AEW Spanish language announcer fired after mocking Asian accent
This story was updated at 12:45 PM Eastern.
AEW Spanish language announcer Willie Urbina has been fired following his mocking of Hikaru Shida’s accent during Friday’s live Dynamite, caught on a live mic.
Dave Meltzer reported the release on Twitter. No other details are available at this time.
The audio could be heard during a commercial break on FITE.tv’s broadcast for international viewers prior to the segment celebrating the AEW Women’s champion’s one-year reign as titleholder.
Urbina, Alex Abrahantes, Thunder Rosa and Dasha Kuret’s mics were left on during the break when Abrahantes instructed Urbina to “Do Shida” as in translate her promo. Urbina then twice did a stereotypical imitation of an Asian accent following by Rosa and Kuret jokingly telling Urbina (a former Spanish language announcer for TNA) to stop.
The clip gained steam overnight thanks to a tweeted clip of the audio directed at both AEW and Tony Khan.
As of now, neither AEW, the announce team or Shida has commented publicly about the incident. AEW’s Double or Nothing Fan Fest begins at noontime Eastern Saturday, so there is a possibility of some kind of comment during the day.
Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.