AEW: Hikaru Shida ‘proud of my race’ after Spanish language commentator fired for mocking her Japanese accent
- Former All Elite Wrestling women’s champion says ‘I don’t even feel anger so don’t worry about me’
- Spanish language broadcast team member Willie Urbina was swiftly let go after insulting impersonation during live ‘AEW Dynamite’ broadcast
Hikaru Shida has broken her silence after All Elite Wrestling fired Spanish commentator Willie Urbina for mocking her accent.
Urbina made an insulting impersonation of the 32-year-old Japanese star during the Spanish language broadcast of Friday night’s episode of AEW Dynamite.
Kanagawa-born Shida had just delivered her first in-ring promo in English thanking the crowd at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida, for their support after reaching the one-year milestone as women’s champion in the US wrestling promotion.
“I didn’t wanna talk about this before my big day, so let me tell you now,” Shida wrote in a tweet on Monday night, after surrendering her title to Britt Baker at Sunday’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view in the same arena.
“I don’t give a s*** what other people say about my race because I love it and I [am] proud of it, and because I know which is fool. I don’t even feel anger. So don’t need to worry about me.”
Fellow announcer Alex Abrahantes had asked Urbina to translate Shida’s promo into Spanish, leading to him making fun of Asian accents, which prompted their broadcast colleague Dasha Kuret to laugh, before telling Urbina to stop.
Mexican-American AEW women’s star and former NWA champion Thunder Rosa, who was also commentating on the broadcast, said “come on, she speaks English”.
AEW president and founder Tony Khan had acted swiftly by firing Urbina on Saturday, and told a media scrum after Double or Nothing he had apologised to Shida.
“I didn’t think there was any excuse,” he said. “I was not happy. Afterwards, I heard what was said and having our commentators involved with what was said about her, who I also apologised to, I thought it was best for the company to make this decision.”
