FOX 25 in Oklahoma City has recently published a report with an update on gender rules for wrestling in the state.
A state commission that oversees wrestling in Oklahoma is said to be still conflicted about whether to allow women and men to fight each other in professional wrestling promotions.
The conflict came about after AEW’s Nyla Rose, who is transgender, wrestled Alejandra Lion in a match last December at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. The match was taped for an episode of Ring of Honor to air at a later date on the ROH HonorClub streaming platform. Oklahoma’s State Athletic Commission has a rule that prohibits intergender matches in the state.
This past July, the commission held a meeting to discuss if the rule should be changed or not. However, a decision never came to fruition. The commission had a long meeting on Tuesday, which included further discussion again about changing the rule.
Some of the commission members said during the meeting that a rule change would violate a recent law that states athletes must play on a team matching their biological sex. However, there were other members of the commission which noted the law is not applicable for that of professional wrestling.
During the meeting, Commissioner Michael Stopp spoke at length about the rule, stating the subject or issue of intergender matches might get too political if the commission did end up changing the rule on its own. “Even if they are defined by statute as male and female, are we still going to allow them to wrestle together…That’s the question, and it’s going to get lost. The rule will never pass.”
After the very long meeting, the commission ultimately voted to approve for asking the Oklahoma State Legislature to take up the issue in an upcoming legislative hearing.
FOX 25 also noted in their article, Logan Knight who a professional wrestler told them that he does not think the rule change should be political because wrestling is technically not a sport, but entertainment derived from a sport that is meant to entertain.
Knight filmed and posted the portion of the commission meeting related to the intergender rule to his YouTube channel. You can watch the video below: