Crowning Tessa Blanchard Was A Mistake

I’ve made my feelings well known on the subject of intergender wrestling: it has no place in modern times.

But that’s not what this piece is about. In fact, it’s not even a hold-for-hold breakdown of the Tessa Blanchard-Sami Callihan match or even the match Tessa had prior to the match of her life – against the 2016-19 legion of independent female wrestlers. A handicap match, of sorts.

In putting the belt on Blanchard amid Saturday’s allegations, Impact Wrestling erred and made a decision that could cost the company in the long run. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big opponent of “cancel culture” and this particular opinion doesn’t come from a place of moral turpitude, necessarily. Rather, I strongly fear the company did itself a major disservice on Sunday, especially in light of recent events.

And I’ll preface everything you’re about to read with this: I’m a big Impact Wrestling fan going all the way back to the NWA: TNA days. Everybody behind the current company vision has a fantastic mind for pro wrestling and has largely gone about business the right way leading up to this point. This critique comes only because I want Impact to succeed. After all, success breeds competition, which breeds more success and yeah, you get the cliche…

I mentioned in the previous The Wrestling Estate roundtable that I thought Impact would hold off on putting the world title on Blanchard due to this being a rather disadvantageous time of year for positive wrestling press. I’d stop short of calling this time of year a “dead period,” but it’s common knowledge that business and interest in wrestling picks up ten-fold from the Royal Rumble on through the end of the summer. Impact’s two big events, Slammiversary and Bound for Glory, are in June and October respectively. I thought we’d get a tease on Sunday, only for Callihan to hold the belt through the spring and inevitably drop it to Blanchard at Slammiversary in June. He is, after all, one of the most compelling characters in wrestling and there’d be more to explore with him as champion. I certainly didn’t think he won the belt just to be a transitional champion to someone who’s not even technically in the same division (according to conventional wisdom, at least. I get that Impact doesn’t really recognize the divisions as “divisions,” so to speak).

When Blanchard got publicly put on blast on Saturday for sending out a tweet she really didn’t have to send, you could almost visualize the collective internet wrestling community crane their necks over to the way of Scott D’Amore and Don Callis. To make a poker analogy, wrestling Twitter just made a massive raise, putting the action on Impact to either make an epic hero call or fold its cards and live to fight another day with a medium-sized stack. For those who don’t know, a “hero call” is a risky call oftentimes made with a marginal hand. And when you consider both my original point of it being a slow period for wrestling and the information we know Impact had (Saturday Twitter), plus the information not publicly known to the fans, a fold did not seem out of the question.

Swerving the fans off a Blanchard victory at Hard to Kill would have accomplished several things. First, it would have opened up a wider range of possibilities and bought the company more time on the creative end. So, Blanchard has the belt. What’s next? Is she going to go on an ‘80s Hogan-esque run and beat the entire male roster? Is she going to beat guys like Moose who are nearly triple her size? Is she going to no-sell another kick to the face and hit three Canadian Destroyers next time? Most importantly, does she go back to wrestling women? So, here we have a lot of questions without any easy answers.

Secondly, and perhaps of greater note, waiting to put the belt on her would have bought the company more time to let Saturday’s social media spat blow over.

I may get ripped apart for saying that. “Jack, racism and bullying doesn’t just blow over.” I’m well aware of this, and as I’ll touch on in a bit, these allegations can and SHOULD be taken seriously. However, many would say Saturday’s tweets really hampered Blanchard’s momentum, if not killed it dead. Many I’ve talked to went from being excited for Impact to “make a progressive choice” to never wanting to see another Tessa Blanchard match again. Postponing the title win would have at least bought the company more time to build her up again and remind those fans why they got behind her in the first place, or at least come to terms somewhere in the middle of those previous two takes I threw out. In the meantime, Blanchard could have gone the quiet route on social media, which is probably for the best anyway, as the more we find out about her the less likeable she becomes. Of course, I’ve always seen her as a natural heel, anyway, but like my above dig on the Canadian Destroyers, that’s an editorial for another time.

As we know, Impact went ahead and put the title on Blanchard, receiving mostly mixed to negative reviews for it. Meanwhile, it didn’t even feel like the powers that be fully committed to the title change. After the match, the pay-per-view cut off two minutes before the top of the hour and any celebration or facetime Blanchard had in the ring was not visible to the paying audience at home, likely to steer clear of any post-match shenanigans from fans, such as a “You’re-a-ray-cist” chant. Instead, the new champ took the mic after the cameras faded to black and addressed the live audience, who, by the way, seemed only mildly interested in the match on the broadcast.

