Diversity.
Merriam-Webster lists the “essential meaning” of the word as “the state of having people who are different races or who have different cultures in a group or organization.”
Recently, we’ve all seen social media blow up about the diversity, or lack thereof, within AEW. It has been a debate for a while now, but it wasn’t until Big Swole and Tony Khan’s comments created the brouhaha on Lauren London’s internet that people really began to pay attention and chime in with their own two cents.
There has been so much back-and-forth on the topic. Swole’s initial comments were about AEW’s lack of diversity when it comes to black wrestlers. That’s the absolute key to remember here. Way, way, WAY too many people rushed to their keyboards and used their grubby fingers to push out tweets that defended AEW, saying that Sammy Guevara (part-Cuban) was the TNT Champion at the time of Swole’s interview and that the Lucha Brothers (Mexican) held the AEW Tag Team Titles. Those same people pointed out how Japanese women like Riho and Hikaru Shida had been dominant in AEW from day one. As soon as I read what those folks had to say, I shook my head and looked in another direction. I’m not going to take you seriously if you have no reading/listening comprehension. Swole specifically made mention that she was referring to the way black wrestlers are treated, pushed, and represented on AEW programming. She wasn’t saying that AEW is run by a bunch of white people, pushing only white people, and that only white people get to be on television.
Then, you had the people who had to defend AEW, but at least understood SOME of what Swole was saying. You know the people I’m talking about. Those who made sure to name drop every black wrestler on the roster. These folks are so close to getting the point, but aren’t quite there yet. Swole isn’t saying AEW has never hired black wrestlers. Obviously. She specifically talked about the lack of black wrestlers “at the top” of the company, as well as “in the room” with company executives, either in an executive role or in some sort of creative role.
This is where you move on to the level that leaves behind a lot of the bad faith arguments that people were recklessly throwing around.
Does AEW have a “diversity” issue when it comes to black representation?
Let’s start by looking at the current roster.
As far as I’m aware, there are 15 members of the male roster that are at least part-black, and four more on the female roster. Of course, I’m not privy to everybody’s Ancestry.com profiles, so there could be more, but that’s what we know of for now. That’s 19 out of 125, or 15.2% of the roster.
Is that a good number, or is it a bad number?
Well, if you want to compare and contrast again, WWE has 14 members of their male roster on Raw alone that are at least part-black, with one more on the female roster. When you add the Smackdown roster to the mix, you’re adding four more men and two more women. That gives you 21 out of 79, or 26.6% of the roster.
Is that a good number, or is it a bad number?
As I said earlier, it isn’t enough to simply say that a certain company has this many black people under contract. You have to dig deeper than that. When Jade Cargill became the first TBS Champion on January 5th, she became the second (again, as far as is publicly known) black wrestler to win a title in AEW, with Nyla Rose being the other. That’s it. Both of the company’s titles for women, but none of the company’s titles for men. You could make an argument that the highest-profile story for a black man in AEW was when Anthony Ogogo was feuding with Cody Rhodes, and how did that go? It led to a loss for Ogogo in what was a subpar, at best, match at the Double Or Nothing 2021 pay-per-view. That was a match that seemingly everyone felt Ogogo needed to win.
Does that mean AEW has that “diversity” problem?
The “stats” certainly don’t look good. Let’s look a little deeper, though.
If you look at the black wrestlers on the AEW roster, who are we wanting to see get that major push? Now that Ogogo has returned from eye surgery, could he get a major heel push? Lord knows he pulls in a metric fuckton of heat on Twitter. What about Jay Lethal? He’s accomplished as all hell in the business, but pushing him opens up an entirely different set of complaints that people are going to have. With Darius Martin potentially set to return to action after being sidelined with a knee injury, combined with Dante Martin’s growing popularity, that could mean a Tag Team Title reign for Top Flight is in the cards. That’s the top of the tag scene, but not necessarily the top of the card altogether, though. Lee Moriarty is one of the better in-ring performers on the roster, but he has only wrestled in 14 matches in the five months he’s been with AEW, and only three of those have been on television… and all three of those were losses. He’s a long way away from any kind of main event push. Brandi Rhodes? Can you imagine the reaction it would get if either Britt Baker or Jade Cargill’s title reigns come to an end at the hands of Brandi Rhodes? Powerhouse Hobbs is an intriguing choice. He can easily be pushed as a monster heel, and any perceived shortcomings in the mic skills department can be hidden by simply having Taz do most of the talking for him. Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any sort of plans for a major Hobbs push. He’s doing well on the YouTube shows, but he hasn’t won a match on television in almost four-and-a-half months.
