Hikaru Shida, Scorpio Sky, Nyla Rose, & More Talk Diversity In AEW

Several members of the AEW roster recently took part in an interview where the main topic of discussion was diversity and representation in wrestling. Their comments were recently published in an article for Complex.

Scorpio Sky talked about the importance of representation in wrestling during the interview.

“If you look at pro wrestling now, there are a lot more people of color being heavily profiled, which is a great thing,” Scorpio said. “I think kids of color can look up and say, Okay, I see people on television. I see people in wrestling that look like me, so maybe I can do it too. And I think that’s going to do a lot for their confidence.”

Hikaru Shida also was interviewed about the diversity of wrestling styles the promotion offers. In particular, she spoke about introducing joshi puroresu to an American audience.

“Joshi-style wrestling, which is Japanese women’s wrestling, is very unique and original,” Shida says. “So, I believe that joshi-style wrestling can be as good as women’s wrestling in other parts of the world. In Japan, our population, which compared to the US, is very few, but now, representing Japanese joshi wrestlers, I can show myself in front of American fans.”

AEW was expected to feature more Joshi than they have since the onset of the pandemic. Travel restrictions have prevented many of the top Joshi stars from traveling to AEW shows.

Nyla Rose was also interviewed for the piece and the interviewer noted that she is the first Black champion in the promotion.

“I like to present the fact that I am Native American because I feel that gets overshadowed a lot, but I’m very much a proud Black woman as well. And I will shout that from the mountaintop every day of the week. To have achieved that goal in February is nothing short of monumental.”

Rose continued to talk about the diversity of AEW’s women’s roster.

“Every woman so far has been a person of color,” Rose continued. “And I think a large part of the public, they have blinders on to that, simply because Riho and Hikaru are fair-skinned. They kind of overlook that but, at the end of the day, they are women of color. They represent a minority, as well.”