The Dirt Sheet Spyware Minefield
Pull up a barstool, grab a cold one, and let's talk about the absolute state of wrestling media. If you are a pro wrestling fan, you must know PWInsider. It is one of the oldest, most reliable dirt sheets on the internet.
If you want to know who blew out their ACL or who is backstage at Raw, you go to Mike Johnson. He has the sources and he does the work. But visiting the site is an absolute nightmare.
The site looks like it was designed in 1997 on a free GeoCities template. It has layout shifts that make you click on auto insurance ads when you wanted to read about Roman Reigns. Auto-play videos scream at you from the corner of your screen.
We tolerate the garbage because the news is solid. But earlier today, on July 7, 2026, they took things to a whole new level of bizarre. They did not drop a scoop about Cody Rhodes or AEW ticket sales.
At 12:59 PM, they published a full-length article explaining the popularity of an Iranian online casino game. The headline read: "Why Crash (بازی انفجار) Has Become One of the Most Popular Online Casino Games Among Iranian Players."
It was written by someone named Kendall Jenkins. If you search your brain for a wrestling reporter by that name, save yourself the trouble. The person does not exist.
It is a ghost name. It is an alias used to push sponsored content onto a wrestling site that has decided to rent out its domain.
If you click on the actual article on PWInsider, you are not greeted with wrestling analysis. You get a dry, technical breakdown of a multiplier game. It is the kind of article that makes you double-check your browser's address bar to ensure you were not redirected to a malware site.
What in the Name of the Iron Sheik is Crash?
According to this bizarre post, the game is a massive deal in Iran. The mechanics of the game are incredibly simple. You place a bet, and a multiplier starts climbing.
Every round begins with a multiplier starting at 1.00x, which steadily increases. Players must choose when to cash out before the multiplier suddenly stops or crashes.
"Every round begins with a multiplier starting at 1.00x, which steadily increases. Players choose when to cash out before the multiplier suddenly stops—or "crashes.""
If you cash out before the crash, you win your bet multiplied by that number. If it crashes before you click the button, you lose everything. It is a digital game of chicken.
Honestly, it sounds a lot like booking a pro wrestling company in the late 1990s. Think about WCW. The multiplier was climbing throughout 1997 and 1998.
The money was rolling in and Goldberg was undefeated. The smart play would have been to cash out and build new stars. Instead, Eric Bischoff kept waiting for the multiplier to go higher.
He rode it all the way until it crashed in 2001. Vince McMahon bought the entire company for pennies.
The PWInsider piece lists several reasons why this game has taken off. It notes that the rules are easy to learn and the rounds are fast. It also mentions that the visual design creates constant excitement.
The article even has a section dedicated to common myths about the game. For instance, it debunks the idea that previous rounds influence future outcomes. It also warns players that there are no secret formulas to predict the crash.
The article notes that players must set a budget before playing and stick to it.
"Set a budget before playing and stick to it."
This is standard responsible gaming copy. It is the kind of text written by compliance lawyers to keep casinos from getting sued.
The Grift Behind the Green Screen
So how does this happen? Why is a site run by Dave Scherer publishing articles about Persian gambling habits? The answer is simple.
Money talks. The media model is broken. Banner ads do not pay the bills anymore.
Ad blockers have eaten into the revenue of independent websites. If you do not have a paywall or a massive corporate backer, you are scraping for coins.
Wrestling dirt sheets are in a tough spot. They have high traffic but low ad rates. Fans want their news for free.
They do not want to pay for subscriptions. To keep the servers running, sites look for alternative revenue streams.
This is where grey-market search engine optimization agencies come in. These agencies approach independent sites and offer them cash to host sponsored posts. These posts are not meant for the site's actual readers.
They are written for search engine spiders. The goal is to pass search authority. By publishing an article on a trusted domain like PWInsider that contains links to gambling sites, the target sites get a boost in search rankings.
In this case, the sponsored link directs users to Betland Magazine, which is an educational resource for Persian-speaking players. The article also mentions Betland90 as a place to find updates on popular casino titles. It is a textbook backlink scheme.
The spam does not stop with the article itself. If you look at the sidebar and the footer of the page, the site is covered in links. You see text ads for best slot sites, casinos not on gamstop, and various login pages.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can see the proof. The list of links includes:
- Yaar win and Bdg Play
- Jai club and Pinoy365
- 6 Club and best slot sites
It looks like a digital flea market. It is the online equivalent of a shady guy in a trench coat selling knockoff watches behind a stadium.
Burning Credibility for Pennies
Let's call this what it is. It is a critical failure of editorial standards. When you run a news site, your currency is trust.
Readers trust that when they click a headline, they are getting real information. They trust that the writers have some connection to the topic. Publishing a generic article about an Iranian casino game on a wrestling site destroys that trust.
It makes the site look cheap. It makes it look like it has been hacked by a gambling syndicate.
What makes this even worse is the laziness of the presentation. They did not even attempt to tie the topic to professional wrestling. They could have written about the Iron Sheik's legendary career.
They could have mentioned Ariya Daivari or Shawn Daivari. They could have made a joke about how watching the multiplier climb feels like watching the Big Show turn heel and face forty times in a single year. Instead, they just pasted the raw marketing copy.
They did not even bother to edit it for a wrestling audience. It shows a complete lack of respect for the reader.
It says that they know you came here to read about the draft or contract negotiations, but they need twenty bucks from an SEO agency. It is short-sighted.
Casual readers who stumble onto the page via search engines will see this spam and immediately click away. They will assume the site is a malware hub. It damages the brand in exchange for a quick payout.
Go on any wrestling forum or subreddit. The moment one of these casino articles drops, the screenshots start flying.
Fans joke about whether PWInsider is trying to pay off their hosting bill or if they got hacked by a rogue group from Tehran. It is the ultimate self-own for a site that wants to be taken seriously next to sports giants.
The wrestling media world is a grind. We know that. But there have to be boundaries.
If you start selling your front page to casino sites, you are no longer a news outlet. You are a link farm. Dave Scherer and his team need to take a hard look at their business model.
