Tony Khan Facing Backlash Amid Alleged Burner Account Scandal

Tony Khan Burner Account Scandal | Key Points

• Top talent agent Nick LoPiccolo accused AEW President and CEO Tony Khan of using fake bots on Twitter/X, or burner accounts, to coordinate an online harassment campaign against him stemming from his criticism of AEW.
• Following LoPiccolo’s accusations, multiple AEW Twitter accounts suspected of being burners were deactivated.
• LoPiccolo recently announced he was departing Paradigm Talent Agency for other endeavors. LoPiccolo represents WWE Superstars CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, Jade Cargill and Liv Morgan.

Talent agent Nick LoPiccolo has spent the the first month of 2026 in an all out war with AEW President and CEO Tony Khan. LoPiccolo was named among The Hollywood Reporter’s 38 top sports agents and managers, even outpacing superagent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports.

LoPiccolo’s roster includes several athletes connected to WWE and TKO including CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, Liv Morgan, Mariah May and Jade Cargill. As an agent who represents some of the biggest stars in wrestling, LoPiccolo was a wealth of knowledge when it came to his insight into the business of wrestling.

The pro wrestling industry has always served as a microcosm of modern-day society, and this era of tribalism is no different. The WWE vs. AEW wrestling war has done a lot of good for the wrestling business; Higher pay for wrestlers, more engaged fanbases and an alternative to WWE that keeps the worldwide leader honest. But with the advent of social media, public opinion faces no barrier to entry, giving way to more tribal discourse. Republicans vs. Democrats; Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake; Marvel vs. D.C; WWE vs. AEW.

Nick LoPiccolo vs. Tony Khan.

ForbesTony Khan Implies WWE Pays For Anti-AEW Twitter Accounts: They ‘Aren’t Real Individuals’By Alfred Konuwa

Nick LoPiccolo Calls Out Tony Khan’s Alleged Burner Accounts

LoPiccolo recently announced his departure from Paradigm after 17 years. LoPiccolo told Deadline that the move was to “focus on a more flexible, unrestrained model to unlock new revenue streams and opportunities beyond traditional agency structures.”

In the fallout from his big career move, LoPiccolo took aim at Tony Khan for leading and activating a harassment campaign directed at him due to negative comments he made about AEW’s WBD deal.

“I am not anti-AEW,” wrote LoPiccolo in a Tweet. “Faceless accounts are bots, and in all probability paid for, most likely by Tony Khan. The reason ‘not being served catering’ is even a thing is because Tony irrationally took offense to a tweet that wasn’t meant to be critical of AEW, and started paying faceless bots to attack me. Sometimes it really is that easy to figure out.”

Of course, these posts outing Khan as a potential Twitter troll—this time anonymously as compared to the troll activity on his own account—led to harassing tweets from pro-AEW accounts. LoPiccolo noted that many of these accounts targeted his five-year-old daughter.

LoPiccolo called out the account @Ron11479281 (known simply as “Ron”) in what would prove to be a prophetic tweet.

“This pro-Tony Khan account, that posts things that only Tony Khan would know, followed [low-level high school sports reporter] BJ Bethel and other Tony co-conspirators, followed TK bot armies, is Muslim, anti-trans, anti-Jade Cargill, anti-all of the same people as TK, immediately mass deleted his posts and locked his account down — after I tagged @nflcommish on Sunday night — that must have hit too close to home because ‘obvious burner,’” tweeted LoPiccolo.

“@Ron11479281 reported my X account to get it suspended less than 15 minutes later after I tagged the @NFL — and I connected the dots here. BUT THIS GUY HAS INSIDE KNOWLEDGE IF I GOT FIRED FROM PARADIGM 12 DAYS AGO? An anti Zionist burner, obsessed with pro wrestling and @AEW — with close connections to Hollywood? Sorry Tony, the VPN won’t save you. [sic]”

“Ron” deactivated their account shortly after. Fans noted several other pro-AEW accounts connected to “Ron” and Tony Khan had vanished as well. In Khan’s ensuing post—where he went live on Twitter to promote Dynamite—the comments were in shambles.

LoPiccolo has since deleted his account. His final tweet read “Deactivating for the client’s sake.”

AEW did not respond to a request for comment. This article will be updated if it does.

Tony Khan’s History Of Online Controversies

• On New Year’s Eve in 2021, Tony Khan lashed out on Twitter at former AEW star Big Swole for her complaints about AEW’s lack of diversity. “The top 2 @AEW execs are brown (me & Megha)!! Jade, Bowens, Caster, Dante, Nyla, Isiah & Marq Quen all won on tv this month. The TBS Title Tournament has been very diverse. I let Swole’s contract expire as I felt her wrestling wasn’t good enough. #AEWRampage Street Fight TONIGHT! [sic]” tweeted Khan.
• In April of 2022, Tony Khan ironically suggested WWE was hiring anti-AEW Twitter bots. “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?” tweeted Khan.
• In April of 2022, during a back-and-forth with just 100 followers, Tony Khan attempted to defend his booking of Satnam Singh. “You need to hire this ratio,” Khan said in response to the fan suggesting Khan should hire more wrestling writers. The author has since deleted the post, likely due to online harassment and being “ratioed”_¹ from pro-AEW accounts.
• In October of 2023, ahead of a head-to-head showdown between AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT, Tony Khan posted a tweet referring to WWE booker Triple H and NXT booker Shawn Michaels as “bald assholes.” The insult was also in reference to popular HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm.
• Though this didn’t generate from an online comment, Tony Khan faced significant backlash after making a Harvey Weinstein joke during an appearance on the NFL Network in April of 2024. “We are like the Pepsi of pro wrestling. We’re up against a really evil juggernaut. WWE is our competitor, that’s who we’re facing. AEW, like the Pepsi of pro wrestling. WWE is like the Harvey Weinstein of pro wrestling,” said Khan.

As a self-proclaimed member of the Internet Wrestling Community for 30 years, much of Khan’s childhood and personality is shaped by online discourse. It’s a reason one of the more common criticisms of Khan is his social awkwardness.

“You gotta give the guy a little bit of slack. I’m serious, man. F—k it, I had an autistic kid,” said WWE Hall of Famer Nash on the “Kliq This” podcast. (h/t Cagesideseats.com)

“Well is this confirmed, before we say this? Is this confirmed that he’s on the spectrum?” asked Nash’s cohost Sean Oliver.

“I’m sorry. Okay, if you’re gonna pick between his actions and say he’s probably on the spectrum, as is Elon Musk, as [are] 90% of the people, or he’s just another billionaire crackhead. Which one would you tend to believe?” answered Nash.

The allegations of Tony Khan burner accounts are the latest example of Khan’s oftentimes explosive and erratic behavior online. Khan presents himself as a superfan who runs a wrestling company. It’s an easy and obvious attempt to relate to the viewer at home. But the downside of hardcore wrestling fans is all the internet wrestling ugliness (and burner accounts) that makes the IWC tick.

1. A “ratio” is when fans respond to a comment with far more negativity than positivity. If an account receives 50 likes, but hundreds of negative comments and quote tweets, it is considered to have been ratioed.