So, yesterday I published an article on Jordan Myles. To summarize, they produced a T-Shirt for the winner of the NXT Breakout Tournament that he has since declared to be racist. He did so publicly, calling them out on twitter for their racial insensitivity.
As noted, a very upset Myles had known about the shirt for some time, probably around the point of August. This was when it was announced that NXT would be jumping to USA, and an influx of new shirts were created in very short order, the first round of merch for many, many new talents. To me, that’s the main reason this hastily designed shirt was both conceived of and went unnoticed.
My main gripe yesterday, and still today, is less with the shirt’s existence and more WWE’s response to it, both in what we’ve seen and in what can be inferred. Though all signs pointed to him being set for a big push, Myles has not appeared on NXT TV since his title match with Adam Cole, which was taped on August 15th and aired on September 4th. This was of course the final taping for NXT before it’s jump to going live, meaning Myles has yet to actually appear on the USA Network.
It’s difficult for me to see that as a coincidence. For that to seemingly coincide with this scenario was a bad look for WWE, who at the time of that article being published had yet to issue any form of a response.
That has since changed.
WWE have since issued the following statement:
“Albert Hardie Jr. (aka Jordan Myles) approved this t-shirt for sale. As always, we work collaboratively with all of our performers to develop logos and merchandise designs and get their input and approval before proceeding. This was the same process with Albert, and we responded swiftly once he later requested that the logo/t-shirt be redesigned. No t-shirts were sold.”
This would seem to be directly contradicting Myles’ side of the story. He made it sound as though he hadn’t approved of the design on any level, and that WWE had gone ahead producing the shirt in spite of his concerns.
So, goes without saying, this is going to be an issue going forward. If that wasn’t clear enough before, it certainly is now. WWE has made it clear that Myles and the company he works for are very much on different sides here. And that’s different sides on what is a pretty damn serious matter, regardless of whether or not it was born of ignorance. This is likely to get messy.
All that I can say is that whether or not you agree with Myles’ point of view, you should never discourage people from coming forward with things like this. If racial insensitivity is spotted, it should be highlighted, or else it’ll be allowed to survive in the shadows forever.
The irony of this story dropping on the same week as Crown Jewel is not lost on me, but that’s for another day…
