‘Total Divas’ Season 9, Episode 7: “I Will Prevail”
Remember in last week’s Total Divas when Ronda Rousey talked about her interest in survivalism and doomsday prepping? Well, this week’s episode opened with her and Travis checking out The Underground House in Las Vegas, a 15,000 square feet bunker that was built in 1978. Yup.
That wasn’t the focus of the episode though, as, at this point, it was one week until WrestleMania in New York City. One week until Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair became the first women ever to main event WrestleMania.
As for the other women on the roster, Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose (the team also known as “Fire & Desire”) were stoked because they got the green light for their pitch to have the first-ever LGBTQ+ storyline in WWE history. A real LGBTQ+ storyline, not a joke or something supposedly titillating. So, the opposite of Billy & Chuck, Mickie James’ obsession with Trish Stratus (as iconic as it was), Eric Bischoff’s promise of “HLA” (you probably don’t want to look this up if you don’t remember it), or the Torrie Wilson/Dawn Marie/Al Wilson storyline (you probably don’t want to look this up if you don’t remember it). Sonya joked that “half the fans already think that we’re dating,” so they might as well give them what they want. (Sonya’s girlfriend wasn’t happy about the idea of Sonya acting though.)
Sonya knocked on wood when doing her talking head about the storyline, which unfortunately ended up having the opposite effect. Because if you’re reading this now, you might be aware that this storyline still hasn’t happened. Based on context clues from this episode, it was clearly tied to Sonya having a singles match against Asuka. That match, however, got cut from WrestleMania—despite how long WrestleMania 35 was, according to Natalya in this episode, it was on a time crunch—and it was then also too late to add Sonya and Mandy to the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match. (All three women ended up in the annual women’s battle royal.)
After the match and story were scrapped, Sonya got very frustrated over the idea that she was letting fans—especially those in the LGBTQ+ community—down. Especially after all the praise she got at WrestleMania Axxess. But she made clear she wasn’t going to give up and would be talking to WWE producers constantly to make sure the story eventually happens. Only time will tell.
Meanwhile, Nia Jax learned that her left ACL had also ruptured. (She still eventually got the green light to compete at WrestleMania, before having to get the necessary surgeries.) Playing back her behavior on this season of Total Divas in her mind, she’d realized that her attitude toward everyone was her lashing out because of her physical pain. So she decided to mend fences and give Carmella a heartfelt apology for the way she’d treated her in the beginning of the season.
And Natalya—who’d finally got the confirmation that she’d be competing at WrestleMania, with her best friend, WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix—had the great idea to scatter her father’s ashes in New York. After all, he was posthumously being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, and he’d had so many special career moments in that city.
But Ronda had something else on her mind besides the main event of WrestleMania: a decision. And eventually, she told Natalya about that decision. Ronda started off by telling Natalya that she didn’t plan to love WWE and wrestling so much, that she didn’t even think she’d be able to carry a division like she had (and to wrestle without just being a special attraction). Ronda kept extending her contract because she was having so much fun, but she admittedly kind of put her family on the backburner because of that. As she said in her talking head:
“I thought I was done falling in love, you know? I fell in love with my husband, I fell in love with my family, and i didnt think I had any room in my heart to fall in love with an industry. And with the whole WWE family.”
Then Ronda added that she has “the most amazing homelife ever” and needs to maintain that life now too, not just her “WWE family” life. So she told Natalya that she’s going to start trying to have a baby with Travis, after doing everything she could to bring the spotlight to WWE women’s division. Natalya called it “bittersweet,” and Ronda worried that she might be losing everything she worked for… and then in a talking head, Natalya wondered about the future of the division with three small words:
“What the f**k?”