World Wrestling Entertainment has its followers because it’s entertaining and most viewers turn a blind eye when asked: “You do know it’s fake, right?” Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform called X (formerly known as Twitter), is trying to create this entertaining world for himself and his followers. He has said that the “cage match” that he had proposed between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and him in June, will be live-streamed on X. Zuckerberg, who is well-versed in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, posted on his platform Threads: “I’m ready today.” Whether the match happens this month or ever is another story but it’s time to take a look at Musk’s journey at X since he acquired the platform in October last year.

April 2022: Elon Musk, after becoming Twitter’s largest shareholder, offers to buy the company for $54.20 a share.

May: Twitter accepts Musk’s bid but that same month he says the deal has been put on hold because of the number of fake accounts on the platform.

July: Musk tries to kill the deal to buy Twitter, saying the platform didn’t offer him enough information about fake or spam accounts. The company sues Musk for trying to walk away from the deal.

October 27: The deal is completed at $44b. On day one, he fires former CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, general counsel Sean Edgett and head of Legal, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde. At the same time, he begins planning a more expensive version of Twitter Blue, the platform’s paid plan.

November: Musk suggests changes to Twitter’s system for verifying user accounts, including charging $8 per month for it. Soon, the new $8 Twitter Blue plan begins rolling out to iOS users in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Some users pretend to be celebrities, brands and otherwise influential people. The sign-up process hits pause. All this takes place while Musk lays off 3,700 people.

December: Twitter comes up with a policy to explain its decision to ban an account that tracks Musk’s private jet and also suspended its open source competitor Mastodon from the service. Musk tweets that his company will remove all legacy blue checkmarks “in a few months”. The platform brings back Twitter Blue subscription on December 12.

January 2023: Twitter updates its developer terms to ban third-party clients altogether on January 19. In the same month, Twitter begins auctioning off excess office furniture to raise money. And, the ‘For You’ timeline — posts chosen by an algorithm — makes its debut.

March: Twitter loses more than half its value since the takeover and by May, Twitter was valued at one-third of what Musk had paid for, according to asset manager Fidelity. The same month, he speaks about how it is possible for his company “to become the biggest financial institution in the world”.

April: Twitter kills legacy blue checkmarks, option for 10,000-character-long tweets for Blue subscribers appears and Musk takes on important media organisations.

June: Blue subscribers are allowed to post 25,000-character-long tweets and Linda Yaccarino officially becomes Twitter CEO. As Zuckerberg’s team works towards launching Threads, Musk posts: “I’m up for a cage match if he is.”

July: Twitter replaces the iconic bird logo with ‘X’ and the platform is renamed ‘X’ and Elon Musk’s team threatens to sue Meta over its new Threads app. Mark Zuckerberg’s long-awaited Twitter rival, Threads, is born. Musk reacts by posting on X: “Zuck is a cuck.”

August: Elon Musk posts on X that he is “lifting weights throughout the day, preparing for the fight” soon after saying that the ‘cage match’ between him and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be live-streamed on X. Zuck reacts via Threads: “I’m ready today. I suggested Aug 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn’t confirmed. Not holding my breath.”