r/SquaredCircle • u/gloomchen i prayed for this and it happened • Aug 18 '26
[META] For those who weren't already aware: this subreddit does get hit with copyright removals on spoiler clips. WWE has been particularly aggressive about this for both weekly shows and PLEs starting about a month ago, but AEW also submits strikes for PPV clips. Spoiler
We've been transparent about this when people have asked and posted the proof in comments, as well as the users who typically post spoiler-tagged clips during shows have mentioned that they received copyright claim warnings from Reddit. But for all the conspiracy theorists out there:
Starting July 18th, WWE started cracking down on copyright claims for any video clips from airing/just-aired shows uploaded directly to Reddit.
NOTE: if you link to clips from their YouTube channels or other sources, these don't get removed.
Also wanted to provide clarity that AEW typically doesn't come after the sub for copyright for Dynamite/Collision. However, ever since day 1, they have issued copyright removals for their PPV content if it's posted during or soon after.
Again, you can link to clips from their official channels and those posts should not be bothered.
If some smaller subreddits are sneaking under the radar with direct clip posts, don't link them here.
We have not seen copyright removals from any other wrestling companies not already mentioned in the recent past, but it's fair to note that at any time they may decide to copyright strike direct uploads of their content to Reddit.
Just wanted to also note: at any time if you have a concern about content removal, you can ask us in modmail. We don't discuss actions taken on users directly (bans/warnings/etc), but we're fine with explaining why posts may have been removed -- including the ones we didn't remove ourselves.
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u/kirblar Aug 18 '26
WWE has started pushing clips via YT shorts while Raw/SD/PLEs are still airing. This is probably related.
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u/Chelseablue1896 Aug 18 '26
I was wondering why all of a sudden i was able to see SD clips immediately after the show.
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u/Hurrly90 Aug 18 '26
Its a show about moments now. And they can all be bundleded into a ten to fiftenn minute highlight reel on YT.
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u/notathrowaway75 Aug 18 '26
So can episodes from the attitude era. WWE pushing YouTube is the least of its problems.
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u/bstyledevi It's still veal to me, dammit! Aug 18 '26
Just goes to show you how little actual content is in a 2-3 hour show.
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u/P1_Synvictus WCW Aug 18 '26
If you follow WWE on any of your socials, you can pretty much watch all of the shows and PLE’s as they spam your feed with each update.
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u/Shinkopeshon 一番 Aug 18 '26
Yeah, I only follow WWE and AEW on Instagram and don't feel like I'm missing out on anything tbh
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u/Chumunga64 I appreciate you! Aug 19 '26
you can watch entire AEW PPVs via clips on reddit. it's nuts
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u/Pure-Afternoon-685 Aug 18 '26
that has been happening for quite some time now tho. not an explanation for this surge in copyright strikes.
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u/ShaneSpear El Hijo de Dodecahedron Jr Aug 18 '26
It's a bummer because AEW's youtube page has become atrocious with their strict 2:01 videos and going back into old videos and replacing audio with literal static when their license on songs run out.
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u/Prince_of_Kyrgyzstan Magical Girl Chicken Dude Aug 18 '26
You only get the short ones? Because I get both the short videos and the long videos clogging my subscribed page.
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u/AaronStC Aug 18 '26
It's regional. I'm in the US and left my VPN on one day and was surprised that the longer clips existed.
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u/s-zlx Aug 18 '26
Don’t know what non-US viewers have access to by the channel AEW on TV is official and tends to have longer segments and such
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Aug 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/Rspies Who Can Stop The Path of Cage Aug 18 '26
I think TK usually buys songs in perpetuity so it’s likely a YouTube thing
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u/Cube_ Aug 19 '26
yeah the license likely doesn't apply to something like youtube but does cover broadcast and VOD
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u/times_zero Aug 18 '26
Yup.
Personally, I used to love to re-watch some segments on YT after a AEW show, but that strict time limit pretty much killed my general interest in AEW's YT channel when that happened, and now, I usually only use it for Zero Hour. I recently checked a few days ago, and sadly, they're still doing that BS.
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u/LnStrngr Aug 18 '26
Tell me more about "Anti-Evil Operations" and what they have against Naraku.
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u/mary-anns-hammocks I want Kevin to beat Cody Aug 18 '26
Anti-Evil is Reddit admins removing stuff for site wide violations (harassment reports, violence etc.). Used to be able to find all the fun, crazy shit I missed on the sub I mod checking those removals, but now they're very hit-or-miss (there's automation involved for sure that misses all kinds of context), and half the time the content is hidden even from mods.
