In an interview with Going Ringside (via Fightful), Montez Ford spoke about the crowning of several new black champions in various wrestling promotions and why representation matters. In the last month, Swerve Strickland (AEW World), Trick Williams (NXT), R-Truth (WWE World Tag Team), Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill (WWE Women’s Tag Team) have all won championships. Meanwhile, Oba Femi is the NXT North American Champion, Athena is the ROH Women’s World Champion and Moose is the TNA World Champion.
Ford said: “I think is it’s amazing. In any aspect, any type of representation matters. Anytime you see — I’m living proof of that. I just spoke of how seeing Bobby Lashley do the things when I was growing up, and Booker T, and how it not only just made me love professional wrestling even more, but it made me even more motivated to know, like, ‘Hey, somebody like me is doing this at this high level, I can do the same thing.’ So I’m walking, living proof that, you know? It all matters and it’s a good time in the industry,” Ford continued. “It’s a good time to show what we can do. Our backgrounds, and they’re all different, they all have their own different stories. The thing that they share is the common hue, but besides that, they all have different stories, and I am very excited to see how everyone tells those different stories.“
