TKO President Mark Shapiro on Defending Celebrity Involvement in WWE Shows and Claims TKO Has Full Control of WWE Creative

TKO Group COO and President Mark Shapiro recently made a speaking appearance at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. One of the topics discussed included Shapiro’s thoughts defending the involvement and usage of celebrities in WWE shows. Shapiro also claimed that TKO has full control of WWE creative for shows.

“First of all, [TKO] has complete control. So we’re responsible, good and bad, fact or fiction,

— Having Hollywood tie-ins and celebs and stars, and Logan Paul, Pat McAfee, Mark Wahlberg shows up and does his thing, Tyrese Haliburton last year got in a fight in the ring with Jalen Brunson of the Knicks, that’s not new. It’s just on a larger stage.

And we’re spending a lot more money to market the brand and market the content. And when you do that, you’re gonna win some folks over, but you’re also gonna chase some folks away. They don’t like this or they don’t like that. This is too expensive or, ‘Oh my God, to watch the WWE, I gotta buy Netflix which costs this much, I gotta watch SmackDown on USA, I gotta do that, I gotta have CW so I have to have cable. And now I have to pay for ESPN.’ And you can make some enemies really quickly.

I was just reading something today that if you want to watch the Yankees games this year, the full season through the playoffs, you’ll have to watch them across 10 platforms at the cost of a thousand dollars when you add up everything you have to buy to see them. That’s just the way of the world today.”

.@TKOGrp President Mark Shapiro told a University of Alabama class that TKO has full control over @WWE creative.

He defended the increase in celebrity involvement (@LoganPaul, @PatMcAfeeShow, @markwahlberg) as a growth strategy, while admitting it may alienate parts of the… pic.twitter.com/Mndy17GEEK

— Blake “Axe” Avignon (@bobby_s_axelrod) April 20, 2026

Source: WrestlePurists, Reddit user South-Persimmon-5342