Booker T Says Tessa Blanchard’s Impact World Title Win Is the Worst Idea in Wrestling History

[Smart Marx]

I love Sami Callihan as a performer, but I think Tessa could take him in a legit fight.

Maybe not an MMA fight, but like a real life fight, sure.

 

[Lady Redfield]

I hate that a lot of decisions the last few years are all about this garbage 'women empowerment' trash (lets not act like it isn't). I like Tessa, for the record, and, although we are discussing scripted entertainment, I can at least agree with the fact that, although it's cool to see her as champ, where the fuck do you go from here? It's not believable to have her running all over male wrestlers built way bigger than she is. I just feel that this story will have a sudden stop because it will just end up being so ridiculous.....

 

[nWo4Lyfe420]

I hate that a lot of decisions the last few years are all about this garbage 'women empowerment' trash (lets not act like it isn't). I like Tessa, for the record, and, although we are discussing scripted entertainment, I can at least agree with the fact that, although it's cool to see her as champ, where the fuck do you go from here? It's not believable to have her running all over male wrestlers built way bigger than she is. I just feel that this story will have a sudden stop because it will just end up being so ridiculous.....

I agree with this.

Also, if you think about it, why would a a woman want to compete with the men? This implies that men actually are superior and that women should believe that being the women's champion isn't good enough. You would never see a man want to win a women's championship. Now when Tessa goes back to competing with women how do you take the other women seriously against her when she was just burying the male roster? And why would she want to go back to competing with women if she's capable of beating men?

This is just a really poorly thought out idea all around and a perfect example of why TNA has become as irrelevant as they are.

 

[Deezy]

I love Sami Callihan as a performer, but I think Tessa could take him in a legit fight.

Maybe not an MMA fight, but like a real life fight, sure.

True statement.....but it also doesn't mean she should be in the same division as people more than capable of sending her to the hospital.

What would be the optics if she got injured working against a guy who isn't capable of taking care of her in the ring?

The backlash of an accident could he catastrophic....just look at dreamers list of injuries from Hard to Kill he posted on twitter.

 

[Dale]

For what it's worth, I haven't watched any of her stuff or anything impact related so my opinion might be whatever but I personally am not a fan of the decision at all. I don't have any problem with men and women mixing it up in an angle or whatever but they shouldn't be winning the mens world title or any other mens title to be totally honest. When she loses the world title, does she stick around in the mens division because why would she want to relegate and limit herself back to the womens division?

Again I don't watch the product but them doing this clearly indicates that she's their golden goose so why not just do with her what they did with Becky instead and put her in the main events of their TV shows and PPV's, showcasing her as your face of the company without veering totally outside of your lane.

 

[Hoss]

For what it's worth, I haven't watched any of her stuff or anything impact related so my opinion might be whatever but I personally am not a fan of the decision at all. I don't have any problem with men and women mixing it up in an angle or whatever but they shouldn't be winning the mens world title or any other mens title to be totally honest. When she loses the world title, does she stick around in the mens division because why would she want to relegate and limit herself back to the womens division?

Again I don't watch the product but them doing this clearly indicates that she's their golden goose so why not just do with her what they did with Becky instead and put her in the main events of their TV shows and PPV's, showcasing her as your face of the company without veering totally outside of your lane.

Probably in large part because there aren't other women who are important enough to main event against her. Maybe Taya. But that's really it.

As for the whole issue of whether she should go back to challenge for the KOs title... I see no issue. Men win world titles all the time, lose it, then go on to challenge for the Intercontinental Title. Or the X Divsion Title. Or whatever the case may be. What's the difference? Just write a storyline where she has a personal issue with the KOs Champ so she goes after the belt to stick it to her. Problem easily solved.

 

[Messiah]

Tessa is believable against small guys like Sami Callihan, that's why they used him in this feud.. and i believe it was the best feud in 2019 because you actually believed these 2 hated each other. As long as she's not beating guys like Brian Cage and Moose ect.. it should be fine... A female winning the World Title is a big deal. It's smart for Impact to put the title on her, it got them a lot of attention.

 

[Lethal]

Wrestling history? So Katie Vick never happened?

It's a risky gambit, and definitely suspends belief that a woman has won the male championship. However, the TNA title has been shot around so many people, it's really not that big of a deal. Tessa has put on great matches and told a great story in this pursuit of 'history.' Sure, she's not the brute force of Chyna, but she's good in her own right.

 

[Stellar]

Yep, there have been worse things done creatively in IMPACT alone than this. Like allowing Sharmell and Jenna Morasca to have a match together.

I like Booker T but he clearly doesn't keep up with the product of IMPACT Wrestling.

 

[Deezy]

Well he said he doesn't watch impact

 

[Ace]

Yeah I'm kind of in agreement with Booker - Tessa is awesome but it doesn't feel like a great move.

