Wrestling fans have fallen into a frenzy over the weekend after AEW President Tony Khan commented on one of Big Swole's reasons for leaving the wrestling promotion.
Back in late November of 2021, Swole announced that she and AEW had mutually agreed to part ways. Swole has been a member of the AEW roster since December of 2019 when she officially signed to the company after several appearances on AEW's YouTube promotion, AEW Dark. Swole's decision to move on from AEW has not slowed her down, as she is scheduled to take on Tootie Lynn at the Black Wrestlers Matter event in Saint Louis on February 19, 2022.
On Swole's Callin show, she expanded on the mentality that led her to part ways with AEW. Swole ultimately cited many reasons that contributed to her exit from the company, including an overall lack of screentime for women, occasionally butting heads with AEW Executive Vice President Kenny Omega, a lack of structure, and the company's lack of diversity. "There is no representation, truly, and when there is, it doesn't come across in the Black community as genuine. At all," Swole said. She went on to say, "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."
It didn't take long for Swole's comments to reach social media, where AEW President Khan shared his own thoughts. In an attempt to combat Swole's comments, Khan tweeted about many non-white competitors that have recently appeared on AEW programming. Khan's comments were quick to receive backlash from wrestling fans and members of the AEW roster, including Lio Rush, Powerhouse Hobbs, Capt. Shawn Dean, and many others.
Swole cited that the daughter she shares with WWE star Cedric Alexander was what truly opened her eyes to the diversity issue at hand. She said that her daughter began noticing that very few competitors look like her, driving her back to WWE programming where performers like Bianca Belair and Big E were in the spotlight much more frequently. Given the backlash WWE has faced over the years with issues of diversity, many were led to believe that new companies like AEW would take WWE's failings in stride and learn from them. Swole also says that she is not only advocating for more Black wrestlers to make it on television, but Asian, Latino, Indian, and Hispanic performers as well.
Since the release of Swole's comments, Swole has shared that she has received countless racist messages across her various forms of social media. Many have noted that Swole never called AEW a racist company, but simply shared her beliefs on how the company can grow. Throughout Swole's Callin show, she praises both AEW and Khan and hoped that the company would listen to her with an open heart as she hopes for their success. Unfortunately, those positive comments have begun to fall on deaf ears, as people have taken her comments as an attack on the growing promotion.