WWE: 3 fresh challengers for SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley

Sonya Deville

First up, Sonya Deville has been absolutely firing on all cylinders since the implosion of her friendship with Mandy Rose. Deville has proven herself to be one of the most engaging characters on SmackDown, and demands attention with every word she speaks.

On top of that, as far as I could find, Sonya Deville has never received a single televised opportunity at the SmackDown Women’s Championship. She’s even only had a single live event opportunity, taking on Asuka in a losing effort back in February of 2019 at a house show in Canton, Ohio.

During her tenure on Raw, Sonya Deville received only one televised opportunity at the Raw Women’s Championship as one of the six women inside the structure at Elimination Chamber 2018. To find Sonya Deville’s only televised singles championship opportunity, you’d have to go back to November 29, 2017, when she unsuccessfully challenged Ember Moon for the NXT Women’s Title on a weekly episode of NXT.

Sonya Deville has come a long way since then, and she’s especially progressed and improved just this year alone. On the surface, there’s only one potential flaw in this matchup, but it’s one that can be worked around in WWE’s current environment.

Sonya Deville is, undeniably, a heel. SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley is, also undeniably, a heel. In general, “heel vs. heel” rivalries don’t tend to deliver, but at a time without live crowds, the equation is different.

On top of that, while Bayley is definitely a heel, she’s also one of the most over characters in the entire company right now. Spend two minutes on Twitter, and that’ll become quite clear.

Sonya Deville could provide a very different kind of challenge for Bayley, and an opportunity to grow her character in a new way against someone completely unlike her now perennial rival Mandy Rose.