AEW star Lio Rush has issued a new statement clarifying his position on diversity in AEW having previously called for Tony Khan to apologise for his controversial response to Big Swole’s criticism of the company.
During the most recent episode of her Swole World call-in show, former AEW star Big Swole spoke at length about her departure from the company on November 30th and the issues she believes it suffers from, chief among these was a lack of diversity.
Soon after Swole’s comments were published, Tony Khan hit back at the accusation with a controversial tweet where he pointed out that he and AEW’s Chief Legal Counsel Megha Parekh are two of the top executives in the company, and listed a number of wrestlers who had wins on Dynamite in December.
He ended by taking a more personal swipe at Swole, claiming that he let her contract expire because he thought “her wrestling wasn’t good enough”.
“The top 2 @AEW execs are brown (me & Megha)!! Jade, Bowens, Caster, Dante, Nyla, Isiah & Marq Quen all won on tv this month. The TBS Title Tournament has been very diverse. I let Swole’s contract expire as I felt her wrestling wasn’t good enough. #AEWRampage Street Fight TONIGHT!”
Following Khan’s tweet, Lio Rush made it known he was “not cool” with the situation and called for Khan to apologise.
https://twitter.com/IamLioRush/status/1477086524193705987
Now, the ‘Man of the Hour’ has issued a statement clarifying his position on diversity in AEW. In it, he says he didn’t consider the situation to be a diversity issue but a racial insensitivity issue.
He explained that he has since spoken to Tony Khan and Megah Parekh and discussed their “endeavours to further understand the struggles of the black community”. He went on to say that he is proud to work for Khan and AEW.
You can read the full statement below.
“I want this to be clear.
I do not consider this to be a diversity issue, and I at no point have thought or said that AEW or Tony is racist. We can all clearly see that wrestling as a whole and the AEW roster is perpetually diverse. The issue at hand was a racial insensitivity issue.
Having spoken to Tony and Megah, we have discussed the endeavors to further understand the struggles of the black community. I am grateful to be able to understand more about Tony and Megah’s own ethnic backgrounds and glad they are actively seeking input from an African American perspective.
I am proud to work for a boss and company that try to make these strides in social equality. I look forward to working with Tony to keep making steps towards positive change.
I pray that 2022 is a year of positive change in all aspects.
Happy New Year and GOD BLESS
#BeTheChange”
https://twitter.com/IamLioRush/status/1477383798320816129
Tony Khan has faced a backlash to his statement regarding Big Swole on social media, with Darius Lockhard calling it “completely disrespectful”.