Former Impact Champion To AEW + Tessa Blanchard Makes History

A former Impact World Champion is signing with AEW-just after working FOR Impact! Brian Cage is AEW bound. Also, Impact has a stunning new world champ.

Former Impact World Champion Signs With AEW

Sunday was a busy day for fans of Impact, and to an extent fans of All Elite Wrestling.

Last night, Impact held their Hard to Kill PPV, and it was a solid effort for the company. It had several big moments in the show (one of which we will get to in a few paragraphs).

First up was Brian Cage. It ended up being a very eventful evening for Cage, the former Impact World Champion.

For starters, he had a match with Rob Van Dam. The match did not run long, and after a couple RVD chair shots, Cage was rolling out of the ring, injured and defeated. It also turns out he left the ring a free agent.

On top of leaving Hard to Kill bloodied, SoCal Uncensored is reporting that Cage left Hard to Kill under contract with AEW.

It will be interesting to see when AEW introduces Brian Cage. It will also be worth watching to see how they make use of the former champion.

That right there is quite an interesting turn of events, but it’s wrestling and we’ve seen crazier.

Speaking of crazier….

Impact Has A Stunning New World Champion

No, I do not mean Stunning Steve Austin-though that would be, well, stunning too.

Instead, Impact’s newest World Champion is stunning for a number of other reasons.

For the first time ever, Impact has a woman as their World Champion.

Last night at Hard to Kill, Tessa Blanchard defeated Sami Callahan to claim the gold and her spot in history. This isn’t the first history that Callahan and Blanchard were involved in. Last year, the pair worked the main event of another Impact PPV, and in doing so became the first man versus woman match to do so.

As controversial as the move may or may not be by itself, it seems Blanchard did have some controversy surrounding her regardless.

There was talk over the weekend that Blanchard had been a bit of a bully in the locker room. Things bubbled to the surface after Tessa tweeted that women should be supportive of other women. It didn’t go well, getting harsh responses from several women Blanchard has worked with, or whom she currently works with.

So what now?

If you check out Twitter, there are even more comments from other wrestlers, most referencing time in Japan back in 2017. Some question the timing, as in why ruin Tessa’s moment. For one thing, this is the world we live in. Too many enjoy that “Cancel culture” going around, and this is likely part of the motivation. That said, if the allegations are true, it’s unfortunate and may need to be better addressed.

What is also worth pointing out, however, are a few things to consider. For one thing, wrestling locker rooms are notoriously a bit competitive to put it nicely. Read some autobiographies and plenty of rivalries carried over into the back and were even more heated off camera. For another, Tessa is only 24. When some of these things happened, she was 21 or 22. That’s not to say she shouldn’t have been better. Mostly just pointing out that being young, away from home and in a very tough environment does not always bring out the best in people.

If the allegations prove true-and there are a lot of women chiming in-then one has to hope Blanchard owns her mistakes and learns from them.