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Sonya Deville has become 2020's Becky Lynch since the former Tough Enough contestant has come out of her feud with Mandy Rose looking like a brand new Superstar. Fire and Desire went their separate ways ahead of WrestleMania 36 back in April and Rose and Deville have since been at odds on SmackDown.
It was the SmackDown Hacker that revealed the plot behind Rose and Otis' failed Valentine's Day date because of Dolph Ziggler and Deville and this then allowed Rose and Otis to finally get together at the Biggest Show of the Year.
Deville has been able to show her true potential as part of the feud and her promos have proven that she was definitely the 'fire' part of her former tag team. Deville is WWE's first-ever lesbian female wrestler and is currently celebrating pride month along with the LGBTQ community, so here are some facts about the former MMA star that many WWE fans were not aware of.
#5. Sonya and her mother have matching tattoos
Sonya and her mother are very close, the two women are often seen together on Total Divas, where Deville has been a cast member over the past few years.
Deville and her mother both have a tattoo of a sign which means equality. Deville explained in an interview with Allure that:
"I've had tattoos since I was like 16, but if you would have asked the younger me to get a tattoo that symbolized my sexuality, I would have told you no, because that's how not OK I used to be with it."
The former Absolution member has become open with her sexuality throughout her time in WWE and even had her own float at Pride in Fort Lauderdale 2019, which was documented throughout her time on Total Divas.
#4. Deville came out on national TV
Sonya Deville has never been scared to talk about her sexuality as a WWE Superstar and has become a role model for other women who are struggling to come out, but there was also a time when Deville wasn't open about it.
When Deville first arrived in WWE as part of Tough Enough in 2015, her time was documented, and that included a conversation that she had with Triple H regarding her sexuality.
"For me, I wasn't openly gay at that time and I had a girlfriend. So, what's going through my mind in that moment is, 'Do I lie? No, I can't lie. My girlfriend will kill me when I get home. So, I'm like, 'Well, I have to tell the truth, right?' So, I was like, 'Uh, yeah, I have a girlfriend. But, not a wife yet.' And got really awkward and gave like a really cringe answer."
"Triple H started laughing and he's like, 'I think you came out on national television. And so, I ran upstairs, called my mom. I was like, 'I just came out on national TV.'"
Luckily Deville recalled that her mother told her that everything would be OK and it was.
#3. Sonya Deville's ex-partner once dated Seth Rollins
Sonya Deville is currently in a relationship with Arianna Johnson and their relationship has been documented throughout her time on Total Divas. Although, before Deville became a regular on the show, she was dating a different woman.
Zahra Schreiber was known to the WWE Universe given the fact that she once trained with WWE and made a few appearances on NXT. Schrieber rose to fame when it came to light that she was dating former Universal Champion Seth Rollins back in 2015 before it was reported that the couple broke up in 2016.
Schreiber then reappeared at the Hall of Famer ceremony in 2018 after being fired by WWE a few years before, and it was revealed that she was in a relationship with Sonya Deville.
The Pride Fighter was open about her relationship with the former star on Instagram, but their relationship wasn't destined to be a long one and by the time it was announced that Deville was a Total Divas cast member, she was dating Arianna.
#2. Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville were instant best friends
The Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville storyline on SmackDown has been so hard-hitting and entertaining for the WWE Universe because the two women are actually best friends. Rose and Deville have been friends since the moment they met whilst part of Tough Enough back in 2015.
Even though Deville was eliminated in the early rounds of the competition and Rose was the runner up, WWE signed both women and they went on to appear on NXT. Over the years the two women have become the best of friends, something which they have been able to transfer over to the current storyline.
"Mandy has been my best friend since literally the first day of Tough Enough tryouts. I totally judged a book by its cover, and I thought she was going to be this high-maintenance beauty queen.
I was expecting her to be like a valley girl like, ‘Hi, I’m Mandy.’ She turned around and was like, ‘Yo, what’s up?’ I was like, ‘[gasps] She’s cool.’ Literally, in that moment, we became best friends”.
Of course, on WWE TV, Rose and Deville are no longer best friends, but outside the ring, they are as close as ever.
#1. Sonya Deville has had numerous lesbian angles turned down by WWE
Sonya Deville has been pushing for WWE to allow her to bring her sexuality into storylines over the past few years in the hopes that WWE could create a lesbian angle and do it justice. Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville have been pushing to make a lesbian angle possible on WWE TV for years, but the company has turned them down numerous times.
The two women even had a storyline approved back in 2019, but it was later scrapped, something that Sonya Deville confirmed in an interview with Uproxx.
“So obviously, Mandy and I were upset momentarily. It was something that we really pushed for. But never say never and I think that it’s definitely still a possibility that it will or could happen in the future. I think representation in different storylines and stuff like that is awesome. I think it’s good. There’s a lot of different ways you can do it. There’s not just one way to do it and it’s not just Mandy and I that have to do it.”
Obviously, we took a lot of time out and had a lot of meetings with GLAAD, and they were helping us write and direct the story. So, I hope we can get back to it one day. But yeah, I would like to see it also revealed in other storylines in the future too.”
Deville is still pushing for a lesbian storyline, and hopefully, the company allow The Pride Fighter to do it justice.
