WWE Rumors on Sonya Deville's Return, Giulia's Injury; Nixed Vince McMahon WM 24 Idea

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

---

Deville's Return Reportedly Surprised Some in WWE

Sonya Deville has been out of action since July 2023 due to a knee injury, but she made her surprise return to WWE programming on Monday night's episode of Raw.

According to Fightful Select (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), several sources didn't expect Deville to return until mid-summer, and they were "pleasantly surprised" to see her.

Deville and Chelsea Green beat Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships on the June 17 episode of Raw, but less than two weeks after the biggest win of her career, Sonya suffered a significant knee injury in a tag team loss to Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair.

That landed her on the shelf and prompted WWE to replace her with Piper Niven as Green's tag team partner.

Deville has been out of the spotlight since then, but she made an unannounced return on Raw when she engaged in a conversation with Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark backstage.

Baszler and Stark essentially blew her off, but after they beat Kayden Carter and Katana Chance, Ivy Nile and Maxxine Dupri and Damage CTRL in a Fatal 4-Way tag team match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship No. 1 contendership, they were seen talking to Deville again in the background of another backstage segment.

That would seem to suggest that the wheels are in motion for a stable comprised of Deville, Baszler and Stark, but it may take some convincing on Sonya's part from a storyline perspective.

---

WWE Reportedly Hopeful Giulia Will Be Cleared for NXT Heatwave

Incoming WWE signee Giulia suffered an injury during a recent match, but WWE reportedly still hopes she will be cleared in time for her first planned match with the company.

According to Fightful Select (h/t Steve Carrier of Ringside News), WWE is hopeful that Giulia will be able to compete at the July 7 NXT Heatwave premium live event in Toronto.

Fightful noted that WWE is targeting a match between Giulia and NXT women's champion Roxanne Perez for that show, meaning Giulia could conceivably win a title in her first match with the company.

Marigold, which is a new promotion founded by Stardom founder Rossy Ogawa, announced Tuesday that Giulia fractured her right wrist during a match on Monday.

Per Fightful, the expectation is that Giulia will be allowed to continue working with Marigold moving forward, even after she makes her WWE debut.

Of course, her injury highlights the pitfalls of allowing performers to work for multiple companies, as it could end up costing WWE a huge match it has in the works.

However, regardless of whether she is able to wrestle at Heatwave or not, WWE seemingly has big plans for Giulia and will give her a significant push once she debuts.

---

Vince McMahon Was Planned for Match at WrestleMania 24

Longtime former WWE CEO, chairman and head of creative Vince McMahon had only a behind-the-scenes presence at WrestleMania 24, but there were apparently originally plans for him to wrestle on the show.

During an appearance this week on Insight with Chris Van Vliet (h/t Mukherjee), former WWE Superstar Hornswoggle divulged that he heard McMahon vs. Finlay was in the cards for WrestleMania 24 before Vince replaced himself with JBL instead:

"I had that entrance and I just saw faces. And we had the whole thing with Bradshaw in that match. And it was such an awesome story, I come to find out years later it was supposed to be Finlay and Vince at that WrestleMania. Not only that, but they were going to try to make it for a WWE title. I was like, man, if it was against Vince, the JBL match was enormous, build to it and everything. If it was against Vince, can you imagine how much of that build would have been like at that time? Yeah."

In the months prior to WrestleMania 24, it was revealed in as storyline that Hornswoggle was the illegitimate son of McMahon.

McMahon made life miserable for Hornswoggle by putting him in unfair matches, which led to Finlay stepping up and protecting him.

That eventually led to a steel cage match between Hornswoggle and McMahon, and when Finlay attempted to get involved, JBL handcuffed him to the ropes and made him watch as he assaulted Hornswoggle.

That was the impetus behind Finlay vs. JBL, which ended up being the opening match at WrestleMania 24 and saw JBL win.

While it was a solid match that was in an important spot on the WrestleMania 24 card, involving McMahon in the match undoubtedly would have made it a far bigger deal and of greater interest to the fans.

---

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below.