Chris Van Vliet did a recent interview with Deonna Purrazzo on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. Here are some of the highlights:
On her AEW debut being in her home state of New Jersey:
“Just coincidence. Honestly, that’s how the schedule lined up. When I spoke to Tony Khan before I signed I had said to him, ‘This kind of seems like we’re on the same page with a lot of things. If I was to debut, the first Dynamite of the New Year is in New Jersey, and that would be like a dream come true for me.’”
On how quickly it all came together:
“That conversation was like, mid-December. Yeah, it only took like three weeks to get this deal done. It was a last-minute thing. So we had that conversation, I pitched that idea, signed the contract on the 1st and it was like, Okay, we have like two days and I haven’t heard anything. I was really upset because I thought it’s Tuesday afternoon, it’s probably not gonna happen. Tuesday at 5 pm Sonjay Dutt called me and was like, ‘We’d love to have you in Newark. Is that doable?’ And I was like of course it’s doable. So yeah, it was literally like a 24-hour turnover.”
On keeping her debut a secret:
“So I didn’t know what I was doing until I got there, and I was wheeled into TK’s office on a wheelchair under a tarp so no one [knew] it was crazy, they didn’t want anyone to see who it was. I feel like once they got there, everyone kind of put pieces together and the girls knew it was me, but they wanted it to be super top secret. I wasn’t picked up to go to the venue until like 5 or 6 pm. Then yeah, I was kind of hidden in Tony’s office for a little bit, and then they gave me my own separate locker room. And I felt like, this is just me, this is really silly. I was so uncomfortable and I was like, I feel bad asking, can someone bring me food? Where do I go to the bathroom? I felt very uncomfortable, but yeah, I didn’t have any expectations. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t ask what I was going to be doing. I was just kind of like, this is where I want to be, this is my number one choice. If we can make this happen, Jersey would be great, but I’m in this for the long haul, so you tell me what you want.”
