Tessa Blanchard on Why She Signed With Impact, Enjoying Her Time There So Far

– Tessa Blanchard discussed her reason for signing with Impact Wrestling on the latest episode of Talk is Jericho. Some highlights are below:

On how she signed with Impact: “So, they had reached out to me a few times. And I was always just, ‘No, no, that’s not for me, I’m always going to be a WWE person. That’s just not for me.’ And then I don’t know what it was, but something became more attractive about it to me. And they started signing a lot of the more popular talents now. You know, they’ve got Pentagon, they’ve got Fenix, they’ve got Brian Cage, Sami Callihan. People who are really, really talented and have bigger names right now. And my roommate at the time was Moose. And he was there and he’s persuading me every day, ‘Tessa you’ve gotta come.’ And so I went one day, and I thought it was cool. I liked it. I hadn’t signed anything yet, just testing the waters and what not. The locker room was very inviting, everyone wanted everyone to do great. It wasn’t like walking on eggshells or anything, it was just, everyone was for everyone. It was really cool, and then Don [Callis] and Scott [D’Amore] and Sonjay [Dutt], they really care about the end product, so they don’t mind taking the time to get there. They don’t want things to be passable; they want things to be great. And that’s really invaluable to me, because I’m learning the TV style, it’s different to me. I don’t know, I’m learning from Gail, and Don and Scott, people who are more knowledgeable than me, and I have a high respect for, and it’s just invaluable to me. I don’t know what it was, people ask me all the time, ‘Why’d you sign with Impact?’ I’m just — I was going with my gut and it felt right, so I did it.”

On Impact: “I feel like they have a lot of very, very talented people there. I don’t know, I really like my time at Impact. I really like what they’re doing with me there. I like that I have the freedom. For instance, when I’ve gone to do other things that before I’ve been told ‘Tessa, you have to do this move and you have to do this move, and you have to do this move. Even if you don’t do it well, this is what you’re doing.’ And that’s been a few different companies before I’ve tried, and they’ve said, ‘This is what you’re doing, even if you don’t do it well.’ But at Impact, what I think is really cool is that I have the freedom to decide what I’m doing. And I have the platform to show people, ‘This is what I can do and this is who Tessa Blanchard is.’ And I have full control over how I’m perceived on television. And that’s really cool to me.”

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