Tessa Blanchard just made history in the ring, but a lot of fans aren’t as behind her as they might have expected to be a few days ago, and it’s hard to blame them. Nevertheless, Impact went ahead with the story they’d been very clearly building for months, with Tessa winning the Impact World Championship from Sami Callihan in the main event of tonight’s Hard to Kill PPV.
That makes Tessa Blanchard the first woman to win the top title of a major promotion in a Main Event PPV match. Whether she’s the first woman to hold such a title really depends on what you consider a major promotion. Sexy Star won the Lucha Underground Championship in the third Aztec Warfare match (LU’s Royal Rumble equivalent), but Lucha Underground looks less like a major wrestling promotion (as opposed to a scifi/fantasy show about wrestling) the longer they’ve been off TV. And then of course there’s Kimber Lee’s Grand Championship run in Chikara a few years back, and various other things on the indies.
But here’s what we can say for sure: No woman has ever won the WWE Championship. No woman ever won the NWA or WCW World Championship. No woman is going to be winning the AEW World Championship anytime soon. Women don’t even compete in NJPW. But as of tonight, one woman has won the Impact World Championship. So in terms of mainstream wrestling that airs on TV, that’s a big deal.
The only problem is, Tessa Blanchard has a lost a lot of fans this weekend, and that puts her new milestone in a weird light, to say the least. On Saturday morning, Tessa tweeted that women should support each other. The clapback was immediate:
You’ve consistently put down, bullied, and belittled countless female coworkers, including me. Is that support? https://t.co/MrOOksiijk
— CHELSEA GREEN (@ImChelseaGreen) January 11, 2020
Remember publicly putting me down on twitter last year for something that didn’t involve you whatsoever, then continuing to drag my name to other people for it?
Pepperidge Farm Remembers.
You should probably delete this tweet. https://t.co/MnsHVnwavU
— Gigi Dolin (@gigidolin_wwe) January 11, 2020
As someone who experienced your bullying firsthand, received regular verbal abuse, was spat on, had rumours spread about me, dealt with multiple attempts by you to blacklist me from other companies, (plus more), I just pray you now follow your own advice. https://t.co/MWtmUKLOyf
— Isla Dawn (@IslaDawn) January 11, 2020
Remember when you spat in a black woman’s face and called her the N-word in Japan? Was that you “supporting women“? The AUDACITY of this tweet https://t.co/P49uNWsqIH
— Allysin Kay (@TheAllysinKay) January 11, 2020
Obviously Allysin Kay’s accusation got the most attention, because of the racism involved. It was backed up by the woman in question, La Rosa Negra of Puerto Rico, although she later deleted her tweet. Other women who were around at the time confirmed Tessa’s unfortunate behavior:
— CHELSEA GREEN (@ImChelseaGreen) January 11, 2020
I like to think people change over time. But I can confirm the bad behavior & non supportive attitude in Japan, I was there https://t.co/u1e60bgdE6
— REBEL (@RebelTanea) January 11, 2020
She did more nasty stuff in Japan… Never forget. Practice what you preach sweetheart. I standby @LaAbusadoradePR, she's a fun loving person who would never disrespect anyone. Much love to you Rosa. ❤️ https://t.co/gldMcAzwJD
— Shanna シャナ (@Shannanjii) January 11, 2020
https://twitter.com/SwoleWorld/status/1216109022216146944
https://twitter.com/SwoleWorld/status/1216109023407300608
Allysin Kay also made a point about why she’d never brought it up before:
The reason I’ve never said anything until now is because it wasn’t my story to tell. I made it clear to La Rosa that I had her back, and today was the day she gave me permission. You can’t force someone to come forward, but you can be there for them. THAT is “supporting women”.
— Allysin Kay (@TheAllysinKay) January 11, 2020
Tessa made some attempt at defending herself, but didn’t go into specifics.
https://twitter.com/Tess_Blanchard/status/1216078836212944897
https://twitter.com/Tess_Blanchard/status/1216082844277182464
It’s not a great look for the new Impact World Champion, particularly on what should have been the proudest moment of her career thus far. With so many known female wrestlers in agreement about her past behavior, she’s not going to get far with denials. The best we can hope for is that she offers some real apologies and does some real work on bettering herself.
And as for Impact Wrestling, who were probably hoping to come out of this show looking really progressive and now find themselves in the middle of a whole other controversy… well, that sure is the sort of thing that happens to Impact Wrestling, isn’t it?