I know Sami vs Tessa was fire but as some have mentioned it kind of confuses things regarding to the future. Tessa goes back to the knockouts division - she basically can't lose to anyone there. Or else we're implying that women and men are fairly similar across the board (like, if Tessa can win the men's championship but then loses to Taya, suddenly Taya has to be a upper-card level in the men's division.)

A lot of this comes down to your view of inter-gender wrestling but unless Impact is going into fully-fledged inter-gender, doing a one-off like this with a knockout is just going to confuse kayfabe.

To the comment that Tessa had outgrown the knockouts - that's the perfect time to use her to get another knockout over.

 

[Hoss]

Yeah I'm kind of in agreement with Booker - Tessa is awesome but it doesn't feel like a great move.

I know Sami vs Tessa was fire but as some have mentioned it kind of confuses things regarding to the future. Tessa goes back to the knockouts division - she basically can't lose to anyone there. Or else we're implying that women and men are fairly similar across the board (like, if Tessa can win the men's championship but then loses to Taya, suddenly Taya has to be a upper-card level in the men's division.)

A lot of this comes down to your view of inter-gender wrestling but unless Impact is going into fully-fledged inter-gender, doing a one-off like this with a knockout is just going to confuse kayfabe.

To the comment that Tessa had outgrown the knockouts - that's the perfect time to use her to get another knockout over.

Tessa's already not the only woman competing against men.

It's been going fine for Impact so far.

This has done more for their popularity than... anything I can think of since the Broken Universe.

It's honestly much ado about nothing and people are looking at this in such black and white terms.

 

[Ace]

Tessa's already not the only woman competing against men.

It's been going fine for Impact so far.

This has done more for their popularity than... anything I can think of since the Broken Universe.

It's honestly much ado about nothing and people are looking at this in such black and white terms.

Yeah as I said Tessa is super over and all but the future is where the problems could lie. Precedent etc.

I'm not a fan of inter-gender wrestling anyway so meh but it also feels like short-term gain for long-term issues.

 

[Hoss]

Yeah as I said Tessa is super over and all but the future is where the problems could lie. Precedent etc.

I'm not a fan of inter-gender wrestling anyway so meh but it also feels like short-term gain for long-term issues.

I mean different strokes for different folks. I just don't see the long term issues.

Like I said earlier, Tessa could lose this belt and then go after the KOs Title and it would not be any problem. It would be a step down so to speak, but wrestlers take step downs all the time. Like I said, how many former World Champions have gone on to win the Intercontinental, US, X Division, TV, etc. titles? Does that really change how we view them? I mean Jericho with the IC Title is awesome. Cena with the US Title is awesome. If anything it just elevates those titles. It doesn't make us look at those wrestlers as damaged goods or something.

And I think her losing to Knockouts is also a complete non-issue. Athletes can fluctuate in their performance. And to say "this person beat this person, so that means that person can beat every person that person has ever beat" is complete nonsense in the scope of wrestling. The Hurricane beat The Rock. Did we automatically assume Hurricane could now beat Stone Cold, Triple H and Hulk Hogan? Rosey beat Hurricane a couple months later, so is he now on the same level as The Rock? The answer is simply no.

 

[Ace]

I mean different strokes for different folks. I just don't see the long term issues.

Like I said earlier, Tessa could lose this belt and then go after the KOs Title and it would not be any problem. It would be a step down so to speak, but wrestlers take step downs all the time. Like I said, how many former World Champions have gone on to win the Intercontinental, US, X Division, TV, etc. titles? Does that really change how we view them? I mean Jericho with the IC Title is awesome. Cena with the US Title is awesome. If anything it just elevates those titles. It doesn't make us look at those wrestlers as damaged goods or something.

And I think her losing to Knockouts is also a complete non-issue. Athletes can fluctuate in their performance. And to say "this person beat this person, so that means that person can beat every person that person has ever beat" is complete nonsense in the scope of wrestling. The Hurricane beat The Rock. Did we automatically assume Hurricane could now beat Stone Cold, Triple H and Hulk Hogan? Rosey beat Hurricane a couple months later, so is he now on the same level as The Rock? The answer is simply no.

It's not about specific wrestlers though; it's about a women being better than all of the men.

It's less about Tessa herself as it is about the men's and women's division. You're absolutely right about the natural fluctuations (form or whatever you want to call it). But there is a level to which such fluctuations make sense. If Tessa is genuinely good enough to be better than the men, and doesn't just destroy every knockout, we have to believe that many knockouts can be genuine main-carders if they peak.

Again, if they actually go down this route and push inter-gender as a core or common component, then fair enough - not a fan but as you say, different strokes. But I don't think that's their goal - making the overall situation a bit confusing.