Tessa Blanchard reflects on her main-event match at Slammiversary.
IMPACT Wrestling's 15th anniversary of their Slammiversary event commenced and concluded this past Sunday and the headlining bout of the night pitted o.V.e. leader Sami Callihan against former IMPACT Knockouts Champion Tessa Blanchard in what was the first inter-gender main event match in pay-per-view history. Tessa Blanchard battled Callihan but in the end, it was Callihan delivering a piledriver to Tessa to secure the victory. Following the match, Sami Callihan showed a sign of respect to his opponent by handing her the baseball bat she brought to the ring.
Tessa joined Busted Open Radio to reflect on the match she had with Callihan and shared with Dave LaGreca and Bully Ray that she did not know she was closing the show until the day of.
“Oh, I loved Slammiversary. It was just… it was a really neat thing. I didn’t expect to be in the main event. I didn’t know that they were gonna change everything and put us in the main event. So that was really, really cool for me. A girl has never done that in IMPACT yet so, that was really neat. Its been a important thing for me this year -- I really wanna make history in my own way so it’s like a little baby step towards doing that I feel like.” She said.
Bully Ray asked Tessa if she was concerned about stepping into the ring with Callihan considering that Callihan can be an aggressive wrestler. Blanchard stated that she was not nervous because she wrestles men consistently and added that she is aggressive as well in her own way.
“You know, someone asked me that before but, I don’t think I was really because, I’m used to being in there with the guys and I know that Sami’s aggressive and now I know better than anyone that Sami is so aggressive. He’s one of the most aggressive people I’ve ever been in the ring with but, I feel like I’m confident enough in myself to get in there and hold my own because I can be just as aggressive, in my own way.” She explained.
To hear some thoughts and opinions about IMPACT's Slammiversary XVII pay-per-view, check out Fightful's post-Slammiversary review podcast.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Busted Open Radio with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.
