Deville heaped praise onto her fellow members of PFC.
When Sonya Deville returned to WWE television, for multiple weeks, she was shown either directly or indirectly on-camera chatting with Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark. This would lead to the formation of their trio now known as P.F.C. (Pure Fusion Collective).
Deville had been away from WWE TV as she suffered a torn ACL during the summer of 2023. She was Women’s Tag Team Champion at the time. Deville opened about her recovery as she was the focus of episode #153 of WWE – Die Woche.
She said she’s still working on building her in-ring confidence back up. When she finally made her in-ring return, she was nervous. Deville had done practice matches leading up to her television showing but said that does not compare to being in front of a live crowd.
I don’t wish it (ACL injury) upon anyone. It’s a long, treacherous recovery process. You think you’re gonna get the surgery and then a couple months is gonna go by and you’re gonna feel great and it’s just like, it takes a very long time. I was back to lifting and back to working out months into the process but then, I still couldn’t run or sprint or cut. So, to get back into full-blown wrestling shape, it took a long time and you know, I’m still getting my confidence back in the ring and it’s still a forever-evolving process but, all is well. No pain, knock on wood. We’re good. Fingers crossed.
So, I was very nervous (to make my in-ring return). I had done practice matches leading up to (it) at the Performance Center. Obviously, had been training but, there’s nothing like a full adrenaline, live TV match when you come back for being out for 11 months. So I was very nervous but, the second I hit the ring and started, I was like, oh my God, I feel like myself. I feel like everything’s back. I feel 100, I feel good. I definitely thrive with repetition so it’s like, just for your mental and your physical. So I’ve been training a lot outside of TVs so, I think the more reps the better but I was — surprisingly, felt great.
You know, with the ACL. It’s like, yeah, I can workout and I can lift weights but, wrestling’s a totally different beast and so I was like, I just kept hoping, like, ‘I hope my leg cooperates and I hope it does what it needs to do and it doesn’t hurt and it doesn’t deter me from the moves I used to do’ and so all that came back. Knock on wood.
Circling back to Pure Fusion Collective, Deville discussed being part of the group. She expressed her thought that the audiences will grow to appreciate Baszler and Stark as they see the evolution of their respective characters.
So, I think the Pure Fusion Collective is a lot of things. I think for Sonya, it’s really a culmination of everything that she’s honed and learned at her nine years in WWE. She was G.M. for over a year, representing both brands so there was a lot of knowledge, a lot of connections, a lot of things that I acquired along the way that I think could be very useful to talent like Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark. You have Zoey Stark who’s arguably one of the most athletic women currently in the ring. But a bit underrated because I think she’s still newer and she hasn’t got her moment to shine yet. I don’t think the audience truly seen all she has to offer, and so, I saw that from the outside looking in and you have to realize, I sat home for 11 months and watched nothing but wrestling. Watching the landscape of the women’s division evolve, watching everything change and really scouting the girls. I wanted to come back in a meaningful and impactful way. Shayna’s one of the baddest women in the division, if not the baddest. She has a lot of accolades, but, there’s something still untapped about Shayna Baszler too. She’s a monster and she can destroy women physically. I think that one of the attributes that I possess that can help both of these women is I know how to understand the psychology of other women and other members of the division and so I think I can be beneficial to them, helping them navigate the landscape and figuring out how to best utilize their skills.
100 percent (the audience has yet to see the best sides of Stark & Baszler). 100 percent. It’s been so regulated. They’ve seen what they’ve wanted them to see up until this point, but I think there’s going to be an evolution of both of their characters, as long as we get to run with this thing and I think the audience is really going to appreciate the sides that are to come because like you said, Shayna has so many quirky, cool hobbies and — she forges knives. Who forges knives? She rides a one-wheel thing. She’s very creative, she has a lot of hobbies and she’s very funny. I won’t say it too her face but she’s very funny, and Zoey, I always tell Zoey, ‘You’re like the pit bull that I can’t control on the leash’ but, I need to control because she’s got so much natural passion and fire, that if you just let her run wild, God knows what she’ll do but when controlled, she could take over. She just needs a little bit of… fine tuning and disciplining but she has everything in her that it takes to be the top woman in this division… So athletic, so explosive. Arguably moves, like, I wanna say no women have ever moved. She has a uniqueness to her and I’m not just saying this because she’s part of the P.F.C. but, that’s why I chose to be with her, to be aligned with her. It’s really special.
A vignette promoting the group aired on the 9/23 Raw. They were most recently in action on 9/9 and fell in defeat to Lyra Valkyria, Zelina Vega and the returning Natalya.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit WWE – Die Woche with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
