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

[Kiffy Lube]

Am I not allowed to agree with Booker?

Brian Cage should be Impact Champion and nobody the size of Tessa should get near that title. Don't intergender matches already have a rule you can't punch a girl in the face? Unfair bullshit. You want equality take that damn shit. Tessa is awesome by the way but this isn't the route wrestlin' should be goin'.

 

[Hoss]

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.

Alright but look at the number of men she's actually beat to become champion. It's a short short list. She didn't just plow through the entire men's roster on the way to winning the title. Let's at least see how this reign goes, who she gets matched up against and who she beats/loses to before making such assumptions.

I think for me an ideal outcome to this whole thing is she gets a couple defenses in... one against Sami, then one or two against another non-heavyweight... have the wins be a little shady if need be... and the she ultimately drops the title and immediately engages in a feud with a Knockout (on whatever basis you want to make it) and then she wins the KOs Title, looking to put it on equal footing with the World Title, now that she's proven she's the cream of the crop.

But, you know... I've been following Tessa's rise and I'm a very big fan of the Sami feud. Impact has earned my trust that they'll handle this thing well, however they choose to approach it.

I notice that all the people I know who actually closely follow Impact are down with Tessa winning the title. And it can't really be disputed that this story has more eyes on Impact than they've had in years. So they're making their core fanbase happy and drawing more attention at the same time. It's a win all around for them.

If people don't like it, I get it. I just don't think it's the "problem" that some people want it to be.

As for your comment @El Kifeyye, Sami has hit Tessa with everything but the kitchen sink. She's getting her ass handed to her in these matches. Nothing unfair about it.

 

[Kiffy Lube]

Tessa is a badass.

 

[Ace]

Alright but look at the number of men she's actually beat to become champion. It's a short short list. She didn't just plow through the entire men's roster on the way to winning the title. Let's at least see how this reign goes, who she gets matched up against and who she beats/loses to before making such assumptions.

I think for me an ideal outcome to this whole thing is she gets a couple defenses in... one against Sami, then one or two against another non-heavyweight... have the wins be a little shady if need be... and the she ultimately drops the title and immediately engages in a feud with a Knockout (on whatever basis you want to make it) and then she wins the KOs Title, looking to put it on equal footing with the World Title, now that she's proven she's the cream of the crop.

But, you know... I've been following Tessa's rise and I'm a very big fan of the Sami feud. Impact has earned my trust that they'll handle this thing well, however they choose to approach it.

I notice that all the people I know who actually closely follow Impact are down with Tessa winning the title. And it can't really be disputed that this story has more eyes on Impact than they've had in years. So they're making their core fanbase happy and drawing more attention at the same time. It's a win all around for them.

If people don't like it, I get it. I just don't think it's the "problem" that some people want it to be.

As for your comment @El Kifeyye, Sami has hit Tessa with everything but the kitchen sink. She's getting her ass handed to her in these matches. Nothing unfair about it.

Regarding your points re Tessa being over, I understand - it's why I'm saying its the future that matters.

You may be right re: Impact managing the reign well but even so it just feels like a strange thing to do.

I guess my question is this: How should a match between Taya Valkyrie and Sami Callahan go? Presumably one would expect Sami to destroy Taya. But then if that's the case then Blanchard should be straight--up untouchable in the knockouts.

I'm a stickler for realism which may be why I'm so hung up on this.

 

[Hoss]

Regarding your points re Tessa being over, I understand - it's why I'm saying its the future that matters.

You may be right re: Impact managing the reign well but even so it just feels like a strange thing to do.

I guess my question is this: How should a match between Taya Valkyrie and Sami Callahan go? Presumably one would expect Sami to destroy Taya. But then if that's the case then Blanchard should be straight--up untouchable in the knockouts.

I'm a stickler for realism which may be why I'm so hung up on this.

Taya is like 6 feet tall. I'm pretty sure she's taller and in better shape than Callihan.

If they wrestled, Sami would probably beat her like he has Tessa 2/3 of the times they've met.

 

[Ace]

Taya is like 6 feet tall. I'm pretty sure she's taller and in better shape than Callihan.

If they wrestled, Sami would probably beat her like he has Tessa 2/3 of the times they've met.

Yeah but you'd still expect Sami to destroy her in a shoot. And in the ring.

 

[Hoss]

Yeah but you'd still expect Sami to destroy her in a shoot. And in the ring.

I mean I wouldn't. They managed to make three encounters between Sami and Tessa, who is much smaller than Taya, pretty enjoyable and legit.

If I was of the frame of mind that wrestling needs to be realistic, I'd think almost anyone lasting more than five minutes with Brock was nonsense. Or that someone getting up from even three German suplexes was bullshit.

It's a lot more entertaining when they do, so I don't really trip about it.

 

[Roy Mustang]

Calling it the worst idea in wrestling is dumb when he works for a company that did the Katie Vick angle and Mae Young giving birth to a hand. The story made sense if you had been watching and tbh wrestling is fake. I mean it is a shame that Tessa as good as she is, is a cunt in real life it seems still but if you are going to do this story in any company and with a female wrestler talent wise, Tessa makes sense.

On the DV stuff does Booker T react the same when men hit women in comic book movies for example?

 

[Deezy]

Rasslins only fake when it suits your narrative.

 

[Smart Marx]

I doubt Tessa ever goes back to being a full-time Knockout.

 

[Hoss]

Rasslins only fake when it suits your narrative.

There's no scenario in which I'll call out something in wrestling as being too unbelievable. If Kota Ibushi wants to wrestle a blow up doll to a 60 minute draw, I'm cool with that.

 

[Smart Marx]

There's no scenario in which I'll call out something in wrestling as being too unbelievable. If Kota Ibushi wants to wrestle a blow up doll to a 60 minute draw, I'm cool with that.

You lost me there.

 

[Hoss]

I didn't say I'd watch it. But wrestling is theater and if that's what sells... it is what it is.

 

[Deezy]

I didn't say I'd watch it. But wrestling is theater and if that's what sells... it is what it is.

Men dipping their balls in liquid shit sells to the same number as watching a grown man wrestle with a blow up doll.....doesn't make it theater, art or not allowed to have it critiqued and hated.

I'm saying that the blow up doll is niche.....So is intergender wrestling.

 

[Hoss]

Men dipping their balls in liquid shit sells to the same number as watching a grown man wrestle with a blow up doll.....doesn't make it theater, art or not allowed to have it critiqued and hated.

I'm saying that the blow up doll is niche.....So is intergender wrestling.

I never said it couldn't be critiqued or hated. Or that it isn't niche.

No points made.