Wrestlers Who Are Active On Twitch

For those who don't know, Twitch allows users to interact with fans and make money all while playing and streaming their favorite video games. The company's popularity grows by the day, and many of today's pro wrestlers have taken to the platform to provide an extra source of income while making themselves more accessible to fans.

While the COVID-19 pandemic would have seemed like a prime opportunity for wrestlers to establish themselves on the platform, former WWE executive Vince McMahon issued an edict to the main roster talent in late September of 2020. The company threatened to penalize any wrestlers who sought to monetize their personal brand on any third-party outlets, Twitch included. This created an uproar amongst wrestlers and fans alike, as WWE classifies its talent as "independent contractors," a type of worker who provides goods and services to a company on an as-needed basis. However, Chief Content Officer Triple H, who replaced his father-in-law this summer, seemingly lifted the ban almost immediately upon taking over, giving WWE talent the green light to resume their channels if they wished.

That said, AEW has never had a problem with their talent streaming, and many indie stars use the platform to reach a wider audience.

Here are 18 wrestlers currently involved and active on the Twitch streaming platform.

While not as big of a name in mainstream wrestling or Twitch circles, Andrew Everett is an active member of the Twitch community. Everett's account, "AndyEplays," has approximately 4,100 followers as of this writing. Everett is an avid fan of the "Fire Pro Wrestling" series, but also frequently streams "WWE 2k22" in a variety of game modes. When he is not playing wrestling games, Everett will typically stream himself playing games such as "Fallout 4" and "Fall Guys." 

He can be typically seen playing alongside his wife, Courtney Rush, who is better known to wrestling fans as Rosemary of Impact Wrestling. Everett created his channel in September 2019 and ranks just outside the top 60,000 streamers on the platform.

AEW fixture Claudio Castagnoli, known to WWE fans as Cesaro, is also an avid gamer. He opened his channel, "ClaudiosCafe," in February 2019, nearly two years before the WWE's crackdown on Twitch. Not knowing when he would be able to stream to his channel again, the former Cesaro left his followers with a heartfelt message in seemingly his final stream for the foreseeable future. However, upon leaving the company earlier this year, Castagnoli resumed streaming and currently has his channel up to approximately 47,000 followers, putting him just outside the top 10,000 English-speaking channels in the world.

Like many wrestlers on this list, Castagnoli can be seen playing a wide variety of games. Such games include "Fall Guys," "Among Us," "PGA Tour 2K21," and other games in the party genre. However, he also has a favorite: "League of Legends." Castagnoli has played the real-time strategy game for more than 373 hours. He is also a Twitch partner, a status reserved for established streamers who have met higher follower and viewership thresholds and thus receive extra emotes, 60 days of past broadcast storage, and dedicated financial support from Twitch.

While many Superstars ceased using Twitch following the WWE's ban and never returned to the platform, Drew Gulak is one of a handful of wrestlers who resumed his Twitch account, "DrewGulak." The former WWE Cruiserweight Champion has approximately 11,600 followers, but while he has streamed since WWE lifted its Twitch ban, he does not operate under a strict schedule like many do. Gulak is also one of the longer-tenured wrestlers on Twitch, having created his account in January 2016.

Over the last six years, Gulak has played 27 different games, though his most frequent use of the channel is in the "Just Chatting" category. After all, Twitch is not exclusive to just gamers and can be used as a streaming platform for a number of genres. For this reason, the category often leads Twitch in weekly watched time and can be a great tool for streamers to build their channel. However, Gulak also uses his channel for gaming and has extensively played games such as "Psychonauts," "Starcraft II" and "Final Fantasy VII Remake."

Impact Wrestling star Killer Kelly streams every Tuesday and Thursday on her Twitch channel, "KillerKelly." She has about 5,200 followers at the time of this writing and started her channel in November 2019. Most of her growth came between April 2020 and April 2021, the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic when several Twitch channels took off in popularity.

Killer Kelly primarily plays games with horror elements on her channel. "Diablo," along with the just chatting function have each used 47 of her 267 hours of total stream time. Other favorites of her's include "Dead by Daylight," "Resident Evil 7: Biohazard," and "Outlast." Kelly called the creation of her channel "the best decision I made," lauding the community around her streams in a 2021 tweet.

AEW star Leva Bates, who streams under the name, "wrestlingleva," saw her following more than double during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bates, a Twitch partner, created her channel in December 2016, and continues to steadily increase her following, which is currently up to approximately 24,000 individuals. Her streaming schedule varies from week to week but she streams for at least three hours a week, like many, and sometimes more on weekends.

