Sonya Deville considering MMA return after WWE departure, discusses 'shock' phone call that delivered the news

Yahoo

03-03-2025

Few professional wrestlers ever truly leave the game behind. That's often the case with MMA too. Daria Berenato — aka WWE's Sonya Deville — can prove the old cliches right on both fronts.
Berenato, 31, parted ways with the WWE in February after a decade-long run with the company. Before jumping into the deep end of the pro-wrestling pool, Berenato aspired to become an MMA champion in the women's flyweight division, even competing three times as an amateur from 2014-15. Now that she's back on the open market as a free agent, Berenato revealed Monday on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show" that a fighting future may still exist for the former WWE superstar.
"I don't know what I want to do yet, and that's the truth," Berenato said. "I have had conversations with people, but nothing decided yet.
"I love wrestling but I love fighting MMA just the same. They're in the same boat right now."
As her Deville character in WWE, Berenato burst onto the pro-wrestling scene in 2015 with her MMA background utilized prominently within her promotional and in-ring work. Over time, she evolved to become a more notable figure in a managerial role alongside Adam Pearce on "WWE SmackDown," which helped to maximize her opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Regarding in-ring accomplishments, Berenato held the WWE Women's Tag Team titles once with current WWE Women's United States Champion Chelsea Green. She holds a 2-1 record over her three-fight amateur MMA career, and had her last fight in 2015 mere months before the WWE offered her a deal.
"The only reason I stopped fighting MMA was because I got the opportunity for WWE," Berenato said. "I was broke and bartending in L.A. and WWE offered me a salary to work out and train, so I was like, 'Oh my God, yeah. I would be stupid to say no.'
"It led me down this path that the last decade was, and fell in love with it, but yeah, my first love was fighting and acting. I was in L.A., so that door's not closed yet either."
Pro-wrestling free agency wasn't expected to be a part of Berenato's 2025 plans. After such a noteworthy career that began with WWE as early as it did, she thought the company would be her home for life.
Ultimately, though, it was nothing personal, Berenato said.
"I was completely under the impression that it was going well and we would sign [a new contract]," Berenato said. "Then I was on a trip with my daughter for a cheerleading competition, and I got a phone call from the powers that be and they were like, 'Hey, we're going to go our separate ways.'
"I was kind of surprised, I'm not going to lie. I was like, 'Is there a reason?' And they were like, 'No, creatively it just hasn't worked out and we're going to go our separate ways.'"
Berenato's final WWE program saw her align with a fellow ex-fighter Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark as the Pure Fusion Collective stable. Unfortunately, a torn ACL suffered in August 2023 hindered the tail-end of Berenato's days as a WWE in-ring performer.
While she figures out which professional path to take next, Berenato is set to star in an upcoming film — the details of which she can't divulge — and launched a new podcast, "Unwrapped," with her wife Toni Cassano. But when it comes to opportunities in the combat sports world, options are on the table.
"Initially, it was shock," Berenato said of her WWE departure. "Like, what the hell? I did not expect that.
"I had feelings over the last year — I tore my ACL and I came back from the injury and I felt rusty. So I wanted to get back to where I was prior to the injury, but that was just a matter of time, in my mind. It wasn't like a 'if,' it was like a 'when.' So I was just trying to get my footing again and dive into this new character and storyline that they had for me.
"I had been there for 10 years, I had great relationships with everybody," she continued. "I really saw us renewing the contract, and then after the shock wore off, I was kind of just like, 'OK, this is the end of a chapter. It's the end of an era.' It was a decade long. I'm so grateful for it. I had so many good times, good memories there. I learned so much. So now it kind of felt like it was meant to be [to leave] and it's time for the next chapter of my life."