During the May 28th 2021 Friday Night Dynamite broadcast, AEW Spanish announcer Willie Urbina was heard on a live mic as he was making fun of AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida.
Reddit user elguitarro explained what happened:
“I’m Mexican and just want to mention it wasn’t Alex Abrahantes nor Dasha. The guy that was mocking the Japanese language was Willie Urbina. Even during the commentary you can listen to Dasha saying ‘Willie callate, no manches’ which paraphrasing is ‘Willie shut up, wtf dude’ (hard paraphrasing but that’s the context as no manches can be used in different situations.)
I personally think the way he mocked the language is extremely disrespectful and just right out of the early 90s bullshit. He just pretended the Japanese ‘melodically’ (not really saying words but ‘singing’ sounds) which I find in a way worse taste than mispronouncing anything.”
Here is the audio clip which has gone viral:
Los comentaristas en español de @AEW se han burlado del acento japonés de @shidahikaru durante la pausa publicitaria previa a su segmento en #AEWDynamite.
Esto es inaceptable @TonyKhan.
Por favor, haced RT para que lo vea la gente. pic.twitter.com/K6TYCZJwLY
— Miguel Uceda (@MigUceda) May 29, 2021
Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com that Urbina was let go from the company:
Willie Urbina was let go by AEW.
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) May 29, 2021