Becky Lynch And Others Responds To Tony Khan's Claim About On-Line Bots And AEW

By Eric Mutter

Several wrestlers have alluded to or even responded to Tony Khan's tweet early Friday where he revealed he had commissioned an independent study that showed the staunchest anti-AEW members of social media were using creating bots to criticize the promotion. One of these wrestlers was "The Bad Boy" Joey Janela. The soon to be former AEW star took to Twitter to jokingly suggest he was behind the anti-AEW bots.

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"IT'S ME TONY," Janela tweeted, referencing the famous promo where Vince McMahon revealed himself as the Higher Power. "IT WAS ME ALL ALONG!"

Other wrestlers, including WWE star Becky Lynch and AEW's own Evil Uno, parodied Tony Khan's tweet. Uno also used the opportunity from the extra attention to promote support for LGBTQ rights.

"An independent study confirmed that much of the staunch anti – Becky in arena booers aren't real individuals, it's a staff running thousands of A.I. – an army of bots!" Lynch tweeted. "Look closely, these aren't real people. Who'd pay for such a "wildly" expensive thing?"

"An independent study has confirmed that much of the staunch anti-Evil Uno online community aren't real, it's a staff running thousands of accounts + an army of bots to signal boost them," Uno tweeted. "Look closely, these aren't real people. While Evil Uno has your attention, if you are anti-LGTBQ+, get the hell off my feed. Only good human beings are allowed to interact with Evil Uno."

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Perhaps no one had as much fun with the situation however than Tony Khan himself. Responding to a tweet from reporter David Bixenspan regarding who handled the investigation into the bots, Khan, who earlier today clarified his tweets in an exclusive statement to Wrestling Inc., confirmed it was an independent party.

Khan then joked about cutting the pay Figure Four Online's Bryan Alvarez, who some mistakenly thought had reported Khan's analytics firm was responsible on Wrestling Observer Live. This was a reference to a fake memo that has circulated around the internet, falsely claiming to show Khan was paying members of wrestling media to praise him and AEW.

"Not using my own company for it, hired an independent person to review it," Khan tweeted. "I have no idea where Bryan got that. I must now dock his $200k/month paycheck according to one of those preposterous lists where Dave (Meltzer) also was receiving similar compensation, then liked/RTd by 100s of bots."

After Alvarez responded clarifying he had been misquoted, Tony Khan responded by joking Alvarez would still receive his "pay." Khan then took the opportunity to promote tonight's AEW Rampage episode, in particular putting over the Jon Moxley-Wheeler Yuta match.

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"Ok Bryan, clearly a misunderstanding, you can keep your entire $200k monthly paycheck for April," Khan joked. "Don't miss AEW Rampage on TNT Tonight at 10pm ET/9pm CT! It's a great card, starting hot with Danielson vs Trent + Regal on commentary, and Mox vs Yuta in the main event will be nuts!"

You can read all the tweets below.

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