wrestling / News

Booker T Says Tessa Blanchard’s Impact World Title Win Is the Worst Idea in Wrestling History

January 16, 2020 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Tessa Blanchard Impact Hard to Kill, Moose

– Booker T is, to say the very least, not a fan of Tessa Blanchard becoming the Impact World Champion and he talked about it on the latest Hall of Fame. Booker T weighed in on Impact’s current product and specifically Blanchard’s win at Hard to Kill to claim the World Title from Sami Callihan.

Talking about the situation, Booker called it “the worst idea in the history of wrestling” and explained why he is not a fan of intergender wrestling. Highlights and the full podcast are below:

On the current Impact product:: “I tell you, man. I actually got a chance to watch a little bit of it last night. Very little. Very, VERY little. And it just was something that — I don’t know, man. I just don’t know. Those guys look like they’re just trying to find their spot, man. It seems like they’re they’re still trying to find their niche.”

On Tessa Blanchard holding the World Championship: “I mean, big ups to Tessa Blanchard, because she’s good. She’s really good at what she does. But this is the worst idea that Impact Wrestling ever had in the history of the company. It really is, it’s really that bad. It’s worse than paying me 10 grand for a six-hour power commercial that never aired.”

On why he dislikes it: “Now the men, all the men in the company, if they wrestle her and she beats them, it diminishes every guy in the company. I mean, who’s the top guy in the company now? I cannot see ‘The Man,’ Becky Lynch, wrestling Samoa Joe or Brock Lesnar. I mean this is the worst idea in the history of wrestling. It really is. And to throw it out there like that, it’s the only way it can really be thrown out. And it makes me question and wonder, you know, is somebody tried to blow this thing up on purpose? It’s like somebody said, ‘Let’s see how bad we can mess this up.'”

On the impact this has on the Knockouts division: “It’s gotta be [separation between the men’s and women’s divisions]. It’s always gotta be. My thing is this, if Tessa Blanchard goes back and wrestled the women, she should be able to beat all of them. Now the woman that beats her, she’ll be able to go out and beat the men too. The crossover intergender wrestling is something that’s for independent companies, okay? If they want to be looked at as an indie group, keep doing stuff like this.”

On the move not being a realistic one: “I don’t think this is what empowering women, what it really was meant to be. You know what I mean? I really don’t think so. Because I’m not saying Ronda Rousey is not a tough woman. But if you put Ronda Rousey in there with Jon Jones, watch what happens to her. You put her in there with the lower level men, and watch what happens to her. Or Amanda Nunes with the top [guys].”

On the domestic violence concerns: “You don’t want to start blurring those types of lines when it comes to performance especially when it comes to men and women these days. Normally, when a man hits a woman, he goes to jail. I don’t want to see no man put their hands on my sisters, all right? Even as tough as my sisters are, I’m not fitting to have that. And to actually see it play out, and to see someone think this is a good idea for television, for two – a man and a woman to be fighting? It’s ridiculous.”

On potential backlash over his comments: “You know what? People can look at it and say what they want to say about it. But for me, it’s not something that I would ever have on my Reality of Wrestling. And people can say, ‘Aw man he’s outdated. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’ It’s not that at all. I look at it from what I’ve done in this business as a performance, but I try to make it as realistic as possible. I’ve never seen a female boxer fight a male boxer. I’ve never seen a female wrestler — now, in tennis I’ve seen it. But I’ma tell you right now. I would take Roger Federer over Serena Williams. I’m serious, I really would. Or the top — Novak Djokovic. I’d take Novak Djokovic over Serena Williams. Just because the guy’s — he’s overpowering, and that’s what normally happens in a fight between a man and a woman.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Hall of Fame with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.