Deonna Purrazzo talks about the importance of the Ring of Honor brand and the buzz surrounding her upcoming debut on AEW Dynamite.
Since being released by WWE in 2020, Deonna Purrazzo has made the most of every opportunity afforded to her and has become one of the standout women's wrestlers outside of the WWE roster. Currently, she is an IMPACT Wrestling-contracted Superstar holding the Ring of Honor Women's Championship and getting ready to make her All Elite Wrestling debut on the May 4, 2022 episode of Dynamite in a title unification match with interim Ring of Honor Women's Champion, Mercedes Martinez.
In an interview after the news broke about her debut, Deonna detailed her history with Ring of Honor while speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp.
“Back when I started with IMPACT—and it’ll be two years the end of May—like, three or four months later, Ring of Honor had reached out to me, and was like, ‘We’re going to put together a women’s tournament and a revamp of the women’s division and we want you to be a part of it.’ I hadn’t signed with IMPACT yet, but I had verbally committed like, ‘I will be as soon as everything goes through. So, I can’t say yes, I have to make sure it’s okay with them out of good faith.’ We had Bobby Cruise and Delirious talking with Scott and we just couldn’t come to what worked best for everybody,” she continued. "Fast forward another year, same thing. ‘Okay, we’re doing the tournament. We want you involved somehow.’ Then it just got to the point where, ‘Okay, Rok-C had won the championship, this works, Ring of Honor is closing and we’re not sure of the future, but we’d like Deonna to carry us through this unknown period.’ So then it worked out.”
Looking ahead at her upcoming debut, she says that after trying so hard to find a scenario that would work for her to be involved with Ring of Honor, she feels like the Women's Championship has always been destined to be held by her and, she says that debuting on Dynamite in a championship match is as good as things can get for “The Virtuosa.”
“It’s been crazy because Ring of Honor is so close to my heart and, for better or worse, this Championship I feel has always been meant to be mine. So to finally hold it, it’s real and it’s getting the recognition it deserves. Carrying on that legacy is so important to me, but I would have loved to defend it, like everyone wanted, at Supercard. Obviously, I am signed with IMPACT, so that always has to come first and my obligations are my priorities. But I think I win. I think debuting on Dynamite in a Championship match is the best-case scenario for me,” she said.
Mercedes is only the interim Ring of Honor Women's Championship because Deonna Purrazzo had a commitment to IMPACT on Friday, April 1, 2022, and could not be a part of Ring of Honor Supercard of Honor. Looking back at the circumstances leading into that event, Deonna reveals that she was also yelling with a hematoma on her leg that made movement difficult for her.
“It was before Supercard where they were like, ‘Okay, it’s definitely not going to work out for Supercard.’ Which was good because I have a really bad hematoma on my leg, I thought my leg was broken,” she recalled. “I caught a dive and the way we landed, my leg bruised really bad. So I was really concerned with, ‘How am I gonna wrestle two high profile matches—Ring of Honor and AEW kind of debut, whatever this is gonna be—and then go right to my IMPACT Multiverse of Matches show?’
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God. I can barely walk up the steps. How am I gonna do this?’ So I think it worked out because I’m one hundred percent, I’m healed, I’m good,” she continued. “But right before that, Scott had called me and was like, ‘This is what Tony and I are thinking. You’ll wrestle Mercedes at this and we’ll figure out a day that works for everybody.’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ My answer was, ‘Oh, absolutely. I win in that situation.’ I’ve had to keep it a secret for a while. But I’m happy that the response was so great and everyone seems so excited.”
The start of the journey for “The Virtuosa” in AEW will begin with this very first appearance on May 4 in unprecedented circumstances befitting a wrestler of Deonna Purrazzo’s caliber. You can see the announced lineup for the May 4 episode of Dynamite here. She'll also be at IMPACT Under Siege on May 7 in Newport, Kentucky.
