Although Nyla Rose became the first transgender woman to win the AEW Women's Championship, the company didn't make a giant spectacle of it and she's okay with that.
Rose became the second-ever AEW Women's Champion in February when she defeated Riho on Dynamite. In an interview with TV Insider, Rose says it's "welcoming" that AEW didn't make a big deal out of it and believes that by doing so, AEW is helping erase the stigma around transgender people.
"For me, it has been welcoming that they don’t make it a spectacle. They don’t make it a checkmark. It’s one of those things that is there. Everyone knows about it, but nobody talks about it. That’s not a matter of us wanting to be hush-hush or hide this. They’re not making it a thing because it shouldn’t be a thing. You are a person and a performer first. That’s what I love so much and makes me feel so proud to be part of this company because they are helping normalize these ideals. We don't even have a sense or consensus of how many trans people there are because so many people are afraid to speak out and speak up and live so openly," Rose said.
When it comes to appearing on television on a weekly basis, Rose says representation is important and with the platform that TNT provides AEW with further helps with eliminating the stigma.
"That’s because there is such a stigma of what being trans is. With representation on weekly television and with AEW being the company that it is on the scale that it is, with TNT and the scale they are on, they see me as a person. They see me as someone going out there and doing their job. The transness being secondary or even third to anything else. That is a beautiful statement. It shouldn’t matter and doesn’t. Hopefully, we can get to the point where people stop making it be the frontrunner," Rose said.
Rose recently defended her title against Kris Statlander at the AEW Revolution pay-per-view on February 29.
