Rose looks back on the situation.
It was in late December 2023 that Nyla Rose was in action at an ROH on HonorClub taping in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She wrestled Alejandra Quintanilla.
The Oklahoma State Athletic Commission would go on to issue a warning to AEW about Rose, who is a transgender woman, wrestling a cisgender woman. They relayed to the company to not do that again or punitive action would be taken against them.
AEW President Tony Khan, Gisele Shaw and Jordynne Grace among others showed their support for Nyla. She spoke about that ordeal while sitting down with Renee Paquette for her ‘Close Up’ show. Rose shared that she was made aware that the news was coming out shortly before it broke. She praised AEW for shielding her from it. The former AEW Women’s World Champion joked that it frustrated her to see so many people backing her because she had to become a babyface.
Where do we even start with that? (Rose reacted to the Oklahoma Athletic Commission issuing a warning to AEW about her wrestling a cisgender woman) It’s such a crazy, crazy situation. It definitely caught me blindsided. I had no idea any of that was going on… Several weeks after we had been there but kudos to our company and to our team who was like the ozone layer, up there protecting me and I guess us from it but I had no idea that was even going on. They’re like, ‘Hey, something’s coming out. You should be aware of this.’ Right before (it came out is when I found out), only because it was gonna hit the news-news but our team was up there defending and protecting is what I’m saying and then it was like, ‘Hey, okay, listen, we gotta rope you in. This is what’s been going on, this is what we’ve been dealing with.’
I was frustrated (that everyone had my back) because it forced me to turn baby. I had some very evil plans on the table and everybody was so nice and loving and accepting and supportive that I had no choice. I had no choice so the evil cloak has been put away for a while. I owe you guys because you were so good to me.
Earlier in the chat, Rose spoke candidly when asked if she feels she’s been miscast as a television character. She then touched on the idea of a potential babyface run in AEW.
So the short answer is yes. But I don’t think I’ve been miscast per se. When AEW first started, we needed someone like me, the big meanie… But characters evolve over time and I think we are at that point now. If anything, I would say missed opportunities. I think, and I’m sure a lot of fans agree, I see the tweets and the fans have been wanting this for a while and we try to get things going into that direction but for one reason or another, there was always a detour. So things got a little delayed but I think we’re on that track now. I just wish we could have done it a little sooner. I had some antics and ideas to go along with but… Absolutely can go back to them.
Rose has been part of AEW since the launch year in 2019. She became the first openly transgender wrestler to sign with a major American wrestling company.
She was in action on the 6/19 Dynamite in an Owen Hart Cup quarterfinal match against Kris Statlander.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Close Up w/ Renee Paquette with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
