Deonna Purrazzo reveals how WWE did not understand her character
Deonna Purrazzo left WWE after she was released in the middle of April by the company due to the pandemic. However, after she went to IMPACT Wrestling, Deonna Purrazzo immediately became the IMPACT Knockouts Champion and established herself at the top. In a recent interview with Wrestling Observer Radio, Deonna Purrazzo opened up about how she pitched her Virtuosa character to WWE, but they did not accept it.
Deonna Purrazzo revealed that WWE refused the Virtuosa gimmick
Before Deonna Purrazzo came to WWE NXT, she was a part of Ring Of Honor, and there she developed a side of the Virtuosa gimmick. When she eventually went to WWE, she did not feel she needed much more to her character but was told to develop a proper gimmick.
“The Virtuosa persona really started at Ring of Honor back when I was there and building their women’s division and they just kind of needed someone other than Deonna Purrazzo is the way it was told to me. I really just wanted Virtuosa because I thought it was a nice word that tied in my Italian heritage and it was never meant to be anything more than that. Going into NXT right from Ring of Honor, I didn’t expect to need a character more than I was – ‘I’m a wrestler and I’m Italian!’ So, when I got that feedback, not that it was shocking but it was like I need to put some real work into this."
Deonna went on to say that she wrote up a lot of ideas for her new character in WWE and was told that she needed to be more real-life and the character was too outlandish. However, WWE also did not like her Virtuosa character, and in the end, nothing worked out for her in the company.
“I wrote up a character synopsis, I wrote up promo ideas, and I pitched to have a manager because I know promos aren’t necessarily my strongest thing. Then the feedback was ‘It’s too outlandish of a character and you need to be more real-life’ and I was like well, the Virtuosa is then a transformation – we saw me be an enhancement talent and now I’ve traveled the world and come into my own and here I am with this new outlook on wrestling. That fell on deaf ears because it was too real life, and then it was ‘We don’t understand what Virtuosa means’ and I just felt like there were so many excuses and I was the person where it didn’t matter what I said or did or changed, they had an opinion and that was that.”