WWE official Sonya Deville has revealed that there were “discussions” over her returning to the ring at the 2021 Royal Rumble.
Sonya Deville hasn’t properly competed in a match since being defeated by Mandy Rose at SummerSlam in 2020. The stipulation for the bout between the friends turned rivals was ‘Loser leaves WWE,’ so with the loss, Deville disappeared from television.
That was until she came strutting down the hallway on the January 1st edition of Friday Night SmackDown rocking a three-piece suit. It was later announced that Deville had been reinstated and she quickly transitioned into a role as an authority figure alongside Adam Pearce.
Despite much speculation and ‘teaming’ with Shayna Baszler against Naomi, Deville has yet to wrestle a match. However, in conversation with talkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy, Deville revealed that things were nearly very different.
The former NXT star explained that there had discussions about her returning to the ring at the Royal Rumble.
“Yeah [the Royal Rumble was discussed]. There was a lot of different ideas when I first came back but ultimately, it came down to a decision that was made that I had something to do with.”
She went on to reveal that it was during these discussions that Vince McMahon planted the idea for what would become her current character.
“I was basically in Vince’s [McMahon] office and we were kind of just throwing ideas out and I had mentioned I had a three-piece suit that I wanted to wear on TV. I kind of wanted to start incorporating this boss suit look into my character, whatever they may mean. He kind of just started thinking.
He was looking and I could tell his wheels were spinning and he said ‘Do you have the suit on you?’ I said ‘No, it’s at my hotel.’ He said ‘Alright, well get someone to go get it.’ And that’s when I wore the suit and walked down the hallway [for my return].
He’s just so genius and so creative. He just saw something that day when we had that small conversation that’s just unravelled this potential story and character and that’s where we’ve gone with it.”
On the most recent episode of SmackDown Sonya Deville had been due to make her latest ‘return’ to the ring against Naomi. Although by the time that she arrived in the ring, it was clear things weren’t as they seemed. She introduced ‘guest announcer’ Natalya and ‘guest timekeeper’ Shayna Baszler at ringside before the three women quickly ganged up on Naomi.
Despite this, it was Deville and her partners in crime who were sent running to the back with the SmackDown debut of Xia Li who appeared to even the score.