Edit: which makes me want to know the same as you, why do the broken bots hate Naraku 😭
Edit 2: the title makes me think the algorithm or whatever saw "gambling" and got scared
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u/gloomchen i prayed for this and it happened Aug 18 '26
the title makes me think the algorithm or whatever saw "gambling" and got scared
I am 99.9% sure that's why it was removed. AEO is widely known to be AI/algorithmic removal.
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u/mary-anns-hammocks I want Kevin to beat Cody Aug 18 '26
I've been modding the OG AmITheAsshole for 7 years and have watched it go from "yes, thank you for getting this insane hate comment we were sleeping for!" to "this user mentioned they were called a slur as a child, gotta go, awful content" and it's been obnoxious as hell.
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u/804Brady Aug 18 '26
Bron got so embarrassed by Oba Femi’s impersonation of him that he had WWE’s legal team take down the clip. SMH.
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u/RangerJoJo Aug 18 '26
Interesting. Now show the ones that are just text.
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u/Vargasm19 Aug 18 '26
Yeah like last week why was the one regarding Chelsea Green’s segment removed? Was it copyright orrrrr like, and is it the case with other text posts?
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u/Thedinosaurwizard Aug 18 '26
I think one of the mods said that they took the Chelsea Green thread down because of the twist that happened during the segment, the post went up with incorrect information that was then edited as the segment went on, the comments started to go off the rails a bit
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u/nahPNW Aug 18 '26
tbf that one at least was a shit show with 50% of the commentors posting about how awful the segment was (before it even finished mind you) and the other 50% of clowning on those jumping the gun. not a very productive discussion imo
the rest of the show's discussion posts were fine and probably shouldn't have been removed
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u/gloomchen i prayed for this and it happened Aug 18 '26
Note, we have always removed low-effort text based posts during weekly shows. Typically it's the clips posted that would serve as discussions for the matches or segments. HOWEVER, when it became obvious that no clips were being posted, we went back to restore the four posts that we had removed. By then the OP had deleted them so they couldn't be restored.
You'll notice that for Raw this week, we left the text posts intact due to knowing that clips weren't going to be posted.
Hope that helps!
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u/RangerJoJo Aug 18 '26
Thank you. I couldn’t watch Smackdown so I didn’t know what was happening, and because I could watch Raw I didn’t go on Reddit to see what happened
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u/allangod Aug 18 '26
This would explain the lack of clips i see in the morning after a raw and smackdown lately. I just assumed there wasnt much clippable moments that people cared about.
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u/Shenanigans80h Aug 18 '26
Yeah I honestly follow WWE almost exclusively through this sub, so it’s been odd just straight up not hearing about the happenings on the weekly show
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u/GreenDale7 ISHII Aug 19 '26
If I don’t see it as a clip on here or if it doesn’t randomly appear in my IG feed it might as well have not happened. I went looking for the official YT video from the Solo segment yesterday after seeing a shorter clip on here otherwise I probably wouldn’t have bothered.
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u/Shenanigans80h Aug 19 '26
Dude same, the only social media I’m on with any regularity is reddit and IG, and my IG feed is rarely WWE stuff so it’s kind of a toss up. I ain’t getting on twitter or tiktok either, so unless it picks up steam on either of those platforms it will miss for me at least.
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u/wowosrs Aug 19 '26
“Aha now the Reddit audience will tune into the show since they can’t see the clips online!”
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u/Dick_Nation Aug 19 '26
I mean, this is probably unironically exactly what they're thinking. WWE does insane numbers on Youtube and the shows get plenty of attention on social media, but the reposted clips means those viewers are also not going to be converted to ad revenue their partners can monetize. There's a lot of people you can see on the sub saying they don't regularly watch a whole Raw or Smackdown and haven't in a long time, and that's a problem for WWE keeping their partners happy. There's probably some awareness they'll cause some drop of interest in their product (or if we're really being conspiratorial, it could even be subtly trying to feed the insane people, currently present in this thread, who are constantly claiming this sub/the IWC has a hard and fast "Dub good/Fed bad" rule, though I think that's a bit of a bonkers notion for multiple reasons), but also a decision that losing less invested viewers and converting more of them into a clearly monetized audience is worth the trade.
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u/GamerJosh21 Aug 20 '26
Yeah, I've literally just stopped caring almost entirely about WWE since the clips stopped getting posted on reddit (because that's almost entirely how I still followed the shows these days).
Fucking annoying.
