Tony Khan Reveals Status Of Missing AEW And ROH Star

Deonna Purrazzo came into AEW with major buzz, but she hasn't been featured much on TV for most of 2025. There's a chance, however, that could change shortly.

Purrazzo signed with AEW last January, and quickly faced Toni Storm for the AEW Women's World Championship. She would fall to her at AEW Revolution, and has only appeared on AEW programming three times this year.

The 31-year-old did have several wins on Ring of Honor this year, seemingly setting up to be a part of a potential Women's Pure Championship tournament that never got off the ground. On Thursday's media call for the upcoming ROH Death Before Dishonor show, AEW founder and ROH head Tony Khan discussed what led to Purrazzo's disappearance from TV.

"I think Deonna is a really, really great wrestler," Khan said, kicking off a near-17-minute answer regarding the former TNA Knockouts Champion. "I think she had a great, you know, when she came into AEW, she had a lot of success. And I think she still could find her footing here and do really, really well."

Purrazzo's Future in AEW and ROH

Deonna Purrazzo has only had three matches on AEW TV in 2025. | All Elite Wrestling - Jeff Jones

During his response, Khan mentioned how AEW has partners in Mexico, alluding to CMLL. In December of 2024, Purrazzo had a match with La Catalina. Khan alluded to something happening regarding the match that was a setback for her.

"I guess I'll just be honest, I think Deonna had gone down to Mexico, and again, this is something that I think you can grow and learn from, but had an experience down there that wasn't positive with our partners," he said.

While he didn't go into specifics as to what occurred, as noted, she mostly disappeared from AEW TV in the aftermath of the match. She did wrestle in ROH, though, and Khan said that he had a match in mind for Death Before Dishonor, but injuries in the women's division affected plans.

"There was a match I had planned for, actually, this pay-per-view that I had called off due to injury. And I really wanted to get Diana going again because, I think, I'm just being really honest, it's okay if something doesn't go well. And I want to be able to give somebody an opportunity to come back from something," Khan said.

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"And I think Diana is a really, really good wrestler, and having one match that doesn't go great shouldn't be the end of a run or change everything. I really appreciate a lot of the stuff Diana said recently, like positive comments about AEW, and I feel positively about her, too. That's why we brought her here."

Purrazzo has been vocal on social media about wanting to get ring work in on the indies since she is not on TV. Even though she hasn't been on the shows, Khan commended her attitude, and indicated multiple times that he plans to get her going again.

"I think Deonna's somebody that is a good example recently of how to conduct yourself in the locker room, and even if you're not necessarily featured on TV at that point, being very positive in the sentiment of the company and also expressing an interest in going out and wrestling and competing, and taking advantage of the opportunities, to go out there and get in the ring and make the most of them and valuing that," he said.

Her last TV match was on the June 21 episode of ROH Honor Club, a winning effort against Rachael Ellering in a Pure Rules match.

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