Deonna Purrazzo was a recent guest on Instinct Culture by Denise Salcedo to discuss various topics, including her thoughts on Mickie James being announced as an entrant at this year’s WWE Women’s Royal Rumble last Friday on SmackDown.

“I was equally surprised as I think the entire wrestling world was, I didn’t know that was gonna happen,” she said. “I had just gotten to my hotel room and Steve put on Smackdown and there was that announcement. I was like, ‘oh, interesting, okay.’ Because I think WWE has kind of a closed-door policy with playing with others, and to hear that was, I think, the first time in history that they really acknowledged other companies like that. And especially IMPACT, so I feel we don’t get all the credit we deserve and people kind of let things that happened in the past reflect their opinions on what we are doing now.

“It was kind of like a really big thing for us. I was a bit concerned that– I had found out that we were gonna be the main event on Monday and now it’s Friday, and this is being announced and we’re not announcing it, are people going to think we are getting to be the main event because of this?” Purrazzo stated. “That was kind of my first initial thoughts was like, ‘I really hope that whoever is tuning in, not as an IMPACT fan, does some research and sees the story we’ve been telling, and sees why we’re in a Texas Deathmatch and what we’ve evolved to, to get to this point that we’re warranted the main event, that we deserve the main event not just because we’re women but because the story we’ve been telling warranted that spot.

“Overall, I think that it put a ton more eyes on Hard To Kill, a ton more eyes on Mickie and I’s match. And, I mean, that’s all you can ask for, right?"