Deonna Purrazzo addressed her absence from AEW television, acknowledging Tony Khan’s criticism of her past performance and reflecting on her own growth. She stated, “Yeah, his comments were 100% valid. I went to CMLL and I did not have a great match. I think that I’m not ignorant to that fact — I’ve been wrestling my entire adult life, I know when a match is good and when a match is bad.” Purrazzo admitted that not every match can be perfect and recognized that one poor performance had affected her AEW opportunities: “I think if that’s unfortunately that’s kept me off TV for a really long time, that’s really disappointing to me because I have an incredible body of work from the last 13 years that outshined one bad instance.”
She expressed understanding of Khan’s perspective, saying, “I also understand where he’s coming from, you disappoint your partners and I know that I did disappoint our partners and I did disappoint myself.” She shared her emotional response and efforts to improve in 2025: “That’s why in 2025, Steve and I had a conversation because I was very self conscious about that match and I literally cried for months about it. I said to Steve, ‘What do I need to change in 2025?’” Purrazzo noted her lack of recent in-ring experience and preparation challenges during her trip to Mexico City: “I don’t feel like I’m getting enough reps, I couldn’t tell you the last time I wrestled for 15 minutes. To go into Mexico City, where it takes a few days to get acclimated to the different in air quality and things like that, I flew in the day of. Should’ve trained better to be prepared…”
She concluded by emphasizing her commitment to improvement and consistency: “…but I also need to take some independent bookings and I need to be in the ring more and I need to be consistent if it’s not going to happen in AEW right now, that way if this ever happens again where I get an opportunity to go to our partners or do whatever, I feel ready because I went to Mexico City not feeling ready and didn’t have a good showing and look how that’s changed the last nine months of my life. I have put in the work the last nine months to make sure that never happens to me again.”
Source: In The Weeds