MR. TITO: The Threat of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to WWE Wrestlers and the Creative Team
Recently, there was a news story regarding WWE utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to be trained on WWE content and potentially be used to write storylines. In response, there was a panic, as many online fans predicted how storylines could be too formulaic or catering specifically to what analytics wants.
Of course, when WWE had like 20-30 human beings on their Creative Team since the late 2000s, y’all complained then.
To me, it’s no surprise. EVERY and I repeat EVERY corporation and large privately owned business are investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) right now.
What is AI specifically? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “the application of computer systems able to perform tasks or produce output normally requiring human intelligence, especially by applying machine learning techniques to large collections of data.”
Most thinking about AI seems to see something resembling James Cameron’s Terminator films, where robots become self-aware and destroy humans. Maybe we’ll get there one day, as a few robots already in China have become self-aware and have actually attacked people testing them…
But for now, AI seems to be threatening anything that a human being can input into a computer or system, especially repetitive tasks. Right now, banks, insurance, and technology companies are shredding their back offices of employees because artificial intelligence can be developed to replace repetitive tasks of using a piece of software that required human intervention. For example, if loan payments arrive into a system, often that would require human intervention to post or it maybe return the item timely. Now, AI generates smarter methodology to do that task automatically as payments arrive.
AI is really shredding Computer Science based jobs. What used to take HOURS, WEEKS, or MONTHS for writing programming language to create a system, patches, or make video games now takes a few moments. AI can also perform testing at a higher level and in moments versus humans trying every scenario manually. Wow, that’s interesting… Maybe with AI, 2K Sports could make better WWE 2K games instead of them being buggy and bloated as hell? Maybe those games could be less than 40GB in size, too, with the help of AI making more efficient programming?
However, where I think AI will really shred jobs is on written word. Sports Illustrated caught a ton of heat a few years ago when they were caught with AI-generated sports writers that were completely fake and made-up. Trust me, there’s more of that happening than you believe. Anything from articles, movie or television scripts, books, marketing campaigns, political speeches, etc. can be replicated with close accuracy to someone’s writing style and thought process with current tools. That includes writing a script for WWE storylines whether it’s for the short-term specific to a single RAW or Smackdown show or something long-term for major PLEs down the road.
Let’s be honest, this isn’t anything new for the WWE… For years, the WWE has employed up to 50 employees who are statisticians, economists, or marketing folks who are very specific at taking data generated from merchandise sales, live events, viewership, social media responses, YouTube views and likes/shares, subscriptions, and other metrics and have been generating reports for WWE Creative to analyze. In addition, this analytics team has also been wrapping those numbers and measuring it against wrestler salaries. Wonder why Braun Strowman was released the first time or why R-Truth was released? They measured the size of their salary versus how statistical outputs of data weighed against it. If the ratio of revenue or attention generated was too low versus salary + event payouts, that wrestler could get released.
In my view, how WWE will use Artificial Intelligence is to link what their analytics group is doing and create an output of suggested storylines based on those analytics. And then I believe many WWE jobs will be replaced in both the analytics department and also the creative team, and then the WWE marketing department will also lose jobs because AI will generate ways to hype events, matches, or advertise wrestlers or storylines featured.
Trust me, if WWE and TKO could create perfect AI thinking robots to replace wrestlers, they would…
Right now, AI is getting better and better at generating videos using life-like appearances of people and utilizing voiceover AI to create perfect sounding voices that use AI generated scripts. I’ve heard from a few industry experts on AI that systems just need 3-5 spoken words to get a voiceover captured reasonably well.
Lately, NoDQ.com’s webmaster, Aaron Rift, has been messing around with the Sora application to create reasonable looking Video Shorts of wrestlers beating up Aaron. While the past wrestlers look a bit off, it’s capturing the maker of the video’s likeness perfectly. That’s just a public application that any user can use, as there are far more intelligent videos that can capture much more detail and add more realism.
Could it be crazy that maybe in the future, an entire episode of RAW or Smackdown could be AI-generated? It’s possible… I could see the WWE becoming a PLE only promotion and keeping wrestlers healthy and safe by having AI-generated shows to control for quality while keeping the costs of arena leases down while offering ways for fans to buy merchandise online versus at events. After all, as I described in my last column about Netflix overpaying for RAW, RAW and Smackdown are essentially infomercials for PLE events.
