Deonna Purrazzo: ‘Impact Was Best’ For My Career
The ROH Women’s World Champion discusses Tony Khan’s purchase.
In all the hoopla of announcing his purchase of Ring of Honor, Tony Khan forgot to confide in someone: Deonna Purrazzo.
After all, she’s the ROH Women’s World Champion, maintaining the title’s relevancy by defending on a regular basis in Impact Wrestling while ROH has been on hiatus. If anybody should’ve been filled in on Khan’s plan, it’s “The Virtuosa.”
“I was literally just as surprised as everybody else was,” Deonna Purrazzo told The Wrestling Estate. “I don’t know what the future holds. With AEW’s relationship with Impact last year, I developed a good relationship with Tony Khan. Whatever he needs from me as the Ring of Honor Women’s World Champion, I’d be more than happy to oblige and defend my championship on whatever show that he needs me to. It’s exciting – I’m in a good position.”
Deonna Purrazzo (also the AAA Reina de Reinas Champion) most recently defended the gold against one of her best friends at Sacrifice. Well, it wasn’t exactly her choice: Chelsea Green decided to answer the Champ Champ Challenge. That turned out to be a costly mistake, as Green suffered a fractured left radius during the match, a recurring injury in her career. Of course, nobody knows that better than her bestie.
“There’s an extra layer of competition and pressure because it is your best friend, you can hit them a little harder,” Purrazzo says. “Being the Champ Champ adds another layer to it because as you guys saw, I’m willing to win by any means necessary.”
You can’t blame the Jersey girl – there’s stiff competition in Impact’s women’s division. With more than a baker’s dozen on the active roster, everybody is gunning for the spotlight. And unlike most promotions, Impact allows plenty of TV time for its Knockouts to shine. Purrazzo credits leadership, such as Madison Rayne, producer Gail Kim and Scott D’Amore, executive vice president of the company, for consistently recruiting new additions to the roster and giving women opportunities to break down barriers. For example, in her relatively short time in the company, Purrazzo has competed in not only the first Knockouts Ironman match, but also the first Knockouts main event on a pay-per-view.
It’s amazing to see how far “The Virtuosa” has come after being released from WWE almost two years ago. “Coming to Impact was the best thing I could’ve done for my career,” she says. “My resume has grown exponentially, faster than anyone else’s has in the last two years.”
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Anyone who’s followed her nearly 10-year career knew Deonna Purrazzo was destined for success. She honed her craft up and down the East Coast, racking up victories and championships throughout the indie circuit. In the summer of 2015, she and Mandy Leon had the first women’s match in ROH in close to a decade, reigniting the company’s women’s division. (Another reason Khan should’ve called her.) She’s also the only back-to-back winner in ECWA Super 8 history, defeating Tessa Blanchard in 2015 and Karen Q in 2016.
“I had so much fun growing and developing in ECWA,” Purrazzo says. “The previous owner [Mike Tartaglia] really gave me a platform to wrestle anyone I wanted to and to suggest people to be in the Super 8, like Britt [Baker]. That tournament has such a legacy of having stars before they were stars and helping to build our resumes and our repertoire. I owe a lot to ECWA.”
She also owes a lot to Damian Adams, a 21-year veteran of the mat who has earned a reputation as one of the top trainers in the sport. In addition to Purrazzo, his students include current Knockouts Champion Tasha Steelz, Karen Q (known as Wendy Choo in NXT), Karissa Rivera (known as Elektra Lopez in NXT), this past year’s ECWA Women’s Super 8 winner Megan Bayne and more.
“I’ve heard so many horror stories about wrestling training facilities that I just never had to live through because Damian is hands-on,” Purrazzo says. “He’s in there actively training with you and he has such a network [of promotions] to get his students experience and travels with them, so they’re not going through those wrestler horror stories, where you don’t get paid or whatever. There’s just such a team mentality and guidance that he provides in all aspects of wrestling. That’s his secret sauce: giving his heart and soul to his students who give their heart and soul back.”
Purrazzo will continue to give everything she has to the fans this weekend when Impact Wrestling comes to Philadelphia for back-to-back TV tapings at the 2300 Arena. If she can hold onto her belts this Thursday on Impact, when she defends against both Gisele Shaw and Lady Frost, then she’ll roll into Dallas for WrestleCon to host the Champ Champ Challenge at the Multiverse of Matches.
“There’s a lot of non-compete contracts that will be up,” Purrazzo says. “There’s Mia Yim, Tegan Nox, Toni Storm, Ember Moon, so many women on everybody’s radar right now and I would love for them to answer the challenge.”
Impact Wrestling comes to the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia on March 18-19.
For tickets, click here.
Watch Impact Thursdays 8pm ET on AXS TV, Thursdays 8:30pm ET on YouTube (IMPACT Insiders), Thursdays 10pm ET on IMPACT Plus
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