Taya Valkyrie Wants Title Shot Against Tessa Blanchard, Declines To Comment On Tessa Controversy
At Impact Wrestling's Hard to Kill, Taya Valkyrie retained the Knockouts Championship by defeating Jordynne Grace and ODB in a three-way match. That continued Valkyrie's recent dominance as she's been champion for over a calendar year dating back to 2019's Impact Wrestling Homecoming.
After her match, Valkyrie discussed her recent run and how she's feeling early on in 2020 during a post-match press conference.
"Last year I was undefeated on PPVs and here I am starting 2020 at Hard to Kill with another victory over two extremely well-rounded women. But, they ain't me. I came to play and I told you yesterday in the press conference and I proved that tonight. That's why I'm the greatest Knockout of all-time. I'm the 2019 Knockout of the Year and your longest-reigning champion in Impact history," said Valkyrie.
A big controversy over the last week was fellow female wrestlers alleging that Tessa Blanchard harassed them and used racist language before coming to Impact Wrestling. Wrestling Inc's Nick Hausman asked Valkyrie to address Blanchard's controversy.
"The only thing I have to say about Tessa Blanchard is that if she wins tonight, I'm the No. 1 person in line to take her on," Valkyrie said of Blanchard's Impact Title match with Sami Callihan. "I think I proved that tonight and that's the only thing I'll touch on with Tessa Blanchard."
Valkyrie was then asked if she doesn't face Blanchard then else she would want to wrestle and she didn't shy away from becoming part of Impact's intergender competition.
"It's 2020 so I can take on anybody. Give me any member of oVe, I don't care. Give me Brian Cage. Give me anybody, honestly, on our roster because we are the best in the world. You guys are seeing that again tonight and we're starting off the year strong with this pay-per-view," stated Valkyrie.
Taya Valkyrie is the longest reigning Impact Wrestling Knockout's Champion of all time. She can be seen every Tuesday night, 8/7c, as part of Impact Wrestling on AXS TV. Her full press conference was included on Tuesday's episode of the WINCLY podcast, which you can check out in the audio player below. You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.