Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard hosted a conference call with the media today and was asked by Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp about the controversial allegations of racism & disrespect made during the same weekend that she won the title from Sami Callihan at Hard To Kill last month. You can read about those issues at this link.
Tessa said she chose to step away fro social media for a little while because of what was going on. She added that she knows everyone isn’t going to like her. Tessa did admit to facing challenges and making mistakes in the past.
“I’ve never used a racial slur of any kind,” she added. “It’s just not in my heart, 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 and someone will make an accusation, someone will say something, and then everyone hops on the bandwagon. We’ve all got our own stories. There’s a side of everyone’s life that’s public and there’s a part that’s private. There’s a part that’s for all the world to see and can be judged by anyone that’s actually interested in it, and it’s very unfortunate that some people resort to saying certain things, but it’s just not true.”
She continued, “To see your coworkers and to see your peers say things about you, some things that are just not true about you, it did hit me very hard, but I’m the kind of person who has extreme mental strength.”
Tessa also explained that she used the recent controversy to push herself to be her best version that weekend, so she could be a role model to young girls and other young wrestlers.
“Not everyone is gonna like you. I’m going to build my own legacy based on my work ethic, not by trying to win some popularity contest,” she said.
You can hear the full audio below and the comments on the allegations begin at around 37:00.
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