{"id":130597,"date":"2022-01-01T13:54:52","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T19:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/recovery\/?p=130597"},"modified":"2022-01-01T13:54:52","modified_gmt":"2022-01-01T19:54:52","slug":"tony-khan-responds-to-diversity-criticism-in-aew-stars-respond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/01\/01\/tony-khan-responds-to-diversity-criticism-in-aew-stars-respond\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Khan responds to diversity criticism in AEW, stars respond"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1693078906\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Tony Khan took to Twitter on New Year&#8217;s Eve to publicly combat criticism from Big Swole on the diversity of AEW. Swole left the company earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>On her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.callin.com\/show\/swole-world-lxyqXjwaoV\">Swole World<\/a> show, Swole talked about her issues with the company at length and said the biggest issue was a lack of diversity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Outside of [lack of structure] their biggest issue, which is diversity,&#8221; Swole said. &#8220;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\u2019t know why everybody is so afraid to accept it or say it, but it\u2019s 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\u2019t be said. There is no one else who can explain our culture and experience except for us. I knew something was up when my daughter, who loves watching wrestling, she would watch AEW all the time and rarely watch WWE. She\u2019s not a big fan unless dad was on TV, which stopped happening after they botched the Hurt Business. She would say, \u2018Mommy, there is nobody that looks like me on AEW. There\u2019s nobody that looks like daddy. Then she started watching WWE because she saw Bianca and Big E. She saw herself represented. If that wasn\u2019t a \u2018click.\u2019 \u2018You are absolutely right. I don\u2019t have an explanation.\u2019 It\u2019s 2021. Why are people saying, \u2018it\u2019ll take three years for AEW to have a black champ\u2019? 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Khan responded and named a diverse group of talents that had received wins on television in the last month. Khan also confirmed he decided not to renew Swole&#8217;s contract because &#8220;her wrestling wasn&#8217;t good enough.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The top 2 @AEW execs are brown (me &amp; Megha)!! Jade, Bowens, Caster, Dante, Nyla, Isiah &amp; Marq Quen all won on tv this month. The TBS Title Tournament has been very diverse. I let Swole\u2019s contract expire as I felt her wrestling wasn\u2019t good enough. #AEWRampage Street Fight TONIGHT!&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The top 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AEW?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AEW<\/a> execs are brown (me &amp; Megha)!! Jade, Bowens, Caster, Dante, Nyla, Isiah &amp; Marq Quen all won on tv this month. The TBS Title Tournament has been very diverse. I let Swole\u2019s contract expire as I felt her wrestling wasn\u2019t good enough. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AEWRampage?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AEWRampage<\/a> Street Fight TONIGHT! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NprF6I7D6G\">https:\/\/t.co\/NprF6I7D6G<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TonyKhan\/status\/1477071736726245376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 1, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Lio Rush and Powerhouse Hobbs both took to Twitter to respond to the situation and Khan&#8217;s remarks.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/IamLioRush\/status\/1477086524193705987<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OMRVXqYiLp\">pic.twitter.com\/OMRVXqYiLp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; \u201cThe MONSTAR\u201d PowerHouse Hobbs (@TrueWillieHobbs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TrueWillieHobbs\/status\/1477147743025975296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 1, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>AEW Dynamite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/01\/01\/mjf-match-announced-for-aew-dynamite-tbs-premiere\/\">premieres on TBS<\/a> on January 5 after a two year run on TNT. On the show, Adam Page will defend the AEW World Championship against Bryan Danielson. In addition, the TBS Championship Tournament will conclude with Jade Cargill facing Ruby Soho in the finals.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1790447292\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Special thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/news\/2021\/12\/big-swole-cites-lack-of-diversity-as-a-reason-for-leaving-aew\/\">Wrestling Inc<\/a> for the Big Swole transcription.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>CATCH-UP:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/12\/30\/aew-rampage-draws-better-than-expected-rating-on-christmas-night-for-guevara-vs-cody-tnt-title-match-hooks-second-match\/\">AEW Rampage draws better than expected rating on Christmas night for Guevara vs. Cody TNT Title match, Hook\u2019s second match<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-4267338705\"><div id=\"pwtor-3696221410\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Tony Khan took to Twitter on New Year&#8217;s Eve to publicly combat criticism from Big Swole on the diversity of AEW. Swole left the company earlier this year. On her Swole World show, Swole talked <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/01\/01\/tony-khan-responds-to-diversity-criticism-in-aew-stars-respond\/\" title=\"Tony Khan responds to diversity criticism in AEW, stars respond\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":80480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6163,2],"tags":[6121,6120,6651,6118],"class_list":["post-130597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew-news","category-prowrestlingnews","tag-aew","tag-all-elite-wrestling","tag-big-swole","tag-tony-khan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2019\/05\/KhanTony_RubinJay_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130598,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130597\/revisions\/130598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}