Jordynne Grace Felt Expendable After Dropping TNA Knockouts Title To Deonna Purrazzo

Jordynne Grace bcecame TNA Knockouts champion for the first time in 2020 and held the belt for 182 days. She lost the belt to Deonna Purrazzo, who had just joined the company not long before that. In an interview with Uncrowned, Grace explained why the decision had her feeling ‘expendable’ to TNA Wrestling at the time. Here are highlights:

On being nervous before her Royal Rumble appearance: “I was definitely more nervous before the Rumble because I was terrified to mess anything up — and I didn’t mess anything up. Just thankful that nothing went wrong.”

On her first run as Knockouts champion: “I had just won the Knockouts Championship for the first time, and Deonna Perrazzo had come over to TNA, and she won the title from me her very first weekend there. And I remember feeling so expendable and so just off-put by that, I just thought to myself, ‘Well, something has to change, because if someone can just come in here and just take my spot, I have to do something. I have to change something in order for that not to happen ever again.’ … I actually got my first [fitness] coach that following week.”

On pushing for Masha Slamovich to replace her as face of the Knockouts division: “I remember having the conversation about who I thought would be next. Honestly, they didn’t have Masha’s name in their head at all, which surprised me, but I really [feel] that Masha was the one. … I don’t know any of the people that are really in charge, I don’t have a relationship with them. But at the time, I don’t think that her independent work and GCW work was translating over to TNA in the Knockouts Division. They didn’t get it. It didn’t click for them. But I knew how good she was, and I knew how important it was for her to be the one to be the next … leader of that locker room.”