Our friend Raj Giri at Wrestling Inc recently spoke with top independent female Superstar and the daughter of WWE Hall Of Famer and one of the original Four Horsemen members, Tully Blanchard, new Impact Wrestling Superstar Tessa Blanchard. Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On making sure everything she gets is earned and not given to her because she is the daughter of a pro wrestling legend in Tully Blanchard: “Like I had said before, everything is hitting me all at once. I have to take a step back to be grateful. I am not owed anything in this life, especially in wrestling. Early on I didn’t quite interpret how difficult it would be in pro wrestling. I didn’t anticipate how difficult locker rooms would be early on, and there is a lot of people that would say that a lot of my success is due to my last name or this, that or the other and not because of my hard work so I am of the mindset that I wanted to work extra hard–whether it is in the gym or in the ring. I wanted to go above and beyond so that way when people had made those comments there wouldn’t be any validity to it. Right now, just traveling all the time and being in high demand in Mexico, U.K., Japan, Australia, this is insane to me. If you would have asked me five years ago that I would be where I am at right now, I would have never imagined, so that is what excites me because five years from today I may be saying the same thing. Life is such a cool thing right now and I am just very blessed to be where I am at.”
On welcoming matches with every top Superstar on the independent circuit: “Honestly, I want to wrestle everybody. Faye Jackson is one, who I am a really big fan of hers. I love getting in the ring with Britt Baker. She is one of my favorite people that I got in the ring with. Karen Q is another person that I’ve seen a few of her matches that were really good. Tasha Steelz, I’ve watched a few of her training videos, and she is super athletic. There are so many.”
On dream opponents for her: “Charlotte holds a special place in my heart. To me, she is the best in the world right now. Definitely her. That would be a special match for me. I believe Natalya would be a special match to me because she is another third-generation woman, which is really rare. I look up to her so much, she is almost like a mentor to me, so that would be another special match for me. The third person, I have shared a ring with her before, but Io Shirai, one of the best in the world in my opinion. The top female wrestler in Japan. Her and I shared a ring together three years ago where we wrestled on the main event of a show in Sendai, Japan, it was one of my most favorite matches, but the wrestler I am today compared to three years ago, I would love to wrestle her again.”
(H/T to WrestlingInc.com for transcribing the above quotes.)