ROH Champion Deonna Purrazzo Promotes Women's Division and Veterans Charity Event

Deonna Purrazzo helped restart Ring of Honor's women's division when she joined the company in 2015. She competed in one of the promotion's first women's matches in nearly a decade at the time.

Purrazzo spent three years with Ring of Honor before returning to All Elite Wrestling in 2024. By then, AEW co-founder Tony Khan had purchased the company, making it a sister promotion to AEW. On her return to Ring of Honor, she entered a tournament for the first women's pure championship.

In December, Purrazzo beat Billie Starkz to win the title and has held it since.

With new wrestlers entering the free-agent market in recent weeks, Purrazzo pointed to the opportunities Ring of Honor offers women wrestlers, something "really important" to the New Jersey native.

"I think what's so great about Ring of Honor is that it kinda flies under the radar a little bit," she told Fox News Digital. "So, you get to really develop and tell stories and show personality and maybe try something different than you would if you were on ‘Dynamite’ every single week. I think that there is really great women's wrestling within Ring of Honor. Most weeks there's four, five, six women's matches and so I think that it doesn't get enough credit online that it deserves for what it's doing and the purpose it's serving for women's wrestling, which is, again, really important to me, starting in Ring of Honor, starting the women's division 11 years ago."

"To get to see multiple women every single week grow and develop, I think it's really important and I think that if more people saw it as a landing spot, we can maybe grow that perception in the public's eyes."

Athena leads Ring of Honor's women's division as the ROH Women's World Champion for more than 1,200 days. Red Velvet holds the ROH Women's World Television Championship for more than 150 days.

Purrazzo also works to support veterans and first responders. She and her husband, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling star Steve Maclin, host the Battle for the Brave on June 6 to benefit the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

Purrazzo emphasized the importance of aiding military veterans, especially as a military wife. Maclin served in the U.S. Marines.

"Growing up in New Jersey as well, 9/11 was such a big deal. For me, I was in second grade," she said. "I didn't understand what was going on but in the days after, I felt a sense of unity in that everyone came together, everyone was proud to be an American, and we were going to fight back and stand together and be one, united country. And I think that, that feeling has always stuck with me but being a veteran's wife, it's taken on a completely different role."

"Steve opening up about his service and things he's seen and experienced with me has given me a new passion to let veterans know that, yes, war will always come home with you but it doesn't have to define you. Steve was so lucky that he was able to find wrestling right after he got out of the Marine Corps and it saved him, in a way, from falling down the unknown path of ‘What am I? Who am I next?’"

"And I think that's something that our veterans deal with unbeknownst to the rest of the public. It's not talked about enough. They say 22 veterans but right now the math is leading toward 44 veterans a day lose their lives to that battle – an identity crisis of who am I after service. So, that's what it means to be American for me now, is showing that support for our veterans, showing that our country is here for them and we're here to support them and we're here to give them the resources that they need to live healthy and successful lives after service."