TKO President Mark Shapiro called the company’s embrace of AI a “major priority” before confirming its use in WWE storylines. 

TKO’s executives hosted a town hall on Monday, with POST Wrestling reporting the subjects discussed within after obtaining audio of the internal call. 

During the town hall, TKO Chief Financial Officer Andrew Schleimer reportedly got onto the company’s use of AI, noting that they had only run tests and pilots and were still in the early stages. He was said to have cited the use of AI for data and analytics on WWE and UFC consumers, as well as minor uses to enhance broadcasts. 

Shapiro then continued to emphasize how AI could help employees become more efficient and productive, as well as how the UFC uses AI for fighter rankings. 

“Nick Khan and Triple H are using AI for storylines with the WWE,” he is quoted in the report. “What’s resonating? What superstars are resonating? In what pockets of the country are they resonating? That helps us with, obviously, our content, our editorial, our creative, our mapping, our touring, and of course, maximizing revenue and getting our product out to the fans most in need of it.”

The subject of AI being used in TKO has been prevalent both sides of the WWE-UFC split; UFC’s Chief Content Officer Craig Borsari and President Dana White have recently pushed back on criticism of its use for event branding, and reports emerged from Dave Meltzer late last year to say WWE had been using AI. 

At the time, there had been push back to that idea and it was being communicated that it was being used as an organizational tool akin to a writer’s assistant. But Meltzer stood by his reporting and said that would not always be the case. 

I may be the wrong person to ask regarding this topic, as the WWE Hall of Fame is, to me, an unserious Hall of Fame, the same way any Hall of Fame where its inductees are decided on the whim of one person (instead of a voting committee) is. But ignoring that, and looking at this from the perspective of the WWE Hall of Fame mattering, I must conclude that Jim Ross doesn’t just make a good point, he makes several good points. The Legacy wing of the WWE Hall of Fame is a joke, a section of the Hall featuring people WWE wants to include but doesn’t want to make a big spectacle of honoring. And the only joke bigger than that is deciding that Sid Eudy, Sycho Sid of all people, belongs there and shouldn’t have been honored the same way Stephanie McMahon and AJ Styles were.

Even if you want to sit here and say that Sid wasn’t among the greatest wrestlers ever (he wasn’t), the rest of his resume proves he belongs. After all, Sid was a multiple time World Champion between WWE and WCW, and a guy who main evented not one, but two WrestleMania’s against the likes of Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker. All due respect to Koko B. Ware, but if that guy can get into the WWE Hall of Fame proper despite being a career midcarder, Sid should be able to get into the WWE Hall of Fame just via his one main event against Hogan. And the best he can get is the Legacy wing? It’s ridiculous, and no way to honor a guy who was so popular that he got fans to turn against Hogan in 1992 and Shawn Michaels in 1996. Jim Ross is absolutely right; it is a joke that this is all Sid gets. In fact, he may be too kind when he puts it that way.

The April 25, 2026, “AEW Collision” ratings and viewership numbers are in, and the show witnessed a dip in both metrics.

The show’s average viewership fell below the 400,000 mark after two back-to-back weeks of crossing that threshold, with last week’s show drawing in 397,000 viewers compared to 473,000 the previous week, “Programming Insider” reports. This number is significantly lower than the four-week average of 450,000, as per “WrestleNomics,” while also less than the average viewership of 2026, which is around 447,000. 

The show also didn’t fare very well in the 18–49 key demographic ratings, as it garnered a rating of just 0.05 compared to the previous week’s 0.08 — a 38% decline. It should also be noted that the previous episode of “Collision,” which aired on April 16, 2026, was preempted. The NBA playoffs and NHL playoffs topped the charts on April 25, with the former drawing a 0.52 rating in the key demographic and the latter posting a 0.34.

The April 25 “Collision” saw The Conglomeration retain their AEW Trios Championship against The Don Callis Family, Death Riders and The Dogs getting one over The Young Bucks and The Rascalz, while Thekla and Skye Blue — thanks to some help from Julia Hart — defeated Persephone and Alex Windsor. The main event saw The Demand defeat Chris Jericho and The Hurt Syndicate. This week’s “Collision” will air live from the Peoria Civic Center.