Deonna Purrazzo says she was as shocked as everyone else was when WWE announced that Mickie James will be in the 2022 Women’s Royal Rumble. According to the Virtuosa, however, James being in the Rumble helps put more eyes on Impact Wrestling. She recently spoke to Sportskeeda on the topic.

“I think WWE hasn’t always necessarily played well with others so there was so much shock factor to them announcing Mickie James entering the Royal Rumble as the IMPACT Knockouts World Champion,” Purrazzo said. “It put a whole new set of eyes on IMPACT’s product and then Mickie and my match at Hard To Kill so I was shocked as everyone else about the announcement but if it is benefitting IMPACT in some way, then I’m all for it.”

Purrazzo currently holds titles for both AAA and ROH. She is the Reina de Reinas Champion as well as the ROH Women’s World Champion. Purrazzo defeated Rok-C for the ROH belt last week on Impact Wrestling.

During the interview, Purrazzo also spoke about being the new belt collector.

“Well, I think I come a little hand in hand, right? I think I’d rather be the belt collector because I think that wrestling is always going to be subjective. Everyone has their favorite flavor of ice cream, right? And I might not be everyone’s cup of tea so I might not ever be number one but what I know for sure is that I am the champ right now, and I’m gonna be the champ-champ on Thursday and one day I’ll be the champ-champ-champ.”



Purrazzo lost a Texas Death Match to Mickie James in the main event of Hard to Kill earlier this month. That has seemingly taken her out of the Knockouts title for the time being. Tasha Steelz won the Ultimate-X match earlier on the card that now puts her in line for a shot at James’ title.

The full interview with Purrazzo is available in the player below: