WWE Just IGNORED Black History Month
After years of celebrating its own Black history, company goes silent for all of February.
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when WWE was more than proud to celebrate the accomplishments and legacy of its Black wrestlers every February, promoting Black History Month across its various social media platforms and on WWE programming.
Videos, graphics and interviews dotted WWE’s (and NXT’s) YouTube, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts, and occasional video packages would air on Raw and SmackDown. Last year, the company even sold a T-shirt to celebrate Black History Month.
WWE celebrates Black History Month! Purchase your very own Heritage Month t-shirt today to support @LoveHasNo_. Visit https://t.co/WaGEz9BtCt now! pic.twitter.com/3WoB8dgQBP
Advertisement— WWE (@WWE) February 1, 2024
This year, WWE has fallen silent on references to Black History Month, letting February pass with nary a peep. A search of the company's main social media accounts yielded no posts mentioning the monthlong recognition. Unless something dramatically changes on SmackDown Friday night (the last day of Black History Month), it will mark a significant departure from the company's behaviour during the past decade-plus.
By comparison, AEW has posted content centered on Black History Month this month, and Swerve Strickland mentioned it during a promo on Dynamite this week.
Pinning down a reason for WWE's failure to recognise the month is difficult given that the company hasn't acknowledged the sudden shift, but looking back through past social media posts, it's quite the dramatic change in posture.
Celebrating Black History
WWE's YouTube page features dozens of videos celebrating Black History Month dating back at least 14 years. Videos honouring former wrestlers such as Ernie Ladd, Junkyard Dog and Ron Simmons mingle with clips of then-current superstars talking about historic figures and what Black History Month means to them.
Perhaps nothing was more poignant than a series of videos that aired in 2018-19 that broke up several superstars' visit to the National Civil Rights Museum into several short clips of them learning about the Freedom Rides, the Montgomery bus boycott, the Memphis sanitation workers' strike and several other significant moments in the civil rights movement.
WWE and NXT's X and Instagram accounts also have recognized Black History Month regularly through the years, with NXT posting graphics of the Black members of their roster, and WWE sharing videos from superstars such as the New Day and Bianca Belair, and celebrating Black champions in the company.
The company's website also has posted some videos, articles and galleries about Black History Month.
Reason For The Silence? (Opinion)
Given that WWE has not said anything about Black History Month one way or the other, any rationale for the omission would be speculation.
One could point to the current political climate in the United States, where there is a pervasive feeling that diversity is being severely downplayed, denigrated or even erased. The current president is a WWE Hall-of-Famer with close ties to WWE and UFC leadership, with former WWE CEO Linda McMahon being tapped as Secretary of Education. However, causation does not necessarily equal correlation.
Additionally, the current administration also hosted a Black History Month event recently; even if one views that cynically as lip service, it's still more than WWE has offered this month.
Beyond the silence this February, there also is the separate reality that a Black superstar has not won a WWE PLE singles match since Backlash 2023. Triple H badly bungled a question on this topic last October when he gave a tone-deaf "don't see color" response when asked about this.
Neither of these examples serves as "proof" or an explanation of why WWE didn't celebrate Black History Month this year, but in the absence of a first-hand answer, all that's left is looking at past practices, what has changed, and to reasonably speculate.
WWE of course could offer their take on this situation -- and perhaps that question will be put to them in short order -- but until then, it's a confusing about-face for a company that as recently as last year was champing at the bit to celebrate Black History Month.