Surprisingly, Deonna Purrazzo was one of the first names released in the first wave of talents during the massive layoffs from WWE.
After being used as enhancement talent during her first stint in NXT from 2014 – 2017, Purrazzo’s name got bigger on the independent scene as she competed in promotions such as Ring of Honor, World Wonder Ring Stardom, and TNA/Impact Wrestling.
The New Jersey native would ultimately sign with WWE again in 2018; however, it was noticeable that Purrazzo wasn’t used much during her time in NXT/WWE, and when she was, Purrazzo was essentially resuming her role as the enhancement talent that she played in her first stint with the company.
Despite defending her stance within the promotion to fans, Purrazzo revealed to Pat Laprade & Kevin Raphael on their show, ‘Les anti-pods de la lutte’, that she’s wasn’t happy with not being utilized properly and even though she recently received her pink slip, she’s looking forward to the future (Transcript courtesy of Post Wrestling.com):
“I’ve talked to so many people in the office in NXT about not being happy, not being utilized properly, wanting to be booked more and do more, and I just had a lot of push back from it and speaking up for myself was looked upon negatively and it was about a month ago that I had a conversation with Canyon Cemen and I said, ‘If I’m not gonna get ahead of this and I’m not gonna change people’s minds about me, then I don’t wanna be here anymore.
’So, when he called me last Wednesday, it was kind of like, he had said to me on the phone, ‘You know, your name was on the list. I think this is something you’ll be happy about and you wanted’ and I said, ‘100 percent, absolutely.’ So, with that said, as unexpected as it was, I kind of just in my heart knew that-that would happen and I’m looking forward to being back on the indies and actually wrestling the way I wanna wrestle.”
Purrazzo believes that the main reason that she was re-signed was to keep her away from All Elite Wrestling. The 25-year-old was originally scheduled to fight at the ALL IN pay-per-view in Chicago back in 2018; however, she was forced the cancel the event due to joining WWE again:
“I feel like I didn’t get a proper shot in NXT and I wasn’t featured regularly on NXT TV. I wasn’t in the women’s championship title picture. I feel like my opportunities there were squandered really fast, and to be honest about it, I wasn’t the chosen one. I had worked for WWE since 2014 in so many roles. [I had] been on NXT TV more as an extra talent without signing a contract than I was when I was under contract.
So, all of these reasons were reasons I was unhappy and I was vocal about it and I know what I was worth, I knew what I could do and I thought coming in, July of 2018 like I had proved myself. Like I had proved I was ready to be a superstar and it ended up being that I was hired to keep me from AEW, and keep me from doing ALL IN and I continued to be enhancement talent for two years. So, I really would like to now focus on the indies and getting back to where I was and getting back to the in-ring competitor that I was prior to NXT, and more than hoping I go back one day, I just kinda want to say, ‘Screw you guys. That’s what I feel right now.’ I feel like I wanna prove them wrong and if I earn an opportunity again, then I’m not gonna sit on the sidelines like I did for two years.”
Check out the full interview where the former NXT star talks about her pay scale in NXT, why she was labeled as difficult within the promotion, and so much more!