Aubrey Edwards is embracing her role as one of pro wrestling’s most popular referees.
The AEW star spoke on this topic during a recent interview with Phil Strum on the Under The Ring podcast, where she discussed the positive reactions she gets from fans and how it makes her happy to know that girls can look up to her as a role model.
It’s surreal (to get the reactions I get from fans). I think the first time I ever saw a little girl dressed like me at a show, I was just completely taken aback that this is something — we’re changing the world and that seems like a very hyperbolic statement. But, I’ve always been a big proponent of representation in media. Coming from software and it also being male-dominated, it’s always something that I’ve kind of thought about being a woman in the role that I am. Knowing that there are girls growing up watching wrestling who seeing a female referee for them has always been normal, it was never a new thing, kind of how we talked about before. We’re changing what wrestling is for them.
Edwards says that she loves hearing the fans cheer for her, but wishes they would save it for the wrestlers who are usually doing something really cool.
They don’t know it but their normal is different than what our normal was when we first started watching and to hear from parents that they’re so happy that their kids, both their daughters and their sons, they see this strong, authoritative woman on TV who doesn’t take any crap from people. That’s a really, really important thing to see strong women in a role who lay down laws and people have to listen. It’s not something that you see commonly. So, I’ve been very, very grateful to be given these opportunities and I’m just completely awestruck. Any time I see someone with a sign or in a ref shirt or any time they chant my name, I’m like, please, just hold off. Save it for the wrestlers (she laughed). They’re about to come out and do something really cool.
Elsewhere in the interview, Edwards spoke about her work in the AEW Games department and how proud she is of the developmental team behind Fight Forever. You can read her thoughts about that here.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)