Deonna Purrazzo comments on Mickie James entering the 2022 Women's WWE Royal Rumble match

Former IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo has had a positive reaction to Mickie James entering this year's WWE Women's Royal Rumble match.

James' participation in the bout was announced by Vince McMahon's company on last week's episode of SmackDown, much to the surprise of many fans. This was before her and Deonna Purrazzo's Texas Death Match for the Knockouts Championship at Hard to Kill. At the event, the WWE legend successfully retained her title.

During a recent appearance on The Angle Podcast, Deonna Purrazzo shared her thoughts on Mickie James entering the Rumble match. She explained that it's an incredible opportunity for IMPACT Wrestling to bring in more eyes to the product.

"I think that it's incredible. I think it's an incredible opportunity for IMPACT to have new eyes on its product. And I think, you know, WWE doesn't necessarily have the best reputation for playing with others, so the fact that they were willing to do this with Mickie and put over IMPACT as a whole and our Knockouts Championship, is important for us," said Purrazzo.

"I think that Hard to Kill had even more buzz going in than necessarily we had to begin with, because now WWE fans, who maybe aren't familiar with an IMPACT product or maybe haven't watched IMPACT in years are now willing to tune in into like, 'Hm I wonder what's gonna happen.' The buzz factor, and any buzz is good buzz, right?" she added.

Deonna Purrazzo on WWE mentioning the IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts Championship on TV

IMPACT Wrestling has been around for a long time, but it took many years for Vince McMahon's company to acknowledge its existence. The company mentioned the Knockouts Championship on TV last week for the first time.

Deonna Purrazzo revealed that she was also surprised when she heard it, and The Virtuosa believes it made the Texas Death Match more significant.

"Yeah, I think, you know, from a personal standpoint, I was probably as surprised as some fans were because I didn't know that was gonna happen. And again, like you said, to hear IMPACT Knockouts World Champion on WWE TV is something I think no wrestling fan in the history of wrestling could've imagined would happen, so again it just made, you know, our Texas Deadmatch that much more higher stakes and hopefully [it will bring more] fans over to our product," said Purrazzo.

Mickie James isn't the only female legend who will make her in-ring WWE return at Royal Rumble. The Bella Twins, Lita, and several other veterans are also scheduled to compete in the bout.

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