Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo Talks AEW-Impact Relationship, Body Shaming Fans

Deonna Purrazzo retained the Impact Wrestling Knockouts Championship at Saturday night’s Final Resolution event. Earlier this week, she spoke with Wrestling Epicenter about the current storyline with Don Callis & Kenny Omega, her plans for 2021 and much more.

Impact Wrestling viewership spiked this week on AXS TV, thanks in part to the involvement of AEW World Champion Kenny Omega. Purrazzo said Tuesday’s show was “definitely eye-opening” and thinks the entire wrestling industry is shifting. She thinks that AEW working with Impact Wrestling presents some exciting opportunities for the months ahead.

“I think it is amazing when people are able to put aside their differences, whatever they are, to work towards a common goal,” she began. “I don’t know what this is leading to. I don’t know what Kenny Omega and Don Callis have planned as far as cross-promotion or whatever it is. But, I’m real excited to see what is going to happen in the near future.”

Many fans believe that Impact Wrestling has one of the strongest women’s divisions anywhere. Naturally, as the champion of that division, Deonna Purrazzo agrees.

“Head to toe, there is not one woman on the roster that I do not want to be in the ring with,” she said. “There is not one person who I don’t think brings something different to the table. I speak about it all the time. I can’t tell you how incredible I think our women’s division, the Knockouts division, is.”

She also commented on the downsides of social media, including trolls who body shame female wrestlers. “There was one person who tweeted to me that I needed to lose 30 pounds and do some squats,” she revealed.

“That struck me because I was a little girl that grew up wanting to be a wrestler in a time where women’s wrestlers were size 0 models and they weren’t real women who came in a variety of sizes and shapes. For me, 30 pounds is a lot of weight! I’m not unrealistic with myself. I’ve been through the ringer with anxiety and depression and reclaiming my emotional health and my mental health this year. All of those things contribute to what your physical health looks like.”

You can listen to the full interview with Deonna Purrazzo with Wrestling Epicenter in the player embedded below: