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Pro wrestling stars Steve Maclin and Deonna Purrazzo are set to bring the pain to a live viewing audience in New Jersey next month — for a good cause.
Maclin, who performs for TNA Wrestling (TNA), and Purrazzo, the current Ring of Honor (ROH) Women’s Pure Champion, will host Battle for the Brave: Wrestling Showcase for Heroes, which will benefit the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
The bell will ring at 7:00 PM ET at the Rahway Rec Center in Rahway on June 6th. Purrazzo said she and Maclin got the idea to put on a wrestling benefit show after working with Josh Lentin of the Heroes Cup Hockey Tournament. As wrestlers for over a decade, Purrazzo told Pakinomist Digital that she wasn’t sure if promoting an event would really be their cup of tea, but took the challenge head on, especially for a good cause.
Purrazzo said she wasn’t quite sure how the professional wrestling world would react to the event, but added that the support has been overwhelming.
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Pro wrestling stars Steve Maclin and Deonna Purrazzo will host an event to benefit the Tunnels 2 Towers Foundation. (Provided to Pakinomist Digital)
“It’s a big deal just because the whole New York/New Jersey area, the Tri-State area, has really been affected by 9/11. It affected both of our lives,” Maclin told Pakinomist Digital. “I joined the Marine Corps in 2005. It just affected everybody. So especially a lot of the talent that’s on the card as well, all of them have some kind of history or link to 9/11.
“And with Tunnel to Towers, a lot of people in that area love the cause and love what Tunnel to Towers is doing for the community by giving back to the families of first responders, paying off mortgages, smart homes for veterans who have been injured and now paying tuition for first responders and families of veterans who have lost loved ones.”
Maclin shed light on his service as a US Marine. He served in the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines Weapons Company as a machine gunner. From 2007-2011 he did tours in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
“Like I said before, 9/11 was a big part of my life as a kid growing up,” he explained. “I grew up just outside of New York City. So when 9/11 happened, I was in my living room. It just pulled me in that direction. It changed a lot of people’s lives. And for me, for the better, because it instilled what I always knew I was supposed to do, and that was to serve and fight for my country, no matter what.
“I chose the Marines because the Marines are the best. And that’s just the way I’ve always been. I just try to work hard and put one foot forward and keep moving forward, and it’s been a rollercoaster ever since. Now, here we are, almost 25 years later, doing a wrestling show honoring 9/11 and our first responders.”
Battle for the Brave will coincide with America’s 250th birthday and America 250 celebrations across the United States. The UFC will host an event at the White House in June, while IndyCar will be racing on the streets of Washington, DC in August.
Purrazzo and Maclin shared what it meant to them to be an American as pride in the United States begins to come into full focus.
“Growing up in New Jersey, too, 9/11 was such a big deal. For me, I was in the second grade. I didn’t understand what was going on, but in the days that followed, I felt a sense of unity that everybody came together, everybody was proud to be Americans, and we had to fight back and stand together and be one, united country. And I think that feeling has always been a veteran’s wife. second role.
“Steve opening up about his service and things he’s seen and experienced with me has given me a new passion to let veterans know that yes, war will always come home with you, but it doesn’t have to define you. Steve was lucky enough to be able to find wrestling right after he got out of the Marine Corps, and that saved him, in a way, from falling down that unknown path? Who am I?”
Pro wrestling stars Steve Maclin and Deonna Purrazzo stare each other down. (Provided to Pakinomist Digital)
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“And I think that’s something that our veterans deal with unbeknownst to the rest of the public. It’s not talked about enough. They say 22 veterans, but right now the math is 44 veterans a day are losing their lives to that battle — an identity crisis of who I am after service. So that’s what being American means to them now, for our veterans to show support for me now, because our veterans are here. and we’re here to support them, and we’re here to give them the resources they need to live healthy and successful lives after service.”
Maclin recalled working at some of the Tunnel to Towers events earlier in the year, underscoring what he had fought for in Afghanistan.
“No matter who it was, male, female, black, white, it didn’t matter race, gender, nothing. It was everybody praising our country, waving the American flag — the red, white and blue,” he said. “I know there’s a hostility to certain views today and for me that’s what I’m fighting for, that’s what I’m still fighting for.
“And once we have children in this world, however we can pass the knowledge on to others, I always, no matter what, want to keep that pride in our country and fight for what we actually fight for, and that’s for our brothers and our neighbors.”
Americans’ pride in their country is declining, a Gallup poll revealed last June, while a Pakinomist poll found that about six in 10 are proud of America today.
Pro wrestling stars Steve Maclin and Deonna Purrazzo were champions at TNA. (Provided to Pakinomist Digital)
Pakinomist Digital asked Purrazzo and Maclin how Americans can get that pride back.
“I think, as Steve said, the connotation of having American pride is so negative in our country right now. And I think having patriots standing up and saying, no, I believe in our country, I believe in its ideals, I believe in the foundation of what we were built on — to fight for our freedom, to fight for what we believe in, to fight for our neighbors, to fight for our neighbors, to be able to support each other, and just be able to support each other step.
“We shouldn’t be ashamed to be Americans. We shouldn’t be ashamed to support our military, to support the ideals of this country and what it was founded on.”
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Event information
Maclin told Pakinomist Digital exclusively that he will be part of the Battle for the Brave Cup Gauntlet Match. He said he will be the first competitor in the fight, which will also feature Richard Holliday, Megan Bayne, BDE and others.
“Everybody’s been asking me, ‘Why don’t you want to wrestle on your own show, especially for such a great cause?’ So from now on, officially, I’m entering as the No. 1 contender in the Battle for the Brave Memorial Cup,” he said. “I’m taking on 12 other competitors. It’s an over-the-top battle royal and the last two competitors turn into a match.
“I’m going to take the hard way and the hard way to go No. 1 and try to come all the way through to be that (last).”
Purrazzo said that, as of now, she is not in a fight. But did not rule out getting involved in comments in any way.
Legendary pro wrestling tag team Jeff and Matt Hardy, known as the Hardy Boyz, will also be part of the event.
“My brother and I are both very excited to be spearheading Steve Maclin and Deonna Purrazzo’s very special Tunnel to Towers event. Tunnel to Towers is a very special organization that helps care for people who have been injured working to protect us — people like the military, first responders and police,” the Hardys said in a statement to Pakinomist Digital. “We are very grateful for all these people’s services and efforts to keep us all safe and healthy. We look forward to raising as much money as we possibly can.”
Floor spaces for the event are completely sold out. General admission tickets and meet-and-greet tickets with Hardy’s are still available.
