Sonya Deville began her WWE career in 2015 as a contestant on Tough Enough, finishing 11th. She later signed with WWE and trained in NXT, making her in-ring debut in December 2015.
In November 2017, Deville joined the main roster on RAW as part of the Absolution stable with Paige and Mandy Rose and, in 2018, Deville and Rose moved to SmackDown, forming Fire and Desire, which split in 2020 after a "Loser Leaves WWE" match.
Deville returned in January 2021 as an on-screen authority figure alongside Adam Pearce, resuming in-ring competition in mid-2022 (which included alliances with Chelsea Green, and later, Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark in Pure Fusion Collective). Much to the shock of most fans, WWE decided against renewing Deville's contract and released her this past February.
Talking to Chris Van Vliet, Deville opened up on her essentially being fired by the company:
"I’m not one to sit in things and sulk. It’s very hard for me to do that, I think, because I want to be doing stuff all the time. I have a high work ethic and work rate, and so there was no part of me that was going to sit home and cry about not getting my contract renewed. I have my family, I have my stepdaughters and my wife at home, I have so much I want to do. I have a legacy that I still want to leave."
"As much as I’m proud of the work I did in WWE, I very much feel like I’m just getting started in my footprint that I want to leave in this world. So I was excited. I was like, wow, now I get to go pursue those things, because I wouldn’t have left the safety net of the company. I had a steady paycheck coming in. I loved everybody there, I loved what I was doing, so I wouldn’t have left. But I think it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me."
Asked whether she thinks anything happened that led to WWE deciding not to renew her contract, she added:
"I can’t even comprehend thinking of it like that, because it’s so serendipitous and it happened so beautifully like that chapter closed, and now I’m doing all these things that I’ve wanted to do since I was 12 years old. So I can’t even look at it like that, my brain won’t let me, so maybe? I don’t know. I was training my ass off. I was always on point with my look and my character work. So I think it was just time."
"I will say transparently that I was feeling like I was in a rut for the past few years of my career there, I felt a little like I needed a change of pace, and I didn’t know what it was. I never would have left on my own merit, but I felt a little bit like I was in a loop, kind of in Purgatory, like I wanted an opportunity. I got the title with Chelsea finally, then the injury, got back from the injury, was finally getting my footing again in the ring after coming back from the ACL [tear], and then I got released."
"So it’s hard to look back and regret any of it, though, because I really feel like everything happens for a reason."
Admitting that she still hasn't processed her release, Deville confirmed that she's retired from wrestling "definitely for now," but added that she would "never say never" about an in-ring return.
"Right now I feel at peace with that. I’m not gonna lie, and I haven’t said this, but it almost is like an open wound, and if I think about wrestling somewhere else, it’s like I was so loyal to the company, it was my only home from 21 years old to 31," she explained. "I’m a ride or die type of person in general. So it’s weird to even think about doing that, but not there."
You can watch the full interview with Deville in the player below.