Steph De Lander Discusses Decision To Quit TNA, Explains How She Got Advice From A Doctor In WWE

Steph De Lander opens up about her departure from TNA Wrestling.

On March 4, De Lander and Mance Warner made headlines when they announced that they were quitting the promotion.

A few days later, De Lander spoke with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp about the decision. To open about the conversation, the 29-year-old said that TNA didn’t want to let her wrestle again.

“So basically I was told on Monday that they don’t want to let me wrestle again in ring. I said, ‘I’m cleared.’ They said, ‘Well, to protect you and to protect TNA, we don’t want to let you wrestle again.’ I said, ‘Okay,’ and I asked what my injury was and they said, ‘Oh, you know what you told us.’ I said, ‘And what did I tell you?’ They said, ‘That you broke your neck.’ I’m like, ‘No, no, no, my neck’s never been broken.’ They didn’t have really any details about my actual injury. Actually against all medical advice that I’ve been given, which all of the advice is, ‘You’re a thousand percent clear, your neck is one of the strongest parts of your body at this point.’ Like my surgeon is like, ‘You can wrestle for another 20 years.’ That’s against all medical recommendation. They just don’t want to, I guess, take the risk or be liable if I were to get injured again. So that’s what happened.”

De Lander went on to note that she provided her own clearance to the company despite the fact that they didn’t ask for it.

“So I provide clearance. They didn’t ask for any of it, but I was providing updates and providing the doctor’s notes and everything that I could to show them that I was cleared. My doctor also made it very clear that if they wanted to contact him to ask for any more information, if they wanted a second opinion, my surgeon told me, he was like, ‘I could get a panel of the best surgeons in the world right now to all agree that you’re 100% okay to wrestle.’ So on that side of things, I was providing all the documentation. I think it was more so just a personal choice, it felt, rather than medical advice.”

As it turns out, TNA did not pay for any of De Lander’s surgeries or physical therapy. She wasn’t asking for that, but she was seeking some guidance in terms of the choosing the right recovery path.

“No, so expensive. I paid for the surgeries, paid for the PT. That was something that I made clear as well to TNA when I was having these conversations with them. I had a pretty emotional conversation, one of the loops, and basically I was begging for help because I had had my surgeries, I was doing regular PT, but I felt like it wasn’t enough because wrestling is very different to normal life. So I felt like I needed some more like sports specific rehab. I was asking them to maybe ask WWE and see if I could go to the PC or see if they have connections or just try to get some more solid help. I said in that conversation, ‘I don’t want you guys to pay for anything. I’m not asking for you to reimburse me for any of this.’ It has never been about the money. I think it’s expensive. It’s cost a lot of money, but it’s not like I’m asking anyone for any money or to pay for anything. I just literally wanted help because I wanted to get back in the ring and wrestle.”

De Lander was seeking help from TNA so that she could get her body ready for her return to the ring. After months of asking, a doctor from WWE finally stepped in and helped about a month ago.

“Yeah, definitely. But also legitimately help get my body back to the point of being able to be a professional wrestler. Because when you’re in WWE, they have, obviously, the Performance Center. They have a whole bunch of awesome PTs who understand wrestling, who can put you through a protocol that is a specific return-to-the-ring protocol and that’s what I was asking for. I said I understand if they won’t let me go to the PC, but could we at the very least try to get a protocol, get a piece of paper, get something that will at least give me an outline of what I need to do to get back in the ring, to get my body back to where it needs to be. That was about 18 months of consistently asking for that and then I finally got that a month ago from the WWE doctor. That’s not on their end. WWE has helped me a lot more in this situation than anyone else, but I actually ended up getting it from them.”

TNA frustrated Steph De Lander with their reluctance to take any steps towards getting her back to the ring.

“It was kind of, ‘Yeah, we know, but we just don’t want to let you do this,’ you know what I mean? It was they took it on board. They had it, they knew it. But, ‘Despite this we have the final say and we have decided we don’t want to fuck with this.’”

Fightful then asked the former ‘Deathmatch Queen’ about Chris Bey’s neck injury and if she thinks that might have caused TNA to approach her situation differently.

“Definitely. Yeah, I think it would be ignorant to think that that situation didn’t create a lot of stress and anxiety behind the scenes when it comes to injuries, specifically spinal injuries. I think part of it is they just thought we can’t afford from a financial standpoint, from a PR standpoint, ‘We don’t literally, we don’t have the capabilities to deal with another situation like that.’ So I think that kind of scared them. I think that probably has something to do with this. Again, it has nothing to do with Chris. I’m sure he will watch this and be devastated about this situation and Chris has actually been extremely helpful to me through my whole journey. He actually sent me an Iron Neck training device. He’s been amazing. But yeah, I do think that that made them scared of injuries and spinal injuries. I think they didn’t want to deal with it”

Fans can check out Fightful‘s full interview with Steph De Lander in the video linked at the top of this article.

After that, head over to our YouTube channel to check out more of our recent interviews.