Current IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo was recently a guest on the Busted Open podcast and talked about feeling restricted during her time in WWE/NXT and having more freedom during her previous time with Ring of Honor and her current stint in IMPACT Wrestling:

I think the Deonna that you saw, and the world saw, in Ring of Honor and IMPACT is truly who I am. The person I've been able to put on the screen is the person I believe in. It's the truest form of me, you know, elevated. At NXT, it was very much a runaround. 'You need a character. Okay, well that's too much character. You have to be the real you, but the real you isn't believable'. I just gotten to a point where there's nothing I can do right, and now I feel defeated in me.

I don't care that WWE fired me, or didn't want me, or didn't think I was good enough! I think I'm good enough. And if IMPACT believes I'm good enough, and if Ring of Honor believed I'm good enough, if Japan thought I was good enough, I'm good enough! And I just needed to get back to believing in me and believing in the little girl who wanted to be here her entire life.

I had a chip on my shoulder, and the first interviews I did, I was like, ‘screw NXT!’ and that put a target on my back. That put pressure to perform at a new level and to raise to Jordynne’s level, to Taya’s level, raise to Tessa’s level. All the champions that came before me, now I have to be equal with them. If not, better, especially where I was coming from and the success I didn’t see in NXT.

I had to make this worthwhile, and come in, and be right with the champion, be on the first pay-per-view I can be on as, now, the Knockouts Champion. It’s like, ‘[WWE] messed up! And I hope you regret it and I hope you feel dumb’, because everyone else can see it and I’ve known it my entire life.