Right now… right this very moment… there really aren’t a ton of options for AEW when it comes to pushing black wrestlers to the top. We all know some people who want black wrestlers pushed simply because they’re black. That line of thinking is fucking ridiculous and it’s hard to take you seriously if you feel that way. The same goes for wanting white wrestlers to be pushed simply because they’re white. Or Mexicans simply because they’re Mexican. Even dinosaurs simply because they’re dinosaurs. Even if Tony Khan himself said that a new black wrestler needed to be pushed to make some of the heat on himself and the company die down a bit, people would see through that immediately. Nothing against Lee Johnson, but don’t you think it would look a little suspicious if, all of a sudden, he won some title contender’s match on Dynamite and was main eventing against Adam Page the following week for the World Title?
So what options does AEW have?
Well, if they want to add to their already bloated roster… and there’s absolutely, positively no way that they don’t… there’s someone like Keith Lee out there. He’s someone that could easily come to AEW and be a major player from the moment he first appears on their programming. Jonathan Gresham is one of the best wrestlers alive today, and if people can get over his lack of size, he can also be pushed to the top if AEW were to sign him. The same can be said about Shane “Swerve” Strickland. If AEW didn’t mind signing Jay Lethal, even with all of the controversy surrounding him, would it be a shock if they signed Patrick Clark (aka The Velveteen Dream) at some point? If you’re talking strictly in-ring skills and promo ability, that’s certainly someone that could be a World Champion.
Obviously, there are more black “free agents” out there that AEW could bring in, but those are the ones that come to mind right away. Of those names, I love the idea of Keith Lee being there. He is someone that is shown what he is capable of, both in his pre-WWE days and while he was in NXT, and he’s someone that brings something to the table that nobody else in AEW can offer right now. Hobbs is probably the closest thing AEW has to Keith Lee, but Lee is taller, larger, and possesses a better combination of in-ring ability and promo work. That’s not a knock on Powerhouse Hobbs, by the way. It’s just how I see things. Adam Page beating Kenny Omega, and then Bryan Danielson, only to move into a match/feud with Lance Archer is a really good idea. Having Page square off with Keith Lee at some point is even better. Archer is a beast, but Keith Lee is a different type of beast.
Does AEW have an issue when it comes to how black wrestlers are represented and pushed on their programming? Yes. They absolutely do. Do I think Tony Khan and the Executive Vice Presidents are doing it on purpose because they’re dastardly racists who are trying to hold the black man down? No. Not at all.
People seem to be acting as though AEW has been in operation for decades now, and there’s this lengthy list of white World Champion after white World Champion after white World Champion. There has been a grand total of four AEW World Champions, going back two-and-a-half years. Chris Jericho made perfect sense as the first person to hold the belt, as he was easily the biggest “name” on the roster at the time. Jon Moxley made perfect sense as the next champion, because he was easily the hottest act in the company. The same can be said about Kenny Omega, the next champion, and Adam Page, the current champion. What’s the problem? If Griff Garrison, Shawn Spears, and Marko Stunt were in the title lineage, you might have a point. Again, it goes back to people wanting black people to be pushed simply because they’re black. That’s not how this works. It’s not how any of it works. Please stop exposing yourselves like that.
Because I know someone, somewhere, is going to complain about it, let it be known that this isn’t a “pro-WWE” column. I will freely admit to the fact that WWE is a lot better than AEW when it comes to the writing and pushing of their black wrestlers, specifically in recent years. Now, the title reigns of those black wrestlers aren’t always spectacular, but at least they get titles. At the same time, though, it’s pretty clear that WWE has more than their fair share of problems when it comes to, at best, racial insensitivity, and at worst, outright racism.
If we’re looking at the other part of Big Swole’s initial comments, that’s a little more difficult to talk about. She talked about the lack of black people “in the room” that can help with decisions that the company makes. Whether she’s referring to the writing staff or the EVP lineup, if those are even different groups of people, she has a point there. I have always felt that it would behoove wrestling companies to have as diverse a creative team as possible. Different races, different ages, different backgrounds, different points of view. You want to know how to properly dialogue black wrestlers? Have a black writer. You want to know how to portray women on television beyond just cattiness? Have a woman on the writing staff. I’m not sure if we’ve ever seen any sort of information that AEW has a “creative team” that isn’t Tony Khan, Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, and the Young Bucks. Tony Khan is the Vince McMahon of the company, in that he’s the one who has the final say of what does and doesn’t happen, but we don’t know much beyond that. We can assume, based on Swole’s comments, that there isn’t exactly a ton of diversity behind those closed doors. Of course, AEW could hire ten black writers and it wouldn’t matter much if TK doesn’t want to go with any of their ideas and suggestions, but it would be a start.
This entire thing is a weird, touchy subject. It doesn’t matter what AEW does or doesn’t do, because there will always be people who complain about it. The bottom line is that I think the company could definitely make some changes when it comes to these things, but some pieces need to fall into place for it to happen.
