SquaredCircle

Blanchard maps out her road to returning to TNA.

Tessa Blanchard is on record stating that she had conversations with TNA Wrestling in early 2024 around the time of the Hard To Kill pay-per-view in January. She ended up coming back in December of that year at the Final Resolution event.

She had last been with the promotion in 2020. The summer of that year, IMPACT/TNA terminated its relationship with Blanchard and stripped her of the World Title. Earlier that year, multiple wrestlers came forward and accused Blanchard of bullying and making racially offensive remarks in the past.

Blanchard opened up about the road to returning to TNA when she guest appeared on Refin’ It Up. She shared that she chatted with now-former TNA President Scott D’Amore and now-former Head of Talent Relations Gail Kim around the time of Hard To Kill 2024.

She stated that the terms to come back were a bit ‘insulting.’ She turned the offer down, and then the talks picked back up when Moose reached out and put her in contact with Ariel Shnerer, former Senior V.P. of Content, Distribution, and Marketing for Anthem Sports & Entertainment.

“It was kind of a crazy process (to return to TNA) so, when I was in Mexico, Scott D’Amore and Gail (Kim) had reached out for me to come back at Hard To Kill, like, a year before I actually agreed to come back and we got into a few talks or whatnot and honestly… oh, I hate saying it but it was a little bit insulting, even like the terms to come back, and I was like, you know what? I’m so happy right now, I’m so happy in Mexico and it’s taken a lot for me to get to this level of happiness in wrestling again. Because I had stepped away for quite a few years… I was like, if I feel in my gut that something doesn’t feel right, I’m going to listen to that and I promised myself that and so, I ended up — sure, coming back at Hard To Kill, that was where I won the World Title. How poetic, right? But I ultimately turned it down, and I felt confident in that decision. I went on to do more with CMLL and then, Moose had reached back out again… Moose got Ariel (Shnerer) and I talking and it came back up for, ‘Hey, maybe Tessa comes back at Genesis. Like, that be her first match’ and I think it was December of last year where I was a surprise at the Atlanta tapings.”

She went on to speak about her time in CMLL and how special it was to her. When Blanchard ultimately decided to make her way back to TNA, she met with CMLL head Salvador Lutteroth.

Blanchard expressed that she’d like to continue working with CMLL while being with TNA. She was later informed that she could not do both because of ‘alliances.’ Blanchard added that TNA did not have an issue with her working with CMLL and still does not have an issue with it.

“I remember I made an appointment with Salvador (Lutteroth), the Chairman at CMLL because, like, I can’t say how much I respect CMLL and him enough so I made an appointment with him and I went down to the offices at Arena México and I said, ‘Listen sir, these are my goals personally, and these are goals professionally’ and I think all the military training has done this to me where it’s like, just put your cards on the table and be very clear, and it’s gonna go the way you want it to or it’s not and either way, it’s gonna be fine. So I told him, I was like, ‘These are my professional goals and these are my personal goals and this is the plan that I think that I need to follow to get there. If being in CMLL and wrestling here still aligns with those goals, then that is ideally what I would like to do. But if it doesn’t, then I think that it’s best that we part ways for now but I would (love) to do so amicably and with the doors open because I’m so grateful for you guys’ and I strongly believe that CMLL presenting me in the light that they have… They made me a star again and I strongly believe that because of them, other companies searched for me again, and so, he was like, ‘Let me get back to you in two days and I need to check with some of our alliances, and see if this is possible,’ and TNA had no issue with me working with CMLL, they still don’t. They’ve made that very clear that if I wanted to do that, that I could, and so I went back to the office a few days later and it ended up to where it didn’t make sense for me to be able to do TNA and CMLL simultaneously because of alliances and you can’t knock them or me for that. We shook hands, hugged. We’re so thankful for what he’s done for me and for what I brought to CMLL and I’m still able to go to the arena and I’m still able to work with their talent outside of the arena.”

There were nerves that Blanchard was feeling going into her return to TNA. She mentioned that there were conversations that needed to be held because ‘the person that was in charge’ when she was last in the promotion had spread a false story about her to the locker room.

“So, ultimately, I made the decision to go back to go back to TNA and, God, did I have such anxiety about it… I think getting back on TV in America, pressing play on a story that was paused a few years ago. It’s gonna be tough, there’s conversations that I’m gonna need to have and because a story was fed to a lot of people in that locker room from the person that was in charge at the time that just wasn’t true, and so, I think me being young, instead of facing things head-on and defending myself, I just took a lot of stuff on the chin and was very prideful and was like, ‘Hey, if you don’t like me then screw you too’ and that probably wasn’t the best decision but — or response I should say…”

Next up on the docket for Blanchard is TNA Slammiversary on July 20th. She’ll be facing Indi Hartwell in singles competition at the pay-per-view.