Nyla Rose on Why She Keeps Her Gender Identity Out of Wrestling, Signing With AEW

AEW star Nyla Rose recently appeared on The Sessions with Renée Paquette to discuss a variety of topics. Here are some of the highlights:

Signing with AEW:

“It was absolutely wild. I never in a million years thought anything like this would happen. So during that period (before AEW), I was in a slump, grinding away on the Indies, trying to make a name for yourself, and reaching out to some of the bigger name promotions. I’m either getting no sold, or, we don’t have anything. I’m like, you gotta have something, like you’re bringing in people who I know for a fact have only trained for three months. We’re gonna talk about some hard stuff, elephant in the room, I don’t know if this is a black thing, if this is a lady thing, if it’s a trans thing, but it’s definitely a thing why you’re not hiring me and I would prefer a more direct absolute answer instead of this run around, because now I have to come back and bug you again in a few weeks. I’m not going anywhere. Give me some table scraps. Give me a dark match. Let me prove my worth.”

“I respect them more when they’re like, ‘Hey, we can’t use you. We totally respect your trans identity, but we don’t know what to do with that.’ I can respect that direct answer. First of all, it’s not filled with hate. You’re saying, ‘Hey, I respect you for what you’re doing. I just don’t know what to do with that.’ That’s a very honest answer. You’re looking me in my face. You’re telling me that I can respect that. But when you’re giving me the runaround, kind of shaking me off, that messes with your mind.”

Keeping her gender identity out of her wrestling character:

“The answer is very simple and I wish it was a little bit more in depth for you, but I don’t win matches with my gender. It’s not important. I also feel like on a theatrical level, it’s not entertaining. It’s important as a fact of who I am, but what I do in the ring, and the reason that I’m performing, the reason that I’m out there wrestling, it has no bearing on that whatsoever. So why make it a part of the character? It’s part of who I am, but not what I do.”

You can listen to the interview below:


(H/T to WrestlingNews.co for quotes)