Sonya Deville

“I think no matter what your job title or role in life is, it's important to just take pride in what you do and do it well.”

“My first time being inside the Performance Center was for the WWE Tough Enough tryouts, and although I knew hardly anything about sports-entertainment, I knew I wanted to be a part of this place.”

“In sports, you deal with disappointment often, but it's how you handle it and come back from it that shapes you. All these lessons are transferable to life and have really helped me with the adversities I've had to deal with in life.”

“Acting is my love.”

“I love Daniel Bryan. He's such a sweetheart.”

“From a very early age, I realized why I was put on this planet: to fight.”

“I'm a very passionate person. I'm Italian, it's in my blood so when I care about something, I get emotional.”

“I grew up riding quads, shooting guns and playing sports.”

“My friend's mom said to me, 'honey, I think you're gay.' And I go, 'yeah, I am.' As soon as someone vocalized it to me, gave me permission. I was like, 'yes, yes, yeah!'”

“Being a part of the LGBTQ community myself, it's another passion of mine to let my fan base know that I represent another demographic in the WWE.”

“With any minority group, it takes a strong presence in the public eye to make a change because everything nowadays is social media.”

“As much as we don't like to admit it sometimes, we are the influencers.”

“It's not a good feeling to hide a huge part of your life. If you were meant to be somebody else, you'd be somebody else, so don't change who you are.”

“I live for the pressure, I live for the moments when I'm deep in the match, out of breath, hurt and feel like throwing up. It's in those moments that I push through, I keep punching, I keep going forward, because no matter what, I will never stop.”

“My life is amazing. I get paid to hurt people.”

“Don't be afraid. Don't be ashamed. Don't ever apologize for your sexuality. Just be you.”

“You can be happy with work, you can be happy in other facets of life, but if you're not happy in your personal life, and you're not loving open and honestly, it sucks.”

“I don't want it to be Sonya Deville, the gay wrestler. I want it to be Sonya Deville, the awesome performer who happens to be gay.”

“I've never dealt with really anything negative in the WWE as a whole, in the locker room, anything.”

“Even prior to WWE, when I was bartending and training MMA, I always had a sense of fulfillment because although not my dream job, I took pride in being the best bartender I could be.”