Oklahoma Athletic Commission Issues Warning to AEW Over Allowing Nyla Rose to Compete at AEW/ROH Event in State, Nyla Rose & Tony Khan Responds

Journalist Collen Welcher reported on Twitter that the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission had warned AEW this past January over issues involving Nyla Rose competing in a match at their December 20th AEW Dynamite, Rampage, and ROH TV tapings in the state.

These issues reportedly revolved around AEW violating the OSAC’s rules over them allowing Rose, who is a transgendered woman, to compete in a match against a cisgendered woman. Rose had wrestled against indie talent Alejandra Lion in a match for ROH TV.

Welcher reported that the meetings from an OSAC’s meeting on January 3rd stated that OSAC Administrator Jim Miller was informed by a local promotion that AEW had used Rose for a match at their tapings. Miller stated that he had called AEW to inform them what they had done was a violation of the OSAC’s rules and warned that there will be punitive action against the company if they allow this to happen again in the future.

OSAC Chairman Mike Bower stated during the meeting that the current wrestling applications in the state currently do not ask if someone has had gender reassignment surgery while their boxing, kickboxing, and MMA applications do. Bower recommended that the OSAC update their wrestling application form to include this question going forward.

I just received the minutes from the January 3, 2024 Oklahoma State Athletic Commission meeting regarding @AEW and a match Nyla Rose had at their Dec. 20 show. The Commission decided to warn AEW against doing it again.@tylertalley22 pic.twitter.com/Hh66yzAE5l

— Colleen Welcher (@LeenProducer) April 17, 2024

Rose recently responded on Twitter about the OSAC’s warning to AEW stating “WHO THE FUCK WAS IT?!! Don’t worry Oklahoma I’ll find the dastardly Transgender that *checks notes* entertained fans!!! HOW DARE THEY MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY?!!!“

In an AEW Dynasty media scrum held earlier today, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts about the OSAC’s warning to the company over allowing Rose to wrestle and stated that he is in full support of Rose over the issue.

“I would like to talk about that story with the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission and the warning they issued against AEW when we featured Nyla Rose on the show last December. I was really surprised by this. It’s not something I was expecting, and, of course, I was disappointed by the commission’s position and by that warning. I don’t think we did anything wrong. I’m really shocked by it. I don’t think there should be discrimination against transgender wrestlers or transgender people at all. They have rights. To that end, I absolutely stand by Nyla Rose. AEW stands by Nyla Rose and all transgender people who want to play sports. This is wrestling. There was nothing wrong with it. Nyla Rose is a great wrestler and has been a great world champion. I love Nyla and working with Nyla. She has been a great part of our history. She was the first transgender world champion ever and is a great part of the AEW Together program. She does a ton for the community. She is a great person with a great heart. She is very supportive of the other wrestlers, one of the funniest people on social media. I personally have nominated Nyla to TBS for the best social media presence on more than one occasion over the years. She is an AEW original has been part of the team since 2019, going back to the first shows. Looking at everything Nyla has accomplished, to put that label on her, it’s not right. She is much more than that. She is a great athlete. I hope everybody can look at Nyla and see she is a great wrestler, a great person, and deserves the same chances as everybody else. If the AEW locker room, which consists of people from all over the world and all different backgrounds and beliefs, if everybody in the locker room can embrace Nyla, I would hope the Oklahoma commission can do the same thing.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about how he plans to address this issue going forward and if he will refrain from holding events in Oklahoma.

“All I can say is we have a great plan for our shows in 2024 and 2025. We have a great new team and take all of this into consideration. I treat it as a developing story. I’m kind of surprised by this but we definitely want to do our best to support the fans across America and all over the world and bring AEW wrestling everywhere we have great fans. We have great fans in Oklahoma, they are important to us. We’ll do anything we can to support those fans. It’s something we’re going to have to think about.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com