WWE's Sonya Deville started out her career in mixed martial arts, but made her way into wrestling when she took part in season 6 of "WWE Tough Enough" and became one of the thirteen finalists for that season. During an interview with "FOX 5 New York," Deville looked back at her early efforts to get signed by WWE, and her elimination from "Tough Enough."

"I ended up trying out for the reality show, 'Tough Enough,' I got on that, soon after got eliminated, I was heartbroken because I had fallen in love with the WWE," she recalled. Deville then explained that she was forced to go back to bartending, but at this point the wrestling bug bit her and she couldn't let it go. "I always wanted to perform, I'm an athlete, I want to be an athlete, and I want to be in the WWE and so I just hounded them for weeks and months until they were like 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."

Before her tryout, Deville lived in LA and was a bartender while hosting a UFC podcast for Keven Undergaro and Maria Menounos, who suggested that she look to WWE after her MMA career came to an end. "I didn't know much about WWE besides like watching a few episodes of 'Total Divas' with my mom." Deville noted that she thought being able to do backflips was a requirement, and didn't think it would be a fit, but then she found out about "Tough Enough" and WWE's pivot to legitimize the women's division.