Tessa Blanchard on her January 12 "Hard To Kill" match, Sami Callihan & more (Exclusive)

In 2019, IMPACT Wrestling grabbed a lot of headlines via its move to AXS TV for IMPACT!, its flagship weekly two-hour program. Starting 2020 off strong, IMPACT Wrestling will be presenting its first pay-per-view of the year via January 12th's Hard To Kill.

One of the IMPACT stars who has even casual wrestling fans talking is Tessa Blanchard. Blanchard will be competing against Sami Callihan in an unprecedented intergender match as part of Hard To Kill at the Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas.

Simply put, Blanchard -- a third-generation pro wrestler, following her dad (Tully Blanchard), her step-father (Magnum TA) and her grandfather (Joe Blanchard) -- is challenging a man for the World Championship of a major pro wrestling company, which has not been done before in the wrestling world.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Tessa Blanchard by phone on January 8, 2020. In addition to the full audio of the interview with the woman known as "The Diamond," below as an exclusive to Sportskeeda, is a transcription of a few minutes from the discussion. More on the possible future IMPACT Wrestling World Champion can be found online at www.instagram.com/tessa_blanchard and/or www.impactwrestling.com.

On whether the fans' support affects her Hard To Kill match against Sami Callihan:

Tessa Blanchard: I don't know. I've seen a little bit of a split response online. Sami's got a few fans of his own. But honestly I'm not quite sure. I'm trying to stay focused, I've been training real hard for this Sunday. I try to just mute everything else out... Sami and oVe have been in my path for the past eight months, so that's been my main focus.

On whether any other IMPACT Wrestling stars also have acting aspirations:

Tessa Blanchard: I feel like there's quite a few people. Brian Cage and I, we're actually close friends. I always said that he'd make a great villain in a Marvel movie. (laughs) I know Taya does some acting stuff, she lives out in Cali. I know Kiera Hogan has talked about it before. I feel like in our industry there are a lot of people who'd like to dabble in both [wrestling and acting].

On how much of her 2020 is planned beyond Hard To Kill:

Tessa Blanchard: Not too, too much. I have my schedule for 2020 from IMPACT, I have a few signings that I booked out not too far. I usually don't book things too far out in advance because I don't know how I'm going to be feeling, or if I'm going to want to travel that travel. I have the freedom to make those choices and those decisions now, so I take advantage of it.

Right now my focus is on Sunday and it has been for the past month. I took December off to visit with family, which I hadn't in a while, for the holidays. It was nice to rest and visit with family and take a break from the work life and go be in real life for a while.