AEW is facing questions about suspicious online engagement after screenshots surfaced showing multiple accounts posting the exact same comments under a sponsored Facebook post from the company’s AEW on TV page.
The screenshot quickly spread online after users noticed account after account repeating the same sentence almost word-for-word underneath the advertisement. The AEW on TV Facebook page currently has around 1.3 million followers, making the strange engagement impossible to ignore once people started pointing it out. The repeated comment read:
“I can’t wait to watch its gonna be awesome .That’s pretty awesome!!!”
Several different accounts appeared to be posting nearly identical versions of the same message with only minor spacing differences between comments. The screenshots eventually made their way onto Twitter, where Forbes contributor Alfred Konuwa amplified the discussion and openly questioned the suspicious-looking activity.
“100,000 bots go missing, no one’s got questions for 🕵🏿♂️’s…”
What makes the situation even more interesting is the long history of online bot accusations surrounding AEW and Tony Khan. Back in April 2022, Khan created major controversy online after claiming that coordinated bots and paid trolls were helping spread anti-AEW sentiment across social media. The comments immediately sparked backlash and mockery from several wrestling personalities, including Becky Lynch.
Dave Meltzer later discussed the situation on Wrestling Observer Radio and explained that Khan allegedly became suspicious after noticing strange online behavior patterns and hired an outside firm to investigate the activity.
“The study’s not done. What I understand is that he had a premonition of this, being that it’s kind of his field. Then he got somebody independent, an independent firm, and asked them to just kind of study stuff, including this.”
Meltzer went on to explain that Khan had apparently already received preliminary findings that reinforced those suspicions. Meltzer also acknowledged the way many people interpreted Khan’s original comments online.
“The thing is still ongoing, it is not concluded, but they did report to him, I guess probably today or yesterday, what he just reported. So, that was the first stuff he got, which confirmed his initial suspicions.”
“If you read it, I would say you would say that [WWE is paying for the botnet]. I don’t know that there is or isn’t proof of that.”
The bot conversation resurfaced again earlier this year when Nick LoPiccolo made accusations against Khan during an appearance on BodySlam.net’s podcast with Famous Davis. According to LoPiccolo, wrestlers leaving AEW for WWE become targets of coordinated online attacks pushed by troll farms and fake accounts.
“So what happens is that Tony Khan pays for troll farms and he pays for these bots, he pays for these social media attacks, and he pays for negative waves of Twitter attention to be… what’s the word… focused.”
LoPiccolo claimed the alleged activity happens constantly and is mostly concentrated on Twitter. He also claimed he personally experienced similar online harassment himself before publicly calling it out.
“Sometimes it’s more obvious than others, but it’s on-going. It’s just on Twitter. It’s only on Twitter… and he pays for these things, and it’s a wave of negative harassment to anyone that leaves that company.”
“It was a wave of negative harassment around me back in July… and then I figured it out, I called it out… they all know it.”
LoPiccolo continued by arguing that these kinds of online attacks can create serious psychological damage for wrestlers dealing with constant negativity online. Despite the seriousness of the allegations, LoPiccolo doubled down and made it clear he was not worried about legal consequences.
“For the women… it is really, really hurtful… for the men too… it causes psychological damage… but it’s on-going.”
“I’m not worried about being sued… if there’s discovery… there’s no way they would sue me… because I’m right.”
At this point, there is no evidence directly tying AEW to the suspicious Facebook engagement screenshots, and there is also no publicly released evidence proving LoPiccolo’s accusations against Tony Khan. Still, the timing of the screenshots combined with AEW’s long-running bot controversy created another major online discussion surrounding social media manipulation in wrestling.
Do you think the repeated comments under the AEW Facebook post look suspicious, or is this being blown out of proportion? Let us know in the comments and leave your feedback.
