If you told me ten years ago that WWE would one day turn to artificial intelligence to write its storylines, I’d have laughed and changed the channel before the next twenty-minute promo hit.
Yet here we are in 2025, with reports that WWE has brought in a new senior creative strategy lead to explore AI-based storytelling and integrate machine learning into its creative services.
On paper, it sounds like the kind of soulless corporate experiment that could flatten one of entertainment’s strangest art forms. In reality, I think it might actually improve things, and even saying that makes me incredibly sad.
Because, as a lifelong wrestling fan, I have to be honest: WWE’s creative direction is in shambles. It’s inconsistent, formulaic, and often completely detached from the emotional storytelling that made wrestling special in the first place.
The shows look slicker than ever, the talent is incredible, and yet the product feels hollow. So when I hear that WWE wants to experiment with AI, I don’t immediately panic. I sigh, nod, and think: Well, it can’t get much worse.
The state of WWE storytelling
Right now, WWE’s storytelling feels like a never-ending loop of half-finished ideas. Feuds begin with promise, explode for a week, and then vanish into the ether. Wrestlers like John Cena, on his retirement run, flip from hero to villain to hero again with no motivation.
Storylines stretch on for months without purpose, and the company that once produced arcs as legendary as Austin versus McMahon or even the more recent Roman Reigns’ bloodline now seems incapable of following through on even a simple revenge plot.
The WWE has gone through turmoil in the last few years, from scandals related to its once CEO and pioneer of sports entertainment Vince McMahon, to a growing frustration from fans with the current product owned by TKO (the same company that owns the UFC) leading to an intense amount of sponsorships, incredibly expensive tickets, and major events like Wrestlemania heading to Saudi Arabia where all the money is. But even then, up until 2025 and a major deal with Netflix, the storytelling remained stellar. It genuinely felt like the golden era of wrestling, and as a fan, I was so excited to consume the product.
It’s not that WWE lacks creative talent, but I think the system suffocates it. Dozens of writers work under layers of approval, with constant rewrites and a desperate need to please sponsors, broadcasters, and stockholders. Every storyline is a copy-paste job from the last one, and every promo sounds like it’s been run through a focus group. There’s no chaos anymore, no spontaneity, no reason to care, and that’s why the idea of AI stepping in doesn’t fill me with dread. It fills me with curiosity.
Maybe AI is the answer?
According to the Wrestling Observer, WWE has already dabbled with AI through a platform called Writer Inc. Early tests didn’t go well, with one bizarre suggestion pitching a returning wrestler as a culture-obsessed version of himself who loves Japanese history.
It sounds ridiculous, but the truth is WWE has approved storylines worse than that in the past, and even recently, there’s been some very questionable story beats, such as The Rock wanting Cody Rhodes’ soul.
Wrestling thrives on long-term storytelling. You can suspend disbelief all you want, but you need a world that makes sense. When one week’s big feud is forgotten the next, the emotional investment evaporates. An AI system could actually fix that. It could track continuity, remind writers when they’ve dropped a storyline, and keep character motivations coherent. It wouldn’t replace the human touch, but it might stop the constant creative resets that make watching WWE week after week feel like déjà vu.
There’s also the issue of scale. WWE has so many shows on television that it’s almost impossible to keep up with them all. There’s Raw, SmackDown, NXT, premium live events like Wrestlemania and Summerslam, and an endless stream of social content. And as the number of weekly shows increases, the quality of storytelling takes a nose dive. Don’t get me wrong, most of the wrestlers are still fantastic in the ring, and the top-tier talent like CM Punk, Iyo Sky, and Rhea Ripley, to name a few, are still able to capture the magic that made everyone fall in love with the sport in the first place.
That said, AI could help coordinate the bigger picture, identifying which storylines are working, which wrestlers have momentum, and when an angle has run its course. It could act as a creative assistant, not a replacement, helping the writers keep track of dozens of overlapping arcs in a way that no spreadsheet or group chat can.
I’m optimistic, but there’s no reason for my optimism
Yes, I’m not completely convinced by my own idea, but this use of AI fills me with more excitement than the harsh reality that WWE might just use AI tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini to quickly write scripts with very little human oversight. I’d like to think that wouldn’t be the case, but then again, every time I believe WWE won’t do a particular thing (ahem, bring back Brock Lesnar, for example), I’m left with egg on my face.
And we all know AI can’t replicate emotion; in fact, I’m sure it can’t understand why the return of CM Punk caused chills or why Daniel Bryan’s underdog story worked so perfectly. Wrestling is built on human connection, crowd energy, and the art of selling drama in real time, and I don’t think any algorithm can grasp that.
So it becomes a toss-up: More of the same without AI or hope that the WWE implements this new technology with tact and improves its own storytelling. I wish I could say that I actually believe AI is the answer to a better version of WWE in 2025, but I don’t think those running the shows actually care. Nowadays, WWE is about multi-million dollar sponsorships, powerbombs through the Slim-Jim Table, and actively doing anything that makes incoherent sense.
If I did have a belief in the WWE to do what’s right for fans, then AI could use the mountains of data from decades of crowd reactions, ratings, ticket sales, and social metrics to form a better product. AI could help the company actually use that information to tell better stories. It could analyse when audiences lose interest, when a heel turn sparks excitement, or when nostalgia fatigue sets in.
As strange as it sounds, AI might help WWE rediscover what made it special. If a machine can remember that Cody Rhodes still wants to “finish the story,” maybe it can remind the company that long-term storytelling actually matters. If an algorithm can track fan interest, maybe it can nudge creative teams to stop running the same match six weeks in a row.
I never thought I’d say it, but maybe it’s time WWE embraced the machines. Not to replace the writers, but to help them tell better stories, the kind that make fans care again. Because right now, WWE’s biggest enemy isn’t AI. It’s apathy. And if it takes an algorithm to fix that, I’ll be the first to cheer when the robots roll the credits.
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john-anthony.disotto@futurenet.com (John-Anthony Disotto)
