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Post by autisticgeordie on Jul 18, 2020 8:49:03 GMT -5
Now, as a white man, I don't really think that I've got any right to really comment on a lack of diversity; but indy wrestler AJ Grey did mention about the lack of black wrestlers on the AEW men's side, he was more complimentary about the AEW Women's Division. I mean, there was an African-American called Willie Hobbs who was an absolute f***ing monster! He'd be an amazing signing to AEW and I can easily see him holding a singles title if he does impress enough to get signed.
I never really thought of it before, but the more it was mentioned, I kinda started to realise that 'Yeah, maybe AEW could do with a bit more diversity?' and now I can't unsee it; I do hope that AEW hires more black wrestlers and actually uses them well. I'd argue that the black talent that they've booked the best are Private Party, Big Swole and Sonny Kiss. (but even then, they haven't done that much with Swole considering the person she's feuding with is injured and Sonny's only started to gain traction recently.)
This is AJ's actual quote on the topic; for anyone who doesn't know what I'm banging on about:
“With WWE I don’t get time to watch as I’ve got to work every day. AEW – they preached – when they started their company how different everything would be, how diverse it would be and all of this stuff. I even talked about it on Twitter – if you look at them – one singles wrestler that’s a black male. Now with their women’s division, they’re actually doing something decent with that as they have quite a few with different backgrounds in their division. They have quite a few women with a different ethnic background but when you look at the males, it’s almost like it’s no one.
“It’s Scorpio Sky and the African Americans they did use, they get about 2 minutes and 50 seconds on Dark. They get beat up really fast and that’s it. Is that all you think of that talent? Come on now, give them a legitimate chance. You gave Alan Angels a legitimate chance against Kenny Omega and now you signed him. What’s stopping you from doing that with Suge D or someone else?”
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Post by Hurbster on Jul 18, 2020 8:59:38 GMT -5
Didn't Sonny Kiss just wrestle Cody ? And does lack of diversity also include those of Latin blood ?
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Jul 18, 2020 9:04:27 GMT -5
Yea, I made allusions to that last week
It's not that AEW doesn't have black wrestlers, none of them are stars and I don't resonate with any of them. In light of WWE, having like 11 of their 15 champions are minorities and I believe 7 of them are black, AEW has no real black stars being made right now. Starks is young, Sky is just there, PP is a young athletic team, and that's about it
So yeah, they need to work on that. As a black man on a personal level, they lose some points with me as I don't see anyone who "looks like me" looking like a star and that hurts them on a relatable factor
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Post by Terry McConkey on Jul 18, 2020 9:06:22 GMT -5
I've been thinking this for a while now and glad that it's gaining traction. I don't think that AEW will be the "Elite Show" forever and there's a lot of opportunity for growth.
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Bad Moon
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Post by Bad Moon on Jul 18, 2020 9:07:38 GMT -5
I kinda get it. There's Sonny, Scorpio Sky and that's literally it. Considering how many great black wrestlers there are still out on the indies and especially in promotions currently on hiatus it's f***ing wild that none of them even had a PPV guest spot ala Jeff Cobb much less a full contract. AEW should be ecstatic to have Jay Lethal, or ACH, or Willie Mack or even Moose (granted, Moose is a piece of shit, but so are Hager and Darby Allen) on their roster but I haven't even heard anything about them going after anyone.
