The conversation around artificial intelligence and WWE programming has been generating plenty of noise, but according to Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer, much of it stems from misunderstanding rather than fact.
Months ago, Meltzer reported that WWE had experimented with using AI to develop storylines and write programming. The results were not promising.
“They had tried to use AI to do storylines and write the show,” Meltzer explained. “The ideas were just totally a disaster. There were things that just were not viable, could not work. They had not figured out a way to make it work.”
Despite the failed experiment, the company has not abandoned the idea entirely. TKO executive Mark Shapiro publicly addressed the topic, indicating WWE would continue exploring AI for storyline development.
The key distinction, however, is that AI is not operating as a final decision-maker. “Whatever stories are there, they’re going to tweak it,” Meltzer noted. “AI will never be the final thing. It will be a way to get ideas.”
So when something on WWE television feels off, the responsibility still falls on the humans in the room.
“If you thought that the match structure or whatever made no sense, it’s not like it’s AI’s fault. It would be the people involved in putting the show together, the agenting the show, basically. Because that’s their job.”
Beyond creative, WWE is also deploying AI for analytics, assessing what is working on television, what merchandise is moving, and what the audience is responding to. Meltzer offered some context here as well, noting that analytics in wrestling is nothing new.
WWE had a robust analytics department during the George Barrios era that was eventually gutted, with the view that the spending on analysts was not producing meaningful returns. What WWE is doing now is essentially a modern version of what the industry has done for decades using ticket sales, merchandise figures, and quarterly ratings data.
Meltzer was candid about his own skepticism toward AI as a research tool.
“AI stuff is bad. It doesn’t know the real from the fake. It just can get you stuff. And it’s not even that thorough. I’ve looked stuff up and it’s just been so wrong, so ridiculously wrong.”
He added that for a company with access to its own internal data, AI analytics offers limited additional insight. “You have your own merchandise sales. You don’t need that for your merchandise sales. You have your quarter-hour ratings. You don’t need that for analyzing quarter-hour ratings.”
The bottom line, as Meltzer sees it, is straightforward. WWE is using AI the same way it uses any number of other tools. It is not writing the shows, and it is not overriding the creative team.
He said, “It’s not like it’s doing storylines now, but it’s not like it’s not, either. They’re using it like a tool, like dozens of other tools.”
