Deonna Purrazzo has gone through a lot during her pro wrestling career.
She has had her fair share of bumps, bruises and injuries.
But “The Virtuosa” has been dealing with physical issues her entire life, long before she stepped inside the squared circle and fell in love with the world of professional wrestler.
During a recent in-depth interview with Joe Vulpis of the Lightweights Podcast, Purrazzo opened up about some of these physical issues.
While discussing the most painful moves to do in the ring, Purrazzo revealed that she has scoliosis and has dealt with bulging discs since childhood.
“Body slam (is a move that hurts),” Purrazzo began. “Number one, two and three. Um, no. Body slam’s up there for me. I just don’t like it. I think it’s the worst bump to take. Spinebuster. My neck doesn’t have the strength. My neck always slams back and it hurts. I hate it and like, a fallaway slam is coming to mind of it’s just uncomfortable.”
Purrazzo continued, “Yes (I train my neck). But not in the way wrestlers are taught to — so I have scoliosis. So, my neck has a slight curve to it and I just, from childhood, have bulging discs and stuff that I’ve just had to work through my whole life… So, I have to just beware of those potential injuries so, a lot of people like to do neck bridges and stuff like that. That doesn’t feel good to me. Or, a couple training schools that I’ve been to want you to hang your neck over the edge of the ring and pick it up and that is very uncomfortable for me so for me, it’s more of doing a lot of chiropractic work, I do a lot of range of motion stuff with him, and that helps manage scoliosis and potential injuries way more than traditional neck strengthening things for wrestling… Knock on wood, I’m so blessed that the scoliosis hasn’t ever played an issue into my wrestling but, there’s so much room for error in wrestling as a whole so, it can be very scary.”
(H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.)
