The WWE hired its first Black female referee, Aja Smith.

The wrestling organization announced the news via a touching video posted on YouTube. It showed Smith going through training with several other female referee recruits. Smith was seen working out and refereeing a few matches.


"Referees are really the unsung heroes and they put in so much work and they're seemingly invisible, but without them there would be no wrestling, honestly," Smith said in the video.

The video showed the moment Smith found out she would become the first Black woman to become a WWE referee. She burst into tears the moment Canyon Ceman, WWE senior director of talent development, told her the good news.

“That is the greatest moment of my life,” she said. “It’s something I never thought of and just to think to myself I’m going to be the first African American female referee in WWE.”

Smith previously wrestled under the name Aja Perera, according to CNN. Earning this position has been a long road for Smith, who revealed she missed out on valuable time with her sick mother to train. She thought she was going to lose her mother and considered missing a championship match, but she persisted.

“She looked at me, even in the hospital bed, and she was like ‘Aja, you need to go. Life goes on. I want you to go,’” a tearful Smith recalled. She won the match and vowed to keep going to honor her mother.

“I promised her, at that moment, this is not wasted. I didn’t miss that day with her for nothing,” she continued. “I worked for this. I earned this. I deserve this.”

In the next scene, she told her family, who responded with tears and cheers.

“Having this platform as a female, as a female of color, is really an honor,” she said. “I’m so thankful to be given this moment.”

Smith also reveled in the moment on her Twitter page.

"Your love and support over the years has gotten me to this moment,” she wrote. “This is bigger than me. To follow a dream. TO MAKE HISTORY. And I'm just getting started. We can do it all and I'm honored to be lighting the way. Let's change the world! #BlackGirlMagic.”

Smith is only the second woman to become a referee for WWE. The first was Jessika Carr, who ended her tenure in November, according to the video.