Various: Deonna Purrazzo on Original Plans for 2nd Knockouts Title Reign, Kazuchika Okada, Nick Aldis

Deonna Purrazzo Comments on Impact’s Original Plans for Her Second Knockouts Title Reign

A recent episode of the Refin’ It Up with Brian Hebner podcast had Deonna Purrazzo as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Purrazzo revealing that her second Impact Knockouts World title reign was originally planned to be much shorter than the almost year long length it had in the end.

“Bound For Glory (2020), Kylie (Rae) got hurt, my surprise opponent was Su. I did lose. They had me win it back three or four weeks later in a No DQ match. There was supposed to be one other time, right before Slammiversary 2021 where I ended up wrestling Thunder Rosa, that I was maybe going to lose, but I was doing stuff with AAA and whether it was a miscommunication or what it was, my AAA match for Triplemania became a title vs. title match and then I couldn’t lose because I had said I would put the title on the line. I went to them and was like, ‘I’m down to do whatever you need. If I’m not the champion, that’s fine, but whoever is the champion needs to go to Triplemania and not me.’ That way the Knockouts Championship is still defended, and it’s still title vs. title, but now there are other implications and things involved that are bigger than one match. I ended up keeping it. They didn’t know what my match at Slammiversary was going to be. I ended up wrestling someone else, and they had to leave, and it was a whole thing. The mystery opponent was, I didn’t know until a couple days before. Then, Mickie got released (from WWE) and it all fell into place, but there were those two times where I was supposed to lose, but things happened and I was maybe going to lose, but maybe not, no one could really figure it out, but there were so many outside forces happening that had me hold onto it way longer.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Kazuchika Okada Comments on Him Wanted to Meet Bryan Danielson at Forbidden Door Event

Sports Illustrated held a recent interview with New Japan Pro Wrestling talent Kazuchika Okada. One of the topics discussed included Okada’s thoughts on not being able to get to meet Bryan Danielson backstage at AEW and NJPW’s co-promoted Forbidden Door event this past June due to Danielson being injured at the time.

“I was hoping to meet Bryan Danielson at Forbidden Door, but unfortunately that couldn’t happen. Since we couldn’t talk backstage, I’m happy to meet him in the ring next time.”

Okada also gave his thoughts on if there will be a second Forbidden Door event between AEW and NJPW in the future.

“AEW is a great promotion, I definitely felt that in my time there. There are places where they win out over NJPW, and areas where New Japan is superior as well. I think both sides came away with something to learn and work on, and I’d love to have another event with those lessons learned. Last time was in the U.S., so let’s have it in Japan next time.”

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Nick Aldis Comments on Most Proudest Moment of His NWA Career

A recent episode of the Sports Guys Talk Wrestling podcast had Nick Aldis as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Aldis’ thoughts on his most proudest moment of his current career in the National Wrestling Alliance.

“Again, something that I always tried to envision myself as if you’re not shooting for the top, then, what’s the point? I have enjoyed the fact that I’ve been the face of the company and the brand, and I do appreciate that it’s still the case, you know, even a year after holding the belt, I mean, haven’t hold held the title since I lost or dropped it last summer.

I think for me, it’s that and the fact that there are now a good number of people who have a regular paycheck coming in from pro wrestling, because of the sacrifices that I made in the work that I did. Obviously, Billy is financing it. He is the ultimate decision-maker now. But I think when I look around, and I see some of them are my friends, some of the people I greatly admire and respect, and to know that they are now getting a regular payment in their bank account every couple of weeks for being a pro wrestler, because the NWA is — Billy felt comfortable enough with me steering the ship, so to speak, so that they could grow it to that level where some of the boys could get taken care of, and they can pay their bills and they can feed their families. That’s probably the ultimate high point for me.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com