Impact’s Deonna Purrazzo channels ‘history nerd’ into wrestling stardom
To move forward as a professional wrestler, Deonna Purrazzo had to look backward and embrace her inner “history nerd.”
Purrazzo, who lives in Orlando, has been a tremendously gifted ring technician since early in her career, earning notice in 2015 as one of the pioneers of the Ring of Honor women’s division. Finding her way as a performer, though, took a little bit of time and a little bit of help from Victorian-era fashion and art deco style.
Today, “The Virtuosa” is fully bloomed, inside the ring and out. The former Impact Wrestling world champion will be part of a “Queen of the Mountain” match for the title at the Slammiversary pay-per-view on June 19. For more information, visit ImpactWrestling.com.
Purrazzo has wrestled for most major companies in America — most recently, she main-evented an episode of All Elite Wrestling’s high-profile Dynamite program against Mercedes Martinez — and spent two years in NXT. She credits the producers there with really helping “The Virtuosa” find her calling.
“[NXT] pushed me to be a well-rounded character,” Purrazzo said. “In the ring, as a technician, I am who I am. But I’m a history nerd. The things I love are looking at different time periods and fashion trends, so I started to do some of that with my jackets and my gear and my hair.”
She cited one Impact pay-per-view where her fur-adorned jacket was inspired by Victorian fashion, and another with a set of gear inspired by a Japanese punk-rock girl group.
“Maybe you’ll notice, maybe you don’t, but it makes me feel something, and it’s really important to me,” Purrazzo said. “I’m not an over-the-top Hulk Hogan character that’s going to jump off the screen, so it has to be about the subtle nuances. I feel elegant and sophisticated, covered in lace and fur, and hopefully that comes across.”
Purrazzo is a prime example of the new “Forbidden Door” era of wrestling, in which even some of the largest promotions exchange talent or let their performers work elsewhere without limits. Last year, she held world championships in Impact, Ring of Honor and Mexico’s AAA promotion at the same time — later defending the ROH championship on an AEW broadcast while being under contract to Impact.
Got all that? Whether you did or not, it’s good for Purrazzo and, she said, for the wrestling business in general.
“Five years ago, I was just fighting to get TV time,” Purrazzo said. “Since I signed with Impact two years ago this month, this has been my home, but I’ve gotten the opportunity to wrestle in Mexico, bring my title to the NWA [National Wrestling Alliance] and then — to main-event Dynamite? That was a full-circle feeling for me, a long journey that has led to something way bigger.”
Another facet of being a star wrestler today involves social media. Purrazzo has spoken publicly in the past about the downsides of social sites like Instagram, particularly when it comes to body-shaming, but it also has become an important revenue stream for talent across the world.
“It’s been a learning curve for all of us,” Purrazzo said. “We’ve come a long way from selling 8x10s [photos] on a website and putting them in the mail ourselves. Now we’re learning to monetize reels and create Instagram business accounts. … Instead of hustling to find a show or a convention every weekend, we can make money at the tips of our fingers. That’s a challenge, but it’s been an amazing change.”
Purrazzo and her fiancé, Impact Wrestling colleague Steve Maclin, just bought their first house in Orlando, but until Impact held TV tapings at the Kissimmee Events Center over the weekend, she hadn’t wrestled in Central Florida in more than two years.
“We’re Florida for life now, but it’s been a long time since I’ve wrestled here,” she said before the tapings. “Professional wrestling and Impact Wrestling have such a rich history in Florida, with its time at the Impact Zone at Universal, and it’s great to be a part of that.”
Contact Jay Reddick at jreddick@orlandosentinel.com. For more pro-wrestling coverage, visit OrlandoSentinel.com/prowrestling.
