Tessa Blanchard’s return to TNA Wrestling has rekindled debates about her controversial history and the challenges of granting second chances in the professional wrestling industry. Her departure from TNA years ago followed allegations of toxic behavior and her failure to publicly address past accusations, leaving a lasting impact on her career.
The controversy began in January 2020, when wrestlers including Allysin Kay and Chelsea Green accused Blanchard of bullying and using a racial slur, specifically the N-word, toward La Rosa Negra during a 2017 tour in Japan. While Blanchard denied the claims, the fallout was significant. She was stripped of the Impact World Championship and released from her TNA contract in June 2020, reportedly due to failing to provide required content during the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing contract disputes. Many within the industry viewed her as a difficult personality, with calls for a public apology to La Rosa Negra as a gesture of accountability and reconciliation.
On a recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, Matt Hardy offered insight into the mixed feelings surrounding Blanchard’s return to TNA. “There were a few people that I was sitting in the room with. They’re like, ‘Oh, man. She was here at one time and she didn’t do things right’, or whatever else,” Hardy shared.
Hardy explained, “One thing I have heard is that everyone that she was going to be working with, they were given the heads up, and they knew that was gonna be happening,” he said. “But also, apparently, they’ve been following her pretty closely and just seeing how she’s been as a performer, and how professional she’s been, and whatnot. It seems so far so good.”
Hardy added that Blanchard was made “available to speak with anyone who may have had any kind of grievances with her at the end of the night.”
Hardy expressed his belief in redemption, sharing his perspective on Blanchard’s situation:
“I think as a society, if someone is actually trying to right their wrongs and get their life back on course, we still have to be able to give second chances or third chances. I mean, if I hadn’t got second chances, I’d have been f**ked,” he stated. “There’s a lot of people, especially in pro wrestling, that sometimes if they are trying to prove themselves, and they seem like they are worthy of being given another opportunity, you gotta let them have it.”
You can check out the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
