TNA Not Planning To Address Racism & Bullying Allegations Against Tessa Blanchard

TNA reportedly don't have any plans to address the racism and bullying allegations against Tessa Blanchard.

Blanchard made her return to TNA Wrestling in December 2024 and the former IMPACT World Champion has received "She's a racist" chants for many of her appearances in the promotion. The chants don't look set to stop any time soon but Sean Ross Sapp noted in a Fightful Select Q&A that TNA won't be addressing the allegations "if they can help it." Sean Ross Sapp noted he has heard that TNA have said Blanchard addressing the situation five years ago is satisfactory.

Allegations of bullying and racism were made against Blanchard in January 2020, days before she defeated Sami Callihan for the IMPACT World Championship. After Blanchard posted a tweet encouraging women to support one another, Allysin Kay alleged that Blanchard spat in the eye of another wrestler in Japan and used the n-word, with Chelsea Green and several others noting soon after that they remembered the incident. It was later confirmed La Rosa Negra was the wrestler spat on by Blanchard, which occurred when they were both in STARDOM in 2017.

Other wrestlers, including Gigi Dolin and Isla Dawn, alleged they were on the receiving end of bullying by Blanchard, while Dawn also claimed that Blanchard tried to blacklist her.

Blanchard denied the allegations in February 2020, telling Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp on a media call:

"It was a very emotional weekend, full of highs and lows. I chose to step away from social media for a bit because of all the things that were going on. With everything that went on over the weekend, not everyone's going to like me. Not everyone is going to agree with what I choose to do in my life. I've made mistakes, I've faced challenges. One thing I will say though, I've never used a racial slur of any kind in my life. It's not something that I've done, it's not something that I will do. It's just not true. Some people, they look at social media, someone will make an accusation and will say something, then everyone hops onto the bandwagon.

"We've all got our own stories. There's a side of everyone's life that is public and there's a side that is private. There's a part for all the world to see and can be judged by anyone that's interested in it. It's very unfortunate that some people resort to saying certain things, but it's just not true and that’s as much I’ll say on it. I know who I am. That's the world we live in. I've faced challenges and obstacles that allowed me to persevere, to become the woman and athlete that I am today. This is just another stone in that step.

"That weekend, I'm going to remember for a while. It's a match that I prepared for physically and mentally for months and months and months. It had been built up for eight or nine months, so there were already a lot of emotions. The day before, I was hit pretty hard. I chose to step away from social media and kind of live in the real world. To see your co-workers and to see your peers say things about you, some things that are not true about you, it did hit me pretty hard. I'm the kind of person that has extreme mental strength.

"With my family, with my little sister being there that weekend to watch everything culminate at that event, it was special for me. I knew that everything I've been through, I needed to use it as fuel to perform to the best of my abilities and be the best version of Tessa Blanchard that I can be for that night and win the world championship. That was my little sister, who is 12, other little girls, any younger talent can take something that I love and I made myself great at it and they can take what they love and they can become great at it too. That's what motivated me. I can handle almost anything. Not everyone is going to like you. I am going to build my legacy based on my work ethic, not by trying to win some popularity contest."

Blanchard was fired by TNA in the Summer of 2020 five days before her contract was due to expire. She then worked for WOW - Women of Wrestling before the two sides fell out. Blanchard also had a run with CMLL before rejoining TNA in late 2024.

There is seemingly no love lost between Chelsea Green and Tessa Blanchard as the WWE Women's United States Champion called Blanchard a "racist bully" earlier this year.

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