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The Big Swole Shoot Podcast: #IStandWithBigSwole

Recently, black wrestler (formerly of AEW) Big Swole did a shoot podcast where she discussed the issues that led to her departure from AEW. In her shoot podcast, she talked about the lack of diversity on AEW’s main show Dynamite especially the lack of diversity on the top of the card and main event scene which is hogged up by white guys from their 20s to 60s.

Here’s what Swole said in regards to the lack of diversity on Dynamite: 

Outside of [lack of structure] their BIGGEST issue, which is diversity. I do not beat around the bush when it comes to diversity and my people. There is no representation, truly, and when there is, it does not come across in the black community as genuine. At all. I don't know why everybody is so afraid to accept it or say it, but it's not a good look. What happens is, you have this wonderful company that treats people like family, but there is nobody that looks like me that is represented at the top and in the room with them. They are not helping to necessarily influence decisions, but to explain why certain slang and certain word shouldn't be said. There is no one else who can explain our culture and experience except for us.

She also noted that her daughter helped her realize that there’s a much bigger problem that many in The IWC turn a blind eye to in regards to the blatant lack of diversity and representation on Dynamite by saying 

I knew something was up when my daughter, who loves watching wrestling, she would watch AEW all the time and seldomly watch WWE. She's not a big fan unless dad [Cedric Alexander] was on TV, which stopped happening after they botched the Hurt Business. She would say, 'Mommy, there is nobody that looks like me on AEW. There's nobody that looks like daddy.' Then she started watching WWE because she saw Bianca and Big E. She saw herself represented. If that wasn't a 'click.' 'You are absolutely right. I don't have an explanation.' It's 2021. Why are people saying, 'it'll take three years for AEW to have a black champ'? This is a scripted sport. It should not take that long if you have been watching WWE for 50+ years and you know what not to do.

My take on Big Swole’s comments in regards to the lack of diversity on Dynamite: AEW themselves said in a press conference a few years ago and I will never ever forget it which is that they themselves said that their roster will be very diverse showcasing different types of people from all walks of life and 3 years later and they are still dropping the ball big time when it comes to promoting diversity and representation on Dynamite.

And the way that TK responded to Swole’s comments by saying on his Twitter that “he let her contract expire because she “wasn’t good enough” didn’t sit well with black wrestling fans like me and even some black wrestlers like Lio Rush (who I am a huge fan of by the way). 

TK’s ignorantly disrespectful comments don’t come as a surprise to me because they’re indicative of the long standing struggles that black women like Big Swole go through in wrestling when white men in wrestling especially those like TK only tends to push white female wrestlers like Britt Baker who aren’t as good in the ring nor have the superior charisma that a black female wrestler like Big Swole possesses because black women are constantly told by white males like TK in the wrestling industry that they’re “not good enough”, “don’t deserve a push let alone a main event push”, “have to work 2 to 3 times as hard as their white female counterparts” to get pushes and titles in the eyes business.

Swole said that on her shoot podcast that some of the reasons as to why she left AEW was not only due to the lack of TV time for the women and lack of genuine representation of black people on Dynamite & Rampage, but also Black Excellence in AEW is nearly non-existent.

Swole’s comments about AEW and their fans not taking constructive criticism well proves to be very true as seen in the extreme pushback which has now escalated to the point of her getting racist death threats and nasty vile messages on her Twitter page. If anything, Swole exposed the absolute worst side of AEW fans: the extremely racist anti-black predominantly white male ones.

Anytime that a black person let alone a black woman whether in corporate America or the wrestling industry speaks out about their experiences, there always white folks and their boot licking coons that will always come out and talk about their “personal experiences” in a deliberate attempt to stifle and silence the experiences that regular black people especially black women go through on a daily basis as we seen recently with Swole’s shoot podcast. 

There’s an old saying in the black community: When you mess with one of us, you mess with ALL Of Us!!!”

Whenever a black person especially a black woman like Swole speaks out about her experiences, people need to listen and understand what she saying so that they wouldn’t take her words and misconstrue them and put out this narrative that she’s an “angry black woman” for simply speaking out about the experiences that she went through during her time in AEW. 

Big Swole had every right to voice her frustration regarding the lack of genuine diversity and representation on Dynamite & Rampage. She’s never been afraid to speak what’s on her mind and that’s the one thing I have always admired and loved about Big Swole. She’s such a genuine person with great personality and charisma and can definitely go in the ring & #IStandWithBigSwole

Here are 5 actual examples of negative booking of black wrestlers in AEW: 

  1. Black male singles wrestlers have more losses than wins combined in AEW in 2021. 
  2. In AEW, if you’re a short white male indie wrestler especially those who either wrestled in WWE, ROH, NJPW, & Impact, you get instantly pushed even if he’s weak on promo and character work whereas with black male and female singles competitors, you’re deliberately relegated to Dark or Elevation and won’t even get main roster TV time on Dynamite which is atrocious. 
  3. Black male & female wrestlers are thrown into a title match without any concrete buildup or story leading up to the match which actually take away from the reason as to why they’re in a title match on Dynamite & Rampage. Worse of all, they almost never win in the title matches because they’re used to put white champions over because we saw it with Red Velvet putting Britt Baker over, Scorpio Sky putting Darby Allin over, & Jay Lethal putting over Sammy Guevara in 2021.
  4. Black male & female wrestlers get frequently booked to lose title & non-title matches on Dynamite and Rampage and are immediately relegated to Dark & Elevation for months with no sort of plans in terms of their direction. 
  5. Black male & female wrestlers have been booked in some of the worst storylines in AEW’s short history: The Nightmare Collective in early 2020 to American Top Alpha In 2021 

TK and his big inflated ego as well as the lack of genuine diversity and representation on Dynamite & Rampage are amongst the reasons why many viewers especially black wrestling fans have either simply stopped watching AEW or don’t even watch AEW very much at all. 

Even though WWE has been on my bad side for so many years now, I will actually give them props for actually promoting genuine diversity and representation on Raw & Smackdown because we have seen many black champions (even though some of them were booked badly from WWE in 2021 like Big E, Bobby Lashley, Bianca Belair, Sasha Banks, Shelton Benjamin, Cedric Alexander, Street Profits, New Day, Apollo Crews, Isaiah Scott. 

As heavily praised as AEW All Out 3 was, but the main legitimate criticism of the show from the black wrestling community on Twitter was that there were absolutely 0 black male wrestlers on the card and black women in The Battle Royale were almost relegated to the dreaded pre-show, but luckily they were put on the main card after The Andrade/Neville match was rescheduled. I said in a post after AEW All Out 3 that it was “The Whitest Mainstream Wrestling Show that I had ever seen in my 20+ years of watching professional wrestling while I also saw The Blackest WrestleMania take place this year aka WrestleMania 37 in Tampa, Florida & that show to me was way better than The Mostly White AEW All Out 3 & I stand by that statement. 

The Conclusion - We black people need to understand that the negative treatment that black wrestlers like Big Swole go through on a daily basis is very indicative of something that many in the black wrestling community have pointed out: These wrestling companies that are ran by young and old middle aged white men like AEW don’t give a damn about us as black people especially black people in the wrestling business. Just like The Legendary King Of POP Michael Jackson once said back in the day: 

“They Don’t Really Care About Us”

#IStandWithBigSwole

By Kwame Shakir  

Darrell S.

Hey, I write stuff, a lot of different stuff, that's all.

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