AEW Star Disappointed But Understands Recent Tony Khan Claims
An AEW star has responded to Tony Khan.
After signing with the company in early 2024, Deonna Purrazzo was quickly thrust into a high-profile role and challenged for the Women’s World Championship. However, she’s wrestled on AEW television just three times in 2025, with her most recent match coming back in February.
During this period, she wrestled three matches with Ring of Honor, but the last of those came in June.
As her absence continued, Tony Khan noted that Deonna Purrazzo had a negative experience with one of AEW’s partners in Mexico, and this played into his decision to take her out of action. Although Khan didn’t go into detail, Purrazzo hasn’t wrestled in Mexico since beating La Catalina at CMLL Viernes Espectacular in December 2024.
Deonna Purrazzo Responds To Tony Khan Comments
During an appearance on Fightful’s In The Weeds podcast, Purrazzo said that while Khan’s comments were valid, she still found them disappointing. The star conceded that her match in Mexico wasn’t up to standard, but said that one bad outing shouldn’t outweigh the rest of her 13-year career.
Purrazzo admitted she was underprepared for the match in Mexico, something she’s determined to never allow to happen again.
“Yeah, his comments were 100% valid. I went to CMLL and I did not have a great match. I think that I’m not ignorant to that fact — I’ve been wrestling my entire adult life, I know when a match is good and when a match is bad.
I think that, unfortunately, everyone’s not going to hit 100% of the time, and I think if that’s kept me off TV for a really long time, that’s really disappointing to me because I have an incredible body of work from the last 13 years that outshined one bad instance.
I also understand where he’s coming from. You disappoint your partners, and I know that I did disappoint our partners and I did disappoint myself. That’s why in 2025, Steve and I had a conversation because I was very self-conscious about that match, and I literally cried for months about it. I said to Steve, ‘What do I need to change in 2025?’
I don’t feel like I’m getting enough reps. I couldn’t tell you the last time I wrestled for 15 minutes. To go into Mexico City, where it takes a few days to get acclimated to the different in air quality and things like that, I flew in on the day of.
Should’ve trained better to be prepared but I also need to take some independent bookings and I need to be in the ring more and I need to be consistent if it’s not going to happen in AEW right now, that way if this ever happens again where I get an opportunity to go to our partners or do whatever, I feel ready because I went to Mexico City not feeling ready and didn’t have a good showing and look how that’s changed the last nine months of my life.
I have put in the work for the last nine months to make sure that never happens to me again.”
Just days after the comments from Khan, Purrazzo made her return to ROH TV, but she’s yet to feature for AEW.
Meanwhile, a recent report has confirmed that Jay White is set to remain out of action into 2026. Tony Khan recently suggested that White would be out for a long time.
H/t to Fightful