AEW Spanish Announcer Caught Making Fun Of Asian Accents On AEW Dynamite
On the May 28 episode of AEW Dynamite, the promotion held a 1-Year Anniversary Celebration to commemorate Hikaru Shida’s historic run as their Women’s World Champion. She first won the title at Double or Nothing 2020 from Nyla Rose. Tonight, they presented her with a new gold-plated, diamond-encrusted belt.
Unfortunately, before the segment got underway, the Spanish announce team’s microphones were left on and their conversation could be heard during the commercial break on Fite TV. Alex Abrahantes asked Willie Urbina to do translation for Shida’s promo. This led to him doing an impression of Shida which saw him making fun of Asian accents.
Los comentaristas en español de @AEW se han burlado del acento japonés de @shidahikaru durante la pausa publicitaria previa a su segmento en #AEWDynamite.
Esto es inaceptable @TonyKhan.
Por favor, haced RT para que lo vea la gente. pic.twitter.com/K6TYCZJwLY
— Miguel Uceda (@MigUceda) May 29, 2021
The exchange was translated for Fightful by Luis Pulido (@theluispulido).
Alex Abrahantes: “Do Shida.” (As in translate her promo)
Willie Urbina: Speaks incoherently using a stereotypical accent.
Thunder Rosa: “Shut up, holy crap!” (Laughs)
Willie Urbina: Continues on with accent.
Thunder Rosa: “I will throw the pen at you if you don’t stop.” (Said in a joking manner)
Dasha Kuret: “Stop it! You are mean.” (Seemingly addressing Urbina, sounding crossed about it)
Hugo Savinovich (through the Lucha Libre Online account) Tweeted out the following in regards to the aforementioned scenario.
El que los micrófonos hayan estado abiertos no es culpa de los comentaristas. Nuestra intención fue sólo avisarles y ya lograron cerrar los micrófonos para las pausas comerciales. Fue un error de producción. De hecho, lo noté cuando cambié el idioma a español en la segunda hora.
— Lucha Libre Online (@luchalibreonlin) May 29, 2021
Translation: “A friendly reminder to our friends at the Spanish commentary table of #AEW dynamite that while they are on commercial breaks, all the private conversation they are having is heard on FITE TV.
That the microphones were open is not the fault of the commenters. Our intention was only to warn them and they have already managed to close the microphones for the commercial breaks. It was a production error. In fact, I noticed it when I switched the language to Spanish in the second hour.”
Update: Lucha Libre Online deleted the reply tweet that was sent out.
On March 19, Shida released a video addressing #StopAsianHate and how she would like to see everyone treated equally.
Fightful will update fans on the story if AEW issues a comment.
If you missed anything for tonight’s episode of Dynamite, you can read Fightful’s recap and watch our post-show review. We will have live coverage of Double or Nothing this Sunday, May 30, beginning at 4 p.m. PST.
