AEW star Willow Nightingale has come to the defense of her colleague, Deonna Purrazzo, after Purrazzo was subjected to hateful, body-shaming comments on social media following a match this past weekend.
After Deonna Purrazzo competed against Jonathan Gresham for Game Changer Wrestling on Saturday, she was targeted by online trolls criticizing her appearance. Nightingale, who has faced similar comments herself, took to social media to praise Purrazzo’s match and question the focus of the online discourse.
“Why in the blue hell is that the prevailing conversation when a professional is still going out there and successfully doing their job?” Nightingale wrote. “I’m not naive. Some people’s lack of humanity doesn’t surprise me. I guess I’m just still hopeful we could collectively try to be better to one another?”
Purrazzo had initially clapped back at a user who claimed she had “let herself go.” Following the outpouring of support from fans and peers like Nightingale, she expressed her appreciation. “The people in this community who show up with love and support when it matters most? That’s why I stay,” Purrazzo tweeted. “Love will always outweigh hate.” Purrazzo had previously opened up on the Mighty Pursuit podcast about how a past experience with body-shaming left her “terrified” to get in the ring.
Both Nightingale and Purrazzo are key members of the AEW and ROH women’s divisions. Nightingale recently competed in the Women’s Casino Gauntlet match at the All In: Texas pay-per-view. As was recently reported, Purrazzo has been absent from television due to a creative ripple effect caused by other injuries in the ROH women’s division, but she remains under a long-term contract with the company.