During the latest edition of the “ROHStrong” podcast, Maria Kanellis and Bobby Cruise commented on bringing Deonna Purrazzo in for ROH Final Battle, how it came about, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
Bobby Cruise on having discussions with Impact about Deonna Purrazzo appearing at ROH Final Battle: “We never had any discussions with AEW. We did have discussions with NWA about something that we thought would be really good and mutually beneficial. Obviously, that did not happen. Maria and I had been talking to IMPACT this past spring about Deonna, specifically. When you’re booking something and writing something, any time you can have reality in a situation, it just adds to it that much more. Deonna having unfinished business in Ring of Honor is a shoot. She did not leave Ring of Honor under the best terms and she knows that. She had unfinished business. A year ago, I talked to her and was going to pitch IMPACT on getting her involved, whether it was the tournament or something to do with the tournament. We had a call in the spring and we thought we had something, we had an agreement, but at that time IMPACT also wanted some of the guys to crossover and Ring of Honor wasn’t interested in that at the time, so it fell apart. Her appearing at Final Battle, we didn’t work on that one for months.”
Maria Kanellis: “Bobby was like, ‘what about this’ and I went, ‘yes,’ and it was literally all within a week. IMPACT has been fantastic with it. Everybody has been so helpful and it’s been great. I can’t wait to see what those women have been able to accomplish.”
Bobby Cruise on how Purrazzo’s appearance came together: “It was Sunday night before Final Battle, I’m watching TV and I’m like…the big things with Final Battle was having moments. We saw several moments. My thought was, the women’s division has been so good and so well received that why can’t they have a moment as well? I didn’t even text Maria first, which I usually do. I text Deonna and I said, ‘Are you available on Saturday?’ She had to move some stuff around, but she said, ‘What are you thinking?’ With her unfinished business in Ring of Honor, she loved it. Ran it by Maria, she said yes, I emailed Scott D’Amore and within ten minutes he got back to me and we got the ball rolling. After a few emails and one phone call with IMPACT, that Tuesday afternoon, we had it and we knew we had something special and a special moment for the women’s division to go along with everything else.”
(h/t – Fightful)
