Steph De Lander On Pure Rules Matches: It’s Not About What You Do, It’s About What The Referee Sees
Steph De Lander is gaming the system.
There’s always a couple of wrestlers that will try to work their way around the rules and stipulations of a Pure Rules match. Names like Silas Young and Wheeler Yuta were very successful with this strategy, which has only inspired the current generation to apply the same tactics.
Speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp for a new interview, Steph De Lander talked about using everything to her advantage when it comes to a Pure Rules match.
“I was like, ‘What are the rules? Tell me. Someone tell me what’s going on.’ I’m like, Someone tell me what’s happening.’ Three rope breaks, you can only do one punch. Okay, sick. I can only do one punch that the referee can see. Okay, I’ve been in this shit long enough. I worked with Matt Cardona enough. I’ve done my research. It’s not about what you do. It’s about what the referee sees. So if anything, I really love Pure Rules because with wrestling I feel like everything is a tool to be used. From the ring steps to the turnbuckles to the ropes to the referee to a manager to the crowd, the Titantron, my elbow pad—every single element of what we’re doing is a tool that you can use and I think a lot of wrestlers forget that sometimes or don’t do that. Where I try to always think like, ‘Alright, what have I got here that I can use for this to make this as unique and interesting as possible and the Pure Rules is another way to make things unique and different of, ‘Shit, okay, so how am I gonna punch her twice?’ or ‘What am I gonna do when I’ve used all three rope breaks?’ or ‘Do I have to learn a submission? I don’t do submissions.’ It’s a very interesting dynamic, and especially for someone who’s kind of a kick, punch, brawl wrestler, I don’t think anyone imagined SDL in a Pure Rules storyline. But again, I always look at things of like, ‘How do I do it differently to everyone else?’ That’s what I’m trying to do right now. I think so far it’s come off really, really interesting.”
As it turns out, SDL welcomes the challenges that come with a Pure Rules contest.
“Yeah, even instantly I was like, ‘This is cool, ’cause I like the challenge.’ I like to have restrictions in a way
of like having to use my wrestling brain more than just like, ‘What are moves that I like to do?’ But I like
to be like, ‘Okay, so if I have three rope breaks, if I want to use all of them where can I put them in the
match?’ or ‘What’s the way that I can build towards one of them that’s going to create the biggest amount
of drama possible?’ or, as I said, maybe there’s a day that SDL learns more technical wrestling. Probably
not, but I’m sure there’s gonna be a spot somewhere one day where I pull out something, I think with Pure
Rules people have thought that it means technical wrestling, like mat wrestling, submissions, that kind of
stuff and it does, but it also really when you think about it, it’s called Pure Rules. It’s about the rules. So as
long as you’re staying within those rules, it’s professional wrestling, you can make it whatever you want to
and I’m excited to bring SDL’s flavor of Pure Rules wrestling to Ring of Honor.”
Elsewhere in the interview, De Lander talked about recently sharing the ring with Syuri. Fans can check out her full comments on the matter by clicking here.
Fans can check out Fightful’s full interview with Steph De Lander in the video linked at the top of this article.
