AEW's Deonna Purrazzo Thought Call For WWE TV Debut Was Going To Go Very Differently

AEW star Deonna Purrazzo has remembered her first call-up to the WWE main roster, and her feelings after she wrestled her match.

After a few years on "WWE NXT," Purrazzo was handed a main roster match in December 2019, alongside her friend, Chelsea Green. Purrazzo stated that her initial reaction to her call-up was that she would've eventually gotten fired.

"Chelsea [Green] and I were actually both at Raw that day, and we got a text, maybe like Saturday night, [saying] 'You're booked for Monday Night Raw. Please confirm you got this text message,'" she recalled on the "Lightweights Podcast." "At least when I was there, like, they would sit you in a room and like have a camera on you and be told like, 'You're getting called up,' and it would be like a huge thing. Or they do the Draft, and you watch them get called up like, 'Yeah, I just got a text message.' And I was like, 'Did you mean to send this to me? Is this really happening? Am I getting called up to be fired?' is what I thought. Like, I'm going to go to Raw and they're going to fire me."

She and Green kept their emotions and expectations in check ahead of the match, where she faced Asuka while Green faced Charlotte Flair.

"I think we were in Des Moines, Iowa, and we both kept being like, 'Just pretend like this isn't happening so we don't get disappointed if nothing happens.' Like, we have no idea why we're there, and literally last minute — it was a double taping because it was right before Christmas — she was wrestling Charlotte Flair, and I was wrestling Asuka, and we were told like, I don't know, 5 or 6 p.m. that day. So it was just like last minute — that's like a theme of my career."

Purrazzo recalled having an 8–9 minute match with Asuka, complete with a full entrance and a theme song she helped develop, and said she felt a great sense of validation after the match.