AEW's Deonna Purrazzo Explains How She Fell Back In Love With Wrestling In TNA

After leaving a not-so-great run with "WWE NXT" in 2020, Deonna Purrazzo invested in herself and landed an important spot in Impact/TNA Wrestling. There, she stamped her legacy by becoming the company's three-time Knockouts World Champion and one-time Knockouts Tag Team Champion, as well as participating in unexplored showcases like the first-ever Knockouts 30-minute Ironman Match, which saw her come out the victor against Jordynne Grace three months before signing with the company in October 2020. 

In an interview with Chris Van Vliet on his "Insightful" podcast, Purrazzo revealed how TNA reinvigorated her love for wrestling and why she eventually left to expand her "Virtuosa" brand in AEW.

"The entire environment they cultivate there just really made me ... this feels like home. This feels like I belong here," Purrazzo reflected on her three-year run in TNA. "It feels like everyone wants to work for each other. There's no drama. There's no fighting over spots. There's no stabbing each other in the back. I hate to call it this ... like the land of 'Misfit Toys.' It is in terms like, we've all been rejected by other places, other people, and we come here and we have a chip on our shoulder, and we do the work for each other. That was the environment that I was looking for, and it just didn't click until there."

With such a successful run in Impact/TNA Wrestling, Deonna Purrazzo's decision to leave the company to more expansive waters like AEW did not come easy. In a follow-up to her previous statement, Van Vliet asked the former Knockout what impacted her decision to depart and join AEW's growing women's division when she was at the top in Impact.

"I just felt like at the end of last year, like, I kind of had done everything," Purrazzo responded on why she left TNA. "I had been a three-time Knockouts World Champion. I had been a Knockouts World Tag Team Champion. I had carried the brand and become the Reina de Reinas Champion in Mexico with AAA. I had went to Ring of Honor. I had main evented 'AEW Dynamite,' representing Impact Wrestling. What else was there for me to do here that would continue to level me up? [It] just felt like I've worked with everybody in the locker room; I'm comfortable here; it's time to get out of my comfort zone."

Purrazzo has been steering a new ship with another record-setting former TNA Knockouts Champion, Taya Valkyrie, as a female mob boss leading her tight voyage under family, loyalty, and respect. It's been speculated that Purrazzo will be centered around AEW's first-ever all-women's alliance, with more women possibly joining in the coming months.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Insight with Chris Van Vliet" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.