The mystery surrounding Tessa Blanchard’s scrapped MLW debut may finally have an explanation, and it appears the problem could have come down to how aggressively her arrival was promoted.
Blanchard was already pulled from MLW’s September 12 event in Charleston, South Carolina, but Dave Meltzer has now offered more insight in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter about what may have caused things to fall apart behind the scenes.
According to Meltzer, CMLL had only approved Blanchard for a single MLW appearance. The issue may have started when MLW promoted her arrival like the beginning of something much bigger, while Blanchard herself openly talked about chasing championships in the company.
“I believe CMLL was mad because of the wording used that she had signed with MLW when they had only okayed one appearance for her, the 9/12 show.”
That distinction appears to be important. CMLL talent regularly works MLW events, but Meltzer noted those appearances are arranged through CMLL and the wrestlers are not signed directly to MLW. Things apparently escalated enough that CMLL publicly clarified the situation before Blanchard’s appearance was ultimately canceled.
“It was surprising in that situation that CMLL sent out a press release noting MLW only had an agreement for one date and then as things heated up behind-the-scenes, that date was scrapped and her coming in, at least as of right now, is off the table.”
Meltzer made it clear he could not definitively confirm the exact reason because CMLL has not publicly explained what happened. However, he believes the promotion surrounding Blanchard possibly chasing the MLW Women’s World Championship may have rubbed CMLL the wrong way.
“I’m not 100 percent sure because CMLL has said nothing past its release, but it appears it may be that she and/or MLW pushed the idea of winning the MLW women’s title and CMLL wasn’t happy because they had not given the okay for future dates and wanted it public they had only agreed to one date.”
That lines up with the way Blanchard had been talking about MLW before the appearance was canceled. She openly discussed becoming a centerpiece of the women’s division and made it clear she wanted to eventually hold the MLW Women’s World Championship. From MLW’s side, however, the promotion may have simply viewed all of that as standard wrestling hype. Meltzer said those involved on the other side seemingly saw nothing unusual about promoting a new arrival as somebody coming after championships.
“I sense from the other side is that they just considered it regular publicity to bring her in with as much fanfare as going to MLW could bring with the usual talk of the idea that talent coming to MLW would be looking at winning their championships.”
One person with knowledge of the situation broke the apparent disagreement down even further.
“One person not directly involved but with full knowledge of the situation described it as CMLL booking Blanchard for one date, and MLW promoting it big that she was starting there with goals of winning MLW titles.”
Blanchard’s own media appearances may have added fuel to the fire as well.
“She also did media pushing that she was after titles. CMLL was upset with that media because they had only booked her for the one date.”
Meltzer acknowledged that, under normal wrestling circumstances, none of that would seem especially strange. A wrestler showing up in a new company and immediately saying they want a championship is about as old-school as wrestling promotion gets.
“It comes off as just logical of what you would do or say promoting an arrival in old school wrestling saying your goal is to win a title but because the company she’s under a deal and brokered this specific deal wasn’t happy this was done this way.”
So while CMLL still hasn’t publicly spelled out exactly why Blanchard’s MLW appearance fell apart, the growing belief is that the issue wasn’t simply her wrestling elsewhere. It may have been the impression that one approved date was being promoted like the start of a larger MLW run without CMLL signing off on anything beyond that.
If that is what caused the problem, this may have been less about Blanchard herself and more about two promotions having very different i
