Tessa Blanchard On How Becoming A Wrestler Got Her Talking With Her Parents Again

In an interview with Talk is Jericho, Tessa Blanchard spoke about how she was estranged from her parents when she first started training to be a wrestler, and how becoming a wrestler got her talking with them again. Here are highlights:

On her parents not knowing she was training: “When I left home, I hadn’t talked to my family for an entire year. And at this point, my phone number was changed, everything. I hadn’t talked to anyone in my family. There was a lot of things going on. My mom was a really bad alcoholic and there was just a lot of tension in our family. I kinda went behind their backs to go talk to Michael at Highspots and I was training there for a few months before…I remember I was in the ring with Cedric [Alexander] at the time and Michael came in the back warehouse and was like, ‘Hey Tessa, come talk to me for a second.’ And I didn’t know what was happening because if Michael comes in the back and pulls someone out of training, something’s up. So I go talk to Michael and he was like, ‘You can’t train here anymore. Yeah, you can’t train here anymore unless you let your dad know because I didn’t realize that your family doesn’t know you’re training here. I know your dad. This could be a problem.’ And I was like, ‘Wait. Stop. I’ll handle it. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.’ So that’s kind of how I started talking to my family again too.”

On telling them the news: “So I called my stepdad, and they lived in Charlotte too, they lived about twenty-five, thirty minutes away at the time, and I was like, ‘Hey guys, I’m training to be a wrestler.’ And I don’t think they really took me seriously. And I was like, ‘I’d love it if you came and checked it out.’ So the next Tuesday came around and they didn’t show up but the Tuesday after that it was my stepdad and my little brother came and I’m in the ring training and I see them roll in and I’m like, ‘Oh hell yeah. Alright, Cedric, let’s just do our thing.’ Cause him and I just knew each other so well. We could just get in there and roll around. It was great. This is a great story. I always do the undeniable thing on social media, #Undeniable. This is where it comes from, kind of, because…so after we’re done rolling around, my stepdad came up to the turnbuckle, and I crouched down, and I said, ‘What’d you think?’ and he was like, ‘Well, you’re not good…but you have it. Now you have to go out there and become undeniable.’ And he told that to me and it just stuck with me.”

On when she started training seriously: “I did a seminar with Mickie James and Magnus and Bill DeMott in Virginia. I did their seminar. I drove up to Richmond, Virginia, and it was like a two-or-three day seminar, I believe. And we’re doing the workouts, Nick led all the workouts, and I had great lower body strength but just like push-ups and pull-ups, upper body things I was just real bad at. And I remember Nick pulled me aside and he was like, ‘You’ve gotta get your upper body strength up. You’ve got to.’ And just pressed on the importance of it. And since then I was like, ‘Alright, I can do it.’ If I set my mind to something, damn it, I’ll do it.”

If you use any quotes, credit Talk is Jericho with an h/t to 411mania.com