BJ Bethel went silent on Twitter at the exact moment his ESPN-WWE story blew up in his face. Now he has resurfaced on Bluesky with an explanation—and the timing is awfully convenient.
Bethel has not posted on his Twitter account since the fallout from his claim that ESPN had already decided not to renew its five-year, $1.625 billion agreement with WWE. ESPN directly denied the story on August 25, and SEScoops retracted it before firing Bethel one day later.
Bethel is now responding to people on Bluesky, where he insists he still stands behind the story ESPN called false. He also claims attempted hacking is the real reason he stopped posting on Twitter.
“Yes, I’m still standing by my story. Yes, I haven’t been posting because people have been trying to hack me since Tuesday.”
Here’s the problem: Tuesday was August 25—the same day ESPN publicly killed his story, “There is no truth to the report that we have decided not to renew.” Bethel didn’t say his account was successfully hacked. He didn’t say he lost access, was locked out or had posts deleted. He only claimed people had been trying to get into it. Those are two very different things.
In his Bluesky response, Bethel offered no screenshots of security warnings, no login alerts and no explanation for how attempted hacking prevented him from posting. He also didn’t explain why the alleged attempts began on the exact day ESPN denied his biggest story. Then SEScoops fired him the next day. SEScoops retracted Bethel’s story in full and admitted that ESPN and WWE were not given a proper opportunity to respond before publication. The outlet then announced that it had cut ties with Bethel and brought in an outside partner to review its verification process.
“Yesterday we published a report from BJ Bethel on WWE’s relationship with ESPN. We are retracting that story in its entirety.”
“Before a story like this runs, the subject deserves a direct chance to respond, and that step wasn’t taken to the appropriate standard.”
“We’ve parted ways with Mr. Bethel, have had our verification procedures reviewed by an outside partner, and updated our process as a result.”
So the timeline is brutal. ESPN denied the story on Tuesday. Bethel claims hacking attempts started Tuesday. SEScoops fired him Wednesday. His Twitter account then went quiet while he eventually popped up on Bluesky claiming the silence had nothing to do with the public disaster unfolding around him.
Could someone have tried to access his account? Sure. Bethel hasn’t shown anything proving otherwise—or proving that it happened. What he has done is blame an unverified hacking attempt for disappearing from Twitter at the most convenient possible moment.
He is also still standing behind a story that ESPN called false and his own outlet deleted in its entirety. Bethel may want people to believe hackers chased him off Twitter, but without evidence, the timing looks less like a cyberattack and more like someone avoiding the platform where his story just collapsed.
Do you believe BJ Bethel stopped posting because people were trying to hack him, or does the timing make his explanation difficult to buy? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
