WWE found huge momentum for their women’s division over the past few years, but things have changed in 2021. Deonna Purrazzo represents the performers who have thrived outside of WWE to continue the evolution of women’s wrestling in other promotions. WWE dropped the ball with Purrazzo during her stint in NXT, but it just inspired her to take her career to new heights when released.

Impact Wrestling has been trying hard to rebuild its brand since the management change a couple of years ago. Talents like Purrazzo are showing that the formerly embarrassing IMPACT Wrestling is no longer a joke in the wrestling industry. Compelling matches and a dominant Knockouts Championship reign tell the story of Deonna becoming the top female wrestler without the WWE machine.

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WWE Releasing Her Was Their Loss

The WWE run of Deonna Purrazzo is forgotten despite spending two years under contract. Women’s wrestling was reaching new heights and WWE wanted to continue adding to their rosters. Purrazzo joined the NXT brand in the spring of 2018 with huge expectations following her impressive run on the independent circuit.

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There were some skeptics about the timing of the signing. Everyone knows Deonna was a great talent, but WWE didn’t seem willing to sign her to a full-time deal until she was announced for the All Out event run by Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks. The women’s match was originally expected to be Purrazzo facing off with Britt Baker, Tessa Blanchard and Madison Rayne in a fatal four-way match. WWE signed Deonna and requested she be removed from the card.

Unfortunately, nothing major came from Purrazzo joining the NXT brand. Most talented women in NXT have been able to thrive in their stacked division. Deonna lacked the faith from management to even put her on television consistently. Most of Purrazzo’s appearances were to put others over or provide depth when the match needed it.

WWE experimented with Deonna on the main roster towards the end of her run before giving up. Matches against Asuka and Nia Jax didn’t lead to anything more despite appearing on the bigger television programs. WWE decided to give up on the promising talent in April of 2020 during one of the first of the huge release waves that are still playing out today.

Impact Wrestling Benefitted Greatly From Her Signing

The attempts to rebrand TNA into Impact Wrestling by the new management team have worked over the past few years. Impact has more respect in the industry and has been given another chance by fans after the prior failures of TNA. Deonna Purrazzo joining Impact shortly after her release proved that free agent wrestlers would look to reinvent themselves in the promotion.

Nothing is guaranteed, but the push of Purrazzo was expected to make her a huge player for the company. However, no one could have predicted just how great she would be in the role as the top female performer. Deonna defeated Jordynne Grace and Su Yung each to get her two Knockouts Championship reigns.

The current title reign sees Purrazzo already with the fifth-longest Knockouts Championship in company history and still going strong. Deonna has pushed things to new heights with her Iron Man match against Jordynne Grace leading Impact’s women’s division to higher peaks in the wrestling world. Classic matches against the likes of Grace, Tenille Dashwood, Jazz and others have shown her to be arguably the top women’s wrestler going today.

Best In The World?

Impact Wrestling has reached the point where they can trust Deonna Purrazzo to be the only advertised name in her PPV matches. One of the noteworthy free agents is expected to be a surprise competitor at the upcoming Slammiversary PPV. Gail Kim announced that Purrazzo would not find out until the night of the show.

The option to keep the surprise for the night is great for theatrics, but it wouldn’t have been done if the company didn’t trust Deonna as a draw. Everything is clicking for her right now from the in-ring matches to the character side to her growth coming with each match. The future may be even brighter for Purrazzo than what she is already accomplishing at the age of 27.

Deonna took a big risk putting her faith in Impact instead of holding out hope for a smaller AEW role. AEW and even WWE will come calling again once her contract ends, but the run in Impact is proving that the best women’s wrestler in the world can make her mark on wrestling wherever she wants.

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