Tessa Blanchard found herself in the headlines for the wrong reasons on Saturday when multiple wrestlers came forward and accused her of bullying and racism.
Allysin Kay first shed light on the controversy, tweeting, "Remember when you spat in a black woman’s face and called her the N-word in Japan?" after Tessa tried to unite female athletes by tweeting, "Hey women, try supporting one another. Cool things happen."
The incident is a reference to Tessa allegedly spitting on La Rosa Negra and calling her the racist term. Kay confirmed the incident in question after Negra stepped forward and revealed herself as the wrestler who was allegedly spat on by Tessa. You can find a full recap of the situation by clicking here.
In an interview with Contralona, La Rosa shed some extra light on the indecent.
"When I saw those tweets, I was in shock and impressed because, since 2017, people have been pushing me to speak about something that isn't necessary. I don't like to talk about my personal life. I keep myself private. Reading all those fellow wrestlers tweets that supported me, and reading their names...it surprised me. Tweets from Renee Michelle, Sienna, Chelsea Green, Shanna and other female wrestlers about the comment made to me. And reading other non wrestlers comments, I said 'I have to do something' because it wasn't how it says it was. Maybe people took it wrong. I don't want to be overexposed with this. Female wrestlers know what really happened and why I didn't say anything. Now, I want to clear things up."
She continued, "I respected my work everywhere. About the comment, that every female has to respect themselves, it is right. But it didn't come from the right person. Working in the US and Japan, I didn't disrespect anybody. No female wrestlers, promoters, sponsors or any fan. That's not me. People who know me know how I am. And the people I've worked for; NWA, Ring Warriors, Battling Bombshells, SHINE, Stardom, Marvelous, everywhere I've worked, they can tell you how I behave. I don't like to talk mean about people. You won't hear me talk bad about other wrestlers. I was there supporting people that helped me or didn't. Because when you're part of this business, you focus on yourself, your work, and work with respect. I don't expect to receive any apologies. It's not necessary. I erased what happened. I gave it to God. I took it out of myself. It saddens me that racism, envy, and bad things exist in sports. It is always there. As adults, when something bad happens, we can resolve things by talking. There's always a solution. Mine was to forget what happened in that April 2017 in Japan.
"I think this is a good experience for me because, now I know that I had a lot of backup. It is impressive. I didn't know so many people knew about the situation until the Twitter thing. I feel fulfilled and tickled. I feel good and I know I achieved what I wanted. And nothing will dull everything I achieved alone."
La Rosa did not mention Tessa by name in the interview or detail the incident.
Tessa has denied the allegations but issued no further public comment. She delivered a post-match promo after winning the IMPACT World Title at Hard to Kill, where she said "nobody is perfect." She did not outright address the allegations in the promo. You can view the full promo by clicking here.
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