At WWE SummerSlam 2020, Sonya Deville met Mandy Rose in a Loser Leaves WWE bout.
The match was originally scheduled to be hair vs. hair, but was changed after a real life stalking incident occurred with a man trying to kidnap Deville.
"The attempted kidnapping happened in my home and they had told me to take time off," Deville recalled while speaking to Ariel Helwani on the Ariel Helwani Show. "I didn't want to take time off. I guess they were looking out for me and they were like, 'Just sit home for a little bit.' 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. I was supposed to be shaving my head and that was going to lead to a big character turn."
Asked if she was okay with getting her head shaved, Deville replied, "I became okay with it. I was not okay with it at first. They had promised me great things after it and were like, 'It's going to lead to the badass character on the other end and we're going to really push it.' I was nervous, but I was down. Once the incident happened in my home and I had to go to court and testify, we all decided it was probably not the greatest timing for this move. I walked into the production meeting room, a day or two after the incident, they were scrambling and they were going to cancel the SummerSlam match because they thought we wouldn't be up for it. I didn't realize they were in the middle of the meeting. There are 30-40 writers and producers, Vince [McMahon], everybody. I cracked the door open. 'Oh, I'm sorry.' He's like, 'No,' he's eating a sandwich, 'No, come here.' I went up to the front and was like, 'Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I have to say something.' I didn't know I was going to be saying it in front of the entire production meeting, I was hoping to just talk to the head writer or Vince by himself. I ended up giving a speech to everybody. I was like, 'Listen, I don't want what this guy did to dictate my career and my future. It kind of pisses me off that that was the guy's intention, so I'm wrestling at SummerSlam. One way or another.' Vince was like, 'Okay. What do you want to do?' I was like, 'I don't know, it's got to be better than hair vs. hair. We have to make it equally as exciting as hair vs. hair because I don't want the fans to be disinterested now because they're waiting for that. Let me think on it.' 'Okay.'
"I left, me and Mandy brainstormed and were like, 'Why don't we do Loser Leaves Town?' That's dramatic. One of us will leave and come back. We planned this whole thing for me to lose and come back crazy. It was this whole plan. Pitched it to Vince, everything was good. Then, they called us in their office and were like, 'Actually, Mandy is losing. You're winning.' 'Oh.' Mandy was kind of upset because she's like, 'I'm the babyface here and you've been kicking my ass the whole time.' I saw her point, and we actually went and got the finished changed for me to lose. It was my decision. I went and got it changed. I took time off after that. Storyline wise, but also because of the incident."
Deville was off television since the January 1, 2021 episode of WWE SmackDown.
Elsewhere during the interview, Sonya explained how Vince helped her following the incident. You can find her full comments by clicking here.
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