Blanchard’s WWE career was a short one (a little over one year), as his WWE career came to an end with a failed drug test for cocaine.
Blanchard denies ever having a cocaine problem; but, acknowledges that the failed test changed his life,
“I bought a gram of cocaine and gave it to these girls up in Wisconsin and just to look like I wasn’t a prude, which I wasn’t; but, I didn’t do any of that stuff because I knew there was always a risk of a random drug test. All I did was lick the inside of a plastic bag, but it was enough to flunk a drug test the next afternoon in Philadelphia. You look back, I have no regrets and that was the next to last straw of what it took to have me come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in my life, which I could never do without and that was an absolute. Whatever it takes for a person to meet Christ in their life, it’s worth it and to end my wrestling career – which it’s not logical for my wrestling career to end like that, all of a sudden he’s gone. It was worth it to know that and to meet Christ in a very real way and change my path and change everything about me, so it was a very moving moment and that moment continues and this November will be 29 years.”
Blanchard revealed how he found out about the failed drug test and how it ultimately led to him not returning to WCW to re-join the legendary Four Horsemen stable,
“I’m the only wrestler that ever flunked a drug test that never went back to work….when I flunked the drug test that was in Philadelphia. That was in October. We got no word about that drug test until after we did TV in Wichita on Halloween night. I wrestled The Ultimate Warrior and we were getting ready to do the thing because we were Andre’s partners at Survivor Series. The next morning we get on a plane, fly to Chicago, drive to Rochester, Illinois for the night show. 5 in the evening Vince [McMahon] asked me a very good question and I didn’t have an answer. He asked me, ‘What are you doing with your life?’ I didn’t have an answer and he told me to turn my plane tickets to go home and that I was being suspended for six weeks; but, we were gonna be released from our contracts [at] Survivor Series, which was Thanksgiving night, so basically in 22 days, I was being let go. So, I flew back to North Carolina and I was working out. I was getting strong. That Saturday morning after Thanksgiving I was gonna walk on the Super Station with all my glory and hold up four fingers and Arn was gonna be with me and we were gonna change wrestling history at that moment and on November 13th at 1 o’ clock in the morning, Flair called me and told me they had found out about the drug test and they had reneged on my contract. They reneged on the deal and so November 2nd, Vince cans me. November 13th WCW reneges on the deal. Now, I don’t have a place to work. It is very very difficult to put into words the anger, the rage, the disappointment, the despair, I was going through.”
It was at that moment that Blanchard, now an ordained minister, found faith in Christ and hasn’t looked back since.
Blanchard also revealed that he gave his daughter, Impact star Tessa Blanchard, some pretty instrumental advice:
“I have told Tessa about the wrestling business. I said, ‘You need to go learn all the fundamentals.’ I said, ‘George South would be a very good place to learn.’ I wasn’t in Charlotte at the time – when she started. George is very good and I’ve known a number of people that he’s taught the fundamentals and everything to and he did a great job with her. I’ve done a couple of seminars that she was at and stuff like that; but, her knowledge had to get to a certain level. Her ability had to get to a certain level before she could really understand the stuff that I was talking about.”
(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)
Blanchard is currently working on a book about his faith, as well as his times in the professional wrestling business.
Readers interested in listening to Sean Mooney’s full interview with Tully Blanchard may do so below:
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