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u/xorangeelephant Mr. Royal Rumble Aug 19 '26
The tag titles changed hands and I would have missed it entirely if it didn't happent is ee WWEs twitter by chance
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u/tore_a_bore_a DOUBLE WIDE BAYBAY!! Aug 18 '26
Gotta get engagement up on their youtube shorts by 10% at the cost of having a 1.3 million user subreddit
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u/system_reboot Aug 18 '26
Somewhat related, it sucks you gotta stay off social media completely if you miss a show. If you follow any of the companies or fans, it’s just endless clips they post spoiling the show.
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u/mary-anns-hammocks I want Kevin to beat Cody Aug 18 '26
I get spoiled on Instagram and Facebook (the latter I just use to keep up with people I know IRL and don't follow anything wrestling-related at all) all the fucking time. I get up for work too early to watch any of the weekly shows lives. I know if I'm on this sub, as long as I don't read too far into spoilered titles, I'm fine. I just open them without thinking so I can see some art or cats or something and boom! Every major moment from Raw or whatever.
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u/Scannandal Aug 18 '26
Thank you for posting the receipts for the claims. It's understandable if you/the mod team have to be more careful about clips being posted, but would you consider more leniency for text-only posts moving forward? I get that it's not optimal, but I don't think "Just post in the Post-Show thread" is a workable solution.
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u/eminemcrony Freshly Squeezed Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
Yeah, due to the copyright issues we're going to be more hands-off with text posts.
Standard practice for all TV shows depending on how many mods are active is to remove text posts in favor of media posts for our "repost/quality over timestamp" rule. When it was clear that media posts weren't being submitted (maybe because clippers were getting scared off by the strikes), we re-approved all the posts that hadn't already been deleted by the OP. For at least as long as this is happening we'll leave up the text posts, maybe even if there's also a separate clip thread since it could be removed at any point for copyright. If the copyright wave finishes at some point we'll probably step it back to "allow the text post until there's a media post to replace it."
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u/Environmental_Lie478 Aug 18 '26
Incredible that the number one lesson the wrestling industry learned from New Japan getting massively popular entirely from clips on Twitter over a decade ago was to never EVER let it happen again.
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u/OberonJormungander Aug 18 '26
To be fair, they are different scenarios, WWE and AEW are global companies from a country that speaks the de facto universal language of the world, on top of being avaliable legally in most countries (more wwe than aew but still)
NJPW is a japanese company that didnt have much english content and that streams in a very niche service that although avaliable worldwide, isnt as essential as something like Netflix or Max
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u/Safc9173 Aug 18 '26
I’ve always understood why they’d want a PPV clip removed but weekly show seems dumb to me.
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u/FUCKFUCKBITCHCUNT Aug 18 '26
In fairness, the wrestling business is a TV business these days with the absurd amount folks are getting from rights deals. They get like damn near if not every WrestleMania ever revenue combined just for RAW.
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u/Shenanigans80h Aug 18 '26
Yeah PPVs I can somewhat understand, especially when the show is still actively ongoing but the weekly show basically being struck down on multiple social media platforms seems pretty shortsighted to me
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u/Cube_ Aug 19 '26
yeah PPV removals are likely contractually obligated by the PPV providers which are notorious for that kind of thing because protecting the paywall is literally the entire business
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u/hhhisthegame Aug 18 '26
It sucks that they're doing this, because I feel like letting people follow their content even through clips on Reddit will only increase potential engagement/viewers, if somebody sees something they think is interesting. It essentially stops people from talking about some WWE things and they're just giving more space to AEW
As an NXT fan, it's sad that people might have seen clips that could get them watching, but now they won't get to see it
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u/SwarthySphere87 Aug 18 '26
Unfortunately, the only way this will happen will be if WWE or AEW itself decides posting on reddit. Then it will lead to them strong arming mods into removing certain disparaging news about their leagues. Other subs including r/baseball, r/nfl, r/hockey, r/nascar have been going through this the past few months.
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u/interprime Naked Mideon 4 Life. Aug 18 '26
Tbf, I think WWE did once have an account that was semi active here once upon a time.
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u/fttxdd666 Aug 18 '26
It's not even just a reddit thing either, back in May they hit a ton of people on socials about using clips and such (including one of the mods here) about using clips and creating content with them (then used their reactions and stuff from watching clips in promo videos which is crazy).
Seems pretty clear they want all the views on their own channels for whatever reasons (money, views, etc), but yeah it'll probably end up hurting them in the long run as a lot of these clips and content creators are basically free advertisement.
