Written by: Craig Ferriman (@MrImpact_Blog)
At Hard to Kill on January 12th Tessa Blanchard will make history, as the first women to challenge for the world championship of a major promotion as she faces Sami Callihan for the IMPACT World Championship. Tessa has told everyone that she wants to make her own history and this is how she wants to do it, Impact have already made history by announcing that all titles are open to all people of all genders. If Tessa wins the world title it will change the wrestling world and although some may be unhappy there’s no denying it’s a game changer.
In April 2018 Tessa Blanchard made her IMPACT Wrestling debut when she surprised everyone by joining Josh Matthews and Don Callis on commentary during a match between Kiera Hogan and Taya Valkyrie. A few weeks later, after attacking after her match Blanchard defeated Hogan in her first match on IMPACT.
On Slammiversary XVI, Blanchard picked up her first PPV win against Allie and that would start the third generation star on her way to making history in IMPACT. A couple weeks later Tessa would defeat Allie & SÜ Yung to win the Knockouts championship for the first time in her career, she would go to hold it until January of this year in which she lost it to Current and longest reigning champion Taya Valkyrie, But in her time as champ she would have many notable defences against names like Faby Apache and Giselle Shaw.
Tessa then embarked on a feud with Hall of Famer Gail Kim which lead to a great feud and an even greater match at the Rebellion ppv, at the end of that match Tessa turned face and embraced Gail. I think for many that match became an instant match of the year candidate I know it did for me and is my IMPACT match of the year.
On July 7 at Slammiversary 2019 Tessa faced off against Sami Callihan in the first Intergender main event of a Pay-Per-View. However Tessa was unsuccessful on this occasion but in many peoples opinion that match put Tessa in world title contention, and it seemed IMPACT management had the same idea. As at the IMPACT+ Unbreakable special Tessa and Sami Callihan competed in a number 1 contenders match,which with the help of Jake Crist Sami was able to win.
But Tessa wasn’t about to give up on getting her chance at the IMPACT World Championship, she won her opportunity to be part of the X Division championship ladder match at Bound for Glory in October which was eventually won by Ace Austin. She still wasn’t ready to let go of her chance and was entered into the 6 person elimination challenge on IMPACT to decide the next number one contender to the new World Champion Sami Callihan. It would come down to Tessa vs the former world champion Brian Cage and Tessa would pick up the win and become number 1 Contender.
Now Tessa will once again face Sami Callihan and this time the IMPACT World Championship will be on the line, with how the booking has been as of late I truly can not call who is going to win the match. Tessa is yet to defeat Callihan, but I must say the booking of the world champion hasn’t been great but he always finds a way to win his matches when he needs too although it’s usually with the help of oVe.
Tessa Blanchard has already been making history with IMPACT and it’s clear to see she’s far from done, as I say I don’t know who’s going to win but one thing is for sure Tessa and Sami are two of the best wrestlers currently in IMPACT today. At Hard To Kill history is going to be made one way or another and I for one can not wait to watch this ppv which is already shaping up as an incredible show.
Thanks for Reading.
