The October 26 episode of WWE Raw featured a backstage segment with Solo Sikoa that drew criticism from fans on social media.
The segment saw Solo Sikoa respond to the threat of The 946, accepting a challenge from Royce Keys and making it clear that “ain’t nobody safe” from The Bloodline.
Sikoa was the only one to speak in the segment, with Roman Reigns and The Usos silent in the background.
The lack of engagement from Reigns was among the reasons why some felt it wasn’t what it seemed, with others noting the blurriness of The Bloodline towards the end of the promo, citing AI or green screen as a contributing factor.
More details have emerged of just what was going on and how the promo came to be:
Blurred vision
While some were convinced it was green screen or AI-generated, others noted that the reason it looked the way it did was down to the camera technique used.
Wrestling Republic would take a deeper dive into what was seen, sharing:
“Several videographers have told Wrestling Republic that the explanation is that the promo was filmed using a wide aperture lens with a shallow depth of field, which explains why the background looked blurred at times during the promo, with the lighting around Solo being due to the camera’s autofocus.
“WWE regularly use this technique for in-ring promos, but don’t usually for backstage ones.”
The post on X would also state that the video was shot last week, explaining the presence of Reigns and also why Sikoa was in the same clothes he wore on the October 19 episode of Raw, with Corey Brennan of Fightful also confirming this to be the case.
Pure cinema
Talking about the promo during Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez addressed the shooting technique and timeframe further, saying:
“It was weird because, in Solo’s promo, there’s Roman Reigns and The Usos. And, earlier in the show, Sami (Zayn) had made it clear that Roman ain’t coming to this town. Then, later in the show, there’s a backstage interview, and there’s Roman, just hanging around by his car. If you haven’t figured it out already, this was filmed last week.
“The other thing that confused people is that the Solo promo was filmed in a unique way. They were doing the focus… I forget what they call it, pull focus or whatever. It’s where you’ve got one guy in the foreground and the people in the background are blurry, and then you can pull focus or whatever to focus on the other people and the person in the front gets blurry.
“The point is they don’t ever film like that and, for some reason, they filmed this one like that. So, everybody thought, “Is that AI?” or “Is Solo on a green screen?” No, just decided to try something different and it was… it was weird-looking.”
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Cinematic techniques in a backstage promo were certainly a decision and may be something that eventually becomes standard in some instances, particularly when heightened drama is needed.
It’s not always AI, but sometimes it is
AI has been used in WWE match graphics on social media, with the imperfections in what’s generated being roundly mocked on social media.
Despite such criticism, it was previously reported that WWE ” plans to continue increasing its use of AI-generated content both on and off screen over the coming months.”
When it comes to AI use, the challenge is spotting when it is employed, particularly with the technology advancing at the pace that it has over recent years and those wielding its power doing so far beyond a prompt or two when it comes to refining the end product to the point where something AI-generated looks far too close to reality.
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