Brian Cage Discusses Tessa Blanchard’s Reputation: “I’ve Seen Tons Of People In This Business Be A Jerk… That Doesn’t Mean They’re An Awful Person”

Tessa Blanchard became the topic of conversation during the interview.

During Brian Cage’s appearance on The @smoothvega Podcast, Cage and the podcast host’s respective connections to Tessa Blanchard were brought up.

They then dove into how Blanchard is viewed by the fans because of allegations of bullying, in addition to spitting in the face of fellow wrestler Black Rose, a.k.a. La Rosa Negra, and calling her the N-slur.

Cage stated that Rosa and Blanchard have made up and that’s all that matters. He stated that he’s seen Blanchard be a jerk to people, but that doesn’t mean she’s an awful person.

“Whatever happened, didn’t happen; people can speculate, and even when everyone came forth about it — weren’t even there. But at the end of the day, the fact that there’s been more than one post with La Rosa Negra and Tessa (Blanchard), being buddy-buddy, if you will, even though they’re not best friends but basically like, hey! We’re cool; it’s cool. No heat. Those are the two that are involved. So everybody else who wasn’t there, everyone else who wants to act like, oh, something happened whether they know what happened or didn’t happen. If they’re cool, I don’t understand what the problem is. Nobody else has skin in the game. So there’s no big heat from them.” The bullying allegations against Blanchard were brought up, and Cage said, “I’ve seen Tessa be a jerk to people, for sure… But also, I’ve seen tons of people in this business be a jerk to people, and that doesn’t mean that they’re an awful person either but just, okay, maybe that moment or to that one person or whatever else, and also… the women’s locker room could be a pretty catty place from time to time too, with multiple people… I feel like the male locker room, there’s so much more chill vibes than maybe the girls’ locker room, and that goes not just in wrestling. Go back to the fitness industry; there’s so many times where we’re all bro’ing out. We’re like, ‘Oh dude! You are so jacked! You look so good.’ We’re f*cking stroking everyone’s ego like crazy, whereas the girls will be like, ‘Oh my God, you’re so beautiful. You look so good.’ Then she’ll leave and go, ‘Can you believe that b*tch? Oh my God, I can’t believe she wore that.’ All the time! We’re not hating anybody.”

When Blanchard returned to TNA Wrestling, there were several occasions when the crowds would chant that she’s a racist. Blanchard was granted her release from TNA in June 2026.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit The @smoothvega Podcast with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.