Tessa Blanchard is currently the face of the Knockouts division IMPACT Wrestling. But before she signed with IMPACT, she had WWE dreams.
Appearing on Busted Open Radio, Blanchard discussed her WWE tryout in 2014 and how her failure at that time led her to where she is today.
"Around 2014, I had my WWE tryout. I thought, right after that, it was going to happen for me. 'I'm gonna get signed, I'm gonna go there, this is what I'm going to do. Hell yeah, everything is on track.' Then it didn't happen for me and I was really bummed out at first," said Blanchard. "But looking back, I'm so glad that it didn't happen for me then. I don't think I would be the woman or athlete that I am today if it did. I would not have gotten to travel and have the matches that I've had and grown from if I had gone there. Never did I picture myself with IMPACT, honestly. I was a little hesitant joining IMPACT. But now that I'm here, it feels so right. Like this is where I'm supposed to be. I want to be a star one day. I don't want to be passable, I don't want to be good, I want to be great. I want to be one of the best in the world and go down in the history books. Where am I going to be five or three years from now? I'm not sure. I'm taking it day-by-day and going with my gut. I did have opportunities to do other things this year. Working with Gail (Kim), Jimmy Jacobs, Don Callis, and Scott (D'Amore), they want me to be great. They believe in the end product so they are willing to take the time with me to get there."
Continuing her story, Blanchard recalls the piece of advice William Regal gave her during the tryout and how it's stuck with her to this day.
"The tryout was one of the most physically trying things I've done in my entire life. When I had the tryout I was very green, probably less than a year into wrestling. I have never looked at a weight in my life. But I gave it everything I had," she said. "I remember (William) Regal telling me, 'Tessa, if you didn't get signed, would you quit wrestling or would you keep wrestling?' I was like, 'I love this, I'll keep wrestling.' He said, 'You need to do that. You need to keep wrestling.' What I took from that was 'Tessa, go out there and see the world. Wrestle everybody and do everything you can.' Since then, that's what I've been trying to do."
Blanchard ended up returning to WWE in 2017 as part of the inaugural Mae Young Classic. She debuted in IMPACT Wrestling earlier this year, signing a long-term deal with the company in July.
You can listen to the entire interview with Tessa in the video above.
