Chelsea Green On How Tessa Blanchard Tried To Manipulate The Match Finish At “All In”

On her podcast Green With Envy podcast, wrestler Chelsea Green dedicated the whole episode to All In, the 2018 pay per view that is considered a precursor to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Green described everyone backstage as having a ton of fun, with all the talent looking to prove that wrestling could succeed outside of WWE, where Green would start working soon after.

"The atmosphere was so positive and so fun," Green said. "It just felt like everyone was there for the same reason, which obviously we all were. Everyone, and the fans, were there to prove to ourselves and everybody else that another company could succeed in this wrestling world, other than WWE. And not just succeed, but thrive."

Green was part of the only women's match on the card, wrestling Tessa Blanchard, Madison Rayne and Britt Baker in a four way match. According to Green, Blanchard brought the Impact Knockout's Championship, which she held at the time, the event. Green believes it was to make Blanchard out to be a bigger deal than the other three women, as well as guarantee her the victory.

"We all went up the night before to talk about the matches, or the girls did, to talk about our match," Green said. "I'm not going to get into the specifics, I'm not going to pull the curtain back all the way, but I will say I will never forget. So we didn't know who was winning the match until the day of All In, till the afternoon actually of All In. We didn't even know when we were heading to All In, who was going to win. And Tessa, who was in our match, brought her f*****g Impact Title to the show and tried to come out with it.

"Now in my mind, it was a way to look better than all of us. Bringing out a title, being the only person to come to a ring with a title, the fans are obviously going to immediately put you above the rest. But also, I feel like she did that because she knew if she came out with the title, she couldn't lose that title on the show. She couldn't lose that title on a show that wasn't Impact Wrestling. At that time, there was no way that that could happen. Nowadays the door is open. Anyone can wrestle anywhere and anyone can lose or win in any company at any given time. It's wild. But way back when, like a couple years ago, that wouldn't happen. And that basically would've been a way of strong arming the higher ups into letting her win. Funny enough, she did still win the match, but we all collectively made sure she didn't come out with the title. We all kind of came out as equals, thank god."

In the Q&A section of the podcast, Green was asked if the finish of the match, Tessa pinning Green while Baker and Rayne attempted to break up the pin, was the planned finish. She confirmed that it was, while also confirming that it felt like something, while not necessarily a new promotion, was going to spring out from All In.

"That was the planned finish," Green said. "A lot of people ask that actually. We didn't realized it would confuse people whether or not Britt broke up the pin after Tessa hit her DDT. I guess I didn't realize how many people would, first off, see it and think that she broke it up, and also see it and wonder and then maybe I didn't realize that the camera might not catch the proper angle. I didn't realize any of that stuff. But that was the planned finish. Tessa was always going to hit me with her DDT right after I hit my Canadian Destroyer, which by the way was the best moment of my whole life. But it didn't matter, because that's what would've happened anyway if we were really fighting. Someone would've tried to stop the other person from winning.

"Did I see the momentum from the show going the way it did? Yes, I definitely saw All In not being a single show. I definitely saw the trajectory of what the Young Bucks, Kenny and Cody had brewing. I saw it only going up. I feel like with the four of them, how could you get any better? Those are some of the best wrestlers in the world putting on the best show in the world. It was huge, so I knew amazing opportunities would come from it. I just didn't realize that they were going to start a promotion themselves. I had no idea. It's pretty amazing though."

Green also described the feeling of the four women backstage prior to the match. While she referred to the situation as hectic, it was largely because Green and the other women wanted to go out there and make a statement for women's wrestling, given they were the only women's match on the show.

"This was super hectic, but it wasn't hectic backstage with everybody else. It was just hectic for the four of us girls, because we were still calling our match and the pressure was on," Green said. "We were so nervous and excited, and we just knew that we had no room for error, because we were the only women's match on the card. We knew that the world was watching us, and that we had to do this for, and I know this sounds dramatic, but we really had to do it for women's wrestling, in my mind. I think Britt felt the same way. So it was a big deal and we were nervous, so it was hectic."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Green With Envy and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription