Recently, WWE released a number of their talents to adjust their budget, some of them were future talents and the rest were veterans. One of the former champions that WWE released during the recent spree was the former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Sonya Deville who remained active in the promotion for a decade.
Sonya Deville had been a veteran of the WWE locker room by every means and she also received regular bookings as long as she was under contract with the promotion. She even won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship with Chelsea Green in 2023 but unfortunately, she could not enjoy the reign as she was sidelined by a vicious injury.
Sonya Deville Remembers Her Big Summerslam match Against Mandy Rose and Also Reveals Change of Stipulation
One of the biggest storylines she had throughout her WWE career was with Mandy Rose who had been the on screen partner of Deville earlier. Later, their partnership started to decline as they started feuding. At Summerslam 2020, the dup met in a Loser Leaves WWE match. Deville recently remembered this match while speaking on “The Ariel Helwani Show” and she revealed insider about it;
Sonya Deville lost to Mandy Rose at Summerslam 2020 in a Loser Leaves WWE match
“The attempted kidnapping happened in my home and they had told me to take time off. I didn’t want to take time off. I guess they were looking out for me and they were like, ‘Just sit home for a little bit.’ That’s why we switched the ending of me and Mandy’s SummerSlam match. It was supposed to be hair vs. hair and we all kind of decided, ‘Maybe that’s a traumatic move to happen right now. I was supposed to be shaving my head and that was going to lead to a big character turn.”
“I became okay with it. I was not okay with it at first. They had promised me great things after it and were like, ‘It’s going to lead to the badass character on the other end and we’re going to really push it.’ I was nervous, but I was down.
Sonya Deville was released from WWE in February 2025
“Once the incident happened in my home and I had to go to court and testify, we all decided it was probably not the greatest timing for this move. I walked into the production meeting room, a day or two after the incident, they were scrambling and they were going to cancel the SummerSlam match because they thought we wouldn’t be up for it.”
Check out Sonya Deville's reaction on her WWE beginnings here
After Deville lost at Summerslam, she became the on screen co General Manager of both Smackdown and RAW along with Adam Pearce. She started working as a wrestler again in mid 2022. She had always been a regular in the weekly shows but her release raised questions as she could have been a great fit for the newly introduced women’s mid card division of WWE.
H/T - eWrestlingNews
