Deonna Purrazzo never intended for “The Virtuosa” to be a character but she’s now finding the right balance between her persona and her in-ring skills and it’s paying off with IMPACT Wrestling.
Purrazzo recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of her title match at Slammiversary. Purrazzo will challenge for the Knockouts Championship, reaching a major platform just weeks after returning to IMPACT by attacking Jordynne Grace.
She has appeared on IMPACT Wrestling events before, including two Knockouts Knockdown events under the One Night Only pay-per-view theme. This time around, she’s coming back with more support and notoriety, and it’s her first stop after being released by WWE in April. Purrazzo spent the past two years with WWE on the NXT brand but she lacked a real character and was underused, only competing in sixteen televised matches.
Purrazzo said initially she came up with the moniker prior to WWE just as a way to tie in her background in name only, not so much as a “gimmick.” Now with IMPACT, Purrazzo says the promotion really understands what she’s trying to accomplish and hopes to help define it even more.
“I think there’s a delicate balance and for a long time I thought to just let The Virtuosa be a personality and not just a character. Before NXT or anything that I’ve done, when I came up with Virtuosa it was just to be a moniker and it was just to be elegant and pretty and tie in my Italian roots and just kind of to be there. It wasn’t meant to be who I am.
“I really think since coming to IMPACT they seem to really understand what ‘Virtuosa’ means, how to integrate it with nuance and words and not necessarily making this grand, over-the-top character. Let me see who I am and just how they [see it] or who a Virtuosa would be so I think they really helped me define that balance between just being a good in-ring worker and then also being a personality.”
The Virtuosa stated that IMPACT was all-in with helping Deonna define who she was as a star from the very beginning when she debuted after Jordynne Grace’s successful title defense back in June. She added that the biggest thing she had an issue with in the past few years is that
“100%. I think that’s been my biggest gripe over the past few years. It’s really wanting to have the platform to show the work that I’ve done and who I am, being a part of that is really what I wanted, to feel like my presence was felt. Coming out after the main event and attacking the champion, right there is more character development than I’ve got in a really long time so we’ve only been able to go uphill from there.
“We’ve only been able to show more sides of who I am outside of the ring and I think that is for me is the most important thing. I haven’t been shy about [the fact that that’s] the biggest thing that I lacked and for IMPACT to embrace Virtuousa, embrace who I am and what I bring to the table and understand it has really helped me bring that to the forefront and show the world what I haven’t been able to in the past.”
Read More: Deonna Purrazzo Looks Back On First IMPACT Run, Her Favorite Match So Far
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