Lio Rush states he spoke with Tony Khan after the AEW President made comments about former roster member Big Swole and makes clear he doesn’t believe the situation to be a diversity issue, but a racial insensitivity issue.
Khan reacted on Twitter to Big Swole’s comments she made on her podcast stating the lack of diversity in All Elite Wrestling is what led her to leaving. Khan came to the defense of his company, stating that they AEW is diverse in elevating African American talent before noting he let Swole’s contract expire due to her wrestling not being good enough.
The top 2 @AEW execs are brown (me & Megha)!! Jade, Bowens, Caster, Dante, Nyla, Isiah & Marq Quen all won on tv this month. The TBS Title Tournament has been very diverse. I let Swole’s contract expire as I felt her wrestling wasn’t good enough. #AEWRampage Street Fight TONIGHT! https://t.co/NprF6I7D6G
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) January 1, 2022
Following the exchange, Rush took to Twitter to voice some of his frustration on the situtation, but then took to Twitter on New Year’s Day to say that he spoke with his boss as well as Megha Parekh, AEW Chief Legal Officer (whom Khan also mentioned in his Tweet about Swole), and that he’s proud of the work AEW is doing to make a positive change in wrestling.
“I want this to be clear,” Lio started in his Tweet, “I do not consider this to be a diversity issue and I at no point have thought or said that AEW or Tony is racist. We can all clearly see that wrestling and the AEW roster is perpetually diverse. The issue at hand was a racial insensitivity issue. Having spoken to Tony and Megah, we have discussed the endeavors to further understand the struggles of the black community. I am grateful to be able to understand more about Tony and Megah’s own ethnic backgrounds and glad that they are actively seeking input from an African American perspective. I am proud to work for a boss and company that try to make these strides in social equality. I look forward to working with Tony to keep making steps towards positive change. I pray that 2022 is a year of positive change in all aspects.
Happy New Year and GOD BLESS #BeTheChange”
https://twitter.com/IamLioRush/status/1477383798320816129
Swole’s original comments on her exit from AEW were as follows (h/t to Jeremy Lambert from Fightful for the transcription):
“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 said.
Swole continued, explaining how her daughter helped her recognize even more that there was a lack of representation in AEW.
“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,” she said.
Swole said she is “exhausted” with the pandering when it comes to diversity and how it feels like “use this person for a little, they’ve done what you need, now what’s next?”
“I believe that the company is making better strides than before, but a couple of things need to be fixed. You have to be able to call people out because not everything is perfect. I hope they listen to this with an open heart and not just, ‘Ah, she’s just saying this because of XYZ.’ I genuinely want them to succeed. I love this art form. I love wrestling and I want it to succeed and I want the people in it to succeed if they are genuine people. I want WWE to succeed. I want wrestling to flourish and I don’t want it to be a long-forgotten, Tartarian sport where ‘in the old days, we used to wrestle,’ and it’s folklore. I want nothing but the best, but I also want the change and application to happen. With promises you made to be diverse, I want to see that. Not just with black people. I would love to see a Latino or Hispanic or more Asians. I feel like Asians and Indians do not get the love. They just don’t. It’s such a big gap. I hate the fact that I turn on the TV and it’s the same stuff over and over again. Hopefully, they get the message. Me leaving, honestly, was not bad. There is no bad blood between TK and I. I just don’t like my peace being disrupted. I didn’t like certain things and other things that I will take to my grave. The diversity. That’s what matters,” she said.
