A trailblazer for Ring Of Honor's women's division opens up her thoughts.
The 2017 'Women Of Honor' wrestler of the year Deonna Purrazzo recently spoke with the folks over at the International Business Times. Purrazzo would go in detail about the 'Women Of Honor' tournament which will crown the first-ever Women Of Honor Champion. Deonna's first match in Ring Of Honor was against Mandy Leon, who is also in the WOH tournament and Purrazzo says that their match was initially supposed to be a dark match, but ended up turning out good once it was spotlighted.
“That first match was just supposed to be a dark match between Mandy and I. Eyes weren’t supposed to see it, but it went well and it was well received. They put it up on the internet and people just liked the fact that there was another women’s match happening somewhere on a big level and slowly but surely, it’s been a fight and it’s been a process. But I think we’ve really pushed ROH to invest in us. We’ve really had a hands-on approach in the women that get booked and the direction we see ourselves as characters going in,” Purrazzo added, "Now we have a 16-women tournament and we’re gonna crown the first WOH champion, which has been a really long process, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Purrazzo's first-round match in the 'Women Of Honor' tournament was not featured on ROH TV. The program airs once a week and is an hour long, but nonetheless Purrazzo was slightly disappointed that only short clips of her match against Holidead were shown.
“I think that it’s always kind of a bummer when you just get clips, but it was great that when they introduced this new Honor Club, all of the first-round tournament matches will be up on Honor Club for the people that subscribe to it. They got a first look at it and the full matches were uploaded online, so it was kind of a catch-22, because as much as I want to be on TV and as much as I want so many eyes on me, it helped brand a new thing that ROH is trying to push. So from a business point, I get it.”
The WOH tournament is currently in its quarterfinal stages with eight competitors left. Purrazzo has Mayu Iwatani next on her opponent list, but of course the end goal is on her mind and that is to become the Women Of Honor Champion and a women's main-eventer for the company.
"I don’t think that anyone gets into wrestling to not be on PPV and not be on TV,” Purrazzo said. “Everyone wants the best for themselves, so I think that when ROH is ready to put women on PPV, that first one is gonna be such an amazing step, but of course, I want to eventually be the main event.”
"The Virtuosa" has big dreams ahead as she is only two wins away from become Ring Of Honor's first Women Of Honor Champion.
