Daria Rae Had Talks With TNA President Carlos Silva Right After WWE Exit: “That Wasn’t The Time For Me”

Rae said it was not the right time for her to join the promotion.

One of the newer additions to TNA Wrestling is Daria Rae, the former Sonya Deville. She is serving as an authority figure opposite the Director of Authority, Santino Marella.

Rae is making the media rounds after joining the promotion, and one of her stops was a chat with Metro. She told the outlet that after her contract with WWE was not renewed in 2025, she had talks with TNA President Carlos Silva.

Rae said it was not the right time for them to move forward, but they reconnected the day before TNA announced their deal with AMC.

“I had had conversations with Carlos (Silva) from TNA as soon as I left WWE, and that wasn’t the time for me, and I didn’t know if it would ever be to be honest, and then it just felt right. So I shot him a text, and it happened to be the day before they announced the AMC TV deal. So he’s like, ‘Did you know?’ And I was like, ‘No, I had no idea, but that’s great news,’ and so we went back and forth and made it happen, and it ended up being, I think, perfect timing.”

Rae spoke about the on-screen dynamic between herself and Santino Marella. She said she’s been watching him for a while and always thought she’d like to be his antagonist.

“He understands what people want, but also he just genuinely has that likeable factor. I think I genuinely have the unlikable factor. So it worked perfectly, like a match made in heaven.

I was like, ‘Oh, I would love to kind of come in there and dim his light,’ just because he’s so funny. His comedic timing is impeccable. He’s so beloved by the fans, as he should be.”

Rae interjected herself in a decision Marella made regarding the main event of the Genesis pay-per-view. She added Nic Nemeth as the special guest referee for Mike Santana and Frankie Kazarian’s Texas Deathmatch for the TNA World Championship.