haven’t seen them, then what are you waiting for go watch some matches!

Here are the links these great shows:

Z! True Long Island Story

Creative Has Nothing For You

Worst Promo Ever

Weekend Escapades

The Candice and Joey Show

Making Towns

Chuckietea Instagram

Later Readers!!