Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion and former WWE NXT Superstar Deonna Purrazzo comments on her time in NXT, and wanting to send a message to her former employer. The following highlights are from her appearance on Busted Open Radio.
Her time in NXT: “I think the Deonna that you saw, and the world saw, in Ring of Honor and Impact is truly who I am. The person I’ve been able to put on the screen is the person I believe in. It’s the truest form of me, you know, elevated. At NXT, it was very much a runaround. ‘You need a character. Okay, well that’s too much character. You have to be the real you, but the real you isn’t believable.’ I just gotten to a point where there’s nothing I can do right, and now I feel defeated in me. And coming here and just being like, screw what everyone else has said, screw the complications that came with me, screw the opinions, and screw the negativity I’ve been through. I’m going to bring the person that loved professional wrestling, that wanted to be a professional wrestler since I was nine years old. And I’m going to make that girl proud!”
Was Purrazzo good enough for WWE?: “I don’t care that WWE fired me, or didn’t want me, or didn’t think I was good enough! I think I’m good enough. And if Impact believes I’m good enough, and if Ring of Honor believed I’m good enough, if Japan thought I was good enough, I’m good enough! And I just needed to get back to believing in me and believing in the little girl who wanted to be here her entire life.”
On having a chip on her shoulder and wanting to prove herself: “I had a chip on my shoulder, and the first interviews I did, I was like, ‘screw NXT!’ and that put a target on my back. That put pressure to perform at a new level and to raise to Jordynne’s level, to Taya’s level, raise to Tessa’s level. All the champions that came before me, now I have to be equal with them. If not, better, especially where I was coming from and the success I didn’t see in NXT. I had to make this worthwhile, and come in, and be right with the champion, be on the first pay-per-view I can be on as, now, the Knockout’s Champion. It’s like, [WWE] messed up, and I hope you regret it and I hope you feel dumb because everyone else can see it and I’ve known it my entire life.”
