Tully Blanchard Talks Wanting To Help Daughter Tessa In The Ring, Promos Becoming A Lost Art
Tully Blanchard created a Hall of Fame career as a member of the Four Horsemen and now his daughter, Tessa, is following in his footsteps. She appears in Impact Wrestling and Women of Wrestling where she is currently the World Champion.
Tully talked with our Andy Malnoske about his daughter's success and how he could still help her in the ring.
"I've encouraged her and my children to set their goals high in what they want to achieve," said Blanchard. "I don't get to see a lot of Tessa's stuff but she is definitely diligent and working hard. I am proud of her and I think if I could get with her for about three weeks and watch her in the ring, I could give her tidbits and nuggets."
Blanchard says he doesn't watch much of the wrestling product anymore but he does know how to entertain people.
Today Blanchard is a preacher who often gives seminars. He's talked in the past about crafting his wrestling persona from watching and imitating the greats who did it before him.
"In those seminars, I talked about my conversations with Nick Bockwinkel, Terry Funk, Dory Funk Jr., Harley Race and Wahoo McDaniel," stated Blanchard.
"If you wanna be really good at something, don't go copy some middle-of-the-road guy, go copy the best. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery and you want to imitate somebody that is the greatest success."
The Horseman were renowned for their iconic promos and Blanchard says most of them weren't heavily scripted like what happens in wrestling today.
"I think [promos are] probably a lost art form because you didn't have to write a script for us," said Blanchard. "You just had to say, 'You're wrestling Dusty. You're wrestling the Rock & Roll Express and you're in St. Louis.' Then we could take it and run with it and sell tickets."
Blanchard is currently working on a new book which talks about him becoming a born-again Christian during the middle of his wrestling career.
"I've got a ghostwriter writing a book for me and we're trying to get it published. Hopefully it will be out within the next year," said Blanchard.
"The name of the book is 'I Quit' since I never quit at Starrcade at '85 but I did quit when I came face-to-face with Jesus Christ. When I learned how to depend on him, my life changed and everything about me changed."