Deonna Purrazzo isn’t talking about retiring just yet, but she’s also very aware that she won’t be doing this forever. At 32, Purrazzo says she can see the “light at the end of the tunnel,” and that has made one thing increasingly important to her: she doesn’t want any of the wrestling time she has left to be wasted.
While speaking on the Johnny I Pro Show, Purrazzo was asked how important her legacy has become at this stage of her career. She made it clear she still has plenty to give, but knowing there’s an eventual finish line has only made her hungrier for opportunities now.
“Oh, so important. And I think, again, as I’m getting older, like it’s become more important because, again, my career is not over and I have so much more to give, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel, right?”
That’s where Purrazzo got particularly direct. She has already built a career that includes championship runs and stops across WWE, TNA, AAA, ROH and AEW, but she doesn’t want that résumé to become an excuse to slow down.
“And so I think that now more than ever I feel like I don’t want my time wasted. I just want to go, go, go, go, go because I have created such a legacy, which feels so crazy to say, but I feel like I have.”
There are still things Purrazzo wants to accomplish, particularly when it comes to women’s wrestling. At this point, she isn’t looking at the end of her career and winding down. She’s looking at the time she has left and asking for the chance to do more with it.
“And I have so much more I want to do and so much more I want to accomplish for women’s wrestling that, yeah, I just feel like I’m still clawing and grasping and I’m like, just give me an opportunity.”
That feeling came up elsewhere in the conversation as well. Purrazzo reflected on the period when TNA, AAA, ROH and AEW all wanted to work with her, including her appearance in the main event of Dynamite as ROH Women’s World Champion. It remains a stretch of her career she’s especially grateful for because she knows something like that may never happen again.
“I feel so grateful that everyone was like, ‘We want a piece of her,’ because I feel like that is so rare and I never know if I’ll be able to get that same feel. Like, I don’t know if we’ll be able to recreate it, right?”
Purrazzo also brought up something much bigger than wrestling when explaining why she thinks about time differently these days. She’s 32, wants to eventually start a family and knows there will come a point when wrestling is no longer the center of her life.
“And not that my career is anywhere near over, but I am getting older and I’m 32 and I’d like to start a family and all of these things that I just reminisce so fondly on that, of like, I’m so grateful that I got that run because if I get none other, like, I cemented myself in history no matter what.”
She has already been preparing for whatever that next chapter eventually becomes. Since 2020, Purrazzo has deliberately tried to build a life outside wrestling, earning a bachelor’s degree in history and working toward a master’s degree in political science.
“We can’t wrestle forever. And so my biggest thing since 2020 has been like, who does Deonna want to be post-wrestling? I don’t know what that is yet, but I have a bachelor’s degree in history and I’m going to have a master’s degree in political science.”
That doesn’t mean wrestling has become any less important to her. Purrazzo said the nine-year-old version of herself who dreamed about becoming a wrestler is still one of the things pushing her forward, and she wants that little girl to eventually be able to look back on the entire ride with pride.
“The little girl that wanted to be the pro wrestler at nine years old is my motivation. And I think she would be so proud of me, but like I just want to keep making her proud and I want to keep growing and building my legacy.”
There’s also a lesson Purrazzo wishes she had learned much earlier. Before reaching WWE, she was so obsessed with getting to the next level that she admits she didn’t always stop to enjoy what she was already accomplishing.
“I was so laser focused and I don’t think I enjoyed the journey. I didn’t enjoy training or the traveling and all of the things. Like, I look back and I’m like, I wish I would have enjoyed it more because I was having the time of my life and I was doing everything I wanted to do, but I just kept thinking like, what’s next?”
Purrazzo knows wrestling eventually ends, but she isn’t treating that realization like a retirement announcement. If anything, seeing that finish line somewhere in the distance has made her more impatient to make the most of every opportunity she still has.
What would you like to see Deonna Purrazzo accomplish before she eventually calls time on her wrestling career? Let us know in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
