Lily McKenzie makes history in first sanctioned intergender match
AACW Women's Champion Lily McKenzie made history last Saturday as she & AACW Television Champion Prophet, representing the House of Strange, defeated 3rd Rail and Lady Venom in the 1st legally sanctioned intergender match in Oklahoma.
Oklahoma Boxing commission rules have long stated that competitors in this state could only compete against members of the same gender. So if women and men were going to compete in the same match, it would have to be under Mixed Tag Team rules, where the men face the men and the women face the women. But those rules were recently modified and now, women and men are going to be able to get it on.
This is not to say that Lily has won the first ever intergender match held in Oklahoma. There have been many other intergender matches, but they were all held at shows which didn't charge admission and thus weren't subject to the Oklahoma Boxing Commission rules. Lily herself competed in one of those matches 2 years ago, teaming with Cade Sydal and losing to Jessi Jersey & current CXW X-Core Champion Timothy J. Rockwell, then known as Timmy J.
Lily and Prophet did not have an easy road to victory in this historic first match. Lily was manhandled, quite literally, by 3rd Rail and worked over by Venom before being deposited outside the ring where fellow House of Strange member Overdose tended to her. Prophet held his own for a while, but the double teaming (actually, triple teaming when the influence and interference of manager Tommy D is figured in) almost got the best of the big man. Luckily for him, a mistimed splash in the corner by 3rd Rail resulted in Venom being knocked out and Lily making it into the ring to cover her and gain the victory. 3rd Rail and Prophet still have issues to resolve on their own surrounding the AACW Television Title and those issues might come to a head at AACW's TV Tapings on October 15. Prophet posted a very simple and direct message on the AACW message board today, saying "3rd Rail, Name the time and place and the belt will be on the line". 3rd Rail or any other member of Corporate America has yet to reply.
As for Lily, where does she go from here? She certainly has no problem facing Jessica (the former Jessi Jersey) in the ring in AACW. And now, the announcement has been made that P.I.N.K. Nation is set to reappear in the state at the COMPOUND/FCW show on September 16. Will Lily join her former stablemates and bring down another federation? And just which members of P.I.N.K. Nation are coming in from Cancun? Oklafan will bring you more information as this story develops.
Addendum: Oklafan has had information sent in that indicates these wrestlers are NOT the first competitors to actually participate in an intergender match in Oklahoma. Back in the days of PZWA, intergender matches were allowed (because there was no commission) and Venom defended the PZWA Light Heavyweight Title against men regularly. Also, earlier this year, Crystal Lights defeated Shane Matthews in an Intergender Match. So Lily's match is the first in AACW, but not the first in the state.
