Deonna Purrazzo used to work in WWE NXT quite a few years ago, but she never shone there. She was fired from WWE back on April 15th, 2020 and made a mark in TNA afterwards. Now, Purrazzo has revealed why she had a bad reputation in NXT.
Deonna Purrazzo’s tenure in NXT from 2018 to her release in 2020 was marked by underutilization. Unfortunately, during this period, fans did not witness her fully realizing her potential within the WWE.
While speaking to Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho, Deonna Purrazzo reflected on her time in NXT, expressing that she was vocal about addressing issues and seeking honest feedback. Frustrated by a lack of clarity on her TV readiness, she reached a breaking point and gave an ultimatum to either provide feedback for improvement or release her.
“I think I was a little bit too vocal about the things that I thought weren’t right or should be changed and then when it came to me being TV ready or whatever, I was very vocal about like, ‘Just tell me what you don’t like and what you do like, and I’ll do the things you do like, and I’ll work on the things you don’t like. Just be straight up.‘”
“I’m a 100% honest person, just be honest with me. No one could tell me, ‘We don’t like this, we do like this’ and finally I just had a breaking point of like, this isn’t working for anybody. It sure as hell is not working for me. So either you’re gonna tell me what I’m doing wrong and I could fix it so I could be on TV because I came here to be a TV star, or I’m not going to be a TV star and you should just let me go’ and yeah, I was let go four weeks later.”
Unfortunately, she felt a breakdown in mutual respect and ultimately parted ways with NXT four weeks later. Purrazzo acknowledged being straightforward and believed her outspokenness led to a negative reputation, making it challenging to undo.
“I’ll always be just straight up. ‘This is what my problem is. This is what I need clarity on’ and I need that back. It’s like a mutual respect thing and I think I just got to a breaking point where I’m like, you’re not respecting me, so now I don’t respect you, This isn’t good for anybody because I remember sitting in someone’s office, like, in a screaming fight, and I’m like, that’s not who I am. Deonna Purrazzo the professional doesn’t do that, but now I’m like, Jersey Deonna, angry at home, and you don’t want to bring that to work. So I think I was very vocal and it got me a bad reputation, and then I couldn’t undo that.”
Deonna Purrazzo also previously made it clear she didn’t like anything about the WWE system. Nevertheless, Purrazo doesn’t look back fondly on her time in WWE and that’s not changing anytime soon.
What do you think of what she said? Do you feel she was wasted in WWE? Let us know in the comments section below!