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Sonya Deville recently gave an account of meeting her former tag team partner and current NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose for the first time.
Sonya, who until earlier this year was an on-screen authority figure in WWE, made her main roster debut on the November 20, 2017 episode on Monday Night RAW. She was initially part of the Absolution group alongside Mandy and Paige. Rose and Deville would go on to compete as Fire and Desire.
The former tag partners recently did an interview with Sidewalks Entertainment, where Sonya described how the two first met during tryouts for WWE Tough Enough's 2015 season. On seeing her future teammate for the first time, Sonya said:
"We just instantly hit it off. I saw Mandy from across the room, and I'll never forget she had this like Barbie pink outfit like plat blonde hair, and I was like 'I gotta go over and introduce myself to this girl'... I thought I was gonna go over and, you know, I was judging a book by its cover, and I thought she was gonna be a little pretentious, a little stuck up, a little bit of a Diva... But we just had this like initial connection and we hit it off and we've been like sisters and best friends ever since," said Sonya Deville [2:49 - 3:20]
What happened on Tough Enough the year Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose entered the competition?
The sixth season of Tough Enough was contested in 2015 and was the first season to take place at WWE's Performance Center in Orlando, FL. The show was judged by Daniel Bryan, Paige, Hulk Hogan, and The Miz and was hosted by Chris Jericho.
As stated above, both Mandy (real name Amanda Saccomanno) and Sonya (real name Daria Berenato) made it to the competition. While Berenato was eliminated in episode three of the show and would be the fourth one out, Amanda wound up as the runner-up in the women's category.
The winners that year were Josh Bredl (who wrestled under the name Bronson Matthews in NXT before his release in 2017) and Sara Lee, who was released in 2016. Another notable talent on the show was former WWE Superstar Chelsea Green.
Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose are the only two talents from that year of Tough Enough who are still employed in WWE.
If you use any of the above quotes, please credit WWE's The Bump and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.
