WhatCulture, an entertainment site predominantly known for its wrestling, film and gaming coverage, has announced the departure of several of its core staff members, including Adam Blampied and Adam Pacitti.
The UK-based company had garnered a huge online following of around 3 million YouTube subscribers across its four channels, with much of this success indebted to the work of Blampied, Pacitti and co. These staff members ultimately channelled their success into WCPW (WhatCulture Pro Wrestling), an independent wrestling company that managed to attract a ton of attention since its inception, attracting the likes of Kurt Angle and Cody Rhodes.
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In terms of gaming, the WhatCulture Gaming channel pulled in thousands of hits for the company, and while the announced staff members had less involvement with this channel, their departure is still a major blow for WhatCulture that seems likely to have a huge impact on their future.
WhatCulture announced the departures of its staff members in the following statement:
“It is with sadness that we must today announce that Adam Blampied, Adam Pacitti, Ross Tweddell, Sam Driver and Jack King will be leaving WhatCulture in the coming weeks to pursue other projects.
We’d like to thank them for their work over the past two years and wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
While we understand this news will disappoint a section of our audience, we’ll be using this opportunity to diversify and expand the product as a whole.
We’ll be introducing brand-new shows, brand-new personalities, and freshening up existing elements of all our channels. We look forward to sharing more announcements on this in the coming weeks.”
With these staff members making up most of the core team that attracted many to WhatCulture’s YouTube channels in the first place, the announcement inevitably came as a shock to many. While the reasoning behind their departure has yet to be given, a few journalists have taken to Twitter to share their stories about working with WhatCulture, offering less than glowing reviews of their experiences with the company:
I have decided to call out WhatCulture boss Matt Holmes for being a piece of shit. Please RT to warn other aspiring writers. https://t.co/7W6x86Qe2R
— Liam Lambert (@Crowtagonist) September 19, 2017
Everyone’s coming out of the woodwork following the WhatCulture departures. My experience w/ them as a writer was horrendous. Absolute joke.
— PWStream (@PWStream) September 19, 2017
The validity of these claims cannot be confirmed, though them being made on top of its mass exodus of staff is unfortunate for the company. It remains to be seen whether or not it will respond to these claims, or the reasoning behind its employees’ departure will be given, but fans of the popular YouTube video makers are now left to wonder what’s next for them.
