Tessa Blanchard spoke with the Orlando Sentinel to promote the Mae Young Classic on the WWE Network. Here are the highlights:
Cedric Alexander being instrumental in helping her with training:
“If I ever needed anything, they would help me. After hours, I would train, train, train, six or seven days a week, until 2 or 3 in the morning sometimes. After a long day, Cedric [Alexander] would say, ‘Hey Tessa, let’s get in there and have a 45-minute match and call it on the fly.’ That’s helped turn me into the athlete I am today. I’m so grateful for all of those hardships.”
Advice from former WWE Superstar Carlito:
“I was going through this time where I thought, ‘Why don’t people like me? Why is it so tough right now? Why do people think I’m only here because of [my family ties]?’ Carlito looked at me and he was like, ‘Tessa, you don’t need to apologize for who your dad is, you don’t need to apologize for what family you’re in. You were born that way. But you do need to work hard and you do need to back it up.’ That stuck with me and that’s what I’ve been doing the last four years.”
You can read the full interview here.