AI Used For Image Of John Laurinaitis Autograph Line At Big Time Wrestling Signing

Artificial intelligence has been used to seemingly make the crowd around John Laurinaitis at an autograph signing appear much larger than it actually was.

The former WWE Head of Talent Relations signed autographs at a Big Time Wrestling event on Saturday, March 14 in his first public signing in several years. In a post about his appearance, though, Laurinaitis attached an image that is filled with what look to be AI-created people looking on as he signs autographs for fans at his desk. The use of AI is evident in the image through faces being squashed together to create something out of a horror movie.

A user by the name of Dana Frank Rundberg has claimed on the Marked Out Autograph Collecting Community Facebook group that they were privately sent the image of John Laurinaitis by the Big Time Wrestling promoter, who denied it was AI and blamed the image on "bad photography." The promoter of Big Time Wrestling is Bobby Fulton, one-half of The Fantastics.

Laurinaitis' autograph signing was already controversial due to past accusations of sexual assault against him by former WWE employee Janel Grant. Laurinaitis was originally named as a defendant in Grant's lawsuit against WWE and Vince McMahon, but Laurinaitis was dropped from the suit after agreeing to provide evidence against McMahon and WWE.

John Laurinaitis was quietly let go by WWE in 2022 following the initial hush money scandal surrounding Vince McMahon which resulted in McMahon's brief retirement from the company.

In an interview ahead of his autograph signing, John Laurinaitis revealed that he wanted to "help and develop and groom young talent" in Big Time Wrestling.