While most wrestlers seem to enjoy zeroing in on one game to help build their audience or playing a vast and wide variety of games, Bates seems to keep a steady rotation of games in a healthy mix of genres. She has dedicated 185 hours to "Among Us," 163 hours to Overwatch, and at least 60 hours to games like "Persona 5," "Days Gone," "Ghost of Tsushima," and "Horizon: Zero Dawn." As a result, Bates remains one of the most active wrestlers on the platform, more than tripling her total number of hours watched since April 2020.

Women's wrestling legend Lita, real name Amy Dumas, started her Twitch channel, "RealAmyDumas" in July of 2020. She currently stands at over 21,000 followers and is one of several wrestlers who are part of the Twitch Partnership program. She streams every Tuesday and Saturday on her channel, where she effaces with her fans for more than three hours on a weekly basis.

While many wrestlers use the platform specifically to play video games, Lita primarily uses it to connect with fans, answer questions and hold giveaways. The legendary wrestler has spent over 250 of her nearly 300 total hours of stream time on the "Just Chatting" function. When she is playing video games, however, Lita can be seen playing games such as "Among Us," and "WWE Battlegrounds." Additionally, her channel grew as fast as any during the pandemic, as more than 17,000 of her followers became acquainted with the channel during its first six months of activity.

Miro, formerly known as Rusev in the WWE, is an active member of the Twitch community and is one of the most notable gamers in wrestling. "God's Favorite Champion" currently boasts more than 82,000 followers on his channel, "MIROtwch", ranking second only to Adam Cole among the top current Twitch users in pro wrestling. Miro's love of gaming is evident in his AEW character and even has a signature match type known as Arcade Anarchy. However, his love of video games dates has an interesting origin, as he told fans in a Q&A he used to buy games with money he would make while working as a strip club bouncer.

Miro is an equal opportunity gamer who plays games in a wide variety of genres, though he has spent roughly a third of his 550+ hours live on the channel chatting with fans or playing "Call of Duty Warzone," which he has logged over 100 hours in alone. He has also logged more than 40 hours on "FIFA 20," and is occasionally joined on camera by his wife, CJ Perry, formerly known as Lana in WWE.

The most popular Twitch channel among wrestlers belongs to none other than Saraya, a recent signing of AEW. Saraya, whose channel is known as "SarayaOfficial," streams consistently four times a week for more than seven hours per day each day split over afternoon and evening sessions. As a result, she has accumulated nearly 232,000 followers on the platform and compiled more than 1,600 hours of total stream time. These figures put her in rarified air among wrestlers on Twitch, and rank her among the top 4,000 English-speaking Twitch channels in the world.

Though she will occasionally play video games, the former Paige of WWE fame has found irreverent ways to make use of the "Just Chatting" function of the platform, which is responsible for nearly 1,100 hours of total stream time. She has, in the past, used Twitch to watch and comment on old matches of hers from WWE, demonstrate wrestling holds on friends of hers, and hold giveaways and chat challenges. Though she was seemingly exempt from Vince McMahon's edict on streaming accounts in 2020, Saraya was briefly banned from the platform in 2021 allegedly for watching the 1994 film "Dumb and Dumber" with her followers, picking up a DMCA claim.

Few wrestlers are as synonymous with video games as Xavier Woods, the creator of WWE's video game brand, "UpUpDownDown." Woods, real name Austin Creed, streamed on his eponymous Twitch channel from its inception in 2014 up until WWE's ban of the platform in 2020. The channel currently sits at approximately 95,000 followers, though Woods, who has wrestled sparingly as of late, has not resumed streaming. He remains involved on the Twitch platform, however, as he doubles as a host on the G4 television network which streams live on Twitch every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Though it is unclear as to why Woods has not resumed streaming on his Twitch channel, his obligations to G4 as well as the "UpUpDownDown" YouTube channel might be the culprit, as the YouTube channel continues to pump out four or five videos per week. When Woods was active on the platform, he played a wide variety of games, having logged more than 15 hours on 10 different titles. The "Final Fantasy VII Remake" is Woods' most-played game, checking in at nearly 40 hours of total play time. As of 2021, Woods held out hope that WWE would allow its superstars to stream on Twitch once again. Now that the day has come, a return to his personal channel — one of the most popular Twitch channels in wrestling circles — seems to be on the table.