Cody & Brandi talk Nyla Rose.
All Elite Wrestling has heavily pushed that the promotion is all-inclusive, and nothing says that more than Nyla Rose, a transgender woman, being one of the featured wrestlers in the promotion. However, AEW Co-Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes and Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes want to make it clear that Nyla is not in her current position because she is transgender, praising her more for her work than anything.
"I don't know if we've told the real story with Nyla Rose. When we hired Nyla Rose, we did not know she was transgender. We thought she was one of the best wrestlers we ever saw. That was that. It later was revealed to us that she was transgender and that's great," Brandi told Collider Live.
Brandi continued, revealing that she found out Nyla was transgender "via the internet. I was getting floods of tweets from people of the LGTBQ community saying 'thank you, thank you.' And I'm saying, 'For what?' Then I found that out. She opened up to me and talked about it, and it was fantastic. However, it's nothing to do with anything. She's just a fantastic competitor. Kenny Omega was the one who found her and said, 'take a look at her.' None of us knew."
Cody added, "There's no attempt to check a box."
Brandi stated that it is up to Nyla if and when she wants to tell her story.
Rose came under heavy criticism after sending a hurtful tweet, which was quickly deleted, aimed at a user who attacked her for being transgender. She issued an apology for the tweet, which you can view here.
Rose is scheduled to face Riho for the vacant AEW Women's Title on Oct. 2 episode of AEW Dynamite.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit Collider Live with a h/t to Fightful for the transcription.