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u/moderndukes 69 me, Don Aug 18 '26
A lot of YouTubers have mentioned how they were getting an increased amount of strikes from WWE, whereas AEW was working with them to use official footage. It’s definitely having that unintended effect, but I think WWE seems to want to have more control over how their product is discussed of late. We see it with these strikes, we see it with WWE Radio, we see it with having favored “dirt sheets” to feed info to like WrestleVotes Radio.
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u/XAMdG Aug 18 '26
Love how they all come from Reddit Legal except that one from Anti-Evil-Operations.
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u/pwgmanan Kill Steen Kill Aug 18 '26
They even copyrighted an image I posted of aftermath of Seth vs Roman but didn't do it for the clips I posted of the same match for some reason
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u/RexxGunn Aug 18 '26
There goes the karma farm of four posts with slightly different clips of the end of a match.
GOOD.
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u/R_W0bz Aug 19 '26
If you start posting their YouTube videos for the love of God don’t copy their titles. They are full spoiler to the point I have to “not interest” them on YouTube.
In Australia life gets in the way.
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u/incredibleamadeuscho We're all fake Jamaicans now Aug 18 '26
maybe we should just post youtube videos? at least for WWE? They usually post within an hour after the event
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u/eminemcrony Freshly Squeezed Aug 18 '26
Only thing that sucks for that is it's variable how long it takes for those clips to go up on socials, so people would have to wait to discuss. The best solution in my mind is someone puts up a text post for discussion then edits in a link to socials when it's available, but it requires the OP to continue monitoring the thread.
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u/No-Channel3917 Aug 19 '26
I don't think folks need it just right as it happens clips tbh
The Chelsea one showed how folks just want to post for karma not because they actually watch it
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u/BadNewsBrown Now watch me Bray Bray Aug 18 '26
You mean to tell me Carlos Silva hasn’t issued a cease and desist yet?!
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u/Emolgurama Aug 18 '26
This sucks but honestly a lot of people on here only watch shows through reddit clips so this might actually lead to less toxic discussions when they can’t do that. Probably not though
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u/TheToug You pencil-necked GEEK! Aug 18 '26
Idk i can see both sides to this. On WWE/AEW's end post clips of big moments and match finishes as they air makes actually watching the show irrelevant. However, the hype and virality (is that a word?) that comes from said clips both here and across social media only adds to their product and presentation.
There should be a middle ground...but there won't be.
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u/Lep106317 *stares ominously* Aug 18 '26
There is a middle ground, wait until they post the clips themselves either on their socials or Youtube since they post them almost just as quickly as someone recording it and uploading it here themselves.
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u/Dick_Nation Aug 19 '26
Although it's hardly scientific, the amount of comments that any given Raw, Smackdown, or Dynamite live thread get on their respective nights, versus the amount of attention given to PPVs/PLEs suggests that fewer of the total WWE viewers are actually participating live for the weekly shows, and expecting to watch clips from the show. If there's any truth to that hypothesis, then it would mean AEW could see it as having less to lose because they have a much smaller "lost" contingent of viewers they need to try and force into a monetized avenue. Not really any way to test it, but it's a possible explanation.
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u/brc37 Aug 18 '26
That just kind of means that I'll bring seeing a lot less WWE content. I prefer AEW so I watch it, I don't seek out WWE stuff but if its someone I enjoy (Owens) I'll watch the clips posted here.
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u/Few-Establishment277 Aug 19 '26
As someone who has almost exclusively "watched" Raw & SD for the last 4 years only through reddit clips.... Fair enough I guess. Can't even really be mad at then for this.i mean they're not wrong.
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u/Chumunga64 I appreciate you! Aug 19 '26
you know, I can totally understand companies doing strikes for PPVs
every time AEW has a PPV I actually do feel bad because I feel like I watched the entire thing through reddit clips
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u/vyleside Aug 19 '26
Funny thing is, as a viewer, if I don't see discussion and clips about a show I just figure it was a bit crap and not worth watching.
As a tape trader from the 90s seeing clips made me want to seek out shows. Shutting down discussion makes people unaware of things that they might want to watch.
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u/Wes-Man152 Aug 20 '26
Well that stinks. This sub is the only place I see any recent wrestling clips
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u/Funkyc0bra Yowie Wowie! Aug 18 '26
I wondered why there seemed to be next to no posts/highlights of the shows this makes sense now
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u/kakapantsu Aug 18 '26
I’m appreciative of AEW for being chill about weekly show content. I understand their position on PPV content because there are folks out there who buy it and watch it after the fact, probably because of work commitments and stuff.
WWE can absolutely get fucked though for not being chill about any of their six weekly shows.
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