The news was first reported by Fightful and later backed up with more details from Pwinsider.
Blanchard is a former iMPACT! World Champion and Knockouts World Champion. She made a shocking return to TNA in December 2024 after previously being let go by the company back in 2020. At that time, she was the iMPACT! World Champion and was on a leave of absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic. iMPACT! Wrestling officials terminated her contract before it ran out and stripped her of the title during that earlier exit.
This second departure comes down to a conflict between two wrestling business relationships. TNA has a promotional partnership with WWE, and WWE also owns Lucha Libre AAA. CMLL is a competing Mexican wrestling organization and also works as a promotional partner with AEW, which is a direct rival to both TNA and WWE. Due to this overlap, TNA officials were reportedly unhappy with Blanchard continuing to appear regularly in CMLL.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported earlier this month that TNA had already raised concerns about her CMLL appearances.
Faced with a choice between staying in TNA or keeping her ties to CMLL, Blanchard chose CMLL. She has been working with that company for years with no plans to walk away from it. Her status with CMLL is not changing as a result of the TNA departure.
Blanchard herself requested the release, and TNA granted it, even though the promotion has not yet officially commented on the situation. It is not known at this time where Blanchard might appear next outside of CMLL, but her free agent status will likely draw interest from other promotions.
Steelz is a 10-year veteran in professional wrestling who made her debut in 2016 and first appeared in TNA in 2019. Over the years, she has built herself into one of the most recognized names in the Knockouts division, holding the Knockouts World Championship and also winning the Knockouts World Tag Team Championships twice. Her most recent in-ring appearance was at the TNA iMPACT! TV tapings on June 6.
During a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, Steelz opened up about why she chose to re-sign with TNA. She explained that it only took her about 48 hours to make up her mind, and the decision came down to the people around her and the division that helped shape who she is today.
Steelz made it clear that she is not done with TNA and that there is still a lot of work left for her to do in the company.
As part of the re-signing announcement, TNA also confirmed that Steelz and the rest of the TNA roster are heading to Boston for Slammiversary on Sunday, June 28, at the Agganis Arena on the campus of Boston University.