Now, if you want to address the REAL issue that nobody is talking about, where the fuck are the Samoans on the AEW roster?!? We need Congress to step in about that shit.
Weekly Power Rankings
- Jon Moxley: First, GCW announced Moxley would be returning to the ring for them on January 23rd, defending the GCW Title against Homicide at their big show from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. Then, AEW announced Moxley would be returning for them on this week’s episode of Dynamite. The man has been away since just before Halloween after seeking treatment for issues with alcohol. It will be a lot of fun to see him back in the ring, doing what he does best.
- WALTER vs Roderick Strong: Every bit the hard-hitting contest that it should’ve been. I love the potential that a Imperium vs Diamond Mine feud can have. There’s a lot of physicality and violence on the table there. Now, as for the post-match happenings here, do not get me started on that shit. At all.
- Seth Rollins vs Bobby Lashley: Heel vs Heel matches can be difficult to do sometimes, as you’ll have fans who don’t know how to react to them, and it will lead to quieter-than-expected reactions. Rollins and Lashley are so good at what they do, though, that they still get people to react. The match itself was good, obviously, even though the ending was seen from miles away. Rollins is challenging for the Universal Title at the Royal Rumble, while Lashley is challenging for the WWE Title on the same night. Neither man should be losing a match at this stage.
- Sammy Guevara vs Daniel Garcia: Another really good match that featured an ending that was completely expected. As good as Garcia is, he just hasn’t been presented as a big enough deal to be any sort of champion in AEW yet. That could change in the future, but it’s just not the case yet.
- Trent Barretta vs Adam Cole: Since returning from his injury, Trent has looked great. He looks to be in tremendous shape, and he has looked great in the ring, as if he didn’t miss any time at all. I’m not sure that there was a large group of people who felt he could win this match, but he still looked really good. As for Adam Cole, it’s probably coming up on the time where he needs to do more. It seems like things are just spinning in place for him since he arrived in AEW.
- Lance Archer: First of all, it’s good to see Archer back after the scary injury he suffered in October. That’s the most important thing to mention here. As an added bonus, though, he’s the right opponent for Adam Page right now, as he presents a completely different obstacle for the AEW World Champion after back-to-back feuds with two of the better technical wrestlers in the business.
- Teasing Bron Breakker vs Santos Escobar: I don’t think there’s a chance Escobar takes the NXT Title from Breakker, but if you’re looking for someone who can put on some highly entertaining matches with the champion, look no further. As I’ve said on several occasions, Escobar is one of the better overall in-ring performers in the business right now. Sign me up for this.
- Ricochet vs Sheamus: It would be really nice if WWE understood what they have in Ricochet and would use him with that understanding. Hell, you could say the same about Sheamus, too. These are two of the most consistent wrestlers WWE has, putting on good match after good match against anyone they step into the ring with. Both men could easily be involved in the Intercontinental Title picture on Smackdown, and if done correctly, they could also be involved in the Universal Title scene, too, although that would probably just mean losses to Roman Reigns at this point.
- CM Punk vs Wardlow: AEW has to be careful with Wardlow. They portray him as this major badass, but they book him to lose the big singles matches he’s in. He’ll dominate on YouTube, beating random independent wrestlers in two minutes, but what was the last big singles match he won on television? Would you consider him beating Jake Hager last January as a “big” match? What about Jungle Boy in October 2020? Luchasaurus in June 2020? Exactly my point. He has lost matches to Cody Rhodes, Adam Page, Jake Hager, Chris Jericho, and now CM Punk in all of his big spotlight matches. It’s only a matter of time until he and MJF split up, but will that lead to a big win for him, or will it be another big loss?
- Brody King: We’ve “known” he was AEW-bound for a while, but it was still cool to finally see him there as the newest member of The House Of Black. It should be a lot of fun to see the destruction that he and Malakai Black will cause together.
This Week’s Playlist: “Whiskey Sour” by Kane Brown… “Brother the Cloud” by Eddie Vedder… “Lazaretto” by Jack White… “Time After Time (Acoustic)” by Maoli… “Forgotten” by KoRn… “Won’t Stand Down” by Muse… “Angels” by Thomas Rhett… “Say You’ll Haunt Me” by Stone Sour… “Only One” by Yellowcard… “Running Up That Hill” by Placebo… “Paralyzer” by Finger Eleven… “Unsainted” by Slipknot… “Nero Forte” by Slipknot… “The Devil In I” by Slipknot… “Killpop” by Slipknot… “Lech” by Slipknot… “Gematria (The Killing Name)” by Slipknot… “Psychosocial” by Slipknot… “Til We Die” by Slipknot… “Duality” by Slipknot… “Before I Forget” by Slipknot… “(sic)” by Slipknot… “Wait and Bleed” by Slipknot… “Like a Stone” by Audioslave… “Man In The Box” by Alice In Chains