AEW Controversy After Big Swole Complains About Lack Of Diversity And Tony Khan Hits Back With Harsh Words

AEW Controversy After Big Swole Complains About Lack Of Diversity And Tony Khan Hits Back With Harsh Words

There's some controversy surrounding AEW today after Big Swole's allegations about a perceived lack of diversity in the company led to harsh words being shared by company President Tony Khan on social media.

By JoshWilding - Jan 01, 2022 09:01 AM EST
Filed Under: AEW

Big Swole didn't have the most memorable run in AEW, and when her contract expired a few weeks ago, it wasn't renewed by the company. During a recent interview with the Callin Show, she claimed that it was her decision not to re-sign and suggested that she often bumped heads with Executive Vice President Kenny Omega. 

However, Swole was also critical of how women are booked in AEW and alleged they have issues with diversity. 

"There is no representation, truly, and when there is, it does not come across in the Black community as genuine. At all," she said before talking about conversations with her daughter. "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."

We'd suggest reading the full interview over at Fightful for a little more context, but you can probably get the gist from those two quotes alone. Needless to say, AEW President Tony Khan didn't take kindly to what Big Swole had to say and took to Twitter to blame her lack of in-ring ability on the pro wrestler's departure.
 


As you can see below, Khan's Tweet prompted a lot of very different responses. Lio Rush is clearly upset, though the vast majority came to the executive's defence; it seems the biggest issue people have is the way Khan went about addressing Swole's comments (dismissing her in-ring talents and hyping up last night's episode of AEW Rampage all in the same Tweet).
 

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4thMaster
4thMaster - 1/1/2022, 1:02 PM
It's not like WWE has an abundance of notable black talent either, but I'll give her that there's likely more of them and there's a bunch in title pictures right now. Either way I'd be more worried about the absolute lack of Latino wrestler's in WWE, if we're talking about representation and the lack of it.
marvel72
marvel72 - 1/1/2022, 1:33 PM
I thought there was quite a lot of diversity in AEW.

Japanese
White American
Black American
Latino
British

Yeah its not a problem in AEW.
Galvatron75
Galvatron75 - 1/1/2022, 7:22 PM
Jabroni Khan ballsed up. And his asskissers leap to his defence. You love to see it!

One could only imagine what the same people would say if Vince had responded to Moxley's criticisms by saying "he wasn't that good anyway".
CorndogThief
CorndogThief - 1/2/2022, 10:11 AM
@Galvatron75 - If Vince had said that about Moxley it would have been completely insane, because Moxley was a fan favorite that was very beloved. He was considered an awesome talent. So yeah, people would have thought Vince was insane.

But Big Swole? Comparing her to someone like Moxley is simply crazy. She's no where near as good as him in the ring, so when Khan says he wasn't impressed by her wrestling, it's believable, because neither were most fans.
CorndogThief
CorndogThief - 1/2/2022, 10:19 AM
@Galvatron75 - Also, Khan said more than "she wasn't that good". He named several people of color that have been on TV this month and won their matches. He pointed out the inaccuracies in what Swole was saying. And so did several other people of color in AEW who also get televised.
Galvatron75
Galvatron75 - 1/6/2022, 9:05 AM
@CorndogThief - People come out and defend the person that pays their wages? Hardly a shock.
Jabroni Khan did not need to respond to Big Swole. But he did, and he went full on tantrum by saying "she wasn't that good". Whether she was or wasn't, it's still a very petty and mean thing to say.
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