WOW continues to make mistakes with its planned relaunch

This week, news broke within the women’s wrestling space that should have kicked up excitement for the relaunched Women of Wrestling. There’s a large fanbase for women’s wrestling that wants to see success for any promotion specifically cater to that audience. Unfortunately, this announcement centered around the idea of Tessa Blanchard’s return to wrestling without true repentance for the accusations about her behavior that became known in 2020. It hasn’t even been a full week and the missteps of WOW’s relaunch show that it’s difficult to stamp out the problematic forces that exist within professional wrestling.

The accusations that Blanchard faced in 2020 are not hard to uncover. She was accused of varying levels of bullying behavior, which also included spitting on and calling La Rosa Negra the “N-word.” Multiple well-known names in the industry openly spoke about the 2017 matter, including Negra herself in a video on YouTube.

Yet, Blanchard went the exact opposite route. Instead of speaking to what she was directly accused of doing, she spoke around the matter, hinting toward “mistakes” and “challenges.” Then she took the defensive statement of “controlling my narrative,” and doubling down against the idea of her being racist. Never once did she speak to the point that caused so much of the vitriol. An acknowledgment and apology would have gone a long way, but Blanchard, like so many others, refuses to admit any wrongdoing which further exacerbates the matter.

WOW made the situation worse with the idea of dropping “Nuclear” merchandise for Blanchard, along with a video where Izzy dismissingly uses the same term to describe her with an eye roll. So instead of addressing the situation correctly, Blanchard and the minds behind WOW made the decision to promote the idea that she has “heat” for some unknown reason. That is a lesson in bad marketing 101.

The collective groan heard across the social media space shows that the loudest voices want some type of acknowledgment and apology for Blanchard’s behavior. Going in the opposite direction doesn’t help the perception of WOW, nor the talent that will be a part of the company. Blanchard’s involvement and the promotion of her “heat” will be enough to turn people away. WOW needs to do all it can to grab those that want to see its type of product, instead, this behavior turns potential viewers away before television even begins.

Apologies can go a long way. That doesn’t mean that everyone impacted will forgive, nor every opinion change, but ignoring accusations makes the matter much worse. Tessa Blanchard has done just that and her return to wrestling through WOW is drawing an opposite response than desired. It’s not too late to change course, but these first few steps show that none of those involved have any intentions of attempting to do this return correctly.