The online war between wrestling fans and Tony Khan isn’t something new. Viewers often find something that makes them angry at either the businessman or his promotion. This time around, the AEW President invited angry reactions for himself with a new creative decision that seems to be copying a trend WWE is following nowadays.

Ever since a week after WrestleMania XL, WWE has been hiding QR codes on screen during its weekly shows. When scanned, fans get to see a cryptic message which is now linked to the return of Uncle Howdy and the Wyatt 6. While the idea seemed original when the leading wrestling promotion did it, AEW recently jumped on the same boat and tried to experiment with something similar.

Although AEW already uses QR codes to promote its PPVs, this time around, the company used it to upload a secret promo, including Mercedes Mone. It was the first step for a new campaign called “Follow the Mone”. Upon scanning, fans are led to a page that has a short video of the wrestler explaining what to do next.

One could argue that the promotion wanted to keep this campaign comparatively secret and thus used a QR code to announce it rather than cutting a promo on the show. However, they announced the presence of the QR beforehand on social media to prepare the viewers, which was odd to many in the Internet Wrestling Community.

Fans attack Tony Khan for trying to jump on WWE’s boat

The debated QR code was shown on the screen during AEW’s Dynamite on 06/05. Unlike the Uncle Howdy storyline teasers, it wasn’t something that appeared after a distorted screen, representing some sort of spooky element. Instead, it was a pre-announced QR code that simply appeared as a small promotional advertisement during the weekly show, but fans did not take kindly to it.

The first thing that an online wrestling fan could think of is to call out Tony Khan’s promotion for ‘copying’ the trend from WWE. The comment sarcastically mocks the aboriginality if AEW was indeed trying to hop on the teaser trend its rival promotion started. Moreover, it suggested that the WWE competitor just wants to give fans something that can be used to talk about them online. Even through badmouthing, the reactions would still publicize AEW, potentially leading to increased popularity among the viewers. While it may not be an effective business model, it sure is an interesting theory.

Although it has only been some weeks since WWE started this trend for their own storyline, including the Wyatt 6, another user opted to highlight that the Stamford-based company is watching how late AEW is following its trend.

One fan used this as a way to highlight another wrestling fan online and target them for siding with AEW during some previous debate they must have had. This comment also ended by claiming that the viewers of Tony Khan’s promotion are not as smart as they may seem.

This time around, Sasha Banks, along with AEW, all received backlash from the pouring in comments. Evidently, one of them appeared to be frustrated for not cutting a simple promo.

Another enthusiast created a fictional dialogue delivery in the management team of AEW, where they are deliberately deciding to use WWE’s tactics to become trendy among wrestling fans.

What do you think is the verdict here; do you support this trend? Let us know in the comments.