Sonya Deville’s 10-year run with WWE ended with the company informed her they would not be renewing her contract in February.
Deville had been a member of Pure Fusion Collective, and she previously won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.
Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, Sonya Deville recalled learning that WWE would not be renewing her contract.
“My contract ended the 20th of February,” Deville said. “We were negotiating, we were in talks to sign a new contract. I was completely under the impression that it was going well, and we would sign something. Then I was on a trip with my daughter, and I got a phone call from the powers that be, and they were like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go our separate ways.’ I was kind of surprised, not gonna lie, and I was like, ‘Is there a reason?’ They were like, ‘No. Creatively, it just hasn’t worked out, and we’re gonna go our separate ways.”
Sonya Deville: It’s Time For The Next Chapter
Deville was asked to comment on how that felt, and she noted that she was shocked. Deville then said she was grateful for her time with WWE, but it felt like it was time for the next chapter of her life to begin.
“It was crazy,” Sonya Deville said. “Initially, it was shock. I was like, what the hell? I did not expect that. No, I mean I had feelings over the last year or two. I tore my ACL, and I came back from the injury, and I felt rusty. So I wanted to get back to where I was prior to the injury. But that was just a matter of time in my mind. It wasn’t an if, it was a when. So I was just trying to get my footing again and dive into this new character and storyline that they had for me.
“But not really, no. I had been there ten years, I had great relationships with everybody, so I really saw us renewing the contract. Then after the shock wore off, I was kind of just like, okay, this is the end of a chapter, it’s the end of an era. It was a decade long. So grateful for it, I had so many good times, good memories there. I learned so much, and now it kind of felt like it was meant to be, and it’s time for the next chapter of my life.”
Sonya Deville On Being In A Rut
Helwani asked Deville whether she had thought it was a good time to move on when her contract was coming up. She admitted that she felt like was in a rut creatively.
“I did,” she said. “I never actually thought it was gonna happen, I kind of thought I was a lifer and I was gonna be there forever. But I did have talks with my wife multiple times because I do have other dreams. There’s other things I want to pursue, and I kind of felt like I was in a rut creatively there. You don’t always have full control, so it’s like, I just think I’m one of those people that, I do better in the driver’s seat. When I’m on my own, I can drive the car and I can kind of steer the ship, and I feel better that way.”
Deville noted that she had felt this way for the last year or two. She said that she felt like her momentum was very stop/start, but she tried to reinvent and recreate. Deville noted that it was hard when you didn’t have full control.
“It just felt like we would get something started, and then it would stop,” she said. “It was very start, stop. I was never super frustrated. I kind of just took it for what it was, and I always was trying to reinvent and recreate, getting new wardrobe, getting new gear, working on my character and trying to find a way to make something work, but sometimes, yeah, when you don’t have full control, it’s hard.”
Deville went on to state that she was a believer in everything happening for a reason, so she felt like it was time for the next chapter of her life to begin. She reiterated that she did not feel negatively about it. Deville said that she was happy overall, and she was excited for the future.
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