Gail Kim had zero sympathy for BJ Bethel after ESPN torched his WWE story and SEScoops fired him.
As the outlet’s mess unfolded on August 26, 2026, Kim pointed to her own history with Bethel and accused him of previously inventing an entire story about her. Kim went straight at Bethel’s credibility once ESPN denied his claim that it had already decided to walk away from WWE after its current five-year deal.
“Why anyone gave this guy any credibility is beyond me. He outwardly LIED in a completely made-up article he wrote about me. Who does that and calls themselves a reporter or journalist?”
The history behind that statement matters. Bethel previously claimed Kim had contacted multiple people about a possible opportunity with AEW and received no response. Kim publicly rejected that version of events and accused Bethel of lying.
“I don’t know you, but this is a perfect example of someone lying and having zero integrity. At least when I say what I say, I’m saying what I feel, and I am truthful and will defend myself with facts. ZERO INTEGRITY here.”
Kim then gave her account of what actually happened. She said she never chased multiple AEW contacts looking for work. According to Kim, Sonjay Dutt sent her one text after she was terminated from TNA and asked whether she wanted to wrestle—something she had no interest in doing because she is retired.
“The real news about what happened with AEW, since people will lie, etc. I was saving it for interviews, but oh well, it’s now. I got one text from AEW when I was terminated from TNA. It was from Sonjay and inquiring more about whether I wanted to wrestle. I’m retired. End of story.”
Bethel’s exit came after ESPN directly denied his latest story. He claimed the network had already decided not to renew its approximately $1.625 billion agreement with WWE once the contract expired, blaming alleged problems involving company culture, communication and distribution costs. ESPN didn’t leave much room for interpretation.
“There is no truth to the report that we have decided not to renew.”
SEScoops later retracted Bethel’s story in full, admitted ESPN and WWE had not been given a proper opportunity to respond and announced that it had parted ways with him.
“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.”
Firing Bethel may remove the writer, but it doesn’t erase the editorial failure. SEScoops owner and editor Mike Reichlin ultimately runs the platform that published the story. If Bethel had already faced serious public accusations over his accuracy, the question is why his work continued making it through the outlet’s editorial process until ESPN publicly killed a story involving a billion-dollar deal.
SEScoops’ statement places the consequences on Bethel, but the article did not publish itself. Editors approved it or at least they do at most outlets. The outlet put its name behind it and the story spread before one basic phone call to ESPN exposed the problem. Bethel is gone, but Reichlin and SEScoops still have to answer for how it reached publication in the first place.
Kim’s response makes this bigger than one bad WWE–ESPN story. She says she had already warned people about Bethel’s work after becoming the subject of a false story herself. SEScoops only took decisive action once a major corporation publicly rejected one of his claims.
Do you think firing BJ Bethel was enough, or should SEScoops owner Mike Reichlin accept more responsibility for allowing the story to be published? Leave your feedback in the comments.
