Sonya Deville has seldomly wrestled over the past one and a half years. She has stopped wrestling regularly since her match against Mandy Rose at SummerSlam 2020.
The 28-year-old has portrayed a heel on-screen authority figure on both RAW and SmackDown. She got involved in a feud with Naomi that lasted a few months.
Sonya would have this undue hatred for Naomi and look to punish her by misusing her powers. She would belittle Naomi and get involved in her matches. Deville changed stipulations and distracted her to cost her many matches.
WWE never revealed why Sonya was so unjust to Naomi only and not others. It seemed as if their rivalry would culminate at WrestleMania 38.
The rivalry that was given so much time, ended quite abruptly. Naomi and Ronda Rousey defeated Sonya and Charlotte Flair at Elimination Chamber last month. Since then, Naomi would team up with Sasha Banks to face the teams of Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan and the Women’s Tag Team Champions Queen Zelina and Carmella at WrestleMania 38 in a triple threat match for the titles.
The former Fire and Desire member, Sonya Deville has been involved in the build-up to Charlotte Flair And Ronda Rousey’s title match at ‘Mania. She recently faced Ronda in a singles competition on SmackDown and lost in a jiffy.
Sonya’s heel character has however been receiving a lot of negative reactions from fans. That is exactly what any heel character sets out to achieve.
She credited Stephanie McMahon as she incorporated many things she used to do during her time as a heel authority figure.
Speaking to Ryan Satin on the Out of Character Podcast, Deville said:
“I’ve gotten a lot of what I do from Stephanie, looking back on the old Stephanie stuff, I think that is Vince’s kind of vision for me, a Stephanie-esque character. When I do get in the ring, it’s like yeah I get in the ring but I get in the ring as an authority figure. I will use my power how I see fit and how I can to my advantage and I’ll enjoy doing it because that’s how Steph does and that’s how Vince did. I’ve taken a lot of notes from both of their past work for sure.”
Deville also mentioned how she kept “pestering” Vince to get her in the ring.
“About halfway through this role, I was going to Vince saying, ‘When am I getting back in the ring? When am I getting back in the ring?’ Kind of pestering him and he was like ‘just wait’ and then a couple of weeks ago he pulled me aside and was like ‘aren’t you glad you waited?’ So that was kind of my confirmation from him letting me know to look at how much equity and work we just put into this character and now she can go anywhere and do anything from this point on,” Deville said. “So that was kind of cool because as a competitor and someone who constantly wants to be better like all of us, it’s hard to be in the moment and realize what you’re doing is being special and you always want more.”
“That was kind of a cool moment like wait, he’s right, we just put a lot of work into this character, it was very consistent and long and you don’t get that very often. Sometimes things are short-lived and a couple of week things and it’s cool to be a part of something more longer and more permanent because then when you do something else and switch it up on the fans, they’re like whoa. It’s a drastic change and it will get that reaction. I’m excited to see how it all plays out but again, I’m in no rush to leave where I’m at right now.”
We will have to wait and see what future plan WWE has for Sonya. She is a talented wrestler. Surely her time in the ring will come soon. For now, she isn’t on the WrestleMania 38 card. However, as you can understand from her interview, she is in no hurry.
h/t – Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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