what I know and think about Vikingo and AAA’s US streaming rules

GCW’s announced two things for 12/16 I’d been waiting to hear officially. Hijo del Vikingo will face Blake Christian (the only name of note not yet assigned to a match on that card) and Hijo del Vikingo will not appear on the FITE stream. GCW had the unenviable duty of being the first to reveal Vikingo can’t appear on streamed broadcasts. Vikingo’s been announced for other places, including Warrior Wrestling and Dreamwave, and those promotions will eventually be making the same announcements. It’s a total blackout: not on the stream, not on the VOD after. If a Vikingo match is taped, AAA owns the footage. The only* way you’ll seeing Vikingo on these shows is if you’re there in person. This Vikingo rule (among other rules) has been discussed among indie promotions over the last two months, with some fighting unsuccessfully to remove it and others deciding to pass on using Vikingo altogether.

AAA thinks they want the yet-to-be-announced Los Angeles WrestleMania weekend show to be as big a success as possible. They believe more people will go out of their way to attend if they haven’t been able to see Vikingo in the US to that point, and they believe keeping Vikingo off of streaming will help keep him fresh. AAA’s ideal world would be for Hijo del Vikingo to actually not wrestle in the US until that (not official) Los Angeles date, but Vikingo working in the states is something he’s wanted to do for years, and AAA has limited control to prevent it. AAA’s policy is to find a middle ground, allowing him to work some in the US but not in a way they feel threatens their own plans. AAA also has been increasingly concerned with presenting their wrestlers in a certain caliber of the environment – they’re selling the vibes of an exciting AAA show as much as any of the wrestlers – and may feel the venues US indie promotions are running in would diminish their brand somehow.

Keeping Hijo del Vikingo off streaming is a foolish strategy. Fans seeing Vikingo via streaming is why they want to see him in the first place. AAA banning promotions from streaming the matches will in no way prevent them from being streamed. That “only*” is because anyone who’s thought about this knows the matches are going to be bootlegged by fans in the US just like so many of them are done in Mexico, and just like was done with the Tempe show. AAA hasn’t stopped the video of Vikingo’s matches from getting out, they’re just made the process worse and less rewarding for everyone involved. If AAA doesn’t have the time and resources to go after my Twitch channel, they’re probably not going to spend energy on going after your iPhone recording. And there’s little incentive for GCW to stop people from raising their phones up and recording the match either.

AAA is trying to make Vikingo more valuable in the US in the long term for themselves while damaging his value personally for at least for the short term. Vikingo has lost bookings because the value isn’t there with these requirements. There are no known restrictions on using Komander or Aramis or Laredo Kid or Aerostar or Drago or a dozen other guys who can give promotions 75-90% of what Vikingo has to offer, who are also coming in at much lower cost. (That’s even if the promotion feels like paying for a flight from Mexico.) Vikingo is a special in-ring talent, but he has yet to prove to be any sort of huge ticket mover in Mexico. His heralded US debut in Tempe didn’t move tickets until Cain Velasquez was added. The reasons why are another 1000-word post on its own, but Vikingo isn’t Okada or Tanahashi or Naito at this point. He’s an impressive wrestler most interested US people have seen once or twice a year on stream, not one they’ve invested years of emotion into and have been dying to finally see live. Vikingo’s not that guy, not yet, and this just gives a reason for promoters to pass on him for now, and for Vikingo not to get the sort of chances he was hoping to get when he finally got his US visa.

This chronic lack of understanding of the US wrestling business is far more likely to tell tall in Los Angeles. It’s another short-side decision that achieves nothing except building ill will towards their own brand. You hope they’d figure it out someday, but there’s no sign of that happening.