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Sonya Deville Weighs in On Lana & Liv Morgan Storyline, LGBTQ Representation on WWE TV

January 14, 2020 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Sonya Deville Pride Image Credit: WWE

– Sonya Deville discussed the Lana and Liv Morgan LGBTQ angle from the December 30th episode of Raw in a new interview with Bleacher Report. Deville is of course the first openly lesbian member of the WWE roster and weighed in on how that storyline might affect the angle she and Mandy Rose pitched to WWE last year. Highlights are below:

On the Liv Morgan and Lana storyline: “I mean, at the end of the day, we work for a sports-entertainment company, and the segment was very entertaining. That’s not to say Mandy and I don’t get our storyline in the future. You know, there’s room for plenty of LGBTQ storylines.”

On what has to change to provide a more inclusive product: “I’ve been working hard over the past two-and-a-half years since I’ve been on Raw and SmackDown with executives and GLAAD and organizations in trying to do exactly that. I think it’s very important to have representation of every human there is, right? Just like you would see on a TV show or a movie in Hollywood. That’s something that’s personally important to me and the company as a whole. There’s definitely talks going on about more representation in the years to come. I’ll definitely make it my personal duty and passion to help pursue those.”

On being in Total Divas: “Yeah, when I got the call for Divas, I was immediately excited, but I was like, ‘Oh, God.’ It’s a certain level of confidence and balls to put yourself out there. You’re not putting a character out there—you’re putting your real personality out there. But I just have to say, I didn’t think twice about it. This was definitely something I wanted to do. I think one of the most important things in WWE is to relate to your fans. They want to know who you are, what you stand for, what your voice is. So, if you don’t get that across in the ring, Total Divas is this new opportunity to do that, to relate to them. I was like, ‘Hell yeah, let’s do this!’ You know, when you’re first filming, it’s nerve-wracking to let that wall down and really let them in, but I think with any successful reality show, I think the most successful people on them are the ones that are most honest. So, I kept that in mind, and I feel like I was able to kind of relax a couple of episodes in. It was a great opportunity, and I’d really like to do it again.”