WWE Aware of Growing Criticism Over Black Male Representation on Premium Live Events

WWE is truly the global juggernaut of professional wrestling and the company has a very diverse roster of talented in-ring competitors from all over the world. With that said, the company is aware of the criticism over the lack of Black male stars on Premium Live Events.

Lately, there have been concerns regarding how black male wrestlers are booked on the main roster, particularly noting that they are rarely featured in the company’s Premium Live Events.

According to Sean Ross Sapp on the Fightful Select Weekly podcast, WWE is aware of the issue. While it wasn’t intentional, there are expectations that it will be addressed moving forward, especially focusing on showcasing black male singles talent.

“WWE has been made aware of it. It’s a thing that I don’t think that like came to mind necessarily. I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘Yes this was intentional’ or anything like that. I did hear people saying, ‘Well that’s obviously something that will be addressed now.’ But we’ll see how it’s addressed. It’s more about black male single talent getting featured.”

The last time a black male wrestler won a singles match on a WWE main roster Premium Live Events was when Bobby Lashley defeated Brock Lesnar by disqualification at Elimination Chamber 2023. The last time a black male wrestler won by pinfall or submission was when Lashley beat Austin Theory to retain the United States Championship at SummerSlam 2022.

Bad Blood, scheduled for Saturday, October 5, will mark the third consecutive WWE Premium Live Events without any black male talent on the card. This is despite the fact that there are talented black wrestlers such as Carmelo Hayes, who fans feel should have gotten a United States title shot at Bad Blood. Therefore, we will have to wait and see when WWE will rectify this issue and feature more Black male wrestlers on Premium Live Events.