Deonna Purrazzo had talks with WWE during her free agency, but she opted not to sign with the company.
Deonna Purrazzo previously had a run with WWE. After making a few appearances for the company, she signed with WWE in 2018. She joined NXT and also made some appearances in squash matches on the main roster. WWE released Purrazzo in a wave of cuts in April 2020. She then signed with TNA/IMPACT and became a three-time Knockouts World Champion. Purrazzo went on to sign with AEW and debuted on the January 3, 2024, episode of AEW Dynamite.
In an interview with Stephanie Chase, Deonna Purrazzo was asked whether she had talks with WWE when she contemplated her next move She recalled the conversations they had. (H/t Jeremy Lambert of Fightful for the transcription)
“I did. It kind of came down to a few weeks before I was a free agent of talking to everybody,” she said. “Talking to Triple H and William Regal. I talked to, obviously, Tony Khan. Trying to figure out what the best decision for me was going to be. I felt, ultimately, back before I went to NXT the first time, I was supposed to be on All In. I was supposed to be doing all these great things, going back to Japan, [and] I gave all of that up to go to NXT. It didn’t work out. I was very bitter about that, but it just didn’t work out.”
Deonna Purrazzo On Her Decision
Deonna Purrazzo then described how she had learned a lot about herself, and she was hesitant to go back to WWE, given the way she was treated in NXT.
“I learned a lot about myself,” she said. “I was hesitant to go back into that situation knowing how I was treated. Wanting to avoid that at all costs. I felt like there wasn’t trust there for me to squander this really great opportunity that I knew was there for AEW.
“Who knows, in hindsight, had I not gone to NXT, had I been at All In, I could have been at AEW from the beginning, maybe. I could’ve been here for five-and-a-half to six years. I was really worried that I would be giving up something really great for something that I already knew the potential outcome of.”
Purrazzo recently lost to Thunder Rosa in a Texas Bull Rope match on the August 10 episode of AEW Collison.
