Turns out WWE didn’t use AI or a green screen for that weird-looking Solo Sikoa promo on RAW. The whole thing looked strange enough to get fans questioning whether Roman Reigns and The Usos were even really there, but the actual explanation is much simpler.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez explained what WWE actually did with the segment and why it ended up looking so different from the company’s usual backstage promos. For starters, the promo wasn’t filmed live during the October 26 episode. Alvarez said WWE actually taped it the previous week, even though the company never mentioned that on television.
“In Solo’s promo, there’s Roman Reigns and The Usos. If you haven’t figured it out already, even though they didn’t announce it, it was filmed last week at last week’s show.”
That explains when WWE got everyone together, but it doesn’t explain why the whole thing looked so damn weird. According to Alvarez, WWE decided to experiment with the way the promo was filmed. Sikoa was positioned clearly in the foreground while Roman and The Usos were deliberately blurred in the background, with the camera able to shift the focus between them.
“The other thing that confused people is that Solo’s promo was filmed in a unique way. What they were basically doing — I realize I’m a movie star, but I don’t know what the terms are — they were doing the focus, pull focus or whatever.”
Basically, WWE was playing around with depth of field and shifting the focus depending on who they wanted viewers looking at. That isn’t exactly some groundbreaking Hollywood trick, but it’s not something fans normally see during WWE promos either.
“It’s — you got one in the foreground, and the people in the background are blurry, and you can pull 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.”
That unusual look is what sent fans down the rabbit hole in the first place. During the October 26 episode of RAW, Sikoa cut a parking lot promo with Reigns and The Usos behind him while accepting Royce Keys’ challenge. Instead of paying attention to Sikoa’s warning, plenty of viewers immediately started trying to figure out what was going on with the people standing behind him.
Some thought Sikoa had been filmed in front of a green screen. Others wondered whether WWE had somehow used AI to create the background. One fan even joked that Roman probably got bored during filming and WWE found a way to let him leave early. Alvarez says none of that happened.
“And so, like, everyone thought, ‘Is that AI? Or is Solo on a green screen, and they put Roman Reigns and The Usos?’ No, they just decided to try something different, and it was weird-looking.”
So there wasn’t some elaborate production trick separating Sikoa from the rest of The Bloodline. WWE simply tried shooting the promo differently, and the result looked unusual enough that fans thought they were watching a green screen.
The funny part is that WWE’s little camera experiment ended up becoming a much bigger talking point than whatever Sikoa was actually trying to say. They tried something different, it looked weird, and fans immediately turned into detectives trying to figure out where Roman Reigns and The Usos really were.
What did you make of Solo Sikoa’s unusual RAW segment, and did anything about it immediately stand out to you? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