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Post by autisticgeordie on Jul 18, 2020 9:08:06 GMT -5
Yea, I made illusions to that last week It's not that AEW doesn't have black wrestlers, none of them are stars and I don't resonate with any of them. In light of WWE, having like 11 of their 15 champions are minorities and I believe 7 of them are black, AEW has no real black stars being made right now. Starks is young, Sky is just there, PP is a young athletic team, and that's about it So yeah, they need to work on that. As a black man on a personal level, they lose some points with me as I don't see anyone who "looks like me" looking like a star and that hurts them on a relatable factor I mean, I saw Willie Hobbs on Dark and, in the brief time he was on the ring, he looked like an absolute bruiser, he had a really cool look and he was built like a tank; I hope that, if he does get signed to AEW, that he'd be that black star that you resonate with. |
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Jul 18, 2020 9:16:08 GMT -5
Yea, I made illusions to that last week It's not that AEW doesn't have black wrestlers, none of them are stars and I don't resonate with any of them. In light of WWE, having like 11 of their 15 champions are minorities and I believe 7 of them are black, AEW has no real black stars being made right now. Starks is young, Sky is just there, PP is a young athletic team, and that's about it So yeah, they need to work on that. As a black man on a personal level, they lose some points with me as I don't see anyone who "looks like me" looking like a star and that hurts them on a relatable factor I mean, I saw Willie Hobbs on Dark and, in the brief time he was on the ring, he looked like an absolute bruiser, he had a really cool look and he was built like a tank; I hope that, if he does get signed to AEW, that he'd be that black star that you resonate with. He looked good but that's still one drop in the bucket They are def going to need multiple people and build them up organically. I can turn into Impact and see Moose, NXT has Lee, WWE has Kofi, Lashley etc They def need to work on that. They borrow so much from Black Culture with the rap music and how they present themselves but the representation isn't there |
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kidkamikaze10
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Post by kidkamikaze10 on Jul 18, 2020 9:19:08 GMT -5
They need to do a lot more in that department.
Like, I know they poached a ton of people from GCW, and yet, they didn't go for the numerous black wrestlers they got?
That's more than a miss, that's a straight up blindspot. Stop going for Cody and Jericho's friends and actually look for talent.
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Bad Moon
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Post by Bad Moon on Jul 18, 2020 9:21:32 GMT -5
I somehow totally forgot about Private Party. Although the fact that I did says more about how AEW promotes them than what I think about them, cause I like them both a lot, their BTE skit with the luchador zombie was f***ing amazing.
I think the tag-team division in AEW is kind of underpromoted in general but that's not relevant to this thread.
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Post by autisticgeordie on Jul 18, 2020 9:24:17 GMT -5
They need to do a lot more in that department. Like, I know they poached a ton of people from GCW, and yet, they didn't go for the numerous black wrestlers they got? That's more than a miss, that's a straight up blindspot. Stop going for Cody and Jericho's friends and actually look for talent. Yeah, that just clicked; AEW can't sign that many black talents, but they can sign Dr Luther?! A guy who I only knew about from Jericho's first book where he hyped him up like the second coming of Bruiser Brody?? Maybe Luther was better in his FMW days in the 1990s? |
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Post by Fake Jesus on Jul 18, 2020 9:45:01 GMT -5
AEW have 71 signed male wrestlers, of those 15 (21%) are non-white, while Angelico is a white African and a number of stars are Jewish. This is somewhat less than the national average, but not egregiously so considering the small sample size. AEW have the boxer Anthony Ogogo as a developmental project who will probably make a big impact if he pans out, they had Private Party challenging for the titles two weeks ago, a young team that they're trying to keep hot while they put together all the pieces. They pushed Scorpio Sky to world title contention and tried to make SCU a thing, crowd didn't bite but it's not for a lack of trying. They're also definitely pushing Sonny Kiss. They numerous latino wrestlers in prominent positions on the show as well.
They're obviously not against pushing non-white wrestlers. Give it time.
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Post by Fake Jesus on Jul 18, 2020 9:46:59 GMT -5
They need to do a lot more in that department. Like, I know they poached a ton of people from GCW, and yet, they didn't go for the numerous black wrestlers they got? That's more than a miss, that's a straight up blindspot. Stop going for Cody and Jericho's friends and actually look for talent. Yeah, that just clicked; AEW can't sign that many black talents, but they can sign Dr Luther?! A guy who I only knew about from Jericho's first book where he hyped him up like the second coming of Bruiser Brody?? Maybe Luther was better in his FMW days in the 1990s? Luther is working in the AEW front office. You may as well have him as a warm body jobber while he's doing it. |
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Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby
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Post by Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby on Jul 18, 2020 9:50:48 GMT -5
It's such a show of priorities. While the tweet notes greater racial diversity in the women's division, I think the women's division is actually where the problem can be diagnosed: AEW is holding out for people who are already a big enough deal. So they let the women's division hobble along with a dozen and a half wrestlers, too few to do more than a match a week (often just a squash) on Dynamite, because they missed out on Viper and Mercedes Martinez and they're waiting for someone like them to come along.
