Last weekend, at F1ght Club Thriller, Suge D, better known to AEW fans as Pineapple Pete, had his years of hard work pay off when he officially became a world champion. In the main event, Suge defeated Darius Carter and Trish Adora to become the Pan-Afrikan World Diaspora World Champion, a title Adora was the first to hold and went on to successfully defend for over one thousand days against some of the industry’s top black talent. Some of the names she had a chance to defend against include Calvin Tankman, Big Swole, and Ashton Starr.
In a Haus of Wrestling exclusive interview, Suge opened up about the significance of the title he now holds.
“I know there’s definitely the pundits on the internet that are like, ‘A black wrestling title, why do we have a need for that?’ This, that, and the third, etcetera, etcetera,” he said. “It’s not a segregation thing. It’s not a separation thing. It’s a celebration thing, culturally, of melanin, of blackness, just of all those different shades in wrestling.”
Suge went on to discuss Mexican Lucha Libre and Japanese Strong Style wrestling and how culturally significant those are to the communities they emerged from. He hopes that the Pan-Afrikan World Diaspora Wrestling World Championship “is a celebration of what I’d like to think is the best in black wrestling.”
“The biggest thing to me is, aside from this being a PWI-recognized World Championship,” he said. “The other thing that I care about is with this, I have a responsibility not only of taking on the challenges of anybody with even a hint of melanin, who wants to challenge for this. But it’s up to me to go out and seek those challenges from some of the very best in black wrestling, and that’s not just in America; there are great black wrestlers in China, and there are great black wrestlers that are in the UK, and all over the world.
“And I want to create that opportunity to really get out here and travel with this title to show everybody what that’s all about. It’s a celebration at the end of the day. That’s what I care about.”
My full interview with Suge D will be released this Monday afternoon on the Haus of Wrestling YouTube channel and podcast feed.
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