Report: TNA Had Preliminary Talks About Bringing Tessa Blanchard Back

It seems as if TNA has changed its stance on Tessa Blanchard.

According to a report by PWInsider.com, TNA Wrestling has had “at least preliminary discussions” about bringing Tessa Blanchard back into the company.

Blanchard was released by TNA (then IMPACT Wrestling) in June 2020 while she was the reigning IMPACT World Champion. TNA terminated Blanchard’s contract, reportedly in response to her refusing to drop the title.

Dave Meltzer reported (via the Wrestling Observer Newsletter) that Blanchard refused to leave Mexico during the pandemic for TNA events. He also reported that Blanchard made a “one-date price” offer to drop the title, but IMPACT didn’t accept and opted to fire her days before her contract expired and therein strip her of the title. Blanchard’s stepfather, Magnum TA, later denied this claim, stating that Tessa’s request was not extreme. Instead, he says he advised her to make a reasonable offer comparable to a top male star in TNA.

“So I told her that I knew she had reached the pinnacle of what she could do with that organization. Of course, we didn’t know this virus was gonna come along, and the fact of the matter is they had wanted her to extend her contract and do different things,” Magnum told Hannibal TV. “The opportunity that that experience with IMPACT afforded her was a step in her growth in what she was doing. But she needed to move on from that, so because she extended that contract, they were paying her peanuts for one thing. But on top of that, [she] met all the contractual dates that she needed to make. So, all I told her was, ‘Hey, do you wanna work one more shot?’ And I offered her up the psychology.

“I said, ‘Take whatever their top paid guy is, and figure out what that would equate to in one month’s salary, and say hey, if you want me to come in and do this, since I met my contractual obligations, this is what it would take for me to come do it’ and it wasn’t a ridiculous amount of money as what was rumored on the internet. It was just, ‘Hey, if we’re gonna extend it, they can extend to the equivalent of whatever you’re paying your top guy’ and they didn’t wanna do it, and that’s really the truth.”

Since getting released by TNA, Tessa Blanchard has worked for WOW (Women of Wrestling) and CMLL in Mexico. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson noted that it’s unknown how far talks between TNA and Blanchard went, or if they’ve come to any agreement at time of press.