The Born Legend: Tessa Blanchard forging her own path

As Tessa Blanchard walked through the curtain and into the staging area, she was greeted by the outstretched arms of her father. With tears in her eyes and a huge smile across her face, she embraced him.

“Oh Tessa, I am so proud of you. What a battle,” Tully Blanchard said to his daughter. “What a match and what a victory. This is just one of many more.”

Tessa Blanchard, only 23 years old, had just defeated and retired Impact Wrestling Hall of Famer Gail Kim at the promotion’s Rebellion pay-per-view April 28.

“I told her just to embrace the moment because you don’t have many moments like that in a career,” said Tully, a San Antonio native who had a Hall of Fame career as a member of the Four Horsemen alongside wrestling legend Ric Flair.

Tessa was born to be a wrestling superstar. Her father is a former NWA heavyweight champion, television champion and a four-time tag team champion along with fellow WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson.

Her grandfather, Joe Blanchard, founded Southwest Championship Wrestling in San Antonio, where he also competed for 25 years. And her stepfather Terry Allen — better known as Magnum T.A. — has been ranked as one of the top 100 wrestlers of all-time.

Seen by many as one of the best women’s wrestlers in the world, Tessa, though, is doing things her own way. The star of Impact Wrestling, which is hosting Bash at the Brewery along with River City Wrestling at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Freetail Brewing Company, she is on a path that could make her the first woman to ever hold a world title in a major United States promotion.

Friday, she is slated to perform in an intergender six-person tag team match in which she is the only woman.

“I am excited about it, because I always said I wanted to make history in my own way,” Tessa said. “There are a lot of people who are doing the first this and the first that, and it is cool, but it is reminding me to make it in my own way, and I think I am doing that through intergender wrestling and Impact.”

And if she can change a few perceptions along the way — all the better.

“I always want everything I do in the ring to make people say, ‘That was real.’ In a world where everyone says wrestling is fake and this is fake or that is fake, it’s hard,” she said. “Back in the day, if you saw Wahoo McDaniel or Johnny Valentine, people would say, ‘That is real.’ And that is what I want people to say when they watch me wrestle.”

The journey

For six straight months after her 18th birthday, Tessa drove 20 minutes to Highspots, a wrestling school in Charlotte, N.C. She had already moved out of her stepfather’s house and, like most teenagers, she was trying to figure out her next step in life.

Born in 1995, her exposure to the business during her youth wasn’t as deep as might be expected for someone of her pedigree. Even though she grew up in Charlotte, a hotbed of the wrestling community, Tessa had her sights set on other endeavors — like musical theatre.

“Growing up, I never wanted to be a wrestler,” Tessa said. “We had gone to a few backstage things when I was younger, but it was not my passion. I wanted to be on Broadway. And I did that all through middle school, high school and was in the Charlotte Children’s theater.”

Unbeknownst to her family, though, her passions began to change. In 2012, she attended Tully’s WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Two years later — even though she had moved out of the house and was barely speaking to her family — the scene still resonated with her.

“There were a lot of family things we were going through and one Tuesday, bored, I looked up a wrestling school and saw that Highspots was about 25 minutes from where I was living at the time, and so I stopped by,” Tessa said.

She trained for six months without telling either of her fathers. Eventually, Michael Bochicchio, the owner the wrestling school where Tessa was training, gave her an ultimatum. If she wanted to continue working on her craft, she had to tell her family.

When the phone call finally came, Tully wasn’t shocked. To him, it just made sense.

“He was really supportive, but he was also realistic,” Tessa said. “He said it is a lifestyle, not a job. You have to give your entire self to it, and if you want to do it, you have to be the best.”

She took the advice to heart. Tessa drove from Charlotte to New York and back almost every weekend just to be a part of a show. She helped set up stages, and she performed as a manager. While she admits she wasn’t a good wrestler at the time, she also didn’t care.

She just wanted to be around it.

Finding her spot

Tessa doesn’t get back to San Antonio to see her family as much as she’d like. She was in town after performing in WrestleCircus in Austin on June 22. She got to stay at her father’s house for about a day before she flew to San Diego and then crossed the border to Tijuana, Mexico, to wrestle for AAA, one of the world’s premiere Lucha Libre promotions.

She’s in town again for the Fourth of July and the match Friday, then will head to Houston for an event Saturday. Then she’s off to Dallas for the Impact pay-per-view.

It’s the life her father warned her about. Like most jobs in the entertainment industry, it has its trials and tribulations.

“I tell her you can’t let it get to you; you have to keep it balanced,” Tully said. “Because it is still the entertainment business, and you can lose it in an instant if you do something silly.”

Three years ago, Tessa appeared in WWE, making her in-ring debut for its NXT developmental program in April. She dropped matches to Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax and Carmella, all of whom are now WWE superstars. Blanchard then returned as part of the WWE’s annual women’s wrestling tournament, the Mae Young Classic, but was eliminated in the first round.

