Tessa Blanchard talks intergender wrestling and more.
Over the last year, Tessa Blanchard has become arguably the biggest star in IMPACT Wrestling. She headlined Slammiversary in July, taking on Sami Callihan in an intergender match. Despite coming up short in the match, Blanchard earned the respect of Callihan and even more fans for her effort.
“I think times are changing, and I’m excited I get to be part of that change,” Blanchard told TV Insider. “Some may say I am that change. That’s something that is extremely invaluable to me. Just like any style of wrestling, some may like it and some may not. There is strong style, lucha libre, all different styles of wrestling and intergender wrestling. I think there are some incorrect approaches to it, but if done correctly, I think it can be a really cool thing. I’ve proven through some matches that I can go out there and someone who hated intergender wrestling will come to me to say, ‘Now I get it.’ That’s amazing to me.”
Blanchard continued, "To have a match and go out there and tear the house down and it not get looked at as a man versus a woman but two professional wrestlers out there killing it, it’s something that is cool to me. And I worked so hard to be placed in that position. I don’t think there needs to be a definitive title. As a woman, I think you can go out there and compete realistically against other male competitors and go after a title in that way.”
As the daughter of Tully Blanchard and the step-daughter of Magnum TA, wrestling runs in Tessa's blood. And she wants to be considered "real" the same way her two fathers were.
“That’s something that I want in my matches. I want people to say, ‘Tessa Blanchard, that was real.’ I would watch a lot of old school wrestling with my father and stepfather to help learn and hone my craft and get that across in my own wrestling."
Along with her duties in IMPACT Wrestling, Tessa is the current Women of Wrestling Champion. The second season of WOW is set to premiere on Sept. 7 on AXS.
