3 months ago
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AEW/Ricky Mavlik
Deonna Purrazzo kicked off her 2024 in style when she arrived in AEW in her home state of New Jersey. "The Virtuosa" made an appearance for the company in 2022, but having proved to the world what she was made of during her time in Impact Wrestling (now known as TNA), Purrazzo became All Elite and hasn't looked back since.
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AEW wasn't the only company looking to sign Purrazzo to a deal, as officials from WWE, the company she had previously been released by in 2020, were also in talks with her. However, while speaking to Stephanie Chase, Purrazzo explained her reasoning for choosing AEW over WWE.
"I felt ultimately like back before I went to NXT the first time, I was supposed to be on All In, I was supposed to...be doing all these great things, going back to Japan, and I gave all of that up to go to NXT, and you know, it didn't work out... I was bitter about that, but now I could say it just didn't work out, and I learned a lot about myself. But I was hesitant to go back into a situation knowing how I was treated, wanting to avoid that at all costs, and I just felt like there wasn't trust there for me, to squander this really great opportunity I knew was there with AEW."
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Purrazzo rounded off by saying that had she not signed with WWE to begin with in 2018, she would have likely had a chance to be an original member of the AEW roster when the company formed a year later. This was another reason she picked AEW over WWE, as she already passed up one opportunity in the past, and she was not going to let that happen again.
Please credit the original source when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

