What’s the story?
Courtesy the distraction provided by La Luchadora, Alexa Bliss successfully defeated Becky Lynch to retain her SmackDown Women’s Championship at the previous episode of SmackDown Live. The fans started to speculate that the likes of Mickie James, Tamina Snuka or Naomi could be dressed as La Luchadora.
However, Allwrestlingnews.com reports that the masked woman is none other that the NXT Superstar, Deonna Purrazzo.
In case you didn’t know...
Deonna has worked multiple matches in NXT against Asuka, Bayley, Nia Jax and Emma. In the past year, she participated in numerous events of ROH as well. On the December 13th edition of SmackDown Live, Purrazzo was scheduled to take on the SmackDown Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss.
However, Bliss remarked that she was ‘nothing but a joke’ and compared her to James Ellsworth. Those comments were followed by a vicious attack on Purrazzo before the bell even rang. The match never started and Bliss was then attacked by Becky Lynch.
The heart of the matter
The following week on SmackDown, Bliss was scheduled to wrestle La Luchadora. In that match, the Women’s Champion was forced to submit, after which it was revealed that Becky Lynch had dressed up as La Luchadora to work against Bliss that night.
On the last SmackDown of 2016, Lynch lost her Championship match due to an interference from La Luchadora, leading to all these guesses about the identity of the masked woman.
Former Women’s Champion Mickie James was rumoured to join the blue brand in 2017, hence many fans thought she was La Luchadora. Tamina Snuka has been missing from the main roster since the draft and many speculated that WWE might have injected her in the Championship picture by dressing up as the Luchadora.
What’s next?
Apparently, WWE won’t reveal the real identity of La Luchadora in this week’s show of the blue brand. Considering that it is the 22-year old Deonna Purrazzo behind that mask, it will be interesting if she starts a rivalry with the Irish Lass Kicker or works an angle with Bliss, who had insulted her during their scheduled fight.
Sportskeeda’s take
Purrazzo has been on WWE’s radar for the past few years. After her appearance on the December 13th edition of SmackDown Live, Deonna worked for an ROH show the following day. Hence, it is unclear whether she has a confirmed deal with WWE or not.
Nonetheless, she has proved herself to be a fantastic in-ring worker from time to time and an involvement in a feud with Becky Lynch or Alexa Bliss will boost her momentum in WWE.
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