Andrew Bushnell
Mar 19
What Trevor Dame pointed out about Ron and Don Harris wearing nazi sympathetic t-shirts and tattoos is very concerning. I am unfamiliar with wrestling, but it didn't take more than 10 seconds on google to confirm. I too would like to know what the motivation was associating the company with these individuals? I'm not interested in investing or in any way being involved with a company that would support or condone racist ideology in any context. Please explain the decision making process around bringing on these two individuals as key players.
Jason Brown CEO
FOUNDER
about 3 hours ago
Hi Andrew. We appreciate your question and the opportunity to address this subject. You mentioned you are unfamiliar with wrestling, so we understand how a comment like this could raise concerns. Ron and Don Harris were performers for the WWE and other popular wrestling promotions during their wrestling careers. When on TV, they were in character, referred to as “a gimmick”, where their character or gimmick were as bikers. They also worked at a time in the industry when there was something called “kayfabe”, which was basically saying that you never broke character. There are verifiable stories where the good guys, or “baby faces”, were not allowed to be seen after work with the bad guys, or “the heels”, so in essence if they were in a feud on television, they had to “kayfabe” that they were in a feud in real life and were never to break character.
For example, Nelson Simpson was an American wrestler, who was given a Russian gimmick where he played Nikita Koloff. Nelson went as far as to legally change his name to Nikita Koloff to stay in character. The Harris brothers TV personas and gimmick were as bikers, but they are about as far from nazi sympathizers as the east is from the west and were in no way involved in that culture, behavior or activity. This was much like the wrestler whose character or gimmick was Junk Yard Dog, however, he did not work in a junk yard, nor was he part dog, just as the wrestler known as The Undertaker wasn’t in the funeral home business. The images you may have seen in your Google search were costume and TV personas that Ron and Don played while working for wrestling promotions during their career as wrestlers, including the WWE and TNA.
I can speak for the multiple professionals attached to Aro Lucha that we would not have people who displayed these characteristics involved in this company. We are excited about the Aro Lucha team, and the Harris brothers are a huge part of the equation. Both men are of excellent character, and Ron Harris brings a wealth of professional wrestling knowledge in operations, talent relations and production. He is also a Christian and was featured on the Christian Broadcast Network in this article. Ron’s last company has a verifiable history of doing pro-bono work for the The Joseph School in Haiti supporting Haitian orphans and their education.
Ron Harris: On the Ropes
Don Harris, also a Christian, has an infinite amount of experience in the wrestling business with regards to performance, production, and live events. Don has a bi-racial family, an adopted Filipino daughter, and sponsors children in Bangladesh and Haiti. We have included a photo of his family.
Andrew, thanks again for your question. The dream, purpose and mission of Aro Lucha is to build the first great Fan-Owned Lucha Libre Sports & Entertainment Company. We believe strongly the foundation for accomplishing this starts with living out our eight core values as outlined above. Everyone associated with the Aro Lucha team shares these core values. A big part of the excitement around this opportunity are the fans themselves, and the culture and values they represent.
They've been working us all these years.
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