After a successful title defence against Impact wrestling legend ODB at Sacrifice, Deonna Purrazzo’s second title reign continues on. After returning to the company for the second time in 2020, Purrazzo has not only become the best woman wrestler inside Impact, but has now made a claim to be one of the best in the world anywhere after a string of amazing performances.
Making her debut for World League Wrestling back in 2015 in Puerto Rico (owned by Savio Vega), Purrazzo then began regularly wrestling for Ring Of Honor from 2015 to 2018. During her time with the company, Purrazzo is credited with helping to create the the Women Of Honor division. Despite losing her debut match to Mandy Leon, this set the tone going forward to what the women’s division with Ring Of Honor would become. Whilst working with Ring Of Honor, Purrazzo also faced the likes of Sumi Sakai, Britt Baker and Candice LaRae.
During the tournament to crown the first WOH champion, Purrazzo reached the quarter finals after defeating Holidead – but was then eliminated by Mayu Iwatani. She then left the company in July of 2018.
Despite being known for working for Ring Of Honor, Purrazzo made several appearances for Impact Wrestling between 2014 and 2017. She first made her debut for Impact back in 2014 in a losing effort to Brooke at the Knockouts Knockdown II event. Her final appearance came on an episode of Xplosion in 2017 in a losing effort to Laurel Van Ness.
After competing in a Shimmer show in 2018, Purrazzo was then offered an NXT contract, despite being under contract to ROH at the time. She, however, accepted the contract and cancelled all upcoming appearances – including a match at All In.
She made the quarter finals of the second Mae Young Classic before being eliminated by Io Shirai. After making her name known to WWE fans during the tournament, Purrazzo began competing in the NXT UK brand. She made her NXT UK debut when she unsuccessfully challenged Rhea Ripley for the NXT UK women’s championship.
Purrazzo also made appearances on Raw in 2019 and 2020 in losing efforts to Asuka and Nia Jax respectively. On April 15th 2020 Purrazzo was released with several other onscreen talents as WWE made budget cuts.
Upon leaving WWE, Purrazzo debuted in Impact Wrestling once again. On June 9th Purrazzo attacked current Knockouts champion Jordynne Grace, setting up a title match between the two of them at Slammiversary. Purrazzo would win the match, capturing the knockouts title for the first time. This feud led to a 30-minute Iron Man Match at the Emergence special episode of Impact. Purrazzo would retain her title by winning the contest by 2 falls to 1.
At Bound For Glory, Purrazzo was scheduled to face Kylie Rae to defend the title but after Kylie Rae was unable to make the match due to personal reasons, Purrazzo was shocked to have to defend her title against a returning Su Yung. Purrazzo would go on to lose her title, but was able to win it back against Su Yung in a No DQ match at Turning Point in November of last year.
Since regaining her title, Purrazzo has been able to successfully defend it against the likes of Rosemary, Taya Valkyrie, and most recently against ODB.
At the age of 26, Deonna Purrazzo has already made it clear to the world that she is already one of the best wrestlers on the planet. Not only did she end the year with the Knockouts title, but she also picked up the Impact Knockout and Wrestler of the Year awards.
With so many years in the industry ahead of her, she certainly has the potential to be known as the greatest Knockouts champion in Impact wrestling history!
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