AJ Gray goes in on Wrestling Twitter following blowback for pointing out lack of Diversity

[123456789]

I'm a blk AEW fan...so I'm probably a little biased here...

But what blk talent is there to hire that is 1)not in WWE/NXT...2)Not already signed by ROH/MLW/Impact, etc. and 3)Is ready to get a push in AEW?

Yehi, Lio and who else?

AEW cant just push random ppl on their programming. Pullman jr. is a jobber on Dark right now. So how can y'all expect, Lee Johnson, Suge D and Musa to get a push.

This shyt takes time. I think a guy like Lee will become a star in AEW. Virtually every wrestler starts out as a jobber.

Not every guy is gonna be Orton.

 

[PlayerNinety_Nine]

I'm a blk AEW fan...so I'm probably a little biased here...

But what blk talent is there to hire that is 1)not in WWE/NXT...2)Not already signed by ROH/MLW/Impact, etc. and 3)Is ready to get a push in AEW?

Yehi, Lio and who else?

AEW cant just push random ppl on their programming. Pullman jr. is a jobber on Dark right now. So how can y'all expect, Lee Johnson, Suge D and Musa to get a push.

This shyt takes time. I think a guy like Lee will become a star in AEW. Virtually every wrestler starts out as a jobber.

Not every guy is gonna be Orton.

Pillman is jobbing because he's green. I say that as someone who watched him on MLW from his first appearance up to now.

As far as Black wrestlers on the indies go - off the top of my head - Treehouse Lee, Trisha Adora, AJ Gray, Marti Belle, Timmy Lou Retton, Saieve Al Sabah, Kotto Brazil. I know I'm forgetting a ton.

They shat the bed hiring Chris Bey and he went to Impact

The 'you can't just put random people on TV' thing doesn't really hold any weight either, because Cody wanted Anthony Ogogo who is still training, essentially, to be part of The Inner Circle when they first pitched it.

I'm a fan of AEW too, but they would be doing themselves a huge favour if they took an honest look at how they book and hire Black talent going forward

 

[Francis White]

Nah - dude has a point.

You're talking about them in terms of their WWF runs, where they were always booked to lose.

Koko B Ware had an 8 year long career before he went up north and SD Jones was putting in work in NWA too. That is the reason they're Hall Of Famers. Not just because Vince booked them to count the lights everytime they hit the ring and people have fond memories of Frankie.

Great post here. SD Jones was a phenomenal talent back in the day. One of the most underrated talents of all time.

 

[dh86]

AEW brought in a load of mediocre white talent after the pandemic, only hiring Ricky Starks. I have no excuses to give them.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

AEW isn’t above criticism


But I think many of y’all are losing focus on what to criticize with them or what the so called issue even is

 

[dh86]

AEW isn’t above criticism


But I think many of y’all are losing focus on what to criticize with them or what the so called issue even is

The issue is that Tony and Cody promised a diverse roster a year and a half ago and people aren’t accepting being unsigned and jobbing on a YouTube show as diversity. Most wrestling fans see the male singles division as the only thing that matters. I’m still patient but it’s running out.

 

[dh86]

I'm a blk AEW fan...so I'm probably a little biased here...

But what blk talent is there to hire that is 1)not in WWE/NXT...2)Not already signed by ROH/MLW/Impact, etc. and 3)Is ready to get a push in AEW?

Yehi, Lio and who else?

AEW cant just push random ppl on their programming. Pullman jr. is a jobber on Dark right now. So how can y'all expect, Lee Johnson, Suge D and Musa to get a push.

This shyt takes time. I think a guy like Lee will become a star in AEW. Virtually every wrestler starts out as a jobber.

Not every guy is gonna be Orton.

MJF and Jungle Boy had very little experience when signed. I refuse to believe that there are no black versions

 

[Bryan Danielson]

The issue is that Tony and Cody promised a diverse roster a year and a half ago and people aren’t accepting being unsigned and jobbing on a YouTube show as diversity. Most wrestling fans see the male singles division as the only thing that matters. I’m still patient but it’s running out.

Ok.... fair enough..... so I can take it as

Y’all issue is mainly “they promised more blacks on their Main programming” and even though they do have them;

Brandie Rhodes
Rene Chanel
Ricky Starks
Sean Dean
Will Hobbs
Pineapple Pete
MJ Jenkins
And like 2-4 other black wrestlers they have on that my bad I forgot the names of, excluding Sonny and Scorpio,

they losing (cuz records matter)


it’s not like other companies that don’t have a lot of black wrestlers and use the bare minimum of the ones they have.

I got you

Just wanted to be clear cuz I thought the main issue is “why ain’t companies signing or using a lot of black wrestlers?” Not about how and when

 

[Bryan Danielson]

I will say this yes AEW (and other companies too, probably will never really be fixed or addressed if we continue to single out few specific companies verse all them equally) needs to start pushing more of those guys.

But it’s fair to say on the flip side we need to also make sure we get behind them harder and start showing said companies “hey we like this wrestler, please give me more”

We can’t be out here giving them the when they walk out then go back to praising The Kliq.

It’s kind of a 2 way streak.

Look at the support we gave say Black Panther vs the support we gave say...... I don’t know Steel or Hancock

Even if we know Steel SUCKS, don’t we still gotta push him to the moon so he can get more opportunities or open the door for others?

 

[Homer Simpson]

They signed Big Bussman as their black representative

 

[Playaz Eyez]

The replies under this are embarrassing

 

[dh86]

Ok.... fair enough..... so I can take it as

Y’all issue is mainly “they promised more blacks on their Main programming” and even though they do have them;

Brandie Rhodes
Rene Chanel
Ricky Starks
Sean Dean
Will Hobbs
Pineapple Pete
MJ Jenkins
And like 2-4 other black wrestlers they have on that my bad I forgot the names of, excluding Sonny and Scorpio,

they losing (cuz records matter)


it’s not like other companies that don’t have a lot of black wrestlers and use the bare minimum of the ones they have.

I got you

Just wanted to be clear cuz I thought the main issue is “why ain’t companies signing or using a lot of black wrestlers?” Not about how and when

MJ Jenkins been wrestling for years and came off two years in NXT and wrestled a night as a jobber while Anna Jay got signed off her first wrestling match ever. That pretty much proves the point. Is Ricky Starks the only black wrestler signed in 2020?

 

[Bryan Danielson]

MJ Jenkins been wrestling for years and came off two years in NXT and wrestled a night as a jobber while Anna Jay got signed off her first wrestling match ever. That pretty much proves the point. Is Ricky Starks the only black wrestler signed in 2020?

I don’t know who’s signed or not signed.... I do know I see them used more guys than some of the other signed black talent in other companies.

But I feel you, I just don’t know if the strategy or right strategy y’all trynna do with “call out one company at a time” thing is the right way to go.

Or should every company equally be called out (which all I’m saying with WWE, IMPACT, NWA, AAA, NJPW, MLW, etc) the right way to go

 

[Bryan Danielson]

Sometimes when y’all overly highlight the issues or flaws of one company, it just comes off like y’all excluding or giving the pass to other (many that do worse) and it just makes the argument kind of cloud or comes off disingenuous

 

[Playaz Eyez]

Sometimes when y’all overly highlight the issues or flaws of one company, it just comes off like y’all excluding or giving the pass to other (many that do worse) and it just makes the argument kind of cloud or comes off disingenuous

Exactly, AEW is getting rightfully called out, but I will not excuse another company that had a 30+ year jump on them and other companies and is really only showcasing multiple blacks and other minorities solely due to COVID. Did we forget how Kofi lost the title, with no rematch in sight? Did we forget how R-Truth has been presented basically his entire WWE run outside of like 6 months? Naomi won her first Women’s title in 2016, 6 years after being on tv and probably 4 years after being ready, and came out of the Royal Rumble with scorching hot buzz, and extinguished not too long afterwards. Ricochet and Bianca spent multiple consecutive weeks on Main Event, one of which was pummeled by a guy named Riddikk Moss, who looks fresh out the WCW Power Plant. Sasha and Asuka’s resumes look great currently, but they were also used as stepladders for Charlotte and Alexa. There’s multiple other examples, but you get the gist of it. I’m not gonna pat the WWE on the back for basically being forced to do something they’ve had plenty of time to do. There’s only so many times they can use The Rock and Booker T as a crutch.