There are still a lot of things up in the air about ROH and how the brand extension of AEW will be working moving forward. That’s perfectly normal, as Tony Khan just acquired the 20 year old company and with its extensive library and excellent roster of talent, there’s certainly a lot to decide.
A lot of the belts have already changed hands from the old ROH guard…the tag titles are now on the very talented waists of FTR…the ROH Pure Championship is now on the waist of the epic Wheeler Yuta, and Samoa Joe holds the ROH Television Championship.…
The ROH World Six-Man Championship is still on the combined waists of Bateman, Dutch and Vincent. For right now, the destiny of that belt is still up in the air.
Jonathan Gresham holds the ROH World Championship still and he was just signed to AEW.
Deonna Purrazzo holds the ROH Women’s Championship of course, and Mercedes Martinez got her hands on the ‘interim’ Women’s ROH title at Supercard Of Honor, defeating Willow Nightingale, but that raised a lot of questions, particularly, who is the true ROH Women’s Champion?
Well, that question will be answered next week on Dynamite finally, as the two women will be facing one another.
Now there are those that feel that Purrazzo will be simply making an appearance to drop the title to a contracted AEW female wrestler, and a talented one at that is Martinez…essentially leading the lamb to slaughter, so to speak. But the other school of thought is that Purrazzo just might be ready to move on from her role at Impact Wrestling.
via ROH /YouTube
She is a two-time Knockouts Champion and really on that platform and on many others, she has shined. A failed attempt at WWE, which wasn’t at all her fault, led her to return to Impact and to dominate as she did. She has an incredible career on the indies, and the next logical step for her is AEW, where she can shine amongst a pretty impressive array of female competitors.
Having her there can only add to the already impressive list of athletes, and as I’ve written about many times before, she can have epic matches with just about anyone over there. She has expressed interest in facing her close friend and old rival (or rather teaming with her), Dr. Britt Baker.
Purrazzo reacted on twitter, stating simply: “My LONG awaited @AEW debut… #Virtuosa.”
She recently just lost her AAA Reina de Reinas Championship to the incomparable Taya Valkyrie, and the ROH title is the last championship she has.
Is she done with Impact?
Well, according to a report at fightful.com, Purrazzo’s contract with Impact Wrestling expires in 2022. Well, well, well. Isn’t that just the perfect timing?
I’ll say it is.
To be clear, Impact is a solid product, with epic divisions across the board. They found a way to survive not only the pandemic but a lack of interest in the product overall sadly… a lack of interest by the casual pro wrestling fan and some diehard fans as well, but the realm of Impact is a solid one and historically it is just as significant to the industry as ROH was in its original form, if not more.
Purrazzo can be beyond proud of the work she’s done on that platform, but it is most definitely time for her to shine on a platform such as AEW, where she can most definitely do so.
In the end, this all remains to be seen, and even if she loses the title, an AEW debt for this top female star would not only make sense, but it would be a gift not only to the fans but to AEW overall. I hope only that Tony Khan sees the value of The Virtuosa as I do and as her fans do.
