Deonna Purrazzo is aware of how vital to her career it would be if she were to retire the great Mickie James.
The Virtuosa discussed this topic during her recent appearance on Counted Out with Mike & Tyler, where the former two-time Knockouts champion opened up on how polarizing of a figure James can be in the locker room, and how her legacy is being defined by this Last Rodeo run. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Discusses potentially being the one who retires Mickie James:
I think that would be career-defining. You know, Tasha Steelz says, ‘I’m the greatest to beat the greatest,’ right. She beat Mickie James to win the Knockouts World Championship, but I think that’s been game-changing for Tasha, it kind of leveled her up a little bit. The person who gets to say I retired Mickie James, I mean what bigger thing is there to do, besides win the Knockouts World Championship, which after Hard To Kill, you might have the opportunity to do. But you’re gonna retire her? That in itself is an amazing feat. So I think it’s made our entire division work harder and level up, and ‘What more can I bring to the table? Because I want to be the one.’
How polarizing Mickie James can be in a locker room:
I get asked this all the time just because Mickie’s so polarizing. She’s been wrestling 20-plus years. She’s done it all. I think that having someone with that experience, and I was actually talking to her the other day and I said, ‘If you give someone advice, or if you said, ‘I’d like this better or what about this, and we tweak this,’ how could I ever argue that you’re wrong? The experience is there and is proof itself that it works. I can’t ever tell you, ‘No, you’re wrong’ because you’ve been there, you’ve done it, you’ve been successful, you’ve made money. So having that kind of leader in the locker room I think has been game-changing, but I think everyone in our Knockouts Division, in our Knockouts locker room can learn something when they’re in the ring with Mickie, sitting in the back, just shooting the shit with Mickie. We’re all gaining valuable professional and life experience from being around someone like Mickie James. So like I said, it’s been game-changing for me.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)
