Sonya Deville was recently released by WWE when the company decided not to renew her contract. That came as a surprise to the former Women's Tag Team Champion, especially as she'd become a staple of the company's women's division since first competing in Tough Enough in 2015.
Deville's greatest success might have been alongside Mandy Rose as Fire and Desire. Their time together as a tag team eventually reached an end and their feud wrapped up at SummerSlam 2020 in a "No Disqualification Loser Leaves WWE" match.
Rose won the bout and Deville took an extended hiatus to deal with the fact a stalker had attempted to kidnap her during a terrifying home invasion. Talking to Ariel Helwani, Deville reflected on the feud and how it was originally supposed to end.
"They had told me to take time off," Deville said. "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 because ... I was supposed to be shaving my head, and that was going to lead to a big character turn."
She'd go on to explain that the attempted kidnapping took place only a week before SummerSlam, prompting the company to consider scrapping the match altogether. Deville argued against the idea and has previously revealed her lawyers advised against shaving her head before having to appear in court.
"I ended up giving a speech to everybody," she recalled. "I was like, 'Listen, I don't want what this guy did to dictate my career or my future, and it kind of pisses me off that was the guy's intention, so I'm wrestling at SummerSlam, one way or another.' And Vince was like, 'Okay, what do you want to do?'"
Deville and Rose eventually decided on the "Loser Leaves Town" match and the former eventually returned to WWE with a refreshed version of her character (as an assistant to on-screen authority figure Adam Pearce on SmackDown).
Apparently, Vince McMahon had wanted Deville to pick up a quick win over Rose before her hiatus, though both women pushed back on that.
Elaborating on her WWE release on her YouTube channel, Deville said, "We were in the middle of negotiations, and so I thought the phone call was going to be the middle ground that we met on, an agreement, a contract. And it was, 'We are not renewing your contract.' So, complete transparency, which this is really the first time I’m saying this, I was shocked."
You can watch the full interview with Deville in the player below.