According to reports, WOW Wrestling has had some issues as they gear up to return from a long hiatus this week. However, along with these bumps in the road, they also seemingly have had a falling out with Tessa Blanchard.
Tessa Blanchard & WOW Falling Out
WOW announced last October that a multi-year agreement was signed with ViacomCBS for new episodes to air on television every weekend on CBS and CW stations as of this fall. With AJ as Executive Producer, the tapings of these shows were set to start this week.
As per Fightful Select, there seem to be allegations that center around issues with Tessa Blanchard and WOW officials. There’s no information on whether or not she’s still booked for WOW television tapings, which are taking place in L.A.
What exactly happened? According to the Fightful report, Tessa made fun of Americana (real name Samatha Sage). In fact, Blanchard “tore apart” a promo Sage cut, and other trainees spoke up.
A source states that acting classes were canceled “until further notice”. One trainee was told that Tessa would be less involved with WOW moving forward, but this has yet to be confirmed.
More On Tessa Blanchard Falling Out With WOW
Another source notes that Blanchard isn’t in charge of training WOW talent anymore. Apparently, Selina Majors is handling this now.
Another source implies that Tessa will have to wrestle in Mexico if she wants to work again. Another WOW talent has said they believe Blanchard is gone from the company, but again, nothing has been confirmed.
Tessa’s wrestling future has been unstable since she left amongst controversy from Impact in March 2020, while she was still Champion. Tessa left the promotion due to accusations from other female talent stating she was a bully and made racist statements, which she claimed were false.
She has only wrestled in one bout since, in September 2020 at the Warrior Wrestling’s Stadium Series Day 1 event. That night, she lost the Warrior Wrestling Women’s Title to Kylie Rae.
While Tessa has deleted her Twitter account, she recently dropped an interesting message on her Instagram story. See the photo above.
Over to the land of AEW, seems like they are wrapped in a little controversy of their own in the form of a litigation complaint. See more below.
AEW Dealing With Legal Complaint
Lawsuits are nothing new in the land of pro wrestling. This makes it no surprise that AEW is dealing with some legal problems with its website.
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics reports that the company has been slapped with a class-action suit. The plaintiff alleges that AEW, LLC violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The root of the complaint notes that the company’s merchandise website (ShopAEW.com) lacks accessibility to those who are visually impaired. Interestingly enough in 2020, WWE faced a similar legal issue and was settled later.
The plaintiff who filed the complaint against AEW has filed numerous similar class action claims this year. https://t.co/Rvj4Jh7sZO
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) May 4, 2022
A similar complaint was filed against WWE in 2020. WWE settled soon after. https://t.co/qF1tBjrWKQ
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) May 4, 2022
Who Launching This Legal Complaint?
Luigi Abreu is the plaintiff, but as this is a class-action complaint, a number of others who are visually impaired are included as well. The full complaint can be read, here.
Sadly, AEW’s website has failed ADA guidelines. Here’s hoping that Tony Khan addresses this issue and everything gets settled properly.
