We see people constantly striving to be in the public’s eye with insane act after insane act (or stupid, depending on your point of view), but Tessa Blanchard managed to get everyone talking about her an Impact Wrestling this past weekend with a single tweet calling for women to support one another. It’s the typical positive message she’s been sharing on social media for months, but it took a turn for the worse as accusations of racism and abuse were thrown at her. Once he was told about it on his podcast, Cornette’s Drive-Thru, Jim Cornette thanked Tessa Blanchard for taking the heat off him.
As his co-host Brian Last commented, it was like Cornette posting “Can we all get along?” and being attacked for it.
Cornette responded as one controversial figure to another with, “Well thank you, Tessa. You’ve taken the heat off me. I have met her several times and can’t think of a more polite or delightful person to talk to. I don’t watch her on Impact, but I love what I’ve seen of her work, but I’m not gonna go that far to watch that f—ing show.
“The few times that I’ve seen her she’s been an incredible f—ing talent and what intensity she works like a guy which is the ultimate compliment. She’s been nice and polite and bubbly and I don’t know what to think.”
Blunt honesty is an art form
From his own admission, Cornette didn’t know what had happened as he unplugged from social media and people for a couple of days. What we got was a genuine reaction and opinions that covered all sides of the argument and what could’ve happened.
We also got an insight into her father, Tully Blanchard, which gave a better understanding of her personality while explaining sometimes attacks are driven by professional jealousy.
“Also, there is an element of I mean she’s so much better than the other girls, you know there could be that as well, but holy sh–. She got Tully’s people skills, she really did.”
He went on to explain how Tully wore a sneer around others that said, “Why are youbreathing the same air as me?” He was an averaged sized-wrestler and had to rely on his understanding of ring psychology to make him great. As it’s been mentioned several times, professional wrestling is a sea full of sharks, so one does need a hard edge.
Cornette also didn’t fault Impact for going ahead with their plans for her to win the heavyweight championship, citing that if they were happy with her there was no reason to stop her push. This makes sense since it’s also great promotion. Remember the saying “There is no bad promotion? This fits right in there.
He then talked about the other side of it where people with “soft feelings” may be responsible.
“If everyone’s getting their feelings hurt then maybe there are too many people with soft feelings in f—ing wrestling.”
It could be Tessa
Given he explained how Tully was/is, it was only a matter of time until Cornette approached the angle that it may be Tessa’s fault. He also addressed the locker room mentality that’s prevalent in sports about policing their own. It’s a cornerstone in every sport and business on some level.
“Maybe the problem is Tessa. I’ve said that if she’s insulted and pissed off every girl. As long as you’re happy in your company and can find people willing to work with her that ain’t your f—ing problem. You’re not hiring nice people, you’re hiring talent.
“I come from an era where the booker could more or less smack you if he wanted to and you were either gonna fight him or get fired or take it. So, I’m hard to f—ing impress with, ‘She hurt my feelings and bullied me’ — well then, f—in’ knock her out! What the f—? If you’re gonna be wrestler, be wrestlers. If a guy was that upset in a locker room about something that someone had said or done to them then they would f—in’ do one thing about it or the other. They’d either do something about it or they wouldn’t.”
He also said that Le Rosa Negra could have legitimately been afraid she would be blacklisted, like others have claimed happened to them, if she told anyone about what Blanchard had done.
Overall, it was a good podcast as they kept things centered (aside from the Patreon part, but I’ll let you listen to that for yourself.) and balanced. It’s good to hear a point of view from someone that’s been in the business for so many years and isn’t afraid to share his thoughts.
If nothing else, at least he was out of the fans’ crosshairs for a few days.
