Tony Khan Explains Deonna Purrazzo's Situation In AEW/ROH

After a long period of inactivity, and being quite vocal about it, Deonna Purrazzo resurfaced at Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor last weekend, confronting Queen Aminata, and staking her claim as a favorite in the upcoming ROH Women's Pure Championship tournament. It was a move forecasted by AEW owner Tony Khan one day before at an ROH media scrum, when Khan was asked about Purrazzo. Khan spoke highly of her as a performer, and admitted he had plans to get her more involved. He also proceeded to explain the reason why Purrazzo had been used less frequently, one that involved CMLL.

"To be honest, I think Deonna had gone down to Mexico [in the past], and again, this is something I think you can grow and learn from," Khan said. "But she had an experience down there that wasn't positive with our partners. And then, in doing some of the wrestling down there, and having more and more involvement with some of the international partners and things, I think it's really important to look at the fact that AEW this year has been working with some of the top international promotions."

Khan appeared to be referring to a match Purrazzo had in CMLL back in December 2024 against La Catalina, which was poorly received by the Arena Mexico audience. But despite that bad experience, Khan reiterated that he really liked Purrazzo and wanted to use her more going forward, believing a rough night shouldn't be held against her.

"I really wanted to get Deonna going again, because I think...I'm just being really blunt and honest," Khan said. "It's okay if something doesn't go well, and I want to give somebody an opportunity to come back from something. And I think that Deonna is a really, really good wrestler, and having one match that doesn't go great shouldn't be the end of a run or change everything."