Tessa Blanchard has officially signed with Major League Wrestling and will make her debut for the promotion later this month.
Blanchard announced the signing during an appearance on TMZ’s Inside the Ring podcast, confirming that she will begin working with MLW ahead of the full interview airing Thursday. “I’m going to be starting with MLW here soon, and I’m super, super excited for everything to come,” she said.
Blanchard’s debut is scheduled for MLW FIGHTLAND on September 12 in Charleston, South Carolina.
The location carries some family significance for Blanchard, as her father, WWE Hall of Famer Tully Blanchard, competed in the area earlier in his career.
Blanchard is a third-generation professional wrestler. Her grandfather, Joe Blanchard, promoted Southwest Championship Wrestling out of San Antonio, while her stepfather is wrestling legend Magnum T.A.
Despite not having wrestled her first MLW match yet, Blanchard already has her sights set on the top of the company’s women’s division.
Shotzi Blackheart currently holds the MLW World Women’s Featherweight Championship, which the promotion presents as its Women’s World Championship. Blanchard believes she can become the centerpiece of the division.
“I think what’s been missing from MLW is a franchise, a name that the division’s built around,” she said. “This division was built and now the franchise, well, I’m here.”
Blanchard also stated that her goal is to help establish the championship as the number one women’s title in professional wrestling.
However, MLW has not yet officially positioned Blanchard as Blackheart’s next challenger.
Blackheart successfully defended the championship against Jazzy Yang on the August 29 edition of MLW Fusion, after which Lady Frost confronted the champion and seemingly entered the title picture.
MLW had already begun teasing Blanchard’s arrival before she publicly confirmed her signing.
The August 29 episode of Fusion featured a mystery vignette centered around a large diamond. The video referenced how pressure breaks most people while others are made for it before the diamond shattered into several smaller diamonds and the words “coming soon” appeared.
Blanchard will continue to be based in Mexico City and work for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) as part of an arrangement between the promotions.
She has spent much of 2026 competing for CMLL and challenged Persephone for the CMLL World Women’s Championship on July 31, but was unsuccessful. Persephone has since captured the AEW TBS Championship at All In: London.
Blanchard became available to MLW after securing her release from TNA in June at her own request.
She previously enjoyed significant success with TNA, capturing the Knockouts Championship before making history at Hard To Kill 2020, where she defeated Sami Callihan to become the first woman to win the promotion’s World Championship.
MLW’s interest in Blanchard had been known for several weeks. Court Bauer confirmed in August that discussions were taking place and described her as incredibly talented, although he stopped short of confirming at the time that a deal had been finalized.
Blanchard now joins a growing FIGHTLAND lineup that also includes MLW World Heavyweight Champion Killer Kross. Kross appeared on the August 29 edition of Fusion, making the save for Matt Riddle, while Scarlett Bordeaux has also identified September 12 as the next major date on their schedule.
The signing gives Blanchard her most prominent position with a United States-based promotion since her most recent TNA run and provides another major name for an MLW women’s division that continues to develop around Blackheart’s championship reign.
Blanchard, 30, has been wrestling professionally since 2014 after training under George South. More than a decade later, she will begin the next chapter of her career at MLW FIGHTLAND on September 12.