Certainly, there are signs of trying. The fact that we've seen many more black men due to the pandemic (exclusively as jobbers, which is, uh, really not a good look) seems like evidence that they have a lot of promising guys on their radar, and that in particular the Nightmare Factory is training a lot of women and men of color. But...at some point, you've gotta actually make this a priority. I get that they wanted Jeff Cobb but couldn't get him to settle with them, and maybe Pineapple Pete is a similar situation (IE, maybe he has no intention of sticking around post-pandemic), but it's really, really telling that they have been able to build up Wardlow from scratch but have not found any men of color that they can push beyond their initial hires.
When AEW started, they had very few men of color, very few women, and very few big guys. They've patched up one of those lacks, and it was by far the least important - which kind of shows where their priorities really are.
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markymark
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Post by markymark on Jul 18, 2020 9:51:10 GMT -5
Yeah, that just clicked; AEW can't sign that many black talents, but they can sign Dr Luther?! A guy who I only knew about from Jericho's first book where he hyped him up like the second coming of Bruiser Brody?? Maybe Luther was better in his FMW days in the 1990s? Luther is working in the AEW front office. You may as well have him as a warm body jobber while he's doing it. And on screen he is working with Serpentico(who is hispanic). |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2020 9:53:02 GMT -5
Is he saying people should get a main event push because of their skin color?
I don't believe in dividing people like that.
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Jul 18, 2020 9:55:54 GMT -5
Is he saying people should get a main event push because of their skin color? I don't believe in dividing people like that. Not even close |
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kidkamikaze10
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Post by kidkamikaze10 on Jul 18, 2020 9:58:26 GMT -5
Is he saying people should get a main event push because of their skin color? I don't believe in dividing people like that. Where did you even get that? He just wants black and brown wrestlers signed and relevant. It's not even that big of an ask; the WWE with all its history does it fine these days. Same with Impact despite wack some of them (*cough*moose*cough) are. |
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Post by Fake Jesus on Jul 18, 2020 10:03:53 GMT -5
Is he saying people should get a main event push because of their skin color? I don't believe in dividing people like that. Where did you even get that? He just wants black and brown wrestlers signed and relevant. It's not even that big of an ask; the WWE with all its history does it fine these days. Same with Impact despite wack some of them (*cough*moose*cough) are. I wouldn't describe WWE, where the only black main eventers on the main roster are artificially kept in the tag division and have been put back in their box after the fans broke Kofi through the glass ceiling, as somewhere that "does it fine". WWE which also booked two Japanese wrestlers to have the exact same Royal Rumble win and an almost mirrored end result back to back. NXT does it fine. WWE hires them and then doesn't let them go anywhere because Vince's ideal of a male main eventer is a white man with long dark hair, or someone (Roman) who can pass for it. |
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markymark
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Post by markymark on Jul 18, 2020 10:04:11 GMT -5
Sonny could be a star, just needs more experience, Sky might be built up as the one who could dethrone Cody for the TNT title imo.
Btw being Codys friend doesnt mean you get all the privileges, look at Kip Sabian who has been doing nothing since Havoc screwed up.
There are more hispanics featured than african americans in the Lucha Bros, PnP, Guevara(before getting suspended) and now Ivelisse, Diamante besides Serpentico finally winning on AEW Dark.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2020 10:04:27 GMT -5
Is he saying people should get a main event push because of their skin color? I don't believe in dividing people like that. Not even close Out of curiosity, what black AEW talent do you think should be main eventing right now? Scorpio Sky isn't doing it for me. Sonny Kiss is a good talent but never a main eventer. In WWE, you have guys like Ricochet, Keith Lee, Lashley, etc. All of these have big star power and I could see them in the main event. What he is essentially saying is "There's no black main eventers!"... Well, maybe that's cause they are not good enough. You can't be putting everything down to race. Racism only dies when you stop dividing people into categories. Scorpio Sky is a man, just like Cody Rhodes is a man. Why people insist on separating them while coming out with comments like this is only keeping this prejudice and division alive. I'm not saying ignore history. I'm not saying racism is dead. I'm just saying, this idea has to change in order to move forward and get the equality they should have. That doesn't mean "Give this guy an opportunity because of his skin color, everyone else is white!"... It means "Give this guy an opportunity because he has earned it." |
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