Tessa Blanchard has become one of the two reasons to watch Impact (Sami Callihan is the other). She’s competed with the men and is challenging Sami Callihan for the Impact World Championship.
Blanchard isn’t just a phenomenal athlete, as she’s also carved a niche out on social media as a supporter of women and for people living their dreams against the odds. It’s a voice that’s needed when people look for any excuse to divide and barricade themselves in.
But when arguably the biggest day of her life is approaching, people are talking about her and Impact, but for all the wrong reasons.
One tweet was all it took
https://twitter.com/Tess_Blanchard/status/1216038823932649473
What was meant as a supportive tweet about women supporting each other instead of tearing each other down became a social media nightmare.
It appears to have started with Allysin Kay retweeted her (Lay also retweeted everything following) and said:
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
It snowballed from there, with Chelsea Green accusing her of putting down, belittling, and bullied countless female performers:
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
Isla Dawn claiming the same thing as well as being blacklisted:
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
La Black Rose backed up Chelsea Green and Allysin Kay, claiming it happened to her in 2017 (Tweet appears to be deleted). That was reinforced when Kay later tweeted it wasn’t her story to tell, and she only did so at being given permission.
Rebel Tanea said she was in Japan and witnessed it:
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
Priscilla Kelly threw her own experience with Blanchard last year on twitter into the mix:
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
Tessa Blanchard responded to Green:
https://twitter.com/Tess_Blanchard/status/1216078836212944897
She then stated:
https://twitter.com/Tess_Blanchard/status/1216082844277182464
Cancellation culture
We’ve been taught to react and not look deeper out of fear of being accused of victim shaming or blaming. Just because multiple people claim something doesn’t make it true. Just because someone denies something doesn’t mean they’re innocent.
Tessa Blanchard may be guilty of these things. She may only be guilty in their perception of her. Her actions could’ve been work, or they could’ve been genuine. The fact these came out the day before she’s expected to be the first woman to win the heavyweight championship of a major promotion is questionable.
Does that mean it didn’t happen? Nope. Not at all. It shows an interesting choice to give permission to state something, meaning it could be intended as the ultimate payback if it’s true.
There’s a reason these things are fought in the world of public relations. The question isn’t whether she did or didn’t say/do these things, it’s whether it’ll be a PR nightmare for Impact to have her win. If she doesn’t, it’ll destroy everything she’s worked for and everyone will feel justified. But here’s the thing: what if she didn’t do those things or has changed since then?
We often hear how we shouldn’t judge someone now for what they did in their past, so why do we wait for a specific moment to bring that past up?
Whether she deserves a backlash or not is for each of us to decide.
In a sea of sharks, even the largest one can be taken down by a group of smaller ones.
