Popular Twitch streamer Guy "Dr DisRespect" Beahm put up a video for his 1.42 million subscribers on YouTube today promising a "Big Announcement." Turns out the big announcement he had to make was that he will continue streaming exclusively on Twitch for the foreseeable future.
The two-and-a-half minute video is clearly meant to be a parody of battle royale games like the recently released Call of Duty: Warzone, in which Dr DisRespect is heading to a drop zone on a futuristic "military stealth spacecraft" and draws ridicule from his pilots for saying his confidence comes from playing video games. That evolves into a tirade about his years of growth where he says he's "only halfway up" the mountain before jumping out of the vehicle and gliding into a Twitch building using a squirrel wingsuit.
The splash screen at the end of the video emphasizes that the streamer is producing content exclusively on Twitch, which is also reflected in the text of the social media post pinning the video to the top of his Twitter account. Dr DisRespect is a big name on the platform with over four million followers, so it's a good net with other streamers like Tyler "Ninja" Blevins recently signing onto Mixer.
Beahm's professional wrestling-inspired character has grown far beyond its roots in a streaming career that started in 2015. It was recently announced that Dr DisRespect will publish a comedic memoir with an accompanying audiobook.
The character has also met up with WWE wrestler the Undertaker on stream, teasing more crossover content to come sometime in the future. That was not even the first time the Twitch icon has made connections with the televised world, as Dr DisRespect signed a deal with Skybound Entertainment, a production company owned by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, to create a TV series.
While not everyone is a fan of Beahm's hyper-aggressive character, one that holds no qualms about calling out other streamers and trolling his colleagues, he undoubtedly resonates with audiences and will continue to be a huge monetary draw for Twitch. There's certainly something to be said about a personality so potent that fans graft his image onto terrifying pop culture icons like Mr. X from the Resident Evil 2 remake.