Mickie James discusses her rivalry with Deonna Purrazzo.
Mickie James and Deonna Purrazzo are going to kick off the New Year in a Texas Death Match at IMPACT Hard to Kill. For Deonna Purrazzo, this is a chance to recapture her Knockouts Title, a title that she held for the majority of the last year-and-a-half. For Mickie James, this is the opportunity to further cement her legacy in a violent match against one of the best wrestlers in the world.
With Hard to Kill looming on January 8, the roles are reversed for bold women in this matchup, Mickie James is the champion coming in with nothing to lose and Deonna Purrazzo is the hungry challenger coming to secure a piece of her professional soul.
Speaking with Bill Pritchard of WrestleZone, Mickie James explained how the reversal of roles has added a new spark to the story going into the Texas Death Match.
“I just feel like the stakes are even higher, honestly because I was going into that match with nothing to lose, really, I didn’t have anything to lose and now I do have something to lose and that’s the championship. I think I’m looking at Deonna and I’m looking at her and I see a very different woman than I did. Going into Bound For Glory, I’ve always had respect for Deonna,” James said. “Maybe I’ve respected her a little less as of late because of her attitude and things like showing up to my house and trying to drown me in a water trough. I think that she’s an incredible wrestler and technically, especially, one of the greatest out there. I’m all about giving respect but it’s hard to give respect if you’re not getting it. I felt like she didn’t respect me or any of the work that I’ve done at IMPACT or anywhere else and it felt really good to be able to shut her up for a while.
“But I see this version of Deonna that has come back as very different, she doesn’t have the whole ‘Virtuosa’ persona going on with the hats and the robes and all these things. It’s back to basics and almost back to her roots and I have to think, what is she thinking? I feel like without this championship, a championship that she held for a very long-time, and rightfully so, that she’s a bit lost and that doesn’t make me nervous but it makes me very aware. She’s a little bit unhinged at the moment and I already know what she’s capable of,” James noted, “so I feel like the stakes are going to be a lot higher on that because I feel like she’s already proven that she’ll do whatever she can to win. It’s going to be exciting… it’s going to be exciting for us all.”
You can check out the full card for the pay-per-view here.
Deonna Purrazzo recently spoke about the switch in her character now that she no longer has the belt in an exclusive interview with Sean Ross Sapp. Check out the full interview here.
