Botchamania is a web series, primarily hosted on YouTube, that focuses on compiling and showcasing mistakes, blunders, and embarrassing moments from the world of professional wrestling, known as "Botches". The term "botch" in wrestling jargon refers to any unintentional or poorly executed manoeuvre or action during a match. These can include missed moves, awkward falls, audible communications, and other instances where the scripted nature of wrestling is momentarily broken, revealing the staged nature of the performance.
The creator of Botchamania, British video editor Matthew "Maffew" Gregg, started the series in 2007 and has continued it into the present despite several lengthy disputes with many wrestling promotions over copyright and fair use. The show typically features montages of various wrestling botches, set to a soundtrack of video game music and filled with humorous captions and commentary. While the primary focus is on showcasing these mistakes, Botchamania often incorporates other humourous content from behind-the-scenes of professional wrestling as well as offering its own commentary on various incidents within wrestling.
Content
Botchamania focuses mainly on showcasing obvious mistakes and mishaps which take place during the course of professional wrestling shows, however, other forms of content on the show include matching "shoot" (out-of-character) commentary from professional wrestlers themselves and overlaying the audio over the incident they are discussing. Content on Botchamania encompasses the entire industry, ranging from experienced veteran professional wrestlers performing for major international promotions such as WWE, AEW, NJPW and CMLL to rookie wrestlers performing for local Independent circuit shows.
Examples of recurring segments in Botchamania include "You talk too much", which covers incidents of wrestlers audibly communicating instructions to one another ("calling spots") during the match.
Reception within the pro wrestling industry
Initial reactions to Botchamania by professional wrestling performers were generally negative, as many performers who were unfamiliar with the content of the show mistakenly assumed that it celebrated clips of the wrestlers being injured. However, as awareness of Botchamania and its light-hearted tone developed, many wrestlers have either publically played along with jokes from the show or directly praised it. As relations between Botchamania and professional wrestlers thawed, the show began to feature personalised introductions to the show by various wrestlers themselves, while show creator Maffew Gregg would occasionally share a stage with wrestling performers at fan conventions such as Starrcast.
By 2015, Botchamania had developed a more positive image within wrestling, with stars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and Dolph Ziggler making public reference to it. In 2022, Shotzi Blackheart commented that after being involved in a Botch at WWE's Money in the Bank 2022, she couldn't "wait to see that spot on Botchamania" and laugh at it while Mace has recalled favourable a poorly reviewed match from Hell in a Cell (2019) "going viral" because of Botchamania. During AEW's All in 2023 pay-per-view event, lead announcer Excalibur referenced a long-running joke from Botchamania during a botch in the Sting/Allin vs Strickland/Cage match.
Fans of Botchamania regularly bring signs to professional wrestling shows that reference back to the web show, while a particularly egregious botch occurring on a show can prompt the fans in attendance to chant "Botch-a-mania!".
In December 2018, WWE created their own in-house version of Botchamania for their WWE Network, entitled The Botch Club, hosted by Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows. However, the show was cancelled after just a handful of episodes had aired.
Copyright issues
Since its creation, Botchamania has faced issues with copyright infringement and content takedowns. By 2015, Botchamania had experienced at least nine youtube accounts made for the show being banned by the platform, primarily due to content strikes generated by WWE material.