AEW President Tony Khan is deeply passionate about professional wrestling, and that is what brought him to create his own company in the first place. Khan has also faced scrutiny for some questionable actions over the years, especially on social media. Recently, he found a measure of vindication with evidence supporting the existence of anti-AEW bots.

Last year, Tony Khan made an assertion that online AEW critics were paid trolls, or a coordinated bot army. He hinted at WWE's potential involvement. This claim garnered criticism for its audacity, and its conspiracy theory centered nature.

'"An independent study has confirmed that much of the staunch anti-AEW online community aren't real individuals, it's a staff running thousands of accounts + an army of bots to signal boost them. Look closely, these aren't real people. Who'd pay for such a *wildly* expensive thing?"

Tony Khan's prolonged 'independent study' of bots targeting AEW eventually yielded results. Khan even enlisted IT experts to offer a sophisticated explanation for the existence of anti-AEW bots.



A fan from a now-private X account shared photos revealing anti-AEW bots praising NXT, clearly fake Twitter users. Tony Khan responded to this evidence with a GIF of Tony Soprano expressing, his thoughts on the matter.

"Well, I told you that."

AEW is wrapping up 2023 with as much momentum as they can get. They have also seen a few setbacks over the past 12 months. Either way, it's hard to argue that there are many levels of social media engagement at work, all deigned to manipulate, persuade, and influence people with their own agenda.

Elon Musk said that he would put a stop to bots on X, but that may not be his #1 priority right now. If anything, Tony Khan is certainly appeased to see that his theory about anti-AEW bots has a bit more backup.