But replacing WWE wrestlers and live arenas with a closer to perfect version of AI is something for the future. For now, WWE wrestlers could not be physically replaced by AI versions of themselves, but the analytics handed to the WWE and reviewed by AI statistically could put WWE jobs in trouble. Then, results of a storyline will be measured statistically with AI generating reports on how effective a wrestler performed in a possibly AI generated storyline.
AI, again, is a danger to any process that involves inputs using technology. Things that are physical, such as fighting or pro wrestling, entertainers, art, sports, plumbers, electricians, construction workers, dentists or orthodontists, or anything involving something physical that a robot or automated process cannot replicate, yet, have some relief against AI replacing their jobs. Hence why I think kids going to vocational school to become plumbers or electricians are going to do well in the future, along with anyone going to dental school. However, the more AI puts people out of work, the amount of disposable income to build a new house or get high-end dental work declines.
Through 2025, there’s an estimated $250 billion invested globally in AI investment, with that being up from $33 billion last year. 78% of companies are reporting the use of AI in some form, while a reported 92% of high school and college students are relying on AI-assisted tools with their schooling. Compare that to the 81% of current workers in the workforce who DO NOT use AI tools. They are in for a massive rude awakening, as they’ll be targets for replacement for not being deemed efficient enough in the workplace and companies may hire younger and cheaper employees who like to use AI at the workplace.
In my mind, that 81% of current workers not using AI creates what I think is an AI “bubble” where I think that companies are wasting too much capital on AI, in its infancy, when its quality isn’t there yet. In other words, humans can still do quality work equal to or even better than the current form of AI. Hence what you see with the WWE’s early attempts to use AI for storyline development. It’s a hot mess, full of inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and impossibilities. But with time, AI systems will become more intelligent and will really begin to shred jobs when the quality of the output continues to improve.
In addition to higher prices due to tariffs and price gouging, consumers being tapped out on credit, commercial real estate issues, possible bad loans on the books at banks, home loan prices about to crash, and lots of money shifted to cryptocurrency with uncertainty of those markets, I think too much of an investment in AI without seeing enough in return could be an additional “bubble” that bursts and helps induce our economy into a recession. I’m seeing a lot of similarities of the problems that plagued the economy during 2001, where a recession was induced by too much investment in Dot Com websites, and the 2007-2009 recession that was triple invested into housing, securities based on housing, and insurance policies based on housing.
AI isn’t pushing out quality yet, but that won’t stop corporations from trying it… After all, purchasing services from an AI vendor is an EXPENSE on an Income Statement and EXPENSES can be subtracted off before Net Income is taxed as a corporation. In other words, AI investments can help a corporation or a large private business pay less in taxes… Fancy that.
The FACT remains, though, that WWE is trying to use AI to create storylines. If you are part of the WWE Creative Team, I’d start showing off other talents at the workplace or keeping your resume current. As already seen by WWE’s past actions and especially now with the TKO overlords owning it, they care more about making money than spending it on human beings. The Endeavor owners care about lining their pockets and keeping their Shareholders happy versus creating a culture that rewards employees other than executives.
It’s just another reason to dislike how TKO is operating things for WWE, but they are acting like any other corporation right now who cares more about compensation packages of executives and keeping Shareholders happy. In fact, corporations don’t mind putting out a substandard product as long as it creates a bigger profit margin. FACT!
And to create a nod to all of the online marks who think that I’m “anti-WWE” or “pro-AEW”, when was the last time that I wrote an AEW-based column? I don’t, because in the immortal words of Weird Al Yankovic, “I can’t watch this”. Maybe Tony Khan should invest in the early stages of Artificial Intelligence to improve on the UTTER GARBAGE that he’s producing as creative for All Elite Wrestling? What’s the worst that could happen? I’m sure literally anything could create better creative than what comes out of Tony Khan’s peanut brain.
By the way, the image that you see at the very top of my column was AI-generated, but took about 20 attempts to make something reasonable looking. It’s not perfect yet, but with time, AI will improve and put a real threat towards anything involving computer inputs… Including wrestling columns… Oh crap!
But I don’t think AI could replace this diabolical mind who has been producing thousands of columns since October 1998.
Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