Deonna Purrazzo on how the Impact Wrestling locker room compares to WWE, her early run in TNA and more

Impact Wrestling’s Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo was interviewed this week for David Penzer’s “Sitting Ringside” podcast.

Purrazzo talked about her journey in the wrestling business, the relationship between Impact and AEW, who she would want to face, intergender wrestling, WWE, and much more.

Here are some highlights:

Purrazzo talked about the Impact locker room compared to other companies she has been in: “It was a little scary for me at first to come to those tapings towards the end of May. When I was in WWE, I had some of my best friends with me. To be walking into a new place, not that I didn’t know anyone, but just to be on my own, it was really scary and intimidating for me. But, there are a great group of girls who make up our women’s division. They are great athletes but even better people who, right off the bat, made me feel comfortable and were really excited that I was going to be part of the team.”

Deonna talked about her Iron Woman match she had in Impact Wrestling: “I am the first-ever Iron Woman of Impact. That was the first ever Iron Women’s Knockout Match. In the climate we are in with no fans, 30 minutes is a long time. It wasn’t the original plan to what Jordyn (Grace) and I were working to. Because those spots from Slammiversary and the chemistry Jordyn and I created that night and with the fans saying it was the match of the night and the potential match of the year for the Knockouts, they wanted us to do this 30 man Iron Man match. We were like, what are we going to do for 30 minutes? We filmed some stuff that then didn’t get aired to make it make sense and it was a whirlwind of changing things around to make the story make sense, but I think ultimately we were able to make it come together to make it make sense.”

Deonna talked about how she came to TNA early in her career: “I had done a seminar early in my career with Pat Kenney, Simon Diamond. He was good friends with Robbie E, who was best friends with my trainer. Pat was at the seminar. Three or four weeks later was the Knockouts Knockdown special. They needed an extra person and Rob said they should use me. That put the wheels in motion for Christy Hemme to call me. I went to Florida the next day to film the Knockouts Knockdown 2014. I had been training for about a year, but I had taken some time off for school and other stuff, so really that was my 8th match.”

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Sitting Ringside with David Penzer with a h/t to PWrestling.com for the transcription