Sonya Deville Among WWE Releases

WWE has released several roster members including Cedrick Alexander, Isla Dawn, and Pure Fusion Collective’s Sonya Deville.

The announcement of the releases came during Friday night’s WWE SmackDown. Fightful Select was the first to confirm several of the releases, stating the affected wrestlers were contacted around the start of SmackDown.

WWE Releases Sonya Deville and several others

The first crop included Deville, Alexander, NXT call-up Blair Davenport, and Final Testament’s Akam, Rezar, and Paul Ellering. This morning another wave began, including former Women’s Tag Team Champion Isla Dawn (no mention of her tag team partner Alba Fyre), Giovanni Vinci, and The Good Brothers. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows returned to WWE in 2022 and reunited with AJ Styles.

They eventually moved to the NXT brand but haven’t wrestled since October. Much of that is due to injury as Anderson is recovering from a torn labrum and rotator cuff. Styles was injured as well but made his return in the Rumble. Additionally, Michin has been getting a huge push in the women’s division. Davenport never got a fair shake when she was moved to the main roster.

She aligned with The Unholy Union and had a few singles matches, but nothing really substantial for her. Vinci was experiencing a bit of the same issue. When Imperium split, Ludwig Kaiser quickly got over with the fans. Vinci hasn’t wrestled a televised match since last September.

Out of all, Deville’s release came to be the most shocking. She was just in the women’s Royal Rumble with the rest of her stablemates, which now doesn’t appear to bode well for Shayna Baszler or Zoey Stark.

Fightful Select confirmed that Deville’s contract is ending soon, so she won’t have to worry about the 90-day clause WWE has in place. Typically, wrestlers are expected to wait a period before appearing elsewhere. In that case, perhaps the split was amicable and she wants to do more.

VICE will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates if they arise.