AEW star Deonna Purrazzo recently opened up about her personal battle with scoliosis and how it has influenced her wrestling journey.
During an interview on The Lightweights Podcast with Joe Vulpis, Deonna Purrazzo discussed the most painful moves she has taken in the ring. She mentioned that moves like body slams, spinebusters, and fallaway slams affect her differently due to her scoliosis.
“Body slam (is a move that hurts). Number one, two and three. Um, no. Body slam’s up there for me. I just don’t like it. I think it’s the worst bump to take. Spinebuster. My neck doesn’t have the strength. My neck always slams back and it hurts. I hate it and like, a fallaway slam is coming to mind of it’s just uncomfortable. Yes (I train my neck). But not in the way wrestlers are taught to — so I have scoliosis.”
While she revealed she has been dealing with scoliosis since childhood, Purrazzo also mentioned that she has dealt with bulging discs throughout her life. “So, my neck has a slight curve to it and I just, from childhood, have bulging discs and stuff that I’ve just had to work through my whole life… So, I have to just beware of those potential injuries so, a lot of people like to do neck bridges and stuff like that.”
“That doesn’t feel good to me. Or, a couple training schools that I’ve been to want you to hang your neck over the edge of the ring and pick it up and that is very uncomfortable for me so for me, it’s more of doing a lot of chiropractic work, I do a lot of range of motion stuff with him, and that helps manage scoliosis and potential injuries way more than traditional neck strengthening things for wrestling… Knock on wood, I’m so blessed that the scoliosis hasn’t ever played an issue into my wrestling but, there’s so much room for error in wrestling as a whole so, it can be very scary.” [H/T: Fightful]
Deonna Purrazzo opened up about her ongoing struggle with scoliosis. Former AEW star Saraya also dealt with the condition, discovering she had scoliosis after signing with WWE. Purrazzo last wrestled in AEW in February but continued competing in ROH. Last month, she made history in the promotion by taking part in its first-ever Women’s Pure Rules Match.
