Tessa Blanchard Opens Up About Experiences With AAA; Konnan Saying She’s Not His ‘People,’ Bus Not Stopping For Women To Use Bathroom

Blanchard recounts her experiences in AAA.

There was a stretch of Tessa Blanchard’s career when she was working dates for AAA. She ended up becoming Reina de Reinas Champion at Triplemanía XXVII.

While guest appearing on Refin’ It Up, Blanchard spoke candidly about her experiences at AAA and said it was not the best. She remembers the night she won the Reina de Reinas Title, AAA booker Konnan told her that she is not one of his people. Blanchard added that Konnan would say things like that to her all the time. She also recounted a time when the tour bus would not stop for women to use the bathroom.

“My experiences there (at AAA) — this is all pre-WWE so it’s not a reflection of how they are now. They could be very different. I haven’t been with them for so many years. But, my experiences with them were not amazing. I never talked (to) Dorian (Roldán) directly but I always dealt with Konnan, and I remember one conversation where it was like, ‘Tessa, we can’t pay you more than this,’ and it was like crumbs compared to what I had been charging in the States and I understood. I was like, ‘That’s fine. Maybe we could work something out then, I would love to do Madison Square Garden with you guys, I would love to do a Triplemanía, I would love to be the first American to win the AAA Women’s Championship. These are things I would love to do’ and there was a few different conversations. I remember the night that I won it at Triplemanía, it was Ladder match so they had like a bunch of us and Taya (Valkyrie) and I were in the middle of a feud, and Konnan had told me and was like, ‘Tessa, you’re not my people. These are my people’ and he would make little comments like that to me all the time and then, there was situations like in the bus with AAA where they just wouldn’t stop for the women to use the bathroom. Silly things where, hey, it’s your time of the month and maybe we need to stop for the bathroom. I don’t know. Like, stupid situations that would happen out there that were just making it very difficult but I care a lot about résumé, right? And I was like, I wanna make history here in Mexico.”

Staying on that topic, Blanchard shared that an ex of hers once told her that she would not be going back to Mexico after their split. He allegedly told Blanchard that she only garnered attention there because of her connection to him.

“I stepped away from wrestling for a little bit. I had gotten divorced during that time and my ex had told me, ‘You’re never going back to Mexico. You were only successful in Mexico because of me,’ and I believed that for a long time because he was such a big star there, and then he was kind of my way into AAA and I’m so grateful to him for that because I got to make history in Mexico.”

In this same interview, Blanchard dove into the road to her return to TNA and the initial offer for a comeback in early 2024. To read her comments, click here.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Refin’ It Up with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.