Pros and cons of Sonya Deville facing Bianca Belair

More than a week removed from winning the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 38 in an instant classic against Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair found out who would challenge her next for the title. Surprisingly — though it got less surprising as the angle that set up the opponent went along — this challenger turned out to be WWE official Sonya Deville.

Moments after defeating Queen Zelina on the April 11 episode of WWE Raw, Deville walked to the ring — open contract for a title match in hand — and teased a number of potential opponents for Belair before chop blocking the champion and naming herself the number one contender.

This title shot for Deville, which will likely come at WrestleMania Backlash in May, represents the culmination of her heel authority figure story arc while also continuing a… let’s go with “curious” trend of her character antagonizing Black women on the WWE roster (to be clear, this is an observation of how WWE has booked the character, not Deville’s real-life inclinations).

Positioning Sonya Deville as Bianca Belair’s next challenger is far from the worst decision, but there are some issues that could derail this program. So, let’s discuss the potential pros and cons of this feud.

Pro: It gives Belair a fresh opponent, an intriguing in-ring dance partner, and a heel for fans to rally against.

As the new Raw Women’s Champion, Belair finds herself lacking viable opponents. Becky Lynch hasn’t appeared on TV since losing to “The EST at WrestleMania, and WWE shouldn’t be in a rush to book that rematch. Zelina — reportedly listed as the second-highest ranking heel on Raw — just lost clean to Belair in a glorified enhancement match.

The number three heel, Carmella, is away on her honeymoon and WWE didn’t exactly build her up as a world-beater before her sabbatical. Nikki A.S.H.’s pursuit of the 24/7 Championship speaks for itself (same with Tamina). Alexa Bliss could be an option down the road, but her supposed status as the number two female babyface on Raw (and a popular one despite her terrible gimmick) might make WWE hesitant to match her up with Belair lest they risk dividing the crowd.

Add in Bayley and Asuka’s respective absences and you see how the company got to this point. Maybe Rhea Ripley turning heel and joining Edge’s weird stable that already feels too much like the Alliance of Magicians from Arrested Development will help, but WWE should also save that showdown for a show bigger than its “let’s exploit these SEO scraps from WrestleMania” B-PPV.

With (somewhat self-inflicted) roster limitations such as these, it’s not that surprising that WWE turned to a scarcely-active heel authority figure to be Belair’s next main adversary, and it might work out for the promotion.

In Deville, Belair has an opponent that she has yet to face (at least on the main roster) and the mystery surrounding what a match between these two would look like should intrigue plenty of fans.

This match also gives Belair a chance to face a heel that doesn’t have to work twice as hard as other heels to get booed. When Belair feuded with Lynch, the audience’s refusal to jeer “Big Time Becks” ran counter to Lynch’s constant promos decrying the fans for turning on her, and if Belair wasn’t as likable as she is, that story would’ve collapsed under the weak foundation WWE erected for it.

Belair won’t have those concerns when facing Deville, who often receives loud boos whenever she gets a reaction from the crowd. When Deville wrestles Belair, neither will have to worry about split fan responses, allowing fans to unabashedly support Belair when she inevitably beats Deville.

Those factors could help this become a fun one-off program between two talented ladies…if WWE doesn’t get in its own way.

Con: HEEEEAAAAAAT via heel GM tropes

Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with putting some heat on Deville in preparation for this match with Belair. In fact, it’s necessary if WWE wants fans to buy into the idea of Deville having a chance to beat Belair or, at the very least, to make Belair vanquishing Deville all the more cathartic.

However, the temptation to use as many heel authority figure tropes to build animus for Deville might be too much for WWE to resist. This could force fans to endure pretty much all the things we saw when Deville feuded with Naomi: handicap matches, matches where Deville is a crooked ref, reversed decisions on wins for Belair, and other convoluted tropes that force Belair to “overcome the odds”.

With Deville noting how she can do whatever she wants as a WWE official on this past Monday’s Raw, there is hope that her powers as GM will be curtailed (or Adam Pearce acts as a check and balance), but given that finding other ways to heat up Deville would require some creativity, we’ll probably see the same old stuff.

If WWE hadn’t relied so much on the heel authority figure trope for nearly 25 years, the idea of Deville abusing her power to gain an edge over Belair would be more interesting. But due to that overuse, the story thread has become a burden that threatens to undermine a feud awash with potential.

So…what does this mean for this feud

Optimism and/or pessimism aside, we won’t know how this will play out until the program unfolds on TV. It’s WWE, which means this feud could either exceed expectations and fill the airwaves with some fun angles or it could, unfortunately, give fans a migraine before WrestleMania Backlash (or whenever WWE books this match).

We do know, however, that Belair and Deville are talented individuals and they will do everything they can to ensure this succeeds. The rest is up to WWE.