Baron Black On The Strong Diversity In AEW & Talent Like Will Hobbs Standing Out
Baron Black is no stranger to being in the thick of the action on AEW. With appearances on both Dynamite and Dark, “The Empbruh” has made his presence known under the All Elite banner, but so have other talents vying for a full-time spot on the roster. One of those stars happened to be the newest signee in Will Hobbs.
Hobbs was a featured player on last night’s episode of Dynamite in where AEW World Champion Jon Moxley revealed that he along with Darby Allin would be his tag team partners next week on Dynamite as the three go up against Lance Archer, Ricky Starks and Brian Cage. Black brought up Hobbs as one of the several names that he has seen go “all out” on their opportunities with AEW.
“When people get there they really, really try to show what they’re made of,” told Dominic DeAngelo in an exclusive interview. “Especially the guys that have already been there through the pandemic. Like Shawn Dean, like Lee Johnson, Anna Jay has been really impressive. I mean her progession has sky-rocketed through the roof it is amazing to see. Guys like Will Hobbs show up lately and now he’s doing his thing.
“I really can’t pinpoint like that’s the one person that’s been the most impressive. It’s like everybody is trying to be impressive because they understand this is the big leagues, this is the big stage, you have to bring your A-game…”
Another bright spot for Hobbs’ major presence last night was that it shined a further light on the diversity AEW has shown as a company, something that Black believes they have done a great job at showcasing over the course of the pandemic despite criticisms from social media months back.
“It’s really kind of settled down a little bit now,” Black said. “You don’t hear it as much. I think you don’t hear it as much now because people actually was able to see the end result of some seeds that were planted back then in a couple of months ago. Some people have egg on their face and some people kind of understood back then, but I think a lot of people was looking at the glass half empty instead of looking at the glass half full. I think that was kind of the situation where the whole diversity debate just blew up on social media Twitter and everywhere, definitively surrounding about African-American wrestlers.
“I think diversity now has gotten bigger probably than it has ever been in wrestling,” he added. “You see every ethnic background, ever other nationality on professional wrestling on the big stage wherever you watch it. You see it everywhere now so I think some people just kind of put the cart before the horse. One of my grade school teachers told me that, ‘Don’t put the cart before the horse.’
“Obviously we see diversity is a big thing of inclusion in every wrestling product now. Diversity is definitely something strong and hammered home at AEW so that’s kind of really what I wanted to do is point out, but it kind of manifested itself over the last couple of months. See things clearly now.”
“It’s not wrong to want to see representation because representation matters. Representation matters for everybody: African-Americans, Asian, Hispanic. Representation matters because here in America we have representation of all different backgrounds. You want those people to see people like them on TV. That’s natural. Everybody wants to see that. You know what I mean? But the thing is is also let stuff manifest itself. Let’s see the progression, let’s see where things go, let’s not just be too quick to jump the gun.”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
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