Something wasn’t clicking. Only 20 at the time, she admits maturity factored in things not working out with the promotion. Now, she sees it as a blessing.

“When I first started wrestling, WWE was my dream right away, and a lot of people talk online and think Tessa was told no or Tessa was told this. But honestly, all of it couldn’t be further from the truth,” she said. “I had opportunities to do other things, but I chose Impact because I felt like I could grow as wrestler and a woman, and I can hone my skills in a whole different way. I feel like with the past couple of years, my dream has changed a little bit.”

Tessa has since wrestled all over the world, including Australia, Japan and Mexico. She’s held so many title belts that she can’t even remember how many she holds across the various promotions in which she performs — just that the belts are hard to get through airport security.

As the reigning WOW (Women of Wrestling) Champion and a former Impact Knockouts champion, she is also trying to give back some of her success. In addition to being the WOW champ, Blanchard was named the lead trainer for the all-women’s promotion this year.

“It is a perception that I am at the top now in the indies, but I don’t want it to be Tessa is on top and that’s it. I want to help other people reach their full potential as well, and through WOW I get to do that,” Blanchard said. “I was just saying this when I was in the ring with a couple of the women last week. I see their growth, and I see their potential, and to see them come each week and pour their heart into the training reminds me a lot of myself when I started with how bad and how hungry I was for it.”

Making her mark

Most wrestling promotions won’t permit intergender wrestling — at least not for full matches. There are no intergender matches in the WWE, and upstart promotion All-Elite Wrestling (AEW) already has said it won’t promote them either.

Even Tully doesn’t fully approve of the concept. But Tessa believes it is something she needs to do.

“I wouldn’t be the athlete I am today without intergender wrestling, because working with guys and constantly training with them has helped me with my own style,” she said. “I don’t wrestle like just another girl. I wrestle like Tessa Blanchard — with aggression.”

As for the people who disagree with the style of matches?

“A lot of people in wrestling say this is right or this is wrong, but I don’t think anything is right or wrong,” Tessa said. “It is just how we perceive it. Wrestling is like art, and we are the artists. A lot of people don’t like intergender wrestling, but some people may not like strong-style or Lucha Libre. It is not for everybody, and that is totally understandable.

“When done correctly, I think it is a really neat thing, and if we can go out there and change anyone’s opinions and help people to understand through the story that we tell, it is a really neat form of wrestling.”

In addition to the six-man intergender tag match Friday at in San Antonio, Tessa is expected to face the 2018 Impact Wrestler of the Year Sami Callihan at the promotion’s Slammiversary XVII on Sunday. If she wins, she could be setting herself up for a shot for an Impact X-Division (lightweight) or world championship opportunity.

“I have gotten tagged on a few things on social media asking me (if I am going to win the world title), and there is no telling,” Blanchard said. “I want to do things that women haven’t done before. Maybe that means down the line going after the world championship or the X-division championship.

“And I believe in myself enough to go and do that.”

The next step

Even if Tessa isn’t sure of the next step — whether it is winning what is generally considered a men’s title with Impact or signing with WWE or AEW — she is determined to forge her own path.

“WWE does such an amazing job with the women’s revolution and has such amazing wrestlers … but I want to do it in my own way,” Blanchard said. “And being with Impact right now, I am able to do that. And I am not in a hurry to go and do anything else. I have to remind myself that I am 23 years old, because sometimes I forget.

“I am kind of just enjoying the journey right now.”

It’s a journey that has led her to intergender matches, world titles and even retiring Hall of Famers.

“I didn’t (wrestle her) just cause. I didn’t miss the in-ring,” Impact Hall of Famer Gail Kim said after their match. “I did it for the opponent, and Tessa Blanchard is the future. She is right now, actually, and you know this was her moment, and I’m glad that she had her moment with me.”

Tessa’s popularity grew even more as she served as the wrestling stunt double for Florence Pugh, who portrayed WWE Superstar Paige in the film “Fighting with My Family” — produced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — about the life of Paige and her wrestling family in England.

“Tessa Blanchard’s a superstar in my mind,” longtime wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer said on his Wrestling Observer Newsletter podcast earlier this year. “I mean, if you don’t think she is now, the fact is she will be. She is such a great worker who’s only going to get better. I know people who think she’s going to be — man or woman — one of the best workers in the business within 18 months, because that’s how quick she improves.”

Her father has an easy explanation as to why her popularity is growing among wrestling circles.

“I think wrestling fans — even though the nature of exposure and that stuff has changed — they appreciate people who work hard and give all their ability, and she definitely does that,” Tully said. “I am proud of the effort and the energy she puts out. I am really, really thrilled with what she is doing and the success that she is having.”

Even now, after all her success, the high praise from others catches Tessa off guard.

“I really do believe in myself and that I will be one of the best in the world one day. But to have other people to say that when I am only 23, it is crazy and amazing to me,” she said. “It is a huge honor.

“I wish my grandpa was still around to see it.”