Various: Deonna Purrazzo on Upcoming Free Agency & Career Future, Verizon FIOS Reportedly Dropping AXS TV, Indies

Dec 23, 2023

Deonna Purrazzo Comments on Her Upcoming Free Agency & Future of Her Wrestling Career

As noted before, Deonna Purrazzo’s current contract with Impact Wrestling is set to expire at the end of this year and will be leaving the company.

A recent episode of the Gabby AF podcast featured Purrazzo as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Purrazzo’s thoughts about her upcoming free agency and the future of her wrestling career.

“I wish that I knew anything or don’t (Purrazzo responded when asked about reports of her future). The last couple of weeks have been really interesting because obviously we’ve seen tons of stuff about my contract status come out on social media and I’ve not really addressed it too much because I don’t really have anything to say yet and I’ve been able to have some really great conversations with people all across the board and you know, the only thing I can say is I feel validated and I feel like the work that I’ve been able to put in-in IMPACT has really changed the entire trajectory of my career and the perception of me. Going into IMPACT, you know, I think my time in NXT deemed me a little bit difficult, a little bit outspoken, a little bit maybe cocky or overconfident and I think that I’ve been able to rehab that image of myself and show people, no, I’m a team player and I want — yes, of course I wanna be the champion and I wanna be at the top but I can also be a champion and handle all the responsibilities that come with that and it’s opened a lot of doors for me going into this free agency and I don’t have an answer. I don’t have any details or anything, because I just don’t know yet and there’s a lot of pros and cons to every place that I could go, and also too, I wanna say, my heart is so full for IMPACT that whether I stay or go or whatever the case is gonna be, it’s not going to be an easy decision no matter what my decision is because to stay is to be with my family and obviously my husband’s there and I’ve just had the time of my life and the career moments of my life there but also, I have to weigh is it time to maybe try to do that somewhere else? So, it’s very difficult.”

Purrazzo also gave her thoughts about not getting to travel together again with her husband Steve Maclin for shows due to her no longer working for Impact.

“We (Purrazzo & Steve Maclin) really weighed on, oh wow, we could potentially never work together again and what does that look like for us, and it’s been really fun with him coming into IMPACT of like, when we’re in Vegas, we’ll make sure we run a few days early and went to the Grand Canyon or the second time we went a few days early and he really wanted to go to Tombstone in Arizona and we try to make fun trips of these things because we’re getting paid to travel so we might as well take advantage of it and go places neither of us have seen or somewhere he wants to show me or somewhere that I’ve been that I know he’ll love and it’s really — especially this year just with all the mental health stuff that we’ve talked about that I’ve been going through. It’s been settling to know that I have my best friend and if I feel like I’m gonna panic or like I can’t handle a situation, he’s there to ground me and he’s my person. It’s scary to know we might not ever do this again and I might have to figure out how to do this without you. So yeah, I don’t know.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

Verizon FIOS Reportedly Dropping AXS TV from Service Next Month

Cable television provider Verizon FIOS reportedly will be dropping AXS TV from their service next month, according to PWInsider.

Mike Johnson reported that Verizon recently sent a notice to their FIOS customers stating that they will no longer be carrying AXS TV, home of Impact/TNA Wrestling, starting on January 1, 2024.

Verizon stated that the reason is due to the contractual agreement between the two companies is set to expire at the end of this month and no new deal has been reached. Besides AXS TV, their sister station HDNet Movies will also be dropped as well after this month.

Following Verizon’s announcement, AXS TV sent an official statement to PWInsider confirming that their contract with Verizon will be expiring soon and no new deal has been reached.

Verizon has been a long time distributor of both AXS TV and HDNet Movies and we’ve appreciated their business.
Our agreement recently expired and unfortunately we could not reach mutually acceptable terms.
The distribution landscape is changing and popular content has to find its viewers on the most optimal platforms.
We know AXS TV is valued by our other distributors as shown by recent launches in DC, Atlanta, Nashville, West Palm Beach and Miami.

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Friday’s Super Viernes event for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in Mexico City, Mexico featured Charlotte Flair making an appearance in the crowd. The reason for Flair’s appearance was to cheer on her husband Andrade El Idolo who competed in a tag team match at the event.

Former Impact Wrestling talent Jessica McKay (also known as Billie Kay in WWE) announced on Instagram that she gave birth to her first child named Cooper on December 20th.

WrestleCon recently announced that ECW legend Bill Alfonso will be making an appearance for the company at their WrestleCon 2024 on April 4-7, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley) will be inducted into the 2300 Arena’s Hardcore Hall of Fame as part of Battle Ground Wrestling’s event on April 5, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Major League Wrestling recently announced that Matt Riddle will be making an appearance for the company at their Holiday Rush special on December 24th which will air on beIN Sport.

DDT Pro Wrestling recently announced that Chris Brookes will be out of action for the company for the foreseeable future due to him currently scheduled to undergo surgery for a non-malignant tumor. It was announced that this tumor was discovered following a recent doctor’s visit after he had been dealing with some abdominal pains.

As noted before, former wrestler Tammy Sytch was convicted and sentenced to over 17 years in prison this past November over the charges against her following her involvement in a fatal car accident of March of 2022. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Sytch was transferred from Volusia County Corrections to a prison facility in Ocala, Florida this past Wednesday. In a follow-up report, Johnson reported that Sytch’s lawyer filed an appeal for Sytch’s sentence on December 20th to the District Court of Appeal, Fifth District of Florida based on recent court records. Johnson reported that this appeal was not an attempt to overturn Sytch’s sentence but instead bring up potential legal issues over how the judge used Florida law for the sentencing and to ask for Sytch’s sentence term be reduced in length.

Pro Wrestling Revolver recently announced that former MLW talent Arez will be making his official debut for the company at their What A Show event on February 17, 2024 in Grand Prairie, Texas.

PROGRESS Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their The Light of the Dragon event on January 28, 2024 in London, England:

Mustafa Ali vs. Leon Slater

The National Wrestling Alliance recently announced five new matches for the card of their NWA Paranoia event on January 13, 2024 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida:

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship “The Ultimate Match of Death” – Matt Cardona vs. EC3 (c)
NWA United States Tag Team Championship – The Slimeballz (Sage Chantz & Tommy Rant) vs. The Immortals (Kratos & Odinson) (c)
Alex Misery vs. “Magic” Jake Dumas
Thom Latimer vs. Bryan Idol
Daisy Kill & Talos vs. New Spectaculars 2.0 (Rush Freeman & Slade)

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Wrestle Kingdom 18 event on January 4, 2024 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan:

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura