Tessa Blanchard touches on a variety of subjects during a signing.
After nearly two years of not competing, Tessa Blanchard returned to the ring this past summer. In early 2020, she was with IMPACT Wrestling and became the company’s world champion. That relationship was terminated in the months following as a result of multiple wrestlers coming forward and accusing Blanchard of bullying and making racially offensive remarks in the past.
Blanchard dove into multiple pro wrestling-related topics as she was doing a virtual signing for RDP Promotions. Back in March 2021, a photo was posted of Blanchard, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Samuray Del Sol and others training at the Hybrid School of Wrestling in San Antonio, Texas.
A chat user told Blanchard they are waiting on the match between her and Banks. Blanchard said maybe one day it’ll happen and that she has good in-ring chemistry with both Banks and Bayley.
You know, her [Sasha Banks] and I trained together a few times in San Antonio when they came to visit; her and Kalisto, and her and I have really good in-ring chemistry. Same with Bayley. Super fun training sessions. So, maybe one day [we’ll go one-on-one].
Elsewhere during the signing, Blanchard told the story of her first dark match for Lucha Underground. She suffered a cracked collarbone and said the individual she was wrestling, who she opted not to name, never said a word to her afterwards.
Blanchard explained that the injury led to her falling into a depressed-like state. She said the wrestler did not like her very much. The first match she had in Lucha Underground was a dark match against Ivelisse in 2016.
I’ve got [a tattoo] on my collarbone here underneath my surgery scar. So my shoulder’s metal from here all the way over. Yeah. I’ve got a titanium rod, seven screws. Funny story, it was my audition for Lucha Underground in — I don’t even remember what year. It may have been 2015, 2016? I could be wrong. But it was a dark match and I wrestled a girl and this girl did not like me very much and [I] ended up getting hurt [Blanchard laughed]. That’s an off-camera conversation [who the person is]… Yeah, yeah, she is [known]… After that, I had to go to the hospital and they told me, ‘Oh, nothing’s wrong. It’s cracked but it’s gonna have to heal itself’ so I walked around tapings all day in a sling the next day. This girl didn’t say two words to me, nothing. Didn’t say, ‘Hey, how are you? Sorry that happened. What did the doctor –’ nothing. Literally would just walk past me in catering, and to this day has still never said anything about it, and then we — well, that’s another [story]. But I went back home and I was like, I know my body. I know something’s wrong. I saw the doctors and they were like, ‘Oh, you need surgery tomorrow.’ They were like, ‘If you don’t have this surgery tomorrow, you’re never gonna lift your arm.’ So what happened was my collarbone cracked in half. This half went down and it went into my chest three centimeters so it was stacked on top of each other. They had to pull it out, reattach it and it was a screw going through it and then screws on each side of it and they told me I could’ve gotten it removed and whatnot but it’s stronger than ever now. It only bothers me in the cold a little bit but, that was tough because I was out for six-to-eight months maybe and my mom said that I was like a zombie. I was on pain medicine and I was barely eating. I got down to about 110 pounds just ‘cause I could only… I was depressed. Nothing I couldn’t handle or whatnot but those feelings just like, you don’t feel like yourself and my boyfriend at the time broke up with me the day after my surgery and I’m just sitting in a recliner, I can only sleep sitting straight up and I was only eating applesauce and oh, it was a real messed up time.
Back in 2020, an image of Blanchard on her knees in front of the IMPACT World Title was used for the WWE Battlegrounds game. Tessa gave her reaction to that:
What video game was this in for WWE? [Blanchard thinking of WWE Battlegrounds] WWE used this image and turned it into Becky Lynch for one of their video games. Yes. It was the one that came out last year. I believe last year.
The idea of a match between Blanchard and Charlotte Flair was brought up. Tessa said it’s one that people have been suggesting for years.
Tessa versus Charlotte [Flair]. That is a match people have been talking about for like nine years now.
Ric [Flair] was talking about it actually recently. He said the same thing.
It’s funny because we grew up down the street from each other so, we can both stake our claim to the Carolinas.
Blanchard expressed that wrestling is not her main priority at the moment as she is focusing on school.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit RDP Promotions with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
