Backstage Origins Of Deonna Purrazzo ROH Final Battle Appearance

Long-time ROH announcer Bobby Cruise has detailed how Deonna Purrazzo’s Final Battle pay-per-view appearance came about.

During last weekend’s ‘end of an era’ event, the AAA Reina De Reinas Champion challenged ROH Women’s Champion Rok-C to a winner takes all bout.

On Busted Open Radio, Cruise stated that he and Maria Kanellis-Bennett were working on getting Purrazzo back in a ROH ring for a number of months.

Explaining why Purrazzo’s return meant so much, Cruise said:

“I say ‘why now’ as well (in reference to Deonna Purrazzo coming to ROH at the last show before their hiatus). Maria (Kanellis-Bennett) and I, working on the women’s division in 2021, we had been working on getting Deonna there for months. With the booking in the women’s division or just booking in general, I’m a big believer in using reality as much as possible in things. You know, and Deonna in Ring of Honor and the way she exited Ring of Honor previously, it was a real story. She had unfinished business in Ring of Honor and her tenure in Ring of Honor didn’t end well and I wasn’t a fan of it when it happened.

“So, I remember reaching out to Deonna maybe this time last year and saying, ‘Hey, Maria and I are gonna be involved with the women’s division. I’m gonna try and work out something with IMPACT to get you to do something because it makes sense.’ You know, we could have done that with someone else on Saturday night and it probably would have gotten a reaction and gotten a pop and so forth but it wouldn’t have meant as much as it did with Deonna and so, I actually — it was last Sunday night, just sitting there. My older daughter came home from college and I was just sitting there watching TV and I said — just trying to brainstorm.

“The women’s division has been so good this year and has so much support from people, so what can we do to create a moment? Because I knew there would be moments on the guys’ side. ‘What can we do to create a moment for the women’s division at Final Battle?’ And it kind of just popped in my head and I text Deonna and ran it by her and then of course, she was all into it because she has had an open-ended thing with Ring of Honor since she had to leave the way she did, so it meant a lot to her. I emailed Scott D’Amore, I think he got back to me within ten minutes and we got the ball rolling.”

Purrazzo is set to challenge Mickie James for the IMPACT Knockout Championship at Hard To Kill on January 8.

Quotes via POST Wrestling.

To make sure you stay updated with all the latest wrestling news, add WrestleTalk.com to your Google Discover feed and follow us on Twitter!

• bobby cruise
• Deonna Purrazzo
• ROH
• final battle

Share this article with friends