Popular YouTube creator BDE, who boasts nearly 1.5 million subscribers, recently opened up about a massive financial gamble he took in pursuit of content—and his broader goal of becoming a professional wrestler.
During an appearance on Chris Van Vliet’s show, BDE revealed that he spent $20,000 out of pocket to attend the WWE Royal Rumble in 2025. The discussion, shared via ChrisVanVliet.com, centered on the risks and rewards of that decision.
Van Vliet emphasized the importance of presentation in digital content before addressing the eye-catching purchase directly.
CVV: “With your videos, titles and thumbnails are crucial. They’re the most important thing. When you have a video titled, ‘I bought a $20,000 seat to Royal Rumble’ I’d click on that.”
BDE admitted the move was a major leap of faith.
BDE: “That was a risk. That was a really big risk, because I’ve never [spent that much]. I’ve spent a lot of money on videos.”
Van Vliet followed up to confirm the authenticity of the claim.
CVV: “You actually bought a $20,000 seat?”
BDE: “I dropped $20,000 of my own money. That was the biggest risk I’ve ever taken.”
While the gamble ultimately paid off—generating millions of views—BDE explained that the moment of hitting “purchase” came with significant anxiety.
CVV: “The video got 4 million views. So you made your money back. But what are you thinking when you hit purchase?”
BDE: “On one hand, I was excited, because I was like, I’ve never sat that close at a wrestling show before, so I was like, either way, it’s gonna be awesome. But I was like, I really hope the ROI is gonna be there.”
BDE went on to detail how the idea came together and how he worked to mitigate the risk after the fact.
BDE: “It all came about because I was playing video games with Brent, and we were just chilling, and we were like we want to go to this event. He was like, why don’t we just get tickets? And I was like, hold on, that’s a good idea. So then I call my business manager, and I was like, ‘Hey, I kind of want to drop $20,000 on a ticket. What do you think about this?’ He was like, ‘What are the plans to make that back?’ I was like, ‘Oh, we’ll do streams. We’ll do whatever we got to do. I don’t know. We’ll make it back.’ We ended up doing streams to make it back. So the video before we even filmed it, we had already made some of it back, but it was still a big risk. I’ve never dropped that much money in my life.”
The story highlights the increasingly blurred lines between content creation, business risk, and professional wrestling fandom—especially as creators like BDE continue pursuing deeper involvement in the industry beyond YouTube.
