Former AEW star calls out Tony Khan for diversity issues, Khan responds –

Former AEW star Big Swole said on her most recent podcast it was the lack of diversity and structure that led to her departure from the company.

Swole said the following:

“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. And 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. They are not in the room with them. They’re not helping to necessarily influence decisions, but to explain why certain slang, why they are certain words that shouldn’t be said. There is no one else who can explain our culture and experience except for us….I believe that [AEW] is making better strides than before, but a couple of things need to be fixed,” she…You have to be able to call people out because not everything is not 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 art. I love to be creative and 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 just 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,’ 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 dark-skinned Latina or Latino or Hispanic or just something, more Asians. I feel like Asians, Indians do not get 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, like the Truman show. Hopefully, they get the message.”

AEW CEO and President Tony Khan took Twitter to respondon Swole’s comments, noting that there is diversity, and that he didn’t renew her contract because he felt that “her wrestling wasn’t good enough.”

Swole last wrestled on the September 21, 2021 episode of Dark, where she defeated Allie Katch.