Tessa Blanchard made her return to TNA Wrestling at TNA Final Resolution. Blanchard parted ways with TNA in 2020 despite being the reigning TNA World Champion at the time.
In January 2020, Blanchard was accused of bullying and using racist language towards La Rosa Negra. Chelsea Green and Gigi Dolin were among the women who claimed they were bullied and put down by Blanchard. Blanchard originally denied the accusations. Allysin Kay originally spoke out against Tessa after Tessa tweeted about supporting women.
Fightful Select reported Jordynne Grace had pushed back on working with Blanchard and that news of her return were kept away from the roster due to fear of backlash.
Speaking to Kevin Kellam of Sportskeeda, Tessa was asked about the locker room reaction to her return.
"First and foremost, a lot of people, you can tell them the sky is green and they would believe it. There are a lot of stories and things out there that, I read it and, 'this came out of left field, I don't even know where they cooked this up.' There are some stories where there is 20% truth to something and some things got completely twisted in telephone, telegram, tell a wrestler. As far as the locker room, everyone is going to feel something or think something. A lot of people were fed a story from someone who is no longer with the company, that is completely not true and completely manipulated into something that it wasn't. Now, the conversations that I need to have, or feel I need to have, I'm having them. There are a lot of one-sided things out in the public, and my side has never really been told. My side has never really been shared with a lot of these people. When I left wrestling for around three years, I was in a mental state where I didn't want to see a wrestling ring, I didn't want to talk about wrestling, I didn't want to see anyone that had to do with the wrestling world. I completely cut it off, deleted certain social media that were bad. I was getting flooded with messages, and my family as well, that no person or 14-year-old little sister should have to read. It was better for me to separate myself. I went back to college. I joined Army ROTC, I'm going after my Global Affairs degree now, and I know who I am without wrestling. That's what I didn't know before. Everything in my life was wrestling, and when you lose that thing that is absolutely everything to you, you better know who you are because if you fall, you fall hard.
"Now, I'm coming back and I know who Tessa is without wrestling. I'm an absolute force, but I'm a different woman. For anyone in the locker room, any fans who want to judge me or think that they know me or know truth about a certain situation that quite possibly, people need to look at a situation and think, 'maybe this could have been manipulated,' or every reaction has a reaction. A lot of things get turned into something it's not. For me, it's easier to let people think what they think than to defend myself, at the time, which maybe isn't the best answer, and maybe I haven't always made the right decsions, but that's the way my head was at the time and we move on from there.
"As far as the locker room, there are a lot of people who have never had an experience with me, it's a whole different company now, and this was around four or five years ago that I was even in IMPACT. You're not the same person you were two months ago, a year ago, and all of these people are going to have to relearn who Tessa Blanchard is. I'm okay with that. I'm no stranger to hard work. I've always said my last name doesn't do much for me because once you get in the ring, it doesn't take the bumps for you, it doesn't drive the miles for you, it doesn't pay the bills for you. It's your training and what you are able to do in there. I always heard it's who you know to get there and what you can do to stay there. When I moved to Mexico to go to CMLL, it was the same story. I had to start over from scratch and relearn a whole new style. I had to make new friends and redefine who Tessa Blanchard is. That didn't scare me. Hard work doesn't scare me. Starting over from the ground and working up doesn't scare me. That might intimidate a lot of people, so if someone is intimated, it's easier to villainize a person. That's okay with me. Whatever you or anyone else thinks about me, that has everyting to do with you, but nothing to do with me.
Tessa is set to face Jordynne Grace at TNA Genesis on Sunday, January 19.
Fans can check out the lineup for the show by clicking here.
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