Deonna Purrazzo speaks highly of the Hollywood Ending match.
At AEW Revolution, AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm faced Mariah May in the Hollywood Ending match. They battled it out in a violent bout that featured glass and other weapons. Both women bled a lot in the match, and the bout became a polarizing topic in the wrestling world.
Speaking with Haley Miller for VICE, Deonna Purrazzo was asked about the reaction to women having hardcore matches. Her own Texas Bullrope match with Thunder Rosa was used as an example, as was May's match with Storm.
“I definitely don’t think it’s my forte, but there’s a time and place for it. For Thunder Rosa and I, who I’d feuded with all summer long, coming together for the first-ever women’s Texas Bullrope match on national television, that was the time and place for us. We had a no-disqualification match and got the opposite of that. ‘This was boring. There was no blood,’ and it was like, did you not see her run up the table and catapult and dropkick me with a garbage can on my head? What more do you want? You know what I mean? So it’s interesting when you have that take where it’s like, ‘You didn’t give us enough!’ Then women do what Toni and Mariah did, and it’s like, ‘You gave us too much.’ There’s a time and place; we’re telling stories. We’ve been watching Toni and Mariah build to this match at Revolution. That was the time and place for them, and I think that if we’re talking about women’s equality in wrestling and giving us these opportunities, then we need to do something more extreme," Purrazzo said.
Purrazzo went on to say that May and Storm rose to the occasion when they were given the opportunity. She stated that the two of them set a new standard for violence, and they upped the ante for women in wrestling. Purrazzo also said that she was proud to be part of a division that presented that match.
"They were given the opportunity, and they rose to the occasion. If women want more opportunities like that, we need to take those risks and have those types of matches to show we can do the same thing and sometimes do it better. We’re never gonna make everyone happy. We have to make ourselves happy. I think Toni and Mariah killed it. They set a new standard for violence in our division and we get a lot of opportunities to be violent. They upped the ante for women in wrestling, period. I’m so proud of them and I’m proud to be part of a division that puts that out there and says, ‘love it, hate it. We earned this spot and type of match," Purrazzo said.
Tony Schiavone recently called Toni Storm his favorite women's wrestler of all time. Check out his comments here.
Click here to see what Jeff Jarrett had to say about the Hollywood Ending match.
