IMPACT Knockouts champion Deonna Purrazzo recently spoke with Fightful to reflect on her 2014 run with the company, and what she learned from that experience. Highlights can be found below.
Reflects on her early run with IMPACT/TNA back in 2014:
“I swear, my eighth professional match in front of a crowd was at Knockout Knockdown 2014 against Brooke Tessmacher. I was 18 years old. I wasn’t even 19 yet. I was so in over my head. I almost killed her with body slams because I was so nervous and didn’t know what I was doing. To be able to have my career come full circle like that and go from that shy little girl who didn’t know what she was getting herself into to this confident Virtuosa that’s more than a moniker, it’s a transformation from that little girl to who I am now. This whole last few months has been so special to me because of the past I had with IMPACT! or TNA.”
How they were just one-shot opportunities:
“I wasn’t in the company then. I just came in for the Knockouts Knockdown and then another one and then I did a couple Xplosion matches. Just one shot opportunities. For me something that was always lacking was the character and, of course, I was brand new. I had no idea how to work a hard cam or floor cams. Or how to give a body slam properly. So, the second time I came back, it was like, ‘I’m confident in my wrestling ability, but I still don’t have a character to it.’ This time I had all that written out.’”
