Top Impact Wrestling star Deonna Purrazzo has hit back at trolls who fat shame her photos online.
The 28-year-old former two-time Impact Knockouts World Champion has been plagued by abuse online in recent months.
In May 2022, she posted a stunning image of her posing while walking upstairs, wearing a revealing black outfit.
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This prompted one strange Twitter user to tweet: “Deonna is getting really fat.”
But she hit back, posting a photo of herself in a grey and bikini, on a beach and wrote:” Yeah… she's soooooooooo fat”.
She ended her tweet with an eye-rolling emoji – and won plaudits for doing so from the fan base of Impact Wrestling, which airs in the UK on streaming service DAZN.
However Deonna has had to deal with many comments like that in the past.
And speaking exclusively to the Daily Star about dealing with the hate, she said: “I am a very thick skinned tough human being – it's how I grew up.
“The professional wrestling fan base, unfortunately, there's just this dark hole, that they want to troll you and they want to tell you you're fat and tell you that you don't deserve to be here and tell you everything that they think is wrong with you.
“But I think that if we focus on those people who are out there, buying tickets for shows, buying, buying merch, interacting with us in a way that's going to grow our fan base – we can't just focus on that, because the overall majority of wrestling fans aren't those people, they aren't the stans and they aren't the trolls.
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“They don't want to be told to shut up, and they don't want to be told like 'I don't give a f**k you have to say', because then when you do say that, then it's like the vast majority then message you and are like 'I'm so sorry, I was just playing around'.”
Deonna has been a rising star in the industry since debuting nine years ago back in her native New Jersey, US.
She made a name for herself with a stellar run with Ring of Honor from 2015-2018, with her first stint in Impact Wrestling – then TNA – during the same period.
And she joined WWE in 2018, as part of the NXT brand, and despite repeated calls from fans for her to be given a chance to shine, she left two years later having had just 16 matches on television.
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But now she is arguably one of Impact Wrestling's top stars, and can be seen on UK TV for the first time in a few years thanks to a new deal with sports giants DAZN.
And this new deal – which also sees Impact beamed around the world to more than 100 other countries – is “vindication” for the hard work she and the roster have been putting in for several years.
She said: “I truly, truly believe that Impact doesn't get the credit it deserves.
“We are the best professional wrestling show that's out there right now.
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“We check every box in every category, no matter what you're interested in when it comes to professional wrestling, so I think that it definitely is vindication to be like, 'hey, we're in 170 different countries', it's only going to grow throughout the New Year.
“That's more eyes on our product, it's more it's more TV time, it's more exposure, it's more money. “It's all these things that are continuing to grow our product – we're all excited to see what this does for Impact going forward, but then also to be like, 'hey, haters,'” she laughed.
Deonna's 2022 was more than successful.
At one point, she held the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship and the Ring of Honor Women's World Championship at the same time, and later went on to win the Knockouts Tag Team Championships alongside her real-life best friend Chelsea Green.
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However, the technically proficient, submission-based wrestler now has her eyes set on regaining the top singles title for women in Impact.
So just what can fans expect from the woman nicknamed the Virtuosa in 2023 when watching on DAZN?
She pondered: “I'm also bad ass wrestler.
“I'm a four time world champion, and I stand toe-to-toe with whoever I step in the ring with and I'm more than confident that the Virtuosa is willing and able to break some arms on my way to becoming a three time Knockouts World Champion.”
Watch out, current champion Jordynne Grace . . .
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