If the goal was to cement Blanchard as the bonafide superstar face of the company and one of the biggest stars in all of wrestling, Sunday’s match did not do that. Say what you want, but the truth of the matter is the story went from being “Impact is going to make a woman its world heavyweight champion” to “Impact’s new world champion is a morally reprehensible person. And yeah, she just also happens to be a woman holding the top title in the men’s division.” It’s unfortunate. Impact went into Hard to Kill looking for a big payoff and instead came away with 50 cents on the dollar. What now?

If the rumors about Brian Cage heading to AEW are believed to be true (and as of this writing we have no reason not to believe he could be on the move), the company is really going to find itself in a sticky situation. You’ll have an unorthodox world champion who the fans may or may not even accept in that spot and the top men’s babyface with one foot out the door. It’s anybody’s guess what happens with Blanchard, but history tells us Callihan could be turning face soon, as hot heels often times will make the transition following a high-profile loss like that. While some great babyfaces will inevitably turn, all great villains eventually do. And when they do, they usually become the most over face on the roster. I call it the Steve Austin effect. We saw it with Steve, we saw it with CM Punk and (out of necessity) we’ll see it with Sami Callihan.

The other nice thing for Impact is that Rob Van Dam is catching fire with his new heel persona, but does that mean he’ll have to be rushed into main event angles at 49 years young? His ring work has noticeably regressed, as expected for someone who’s on his 30th year in the business, but he’s still better than many we see competing on weekly television at the highest levels. Does Van Dam have enough in the tank to be a main event-level heel on a weekly television program? We’ll see. As one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, I am rooting for him.

When I broke this down with John Corrigan on Monday, he threw out names like Rich Swann, Willie Mack and Joey Ryan as some who could be poised to make a jump up the card. While I really like what Swann and Mack bring to the table, I couldn’t help but laugh off the notion of Joey Ryan one day getting top billing. Ryan’s days of being a compelling, arrogant West Coast heel are over, as he’s now a full-blown comedy wrestler, albeit one who falls short on the comedy front. Some might instead describe Ryan with another “c” word; the same “c” word many opponents of Jim Cornette used to describe the Louisville Slugger after one of his canned lines from the ‘80s made air on NWA Powerrr, a taped television show. When Cornette was relieved of his duties, Ryan went on the offensive. Yet, when the news came to light of Blanchard spitting at other wrestlers, bullying them and throwing around racial slurs like a hot potato, Ryan remained silent. If there was anyone who needed an example to understand how wrestling is still to a large extent a three-ring circus of carny behavior, it’s Ryan, the same man who had a sucker jammed up his ass and then into his mouth. Nothing personal, but I don’t think anyone should take him seriously again.

I usually don’t care what people say after they blocked me but I had to see what he said since people are retweeting. I know he can’t see this but Fuck you Joey Ryan and the response in this tweet sums up his bullshit pic.twitter.com/hRr8yw6qHf
— Deep 13 (@wolvesofexodia) January 13, 2020

As for Blanchard, the revelations we heard from the likes of Allysin Kay, Chelsea Green and Isla Dawn were troubling, yet not all too surprising. I remember being shocked that Blanchard, who seemingly checks every box WWE looks for in a breakout star AND has a third-generation pedigree, did not receive a contract following the Mae Young Classic. I was led to believe at the time that attitude played a role and Saturday’s revelations all but confirmed that to me. Since then, it doesn’t appear her outlook on her acquaintances has improved much. Maybe wrestling men on such a frequent basis went to her head? It certainly wouldn’t be the first time. Remember when WWE put the Intercontinental Championship on Chyna, THEN tried to push her as the face of the women’s division two or three years down the road? There are parallels to be drawn for sure, but that’s where the Blanchard-Chyna comparison ends for me.

There’s still time for the new face of Impact to change her ways, if she hasn’t already, and I genuinely hope she does. As Dave Meltzer put it on Wrestling Observer Radio on Monday morning, “As far as pure talent, Tessa Blanchard is the best of all American female wrestlers,” and I’d be hesitant to disagree with that notion, as much as I am opposed to intergender wrestling.

And it’s key to note that Impact still has just that going for it: it’s the home to perhaps the most talented American women’s wrestler to come around in 15-20 years. All that matters now is how Blanchard and the company handle their business going forward. But make no mistake, Impact made a mistake with its snap call to crown her on Sunday and things may have to get worse before they get better.