Sonya Deville Says Stalker Incident Derailed WWE SummerSlam Plans and Changed Her Entire Career

Sonya Deville’s WWE SummerSlam 2020 storyline was headed toward a shocking climax. She was booked to lose a Hair vs. Hair match to Mandy Rose and return with a completely new look and gimmick. But just days before the big show, her real life turned into a nightmare—and it changed everything.

Speaking with CJ Perry on Identity Crisis, Sonya laid out exactly how the attempted kidnapping and break-in at her home derailed not only her SummerSlam angle but also the momentum she’d spent years building.

“The attempted kidnapping incident definitely derailed plans because we… it happened two nights before, three nights before… maybe three nights before SummerSlam was the break‑in in my house. We were talking back and forth with Vince. What do you want to do? He wanted to respect, you know, what I was going through and he’s like, ‘We don’t need to do the match at all.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no. We’re doing the match.’”

She revealed that she was originally supposed to lose the Hair vs. Hair match and return to TV with a shaved head and a hard reset:

“I was supposed to lose the hair vs hair and I was supposed to come back as like this GI Jane badass character and quote‑unquote run through the division, you know? Who knows? That could have stopped and that would have been terrible if I was bald for no reason… bald and sitting in catering.”

But given the trauma she’d just experienced, Sonya knew shaving her head didn’t feel right. So she pitched something else—something no one expected.

“We kind of mutually decided that it wasn’t the greatest decision for me to shave my head right after that traumatic experience and maybe we’d go a different direction… I was like, ‘Well, I need to think of a stipulation that has similar stakes to Hair vs Hair. Nothing’s going to live up to that, but what could be equally as entertaining?’ And I was like, ‘What about loser leaves? And I’ll leave and I’ll come back the next week as like a schizophrenic who doesn’t realize that she left… maybe I just become this unraveled character and we kind of play off a little bit of the real‑life stuff where like I just went through this trauma and maybe I’ve lost my mind and I come back the next week not thinking that I lost.’”

Vince McMahon was completely into it—even if his reaction was very… Vince:

“Vince’s exact words were, ‘I love it. You can swing from the chandelier in my office.’ And I was like, ‘That’s not what I had in mind, but yeah. Perfect. Love it. Love it. Love it.’”

The original plan was for Sonya to win the SummerSlam match. But she actually went to Vince and Bruce Prichard to pitch herself to lose—believing Mandy needed the babyface win and that her new character would take her to the next level:

“The producers come to us and they’re like, ‘Um, Sonya’s actually going to win the match. Mandy’s going to lose and go away and we’ll bring her back in funny ways.’… And I actually went into Bruce and Vince and asked to lose and pitched the schizophrenic character. And he said, ‘Okay.’ So they switched it.”

That’s when things completely fell apart. The plan was for Sonya to return right after SummerSlam, but WWE went silent.

“One week went by, one month went by, two months went by, I’m blowing up Bruce’s phone — ‘What’s going on? I thought I was coming right back.’ I’m blowing up Vince’s phone… and finally I got a text from Bruce, like, ‘After second thought, we have to honor the stipulation.’”

“I was gone for like five months. Yeah. Exactly five months. I was very disappointed because I wanted to be at work… and I was at the height of my career.”

Sonya admitted she felt like the company was finally getting behind her. She had support from the fans, confidence on the mic, and creative momentum:

“I was at the height of my career. I was cutting these promos and I felt so confident finally in my character. I didn’t really have heat at that moment. They kind of got behind me. It was weird… but I had some real support from the fans for the first time. And I didn’t want to lose that.”

After months away, she pitched the GM character—but even that was born out of her own initiative. She walked into Vince’s office with no storyline—just a suit and an idea.

“I said, ‘Sir, what are you thinking? I have a couple ideas.’ And he’s like, ‘What’s your ideas?’ And I was like, ‘Well, it all starts with a suit. I have these really cool suits I got made and I’d love to wear them and maybe turn into some sort of like authoritative character.’… He goes, ‘Where are they?’ And I said, ‘They’re actually in my hotel room.’ He goes, ‘Have someone go get them.’… I go in Vince’s office. He goes, ‘It’s perfect.’”

It was her creativity that got her back on TV—not a long-term creative plan. In hindsight, Sonya believes asking to lose at SummerSlam may have been a mistake:

“If there’s a defining moment I probably could go back and change, it would probably be that. I’m not in control of everything, but I am in control of how I perceive it. So quickly I was like, ‘What does the universe have in store? Cuz it must be amazing.’”

From her pitch to swing from the metaphorical chandelier to being left off TV with no follow-up, Sonya Deville’s SummerSlam story isn’t just about a match—it’s about what could have been one of WWE’s most memorable reinventions that never happened.

Are you surprised WWE never followed through with Sonya’s schizophrenic character pitch after SummerSlam? Should they have handled her return differently? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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