AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
In what has to be one of the bigoted, overreaching, and
idiotic actions by a governmental agency in recent memory,
Oklahoma's State Athletic Commission "warned" AEW about
having Nyla Rose compete against cisgender women in the
state....and more as you'll read below.
The Real Rasslin' UK website originally dug up this story
from minutes from the Commision’s meeting from January. In
the meeting, the Commission voted to warn AEW about having
Rose wrestle cisgender women in the state or “there will be
punitive action made against them.” Mind you, the minutes of
the meeting incorrectly refer to Nyla Rose as "he" and
"him". The actual law prohibits inter-gender wrestling, so
the law is being used to justify banning Rose for "being a
man" wrestling a woman. More on that later.
AEW held its first and only event in the state December 20,
2023 at Holiday Bash with a Dynamite/Rampage/Ring of Honor
event. Nyla Rose defeated Alejandra Lion in a match for Ring
of Honor TV.
The wrestler in that match, Alejandra Lion said the
following:
"Truly at a loss of words, reading this breaks my heart!
They’re talking about my match against @NylaRoseBeast at
@ringofhonor last year!
Nyla is seriously one of the SAFEST and SWEETEST wrestlers I
have ever been in the ring with and she does not deserve
this kind of hate!!!"
A local promotion (still undisclosed) stooged out AEW to
State Athletic Commission Administrator Jim Miller, who then
called AEW, telling them that what they had done was a
violation of Commission rules. Mike Bower, the Commission
chairman, noted that wrestling applications in Oklahoma do
not ask if a wrestler has had gender reassignment surgery,
while boxing, kickboxing, and MMA applications and
recommended that they update the wrestling application to
include this question.
The Oklahoman newspaper posted an article about the State
banning trans athletes on competitive sports teams in April
2021. The athletic commission in their application denotes
males as having XY chromosomes and females as having XX
chromosomes. Here is an excerpt from the state regulation:
"92:10-1-5. (c) The Commission will not approve
sanctioning permits between human participants and non-
humans or between males and females. A male participant is a
person of the heterogametic sex born with XY chromosomes. A
female participant is a person born of the homogametic sex
with XX chromosomes."
Further, according to OutSports, the Oklahoma State Athletic
Commissions Act provides penalties where any person found to
violate OSAC rules faces a misdemeanor conviction, can be
fined up to $1,000 and spend up to 30 days in jail.
Violators could also face an additional fine of up to $500
or up to 1% of gross revenues received pending a commission
hearing.
Besides the fact of their bigoted definition of what they
define to be male and female being beyond ludicrous; there's
the stupidity that a state athletic commission is asserting
the right to make laws of any type at all regarding
performance art. I'm sure the taxpayers of Oklahoma are
happy knowing that their taxes are being used to determine
who participates in a performance.
Fan response online has been almost universally positive
toward Rose, and condemning the Oklahoma Commission (yes,
there are the handful of bigots to the contrary).
During the Dynasty media call, Tony Khan responded clearly
and forcefully to the question on the situation by
Wrestlejoy's Amy Nemmity:
"I don't think there should be discrimination against
transgender wrestlers, or transgender people at all. I
absolutely stand by Nyla Rose. AEW stands by Nyla Rose, and
all transgender people in wrestling. I was really surprised
by this after our show in December of 2023. It was not
something I was expecting, and of course, I was disappointed
by this commission's decision, and that warning.
Nyla is a great part of our history. She was the first
transgender champion, ever. She's done a lot of work with
the AEW Together community. She is a great person, with a
great heart. I personally have nominated Nyla to TBS as the
best social media presence for a number of years.
The first Dynamite, the first shows... look at everything
Nyla has accomplished. To just put that label on her, that's
not right. She's so much more than that. I hope everybody
can look at Nyla. She's a great person, and she deserves
these chances. The AEW locker room has people from all
backgrounds, all beliefs. If the AEW locker room can
embrace Nyla, I'd hope the Oklahoma State Commission can as
well.
Nyla will be a special guest host for the PPV (dot) com AEW
Dynasty PPV event, and we're very excited that she accepted
the invitation.
I think the world of Nyla Rose."
He did not comment on whether or not he'd choose to run
shows again in the state of Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, Rose thanked fans for their support on Twitter in
separate tweets Wednesday:
"Hey… ummmm... i’m busy at work right now, but I just
wanted to let you all know I see the love, and I feel the
love and I appreciate all of you...."
"This is almost as bad as the birthday messages... I’m
trying to get through all the messages but I can’t keep up
and I know I’m missing a bunch of y'all. And I’m sorry. But
I appreciate everyone for all the support and love I am
probably dehydrated from all the happy crying."
I'm asking readers to please contact the Oklahoma State
Athletic Commission at boxing@health.ok.gov. or on
Instagram: @healthyoklahoma
Let them know your feelings as a human being and as a
wrestling fan.
The Oklahoma State Athletic Commission’s next meeting is on
July 10 at the Oklahoma Commons Building, 123 Robert S.
Kerr/28th floor, Room 1 Oklahoma City, OK 73102
