A prominent wrestling writer has been hit with allegations of using AI to craft a new book on the career of Hulk Hogan.
David Shoemaker, a writer for Bill Simmons’ The Ringer and co-host of The Masked Man Show With Kaz podcast, is the person ostensibly behind the recently-released Why Hulk Hogan Matters, but many readers are wondering if he was heavily assisted by a tech program due to the large amount of egregious errors in the book.
Among those who have publicly criticized the book are respected
wrestling journalist Mike Johnson of PWInsider and legendary wrestling manager turned podcaster Jim Cornette.
Both men mentioned the possibility of Shoemaker turning to AI for the book, as have many people commenting on Shoemaker’s social media posts promoting the release.
The Voices of Wrestling podcast went further by turning to AI to investigate the accusation.
After feeding the writing into “all of the popular AI clients and language models out there,” and then following up with prompts, the podcast found that the AI programs “all generally agreed that there’s a high probability that there is heavy AI input, at minimum, with this book.”
Thus far, neither Shoemaker nor Simmons — who has been tagged in social media comments about the book — have responded to the AI allegations or about the factual errors.
Cageside Seats has not personally reviewed the contents of the book, but the examples given by others of mistakes and possible AI use are impossible to ignore.
In his review of Shoemaker’s work, Johnson wrote that he feels “it stands as one of the worst books ever printed about the subject.”
Mike goes on to give examples of some of the more flagrant mistakes, such as saying Hogan lost the WWF title to Yokozuna in Japan in 1993, when the match in question actually took place in Ohio.
During the bout, a man (Harvey Whippleman) disguised as a Japanese photographer interfered to cause Yokozuna to get the advantage. A common glitch in AI is to pick up on a fact fed into the program — such as “Japanese photographer” — and to then spit out false information about something like a location.
“One almost wonders if it was jammed through an AI program and sent for publishing,” Johnson said of the multiple instances of incorrect information.
He also rightfully expressed frustration that such a book was put out by the major publishing house Harper Collins. As Johnson wrote, “there are so many glaring factual errors here that I had to stop reading the book after the umpteenth time I wondered who the hell proofread this, approved this and allowed it to hit book shelves in its current form.”
The book received another public dissection on the most recent episode of the Jim Cornette Drive-Thru podcast. Cornette’s co-shot, Brian Last, opened the segment by calling Shoemaker “a complete fraud” and accused the author of making up facts during an appearance in an Andre the Giant documentary.
Corny then went through several instances of incorrect information in Shoemaker’s recounting of Hogan’s early career. After Last read a passage from the book, Jim responded by saying: “This has to be a computer writing this, because human beings don’t speak this way.”
Cornette then gave another example of how an AI program could have taken a comment from Vince McMahon Sr. and twisted it into a false story.
As many of the book’s critics have noted, Shoemaker could have felt under pressure to get the book out as quickly as possible following Hogan’s death in July 2025.
As for his boss at The Ringer, Simmons has come under fire from fans over his open embrace of AI. ChatGPT is a top sponsor for shows on The Ringer, and Simmons himself has prompted the chatbot on air for reference material.
Shoemaker has also experienced backlash directly. In late July, he posted a message on X (Twitter) to promote the book’s release, but the comments section was mostly highjacked by people bringing up the AI allegations, with several mentioning Johnson and Cornette’s critiques.
“AI horses**t, you need to retire from public life out of sheer embarrassment. @BillSimmons if this guy is using AI to write books he’s cutting corners at The Ringer too. Cancel his wrestling podcast and don’t have him on your show again,” read one X post expressing this sentiment.
What do you think, Cagesiders? Does it seem like something is off with this Hogan book to you? What are you thoughts in general on AI being used for such works? Let us know in the comments.
