Tessa Blanchard Shows Up On Impact Wrestling’s Redemption 2018

After months of rumor and speculation linking Tessa Blanchard to a move with WWE, the third generation wrestler has joined Impact Wrestling.

Impact Wrestling’s Redemption 2018 Pay Per View got off to a swimmingly good start with three straight fun matches. Aerostar vs. Drago was a fast-paced opener to get the crowd excited, Scott Steiner and Eli Drake’s Impact World Tag Team Title victory over LAX was more entertaining than it had any business being (complete with a top-rope Frankensteiner), and Brian Cage threw people around in his Six-Way match.

Steiner surely grabbed some headlines when he won the tag titles with Drake, but what may have overshadowed that surprising victory was Tessa Blanchard’s even more surprising appearance at Redemption 2018.

Earlier today, Impact announced that Taya Valkyrie, who just lost her feud with Rosemary, would be facing Kiera Hogan at Redemption. As expected, Valkyrie picked up the victory. But what wasn’t expected was Blanchard’s interruption.

Blanchard appeared on commentary, sitting in between Josh Mathews and Don Callis. She was abrasive, arrogant, and well-stated, and it was a great introduction for her to Impact. It did admittedly take away from a decent match between Valkyrie and Hogan, but it was an impromptu match anyway. And, well, it was a welcome distraction.

It will be exciting to see what Blanchard can do in an increasingly competitive Knockouts Division, which recently added Su Yung, who immediately worked her way into a title shot against Allie. Blanchard should see a similarly quick rise in the division, though I would hope that Impact allow her to develop a rapport with the fans as a legitimately hateable heel before giving her an initial (and perhaps lengthy) run with the prestigious Knockouts Championship.

Needless to say, this is huge news, and many fans who thought Blanchard would sign with WWE will likely wake up to a surprise on Monday morning. Blanchard, of course, appeared in the Mae Young Classic last here.

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A big name on the Independent circuit, it is unclear if Blanchard has agreed to formal terms with Impact, and these details have a way of being difficult to parse out. Regardless, she was brilliantly full of herself on commentary, and she had a nice rapport on the mic with Callis. This is an exciting addition to the Impact roster, and we’ll see what role she plays in the upcoming tapings that will follow the Redemption PPV.

It’s safe to say she’s a favorite to win the Knockouts Championship at some point in the future.