Line #38 Wrestling/SonyaDeville


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sonya_pro.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:''Put your hair up and square up.'']]
3
4	Daria Rae Berenato (born September 24, 1993) is an American {{professional wrestl\|ing}}er and UsefulNotes/{{mixed martial art\|s}}ist. She is signed to Wrestling/{{WWE}}, performing on the [[Wrestling/WWESmackDown SmackDown]] brand under the ring name Sonya Deville.
5
6	Berenato was a contestant in the 2015 season of ''Wrestling/WWEToughEnough'', being eliminated third. In October 2015, she signed a contract with WWE and was assigned to their developmental brand [[Wrestling/{{WWENXT}} NXT]] to begin her training. Initially competing under her real name, she usually came up short; however, after re-debuting under the new ring name Sonya Deville, she would begin a winning streak and enter a feud with Wrestling/{{Ruby Riot\|t}}.
7
8	Deville would make her WWE main roster debut on November 2017 alongside Wrestling/MandyRose as the new associates of Wrestling/{{Paige}}, with the trio's name being revealed as Absolution. In April 2018, Paige retired from in-ring competition due to neck injuries, dissolving Absolution, but Deville would continue her alliance with Rose as the two remained a tag team.
9
10	After eventually splitting up with and feuding against Rose, Deville lost a [[LoserLeavesTown "Loser Leaves WWE"]] match to her at ''Wrestling/SummerSlam 2020'' and took time off from wrestling to deal with personal issues. When she returned at the start of 2021, she became an on-screen authority figure alongside Adam Pearce, trading her ring gear for [[LadyInAPowerSuit a sharp suit]]. While initially seeming neutral, she quickly established herself as a heel through petty abuses of power against female competitors such as Wrestling/{{Naomi\|Wrestler}} and Bianca Belair, stacking the deck via her official powers to achieve in-ring success with minimal effort. Due to her actions, Pearce terminated her role as a WWE official on the May 9, 2022 edition of ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw Raw]]''.
11
12	Deville continues to compete on ''Raw'' as an in-ring competitor; she is currently on hiatus due to a torn ACL. On July 17, 2023, she won the Women's Tag Team Championship titles alongside Chelsea Green, the first championship of her career.
13	----
14	!!Put your tropes up and square up:
15	* AlliterativeName: She tried for a while to get "'''D'''addy '''D'''eville" to catch on as a nickname for her, but it didn't quite do so (although she still uses it on social media).
16	* AmbiguouslyGay: Zig-zagged -- as in, Sonya being gay is not ambiguous at all, but it's occasionally been implied (though not openly stated) that she has romantic feelings for her friend Mandy Rose. She voluntarily gave up her spot in a ''Wrestling/MoneyInTheBank'' for Mandy's benefit, said she'd sooner eliminate herself in the Wrestling/RoyalRumble than fight Mandy for a Wrestling/WrestleMania title opportunity and for a time, she and Mandy would enter the ring and/or celebrate by holding and caressing each other in intimate ways.[[note]]Apparently Sonya and Mandy pitched a potential lesbian story to WWE creative, but creative were leery of such a controversial angle (now that they can't just play it for GirlOnGirlIsHot points like they could in the Attitude or Ruthless Aggression eras) and rejected it. Sonya's opinion on the subsequent Liv Morgan/Lana lesbian angle (played for cheap heat) at the end of 2019 was not recorded.[[/note]]
17	* BloodKnight: Agrees to join Peyton Royce and Billie Key against Ember Moon, Liv Morgan, and Aliyah since it means she gets a chance to beat people up. Naturally, she's the one who ate the pinfall.
18	* BraidsOfAction: Typically has her hair in either this, a TomboyishPonytail, or a combo of the two, which goes with her professional MMA fighter gimmick.
19	* {{Catchphrase}}: "Put your hair up and square up."
20	* CowardlyBoss: Since becoming a WWE Official, she's shown shades of this in her feud with Naomi, relying on dirty tactics such as ordering the bell rung at the first opportunity in matches or getting Wrestling/ShaynaBaszler to wrestle as her proxy (in matches with heavily unfair stipulations), seemingly going out of her way to avoid actually facing Naomi in the ring herself. During the 2022 Royal Rumble, she sat at ringside until the number of competitors became small enough, and then, after being eliminated, waited until Naomi was knocked to the outside of the ring apron before grabbing her feet and pulling her to the floor.
21	* DressedLikeADominatrix: Sonya's new in-ring gear in 2021 is basically an incredibly dark version of this trope.
22	* {{Foil}}:
23	** To Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon. In 2021, she returned as an on-screen authority figure wearing business attire, much like some other women before her, most notably Stephanie. Initially, Sonya wasn't particularly heelish and could come across as a ReasonableAuthorityFigure (similar to Stephanie's run as General Manager back in the early 2000's). However, she has since become more [[FaceHeelTurn of a heel]], particularly in her feud with Naomi, much like how Stephanie would become a more detestable heel character as the years of her on-screen career progressed. The difference, of course, being that Sonya was and still is officially an actual wrestling talent, while Stephanie, despite having decent enough ability for someone in her position, was never actually an official wrestler as such. It's also worth noting that both women, during their time as authority figures, when making their long awaited return to in-ring action, opted for dark coloured dominatrix style attires (Stephanie at ''[=SummerSlam=] 2014'' and Sonya against Naomi on an episode of ''[=SmackDown=]''), further reflecting the similarity between their characters.
