Women's wrestling with Martinez, Purrazzo on the RISE via Impact Wrestling initiative

By Jim Varsallone

Updated May 26, 2018 6:48 AM

Pro wrestling standout Mercedes Martinez has accomplished quite a bit in her 18-year career, and she continues to compete, while helping others, like those in the upstart RISE promotion. Photo By Jim Varsallone

Pro wrestling standout Mercedes Martinez has accomplished quite a bit in her 18-year career while young talent Deonna Purrazzo is off to a very good start.

The experience of The Latina Sensation and the youthful exuberance of The Virtuosa are a symbolic fusion in the upstart RISE, a women's developmental group now in conjunction with Impact Wrestling.

Interesting how their wrestling journeys began so differently, but each path led to RISE, competing with each other recently in Pittsburgh. Role models, especially for girls and young women, wrestling means the world to them.

"RISE gives opportunities to future female talent," Martinez said, "and what we do is we help them. We do seminars before every show. I just facilitated a seminar a couple of weeks ago right before the Shimmer tapings. It was an all-day seminar. We had Gail Kim there and Madusa to help facilitate."

Shimmer is a longtime, well-established women's wrestling company based in Chicago, which has ties to RISE.

"What we do is get these girls that maybe have a year or two years," Martinez noted. "It doesn't matter how many years you have, 10 years. You come to these seminars, and we're going to teach you the side of the business that no one's teaching you, or we're going to help you groom yourself to be a better wrestler... I tend to teach a lot of submission wrestling and technical wrestling and the basics, because a lot of the female talent tend to forget about that stuff, because if you're trained by guys and wrestling guys, you got to do a little bit different stuff. You come to Shimmer or Shine. You gotta be a wrestler..."

Martinez, 37, discussed her rise to stardom, after wrestling up-and-comer Chelsea Durden at Coastal Championship Wrestling's Cinco de Mayo show at Coyo Taco in Wynwood in Miami-Dade County.

For more of the interview with the respected Martinez, click the videos.

Martinez, a star high school basketball player on college scholarship, injured her back during her college playing days for Teikyo Post University (now Post University) in her hometown Waterbury, Connecticut. She had no interest in professional wrestling. Her aspirations gravitated to professional basketball with the upstart WNBA or overseas.

During her recovery, she opted through a friend to mend her back and body by conditioning, training unconventionally at a new pro wrestling school in Waterbury, run by ECW original The Sexiest Man Alive Jason. One of only two women at the school, she not only worked her body into shape but did very well in the ring. She enjoyed it so much that she was hooked, and pro wrestling became her new endeavor.

Martinez built quite the resume, wrestling throughout the world, winning many titles and garnering the respect of her peers. Her tough, physical style is what helped grow women's wrestling into the force it is today.

Along that way, Martinez became a three-time WSU Champion, a two-time Shimmer Champion, a WXW Women's Champ, and nCw Female Champ. In 2011, Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked her No. 2 of the best 50 women's wrestlers. Continuing to compete at a high level, she is currently one half of the Shine Tag Team Champions with Ivelisse.

Martinez, who also draws, loves comics, especially Batman. Check out her comic book-inspired tattoos.

A top career highlight, Martinez was selected last year to wrestle in the WWE Mae Young Classic, a tournament for top female wrestlers from around the world. Common ground between the two, Purrazzo nearly made the final cut, too, serving as an alternate.

Turning to the 23-year-old Purrazzo, she is a Jersey girl and enjoyed pro wrestling growing up with her twin brother. They watched it on TV and emulated the mat action with each other. Unlike Martinez, pro wrestling was something Purrazzo always wanted to do.

First, Purrazzo took to cheerleading in school and at the competitive level before setting her sights on professional wrestling. Martinez competed in various sports in high school and was also a cheerleader, but let's keep that quiet. Don't want to ruin her rough, tough reputation.

"I saw wrestling, and I was like, 'Holy crap. These women are so cool, and they're strong, and they're powerful, and I want to try that one day, because I can totally be good at that,'" Purrazzo said. "My parents and my family thought it was a phase, when I said at 9, 'I'm going to be a professional wrestler,' but it stuck with me. I'm going to be 24 now."

Debuting in 2013, Purrazzo was trained at D2W in New Jersey and Ohio Valley Wrestling in Louisville. She learned from Damian Adams, Shawn Bennett, Robbie E, and the legendary Hustler Rip Rogers, sometimes wearing his Hustler T-shirt.

She said: "It's been my lifelong dream to be able to change women's wrestling and the perception it had when I was growing up -- to the bathroom breaks, the three-minute matches. [At such a young age] I knew that women could be more than that, and I just envisioned what women's wrestling is today."

Purrazzo, who's wrestled in Puerto Rico, has worked for Impact Wrestling, Stardom in Japan and WWE. She is one of the Women of Honor originals in Ring of Honor. She ranked 34 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2017 and was awarded ROH Women of Honor Wrestler of the Year.

She added: "To kind of come up in this evolution and have a revolution in every single company where women are getting more opportunities to be on TV, to be main events, to win championships, my heart is so happy."

For more with the fan favorite and kangaroo-loving Purrazzo, click the video.