Tony Khan Believes AEW’s Latest Signings Show How He’s Prioritizing Diversity

Big Swole and AEW parted ways last year after she was largely underutilized by the company. While many believed it was due to her suffering from Chron’s Disease, the reality is that her contract had simply run out.

Swole previously called out AEW for their lack of diversity and pointed out differences in how WWE presents their Black stars, especially Big E and Bianca Belair.

AEW President Tony Khan caused a lot of controversy after he responded to Big Swole’s callout by taking it personally. TK also said he let Swole’s contract expire because she wasn’t good enough. This was seen as a horrible move on Tony Khan’s part and it even made Lio Rush furious.

While speaking during the post-AEW Revolution media scrum, AEW President Tony Khan about the diversity in AEW and stated that he believes the company’s latest signings prove he is prioritizing diversity.

“That was always my goal and that was the point I have been eager to make. I always care about that representation. As you’ve seen, in recent months, there are contracts starting to expire and I can’t renew everybody and in the time that’s passed since then, people have seen that I’m serious, I’m going to start signing more people. Keith Lee, AQA, Swerve Strickland, and many other debuts in that time that have been great. In addition to people coming in, there will be people coming out and I try to do it based on merit. That was the point I was trying to make at the time, I’m going to evaluate people based on how good I think their wrestling is, in addition to a variety of other factors. I am always prioritizing diversity and we’ve made huge leaps since then. That was going into Jade’s championship match and dominant run.

She is a great wrestler and she has worked with, speaking of representation, Sonjay Dutt, who has done a great job with her. Sonjay represents great representation. Growing up, there was nobody who looked like me that was on TV that was pushed and had any gimmick that wasn’t offensive or who could really go. Sonjay Dutt, I didn’t really look up to because we are the same age and when I was in college when I first found him, I was like, ‘this is a guy who looks like me who can go.’ It’s great having him here and he’s been great for Jade. He’s a great person. [Jade] is already the rookie of the year and can take it to another level in year two. I thought her match was excellent with Tay Conti, speaking of which, also great representation and had a tremendous match and has a lot to be proud of. Even though she hasn’t won the title at the last two pay-per-views, she’s been excellent and very typical of her,”

Even Jim Cornette took Tony Khan’s side in the diversity controversy. AEW will continue to diversify their roster in the coming months and it remains to be seen what the company will have planned for their wrestlers.

h/t to Fightful for the quotes

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