Shane Taylor is one of the most renowned advocates of diversity in wrestling and he’s a prominent supporter of minority performers. He continues to work to change some of the relevant issues related to these missions however he can, both as a wrestler in the ring and a champion behind the scenes.
In a new interview with Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Taylor had a passionate message about how he believes the industry needs to change; he argued that that there’s a significant lack of diversity in ownership and management. He described how the drive to improve representation in the business must come at every level, from marketing to booking and everything in between, because there needs to be a concentrated effort to incorporate the fact that Black culture is not one size fits all; it greatly differs from person to person. Taylor stated that incorporating the depth and history of the culture can only help the industry across the board.
“I believe the sport as whole would be better if, not only we had more diversity in ownership of different promotions, but in management as well,” said Taylor. ” In marketing, in talent scouting, in every backstage phase of the game. Because the diversity can’t just be in the talent. It’s gotta be throughout the entire industry. Because when you have the ability to get different perspectives from marketing, you can understand, okay, the culture is not the same everywhere.
“Just because you’re both Black, if one guy’s from Atlanta and one guy’s from New York, they’re going to be different. How are we gonna market that? How are we gonna capitalize on what this individual is bringing us so we can give it to our fans? There’s so much depth and history and tradition that people can learn about, and when you have other people backstage who can relate to that talent and bring something special out of them, then it’s only gonna help the overall product and that goes with marketing, with promos, with just creative, different things. When you can tap into the individual and what makes then special, you can draw out something that they didn’t even see in themselves. But that’s what it’s gonna take. ”
Taylor went on to describe how this collaboration at every level is necessary because otherwise, without this representation behind the scenes, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to truly book genuine characters for minority wrestlers when people in management don’t have those experiences first-hand. He also emphasized that we’re currently living in the time when building a foundation for meaningful, lasting change is possible because the movement has the talent and the drive to do so.
“It’s gonna take the ability of everybody from top to bottom to be able to do that,” said Taylor. “Because if you don’t have that, it’s very hard for someone who doesn’t know the culture, who doesn’t know the details, who doesn’t know the history, who’s never had the experience, to then tell you how to be you and market you. That’s never gonna work. So I think that right now is the most pressing thing.
“We have the talent right now. We have the talent in all age ranges; you’ve got the veterans, you’ve got the current stars, you’ve got stars the future waiting on in deck. This is the time to be able to make sure that this era is the one that builds a foundation that the next generations after us are only going to build higher and higher.”
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