24	** To Becky Lynch. Sometime after Becky began referring to herself as "The Man", Sonya also began calling herself "Daddy Deville" as a response. However, while Becky has [[TomboynessUpgrade adopted a more masculine personality and wardrobe over time]], Sonya has gone in the opposite direction (see GirlinessUpgrade below). Despite her intentions to copy Becky's tomboyish gimmick, Sonya's character has ironically become increasingly feminine in recent years.
25	* GirlinessUpgrade:
26	** Downplayed. She still has an overall tomboy look (some of her out-of-the-ring wear would make Wrestling/{{Raven}} proud), but after her main roster debut she seemed to progressively ditch her BraidsOfAction and TomboyishPonytail hairstyles in favor of conventionally femenine straight hair, making her lean more towards TomboyWithAGirlyStreak. Just compare [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sonya_deville.png before]] and [[https://i.redd.it/w42wcu6zne931.jpg after]].
27	** She's had another one of these yet again in late 2021. After having spent most of that year taking a turn towards an androgynous look by wearing business attire, her new ring attire as of her return to in-ring action is essentially [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sonya_dominatrix.jpg a dominatrix costume]], complete with a shiny black all body suit, copious amounts of eyeshadow, lipstick, and nail polish. Her status as an in-ring wrestler and tough ex-MMA fighter has also been downplayed in favour of making her a devious and somewhat cowardly authority figure, constantly hiding behind other muscle to help her in her feud with Naomi. At this point, she leans more towards dark feminine than tomboy.
28	* TheGlovesComeOff: When she has an opponent on the ropes or gets pissed, she takes off her gloves and unloads punches.
29	* GreenEyedMonster: How she was overshadowed by Mandy. [[spoiler:She secretly allied with Dolph Ziggler to keep Otis away from Mandy, and she would manipulate her in the early 2020.]] She tries to apologize to her former friend, [[BackhandedApology only to call her a selfish human being]]. She would later rants on her that she has no talent. Desperate enough, she vows to ruin Mandy's life.
30	* IKnowKarate: She's a trained MMA fighter.
31	* IncompatibleOrientation: Part of Wrestling/{{EC3}}'s (ultimately ill-fated) WWE main roster run had him trying to hit on Deville and Mandy Rose, telling them that he was a hot commodity while also complimenting them by telling them that they must know what "hot" is. While it was quite on point to try his luck with Mandy, who has a seductress gimmick, [=EC3=] was also directing this at Sonya (he turns to her in particular when he says "hot"), despite at this point being well-established that Sonya was a lesbian.
32	* InformedAbility: The commentators play up the fact that she was previously a MMA fighter. Although she does have some respectable training and it shows on her wrestling matches, the company tries its best to not bring up Sonya's actual fight record, which is 2-1 (still a winning record, but hardly Creator/RondaRousey).
33	* KickedUpstairs: At least in storyline. Ever since the incidents that triggered her 2020 hiatus, she made her onscreen return as an official[=/=]GM-in-all-but-name and hasn't stepped in the ring to compete since.
34	* LadyInAPowerSuit: In 2019 and 2020, she presented a look consisting of an all-black suit, which won the Internet's approval instantaneously. She has since mixed up the colors every now and again, but this has become her normal look on WWE programming.
35	* LightFeminineDarkFeminine: Following yet another GirlinessUpgrade in 2021, Sonya is now the all black wearing dominatrix/shady business lady dark feminine to Naomi's bright-coloured light feminine in their feud, fittingly with Naomi as the underdog babyface against Sonya's authority figure.
36	* PaperTiger: Her first few appearances on NXT TV had her being defeated rather easily despite her MMA background. Averted once she took a hiatus, changed her name and came back, becoming a full-on WrestlingMonster.
37	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: She has one to her former best friend Mandy Rose on April 18, 2020 of [=SmackDown=], as she grown tired of her stealing the spotlight:
38	--> '''Deville:''' You might be pretty, but you're nothing but a dime's a dozen bottled blonde who looks like she was created in some sort of lab. Do you know what it feels like to work, and work, and work five long years of my life? Wasted, trying to be second best to what some eye candy that's absolutely '''NO''' talent! You have no talent!
39	* {{Revenge}}: After Peyton and Billie abandoned her in their match against Ember, Liv, and Aliyah, she attempted to get even with a match against Billie, but Peyton interfered and Daria lost.
40	* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Sonya (the tough MMA fighter) is the tomboy to pretty blonde Mandy Rose's girly girl.
41	** Sonya Deville (girly girl) and Becky Lynch (tomboy). Despite her efforts to copy Becky's "The Man" persona with her "Daddy Deville" nickname on social media, Sonya has actually had somewhat of a GirlinessUpgrade over time, opting for more feminine outfits than she used to wear and having her status as a tough fighter be downplayed, in contrast to Becky's TomboynessUpgrade.
42	* TomboyishPonytail: Typically has her hair in either this, BraidsOfAction, or a combo of the two, which goes with her professional MMA fighter gimmick.
43	* TooDumbToLive: Not really smart to say "a single person in that locker room that's gonna make her get out of this ring." Not when you have Creator/RondaRousey.
44	* WeUsedToBeFriends: With Mandy Rose.

Context Wrestling / SonyaDeville