Kenny Omega speaks on the racism and xenophobia that joshi wrestlers face in America.

This shit is way too common. I have literally never been to a show whether it’s indies, WWE, AEW, where there’s always that one guy. Hell I went to WM 35 and that “guy” was sitting directly in front of me. Look, I get that wrestling is a lot of things to a lot of people, but at the end of the day it’s not a real sport. It’s fantasy. If you don’t like a particular character on a show then by all means express it, that’s what this is all about. But to attack the person putting on the performance is insane to me and that’s when it goes too far. And I hate being the “it’s not just wrestling” guy because I don’t want to dismiss the fact that just because “everybody” is doing it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t hold ourselves to a higher standard as fans, but it seems like there’s a larger generational attitude of people who feel empowered by their anonymity that don’t realize that the people they’re interacting with are real humans. When you say that type of shit about people you’re talking about someone’s son, someone’s daughter, someone’s parent, someone’s uncle, and so on. Just because you don’t like something someone does on a TV show doesn’t give you the right to throw real life hate at them because when something like the Hana Kimura happens, you just cost an extremely talented 22 year old their life and there’s a seismic wave of people who are affected by that.

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