Brandi Rhodes On How AEW Handled #SpeakingOut Movement: “I Think We Handled It Very Well”

Brandi Rhodes details the decision process on how AEW handled the #SpeakingOut movement pro wrestling has experienced for the past several weeks.

Rhodes spoke with Christy Olson and talked about AEW handling the #SpeakingOut movement. Rhodes said a lot of people were involved with that from management to AEW’s legal department as well as veterans of the industry and believes that everyone handled it well.

“That was kind of a first run for us, in a scenario like that. So a lot of people had hands on deck for that. There was a lot of very open-minded discussion on how we should handle things. A lot of the legal department had hands in helping with that, and a big part of the PR department. We’re lucky to be working with some people who are vets in the industry for twenty, thirty years, so they’re able to weigh in opinions. It was interesting to navigate as a first real, ‘This is a big situation, it’s greater than us. How do we look at this?’ I think we handled it very well, considering the circumstances, and it’s hopefully something people have learned a lot from,” Rhodes said.

AEW has had to deal with a situation weeks ago in which a video of horrible comments uttered by Sammy Guevara directed towards Sasha Banks surfaced on social media. Guevara was suspended and had to undergo extensive sensitivity training and recently returned to AEW Dynamite.

When it comes to speaking with the women of AEW, Rhodes says she had a lot of conversations with them and that she’s happy that there are now resources available for women who are in need of help.

“I had a conversation with a lot of our women after that and just said, ‘Hey, I’m glad that this happened so that you know these are the people that you come to if you ever have any kind of issue or concern, or maybe feel a certain way, you’ve got all these resources available to you.’ It’s nice in wrestling to hear that, because in the past there was none of that. I remember being in situations where a situation would arise and I would worry, if I do say something, you know, is my job in jeopardy? Now women know that’s not the case anymore, which is so comforting,” Rhodes said.

You can check out the full interview in the video at the top of the page.