New Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo was the guest on Monday’s Busted Open Radio, just a couple of day after she won the title at the Slammiversary pay-per-view.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
Bully Ray asked Deonna why we didn’t see Impact Wrestling version of herself in NXT: ‘I think the Deonna that you saw and the world saw in Ring of Honor and Impact is the truest form of me, elevated. In NXT, it was very much a runaround. They said you need a character. Ok, well that’s too much character and you have to be the real you, but the real you isn’t believable. I got to the point that there is nothing I can do right. Now I feel defeated in me. Coming here and just saying screw what everyone else has said. Screw the connotations that came with me, screw the opinions and screw the negativity that I’ve been through. I’m going to bring out the person that loves professional wrestling and has wanted to be a professional wrestler since I was 9 years old and I’m going to make that girl proud. I don’t care that WWE fired me or didn’t want me and didn’t think I was good enough. I think I’m good enough. If Impact believes I’m good enough, and Ring of Honor believes I was good enough and Japan thought I was good enough, I’m good enough. I just needed to get back to believing in me and believing in the little girl who wanted to be a champion her entire life.”
Deonna was asked if she ever doubted herself during her low points: “There were a ton of those moments. There was a ton of just like, what I was going through in my personal life and then being unsatisfied where I was at work. I’m like, what am I doing? I have an education. I was a teacher before this. I can go back and be fine being a normal human being but then you have those spurts of like, what, I love this. Slammiversary was one of those moments that it was like, I worked so hard and been through so much that this is the payoff and I never need to doubt myself again.”
Purrazzo talked some more about NXT: “I said a lot of negative things about NXT, but during my time there, there were so many positives in terms of building an identity more than just Deonna Purrazzo. I was able to take on the Virtuosa and explore her personality and character traits.”
Was there somebody you leaned on during those lean times that you actually spoke to after that moment at Slammiversary: “Madison Rayne has been my biggest supporter. Before I came to Impact, when I was here in spurts before, she has been someone I can go to and cry to and tell everything to and vent. Before a match, I was a nervous wreck for the week prior so afterwards I gave her a big hug. I had some tears and she was like, ok, you did it. It’s done. So, she has been number one for me. And obviously, my trainer, Damian Adams. I spoke to him on the way to the venue today. Just for advice or how to keep things simple or this is my idea. How do we dumb it down so everybody understands. He is a lifelong fan that I can rely on for anything, especially wrestling.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Busted Open Radio with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. Busted Open Radio can be heard on SiriusXM’s Fight Nation (Channel 156), Monday through Saturday from 9 am to Noon eastern.
