Sonya Deville on Her WWE Departure & Being Shocked to Learn Her WWE Contract was Not Being Renewed

As noted before, Sonya Deville, real name Daria Berenato, was released from WWE this past February as part of a larger batch of talent releases. Deville’s departure specifically was due to WWE not renewing her contract and letting it expire.

Deville recently released a new video on her Daria & Toni Unwrapped YouTube channel. One of the topics discussed included Deville’s thoughts about how she had been in the middle of negotiations with WWE for a potential new contract when she learned that her contract would not be renewed and her shocked reaction over it.

“As a lot of you guys know, 10 days ago now? I got the call. My contract was not being renewed with the WWE. I was in Washington D.C. for a cheer tournament with our little one. I was actually running on the treadmill, working out with our older one Giovanna and I got a phone call. We were in the middle of negotiations and so I thought the phone call was gonna be… Yeah, middle ground that we met on, an agreement, a contract and it was, ‘We are not renewing your contract.’ So, for complete transparency, which this is really the first time I’m saying this, I was shocked. We (Deville & her wife) were both shocked.

There’s so many different factors. There’s so many things to lead us to the mindsets we were in leading up to the phone call. The fact that I had been there for 10 years. The fact that I had a great relationship with almost everybody from backstage to talent to across the board and everyone was like family. I mean, you work somewhere for 10 years consecutively, you become like a family so, it was unexpected. Nonetheless, in typical Daria fashion, the first thing I did was (spring right back into action).”

Deville also gave her thoughts about her 10-year wrestling career in WWE and being grateful for the time she spent in the company.

“First and foremost, I had the greatest 10 years of my life. So grateful… The stories, on the road, the traveling, the wrestling, the performing. I lived out dreams that I could have never imagined. I did imagine them. I think I manifested them as a child but never could have even dreamt something so incredible. So grateful to the WWE and at the end of the day, it’s a business and I think business-minded, and so for whatever the reason is and I don’t know the reason and I could sit here and try to come up with one or guess or be like, oh, it was definitely that or it’s because I said that or did that but, you (Deville’s wife) know better than anyone, I put 150 percent effort the entire 10 years. But most importantly, the last three. I went down to the Performance Center on my own time, moved there to train for two months to get the rust off.

110 percent. We did everything and it was such a feeling of like, when I got the call, he said the words… it was shock at first. It was like, woah! But then it was almost instantaneously, my trust in the universe allowed me to just be at peace with it instantly. Because you can’t fight fate. That chapter was meant to close and all these new, beautiful blessings were meant to come and we’ll talk about it in a minute but, just the way things happened, is there anything more serendipitous? It happened for a reason, so how could you be mad at that? How could you be upset or frustrated or even wonder what if? Life’s too short, I have so many dreams. So many things I wanna do and I still love everybody there and I have a great… my memory from that place is nothing but positive and I wanna keep it that way. But also, I respect that the universe is like, that chapter’s closed. Right now, forever, whatever. It doesn’t matter but like, on to the next, let’s go. I have two kids and a wife to take care of. We have a family. We gotta keep going, and so, I think that just allowed me to have instant peace. It was like, it’s all good.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com