CZW and Botchamania
Botchamania 173 was taken down by CZW for using footage from the iPPV/DVD Best of the Best X. This is amusing because I have always tried to insert CZW footage despite the largely negative youtube comments to show much I value the company and their wrestlers…and then they take the video down, which made a good 90% of the Youtube commenters message me saying ”You should have listened to us all along!!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOnLTNUZjIc

DJ Hyde, the owner of CZW and Jon Dahmer’s ex tag team partner, e-mailed me and apologised for the video’s removal. They have a company who deals with copyright issues on youtube and other sites and they didn’t get the motto that Botchamania is A-OK.

THE OWNER OF THE COMPANY APOLOGISED FOR MY VIDEO SHOWING THEIR COMPANY IN A NOT-EXACTLY POSITIVE LIGHT BEING TAKEN DOWN.

This is staggering. The underlying assumption seems to be ‘Big companies hate Botchamania, small companies like the exposure’ (see: Chikara). Given that the tone of the videos has been ‘Laughing with’ rather than ‘Laughing at’, this makes sense…but is still hard to take in sometimes. DJ Hyde can be a child-molesting serial killer for all I care, he’s good in my book.

After a small amount of confusion on the BM forums,
Edit: As I was typing this, The Deej messaged me to inform me that I may be incorrect in my assumptions. When I asked how so, he it would be easier to speak to him over the phone or Skype. What does this mean? I can’t even type a blog without the events I’m typing about changing! Botchamania life is faster than real life. To be continued…

Botchamania and advertising.

I make videos. I enjoy making and editing and watching endless amounts of wrestling shows to make videos. Sadly making videos is the only thing I am good at when it comes to capitalizing on the unexpected success of Botchamania. When you have people bring signs to events and have wrestlers twitter you (Like Steve Corino, Jacob Hammermeier, Mia Yim etc.) about how much they like the videos, it’s quite easy to get carried away and think HEY MAYBE I COULD MAKE SOME MONEY HERE.

Chikara have sponsored Botchamania.com for around six months now, and it remains the highest compliment I have received thus far. For a major wrestling company to say ”yes, we can see what you’re doing here and we agree with it and think we can work with it” is just tremendous. It’s always nice to be understood, given how often the complete fucking opposite happens.

Which moves onto the next part: Where now? Should I be happy that through my hobby I have a small amount of extra money in my bank account? Should I continue to pursue and encourage potential wrestling related companies to advertise on the site? I…have no idea either way. The line between ‘right thing’ and ‘wrong thing’ becomes blurred when you rarely get negative criticism (and I *like* negative criticism! It’s the only way you get better! Please give me more!)

I have applied to join ThatGuyWithGlasses.com, which is a site that focuses on small-level nerd reviews that gives money for video hits. They would be uploaded on Blip.tv (like the secondary video links on here and also on Reviewtopia) which would work better…if the videos weren’t on Youtube. Youtube is basically a lot nicer and less ad-filled (yes, think about that) to view on than Blip and there’s also a greater sense of community on there too. So moving from YouTube altogether would be a silly idea and yet Blip’s hits-for-moolah process doesn’t work as well when there’s an alternative way of viewing the videos. Hopefully you can see the inner turmoil going on here.

The idea that I currently have is to have Botchamania on YouTube and any additional specials (such as the in progress Wrestlemaniamania) to be on Blip.TV where they can be endlessly hyped on Twitter, Reviewtopia and Botchamania.com. It also gives incentive for people to visit Botchamania.com so Chikara gets more hits and everybody ends up happy. Right?

The biggest assumption about me has to be that I know what I’m doing. Botchamania exists in 2011 due to the staggering fanbase, so if you’re reading this and have an opinion please don’t keep it to yourself.

Thanks to The Busy Street for their informative article on myself that prompted me to pull my finger out and try to focus on Botchamania.com a lot more, as it’s a lot easier and simpler to get hits and sponsors through a website than it is through a video made up of other people’s footage. Have a read for yourself.

Thanks for reading this mass of text, feedback is appreciated.