Steve Carrier on March 12, 2026
The controversy surrounding Cody Rhodes reclaiming the Undisputed WWE Championship from Drew McIntyre isn’t slowing down — and it’s only raising even more questions about what really happened online after the match.
Rhodes defeated McIntyre in the March 6 episode of WWE SmackDown from the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. Shortly after the match was uploaded to YouTube, the video drew a wave of negative reactions and quickly became one of WWE’s most disliked uploads of the year.
Screenshots circulating on social media appeared to show a Twitter user claiming responsibility for artificially inflating the backlash by purchasing thousands of dislikes through engagement manipulation services. The now-deleted account bragged about spending money to push the reaction even further.
“Yes I botted 65k and I’m not a Roman or Drew fan, i jsut wanted to see how everyone would react lol.”
The same account later claimed the stunt cost hundreds of dollars and suggested even more dislikes were coming.
“Thats gonna cost me a lot lol. It already took 250$ to bot 65k dislikes.”
“You’re welcome. Already paid for a 100k more tomorrow.”
However, not everyone believes that explanation. Speaking on The Dirty Sheets podcast, Billi Bhatti addressed the situation and argued that the backlash surrounding Rhodes’ title win was already massive before the claims about bots started circulating. Bhatti pointed to the YouTube video itself as evidence of the strong reaction.
“Now currently Cody Rhodes’ title win over Drew McIntyre is the most disliked title win in WWE history. It has over 180,000 dislikes and it’s going upwards at the time of recording.”
Bhatti went further and claimed the video had already reached a historic level of negative engagement.
“This is the most disliked title change of all time and it is the second most disliked WWE video of all time.”
He also expressed skepticism about the Twitter account that claimed to have purchased the dislikes. According to Bhatti, the account appeared suddenly and quickly gained attention across wrestling media outlets. Bhatti questioned how an unknown account could gain traction so quickly.
“Now conveniently a story has been published talking about a guy who came onto Twitter and claimed that he had purchased 60,000 dislikes for this video for 0.”
“He came from absolutely nowhere… this guy suddenly appeared and was able to get enough traction for everybody to see it and for it to be picked up by the dirt sheets.”
He then offered his own theory about what might have been happening behind the scenes. Bhatti also argued that if the dislikes had truly been generated through bots, YouTube’s systems would have removed them automatically.
“I am of the opinion that this was a paid-for account, an account maybe run by WWE or certainly run by a Cody Rhodes supporter.”
“Had there really been bots that purchased dislikes and put them onto YouTube, it would have been absolutely pointless because they would have been filtered out.”
He pointed out that YouTube moderation systems rely heavily on automated detection to prevent engagement manipulation.
“YouTube is now completely run by AI… so had there really been bots that purchased dislikes, YouTube would have removed them immediately.”
Regardless of where the dislikes came from, the controversy surrounding the title change continues to dominate fan discussions online. Rhodes’ victory set up the WrestleMania 42 main event where he is expected to defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against Randy Orton after Orton won the 2026 Men’s Elimination Chamber match.
But the debate around the SmackDown title change — and the unusual claims about botting dislikes — has now become a story of its own.
Do you think the backlash to Cody Rhodes winning the championship was genuine fan reaction, or do you believe the online engagement may have been manipulated? Let us know your thoughts and leave your feedback in the comments.
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