All Elite Wrestling's Nyla Rose has opened up on being the first transgender to sign on with the promotion.
Rose, who hails from Washington D.C, became the first transgender wrestler to join a major company and made her AEW debut at Double or Nothing last month.
Having signed a full-year contract that sees her make history, Rose spoke to Sports Illustrated about her journey and what it means to her to become one of the first to represent such a large group of people.
“As much negativity that I do see, I do see much more love and acceptance,” she told the publication. “It’s just that sadly negative things seem to get highlighted more than positive things.
”If I can bear the weight, if I can hold up all the hatred and everything and carry that on my back, I know that I’m strong enough to do it,” she said. “If the people out there need to beat me up and I need to absorb that so that the next generation, the youth, can have an easier time, I gladly welcome that.”
Rose says she's also looking to help set the tone for other wrestlers to be able to pursue their dreams no matter their gender or sexuality. And she's asking for fans to be open-minded, urging them to give her a chance to display her talent.
“I’m really hoping to set the tone and set the pace and create that environment that’s going to fuel the next generation,” she continued. “Not just trans people, but inspire anybody to say, ‘Hey, these women lit that on fire. I want to be that. I want to do that.'”
“AEW has felt that I am worthy of a chance. All I can ask is that some of the people out there, the fans who might be a little bit tight-minded, just give me a chance to show you what I can do in the ring. That’s all.”
To AEW's credit, they never made a point of making it known that they had signed a transgender wrestler. They did not use her signing to promote Double or Nothing either, simply focusing on the show and the match she was involved in.