AEW Spanish Broadcaster Willie Urbina Released After Mocking Hikaru Shida

UPATE: PWInsider reports that All Elite Wrestling (AEW) has confirmed the release of Spanish broadcaster Willie Urbina following last night’s incident. As noted by Hugo Savinovich below, Urbina was apparently not aware his microphone was on when the conversation was overheard during the FITE TV broadcast.

Urbina has previously worked for Impact Wrestling from 2006-2014 after getting into wrestling in IWA Puerto Rico and Carlos Colon’s World Wrestling Council He also did Spanish broadcasting work for NJPW previously.

ORIGINAL:During last night’s edition of AEW Dynamite, a clip has surfaced from the Spanish language broadcast on FITE TV for the show, which features Willie Urbina making fun of AEW Women’s World champion Hikaru Shida and mocking her Japanese accent. You can listen to the clip in question below.

Luis Pulido translated the exchange, where Alex Abrahantes asks Willie Urbina to translate for Shida’s promo. Thunder Rosa is also on the commentary team and appears to be telling them to stop in response to Urbina’s offensive impression of the champion. You can read the translated version of the exchange below (via Fightful):

Alex Abrahantes: “Do Shida.” (As in translate her promo)

Willie Urbina: Speaks incoherently using a stereotypical accent.

Thunder Rosa: “Shut up, holy crap!” (Laughs)

Willie Urbina: Continues on with accent.

Thunder Rosa: “I will throw the pen at you if you don’t stop.” (Said in a joking manner)

Dasha Kuret: “Stop it! You are mean.” (Seemingly addressing Urbina, sounding crossed about it)

The exchange reportedly took place during a commercial break before the segment on Dynamite where Hikaru Shida was presented with a new title belt. Those conversations were still audible on the FITE TV broadcast.

Hugo Savinovich later issued a tweet on the incident through the Lucha Libre Online account. It was later deleted. He stated the following (h/t Fightful for the translation):

“A friendly reminder to our friends at the Spanish commentary table of #AEW dynamite that while they are on commercial breaks, all the private conversation they are having is heard on FITE TV. That the microphones were open is not the fault of the commenters. Our intention was only to warn them and they have already managed to close the microphones for the commercial breaks. It was a production error. In fact, I noticed it when I switched the language to Spanish in the second hour.”

AEW and FITE TV have not yet commented on the situation.

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