Professional wrestling athlete, Tessa Blanchard made a comeback to TNA Wrestling at the much anticipated Final Resolution 2024 last Friday. She initiated a feud with her competitor, Jordynne Grace, who’s set to exit in early 2025.
Blanchard parted ways with TNA back in 2020 under less-than-amicable circumstances, leading to her losing the TNA World Title. Following a refusal to relinquish the title, she was shown the door.
This falling out coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Blanchard voiced her concerns about potential difficulties with returning to Mexico should she decide to travel to the United States. Moreover, accusations of racial slurs usage and bullying behavior have marred her reputation amongst her peers in the wrestling community.
Blanchard and La Rosa Negra, the latter alleged to be a target of those slurs, have since posted photos together. Blanchard, however, has yet to issue a public apology for her actions.
Reported by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, there seems to be interest from some quarters of the WWE in collaborating with Blanchard, despite her controversial past.
Meltzer noted, “It was an interesting thing because even though I had it in the Observer, most or many, I shouldn’t say most, many people in TNA had no idea she was coming, and it was upper management of TNA who wanted her back, and not necessarily the wrestling people, which is really interesting to me, because my question is, like, why? She’s a good wrestler, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not like she is someone that you would keep from the wrestling people. I don’t know. It’s a really weird story, other than it could be. I mean, it could be just a favor for WWE. I mean, the idea is if she’s in TNA for a while, and, you know, there’s no big backlash or anything, they could bring her into WWE because there are women in WWE who want to work with her. There may be some who don’t, but I know there’s some who do. And you know she’s very controversial, for all the reasons that everybody knows. And it’s kind of like a test thing, you know? I mean, I know people in you know both. It’s just controversial. She’s got talent. But with TNA, I was surprised, but I’m not. You never burn your bridge and everything like that if you have talent. And but she had talent, and she was in CMLL because it wasn’t like she was, you know, that there were a lot of people who were wanting her in. I mean, it wasn’t like AEW was running to get her because if they were, she’d have been there. She didn’t leave on the best of terms. She was their world champion at in. TNA and the pandemic came, and, you know, she said it’s a pandemic. She didn’t want to go back. She didn’t go back, and vacated the title, and there were hard feelings over it. But, you know, it’s a new regime in TNA anyway, and she’s back.”
According to eWn’s continuing coverage, Blanchard’s return to TNA was covert; primarily to avert internal opposition, as her past actions have left many feeling apprehensive.