Deonna Purrazzo On Adjusting To Life Without the Knockouts Title, Not Wanting a Rematch

In an interview with Fightful, Deonna Purrazzo spoke about losing the Impact Wrestling Knockouts title to Mickie James at Bound for Glory and not wanting a rematch. She will get the rematch anyway at Hard to Kill on January 8. Here are highlights:

On losing the Knockouts title: “I think that I had eighteen months of that role and I was gone from TV for three or four weeks and honestly, that was my idea. I was like, ‘Let me disappear for a little bit and then come back.’ If I had it my way, I wouldn’t have a rematch. I wanted it to be so dramatic and, ‘I can’t even stand the look of the Knockouts Championship without me. There’ll never be another [Camelot].’ I really wanted that moment. Of course, they really wanted a rematch. Mickie and I have been telling such a great story. This is my first real feud. Not being in that role is okay because I was in it for so long. I really pushed over the year to have other people do other things. We had this crossover with AEW and NWA and I really pushed for, ‘Well, if it can’t be me, let it be someone else.’ We have so many talented women on our roster that deserve to be in the spot that I was or in a similar spot that I am. So it’s nice to see other people getting that opportunity as well.”

On reinventing her Virtuosa character: “I think of ‘the Virtuosa’ as if she was a real human being, and she was me, I don’t think I’d wear any of the gear I had as the champion. I think that in the Virtuosa’s brain, it’s like, ‘I can’t bear to put that on. I’m something else completely now.’ My life was a catastrophe heading into tapings and my gear maker just never started my gear. So there’s that.”