Felix Upton on April 30, 2023
WWE has a lot of things going on, and sometimes a storyline doesn’t play out as it is originally pitched. It seems that one angle with Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville might have been planned, but it did not play out as they intended it to.
WWE is trying to gain representation in the LGBTQ community, and they had one WrestleMania moment in the works to really kick that into high gear. This moment did not happen, but Mandy Rose remembers the pitch very well.
Mandy Rose recently spoke to Jeremy Lambert & Joel Pearl on In The Weeds. During that conversation, she revealed original plans that WWE had to her to win the Women’s Title. This big moment would have also seen her and Sonya Deville kissing in the middle of the ring in celebration.
“On TV, the Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville storyline. That was supposed to culminate in a romance between Sonya and Mandy at WrestleMania 35 where it was a triple threat for the SmackDown Women’s Championship and Mandy was going to win because Sonya would lay down for her and they would embrace and kiss in the middle of the ring. I said, ‘Oh boy.’ If you’re going to do this, I understand why it could be great because it’s a representation and it’s necessary.”
“To WWE’s credit, they went to GLAAD. Stephanie McMahon was on the phone with them. ‘Can we do this? Can we make this palatable and sensitive to the situation with queer people in America? Can we make this a good angle?’ The thing that I said was, ‘At WrestleMania, 60,000 people are going to be rooting for Asuka, and they’re supposed to be the babyfaces? They’re going to be booed out of the building and you’re going to have two women kissing in the middle of the ring and people booing because they love Asuka so much.’ People do love Asuka and every time WWE thinks they can beat her and ‘who cares,’ they forget people have a positive, intense relationship with her, even when they try to make her a heel, they root for her. Eventually, that storyline didn’t get done because they decided to put the belt on Charlotte.”
“It could have turned out poorly even though the best intentions were there, and they did want to make a good storyline and Sonya and Mandy were involved and they were excited about doing it. At the end of the day, you have to do it right, and that would have been the wrong way to do it because you’re beating a babyface who people love, at WrestleMania, when there is so much complaint around how Asuka is losing.”
Vince McMahon is known to change plans, and sometimes that means really cool moments hit the cutting room floor. A lot of fans noticed that WWE seemingly dropped Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville’s storyline, and it turns out that is exactly what happened.
Mandy Rose was released in recent memory when her NSFW content behind her paywall got to be too hot to handle for WWE. On the other hand, Sonya Deville is still going strong in WWE, and she is currently teamed up with Chelsea Green.
Do you think Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green could pull off that scrapped romantic angle? What’s your take on LGBTQ storylines? Sound off in the comments!
April 30, 2023 3:32 pm
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