Welcome to another edition of
OFF-TRACK with A-TRAIN
where I report on the weird and the wacky
in the world of wrestling
in this episode
We Encourage Your GIFs
BUT NOT THOSE KINDS
One of the biggest ways that independent wrestling promotions get exposure is through GIF accounts on Twitter. If there's an amazing spot in a match and a GIF of it shows up in the right timeline, a timely retweet by the right person could bring thousands of new eyes to the company's product, as well as the wrestlers who work for them.
So naturally, WWN, parent company of EVOLVE among other federations, has published a GIF Policy to their website which welcomes all fans to GIF their matches and post the results to Twitter and other social media without restriction.
...
I'm just kidding.
There are a bunch of restrictions, the majority of which seem kind of ridiculous to this GIF consumer.
The five rules are as follows:
- GIFs must be under 15 seconds.
- Never show a finish to a match.
- Never show a clip that might embarrass a fan.
- Limit GIFs to 3 or under per match.
- No botches of any kind, from moves to equipment.
Let's go through these one by one.
Under 15 Seconds: Yeah. Goes without saying. If a GIF is 15 seconds long, it's no longer a GIF. It's now a silent short film.
No Finishes: Fine, okay. Protect the integrity of the match, drive people to the WWN Network or whatever.
No Embarrassing Fan Clips: Oh, COME ON. If fans want to act a fool in public, in a day and age when everyone has a camera in their pocket, they should know the risks.
Under 3 Per Match: That limit seems a tad on the low side, considering there are an average of 78 GIF-worthy spots in your average EVOLVE match.
No Botches: I mean, if someone is tragically injured or something, sure, we're not monsters, but botches are a part of wrestling, and sometimes they're downright hilarious. Barring them from being GIF'd won't make them go away.
Perhaps the biggest tragedy of this final rule is that now The Botchamania guy can't GIF any WWN matches.
And the really sad part is that he knows.
How will he ever go on?
I guess he, and all of us, will just have to get our the majority of our wrestling Twitter GIFs from other indie promotions.
Let's just hope others have more lenient rules.
It's crazy to think that ZE GERMANS are the happy-go-lucky liberals in this situation.