Oklahoma commission issues warning against All Elite Wrestling after intergender match

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — All Elite Wrestling has been warned by a little-known state commission not to have certain matches in the state again.

All Elite Wrestling, a professional wrestling company based in Jacksonville, Florida, held its first-ever show in the state of Oklahoma on December 20, 2023.

During that show, a famous transgender wrestler, Nyla Rose, had a match against a cisgender wrestler, Alejandra Lion. Rose defeated Lion.

Commissioners believe that was against the rules created by the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission (OSAC), which oversees wrestling, boxing and kickboxing in the state.

There is a ban on intergender matches in Oklahoma, according to the OSAC's rules:

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.

At the OSAC's January 3rd meeting, the Nyla Rose match was brought up for discussion.

According to minutes from the meeting, Joe Miller, the Administrator of the OSAC, said they had no idea about the match until they were notified by a local wrestling organization.

The local wrestling organization reached out to OSAC because they had previously held an intergender match. That organization later acknowledged what happened and told the OSAC they would "refrain from doing it again in the future."

Mike Bower, chairman of the commission, said that wrestling applications don't ask if someone has had gender reassignment surgery. Bower explained that OSAC boxing, kickboxing and MMA applications do ask that question.

Bower recommended they update wrestling applications to ask that question.

According to the minutes from the meeting, the commission ended up voting to warn AEW "not to do this again or there will be punitive action made against them".

Miller said he had spoken with AEW about the match and explained it violated OSAC rules.

The warning isn't sitting right with local wrestlers in the sooner state like Logan Knight.

"It's disgusting, honestly," Knight said. "I know this is more of a political stance. Professional wrestling is professional wrestling, but it's dumb. Transgender people should be able to wrestle whoever they want. In wrestling, you should truly be able to wrestle whoever you want."

Knight says he's among the group of wrestlers fighting off the OSAC.

"We're not voiceless. The people, they have a voice. Obviously you can only do so much with social media. As much as I keep barking on social media, it's bound to fall into the right person's lap and get in front of the right eyes. Maybe we can get some actual support to actually legally take the Commission down."

Nyla Rose tweeted about the warning from OSAC, saying in part:

Don’t worry Oklahoma, I’ll find the dastardly Transgender that *checks notes* entertained fans!!! HOW DARE THEY MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY?!!!

Rose's opponent in that match at the Paycom Center, Alejandra Lion, shared support for Rose on Twitter:

Truly at a loss of words, reading this breaks my heart! 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!!!

FOX 25 reached out to AEW for comment. This article will be updated once a statement is received.