Tully Blanchard Reveals How He Got Involved With AEW, What Advice He's Given to Daughter Tessa Blanchard

WWE Hall of Famer Tully Blanchard stunned the pro wrestling community in July when he popped up in [...]

By Connor Casey

WWE Hall of Famer Tully Blanchard stunned the pro wrestling community in July when he popped up in the first episode of the Road to AEW All Out YouTube series and announced that he was joining the company to work as the advisor for Shawn Spears.

Blanchard had been retired from in-ring action since 2007 and had all but disappeared from the wrestling business since 2011 (minus a couple of one-of appearances for the WWE and a few conventions). He explained during an interview on Friday at the Starrcast III event that all it took for him to get back was a few text messages from Spears and a strong endorsement from Arn Anderson.

"I have been away from this world other than Starrcast and autograph shows for a long time, but there's a lot of knowledge still floating around that I've been thinking of since Shawn approached me with helping him out," Blanchard said.

"He [Spears] contacted me, and then I talked to Arn a little bit about it," he added. "And Arn said all the right, positive things."

He admitted it was "a little scary" about returning to the wrestling business, and that he's just as anxious as many fans about appearing in Spears' corner at All Out on Saturday night for his grudge match against Cody Rhodes.

One topic that has been popping up throughout Starrcast weekend is the idea of Tessa Blanchard, Tully's daughter, eventually joining AEW. She's currently one of the top stars in Impact Wrestling and has built a following over the past few years for her work on the independent scene, which included winning a four-way match against Britt Baker, Chelsea Green and Madison Rayne at All In in September 2018. Scorpio Sky listed her as the one wrestler he wants to see join AEW during the BTE Mailbag segment on Thursday night, while Baker specifically named her as a dream match opponent during a panel on Friday.

Blanchard divulged what advice he's passed down to her in recent years, as well as how he feels about her eventually joining AEW.

"She has grown into a gigantic persona," Blanchard said. "And it's awesome to see the talent she has and the desire, because that's the same desire I had to become the best. I don't think you would say I was ever the best performer in this business, but that was my goal. I wanted to go [to] that. And it didn't make any difference if I was on before or after, I still tried to have the best match on the card every night. Those are the things that I've told her, and if you do those then everything else will take care of.

"Ask me in a month and after TV starts with AEW if I've got the AEW flag waving, recruiting my daughter," he said. "Right now I'm just trying to keep both feet on the ground for me, because this is certainly... three months ago this is not something that I was thinking I'd be doing."

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