Steph De Lander Opens Up About TNA Exit; Reveals She Underwent Second Neck Surgery, Says TNA Was Not Comfortable Clearing Her For In-Ring Action

De Lander speaks candidly about the departure.

Fightful Select broke the news that Steph De Lander and Mance Warner left TNA Wrestling. De Lander confirmed that and opened up about it in detail during an appearance on TMZ’s Inside The Ring podcast.

“Look, it’s been a crazy couple of days. It’s not what I expected my next career pivot to look like, but, I feel confident in my decision and I do believe everything does happen for a reason so yeah, it’s been a whirlwind, but, I feel good, I feel confident.”

She spoke further on the subject and revealed that she underwent a second neck surgery that she did not share with the public. She said WWE’s spinal surgeon performed both operations, and she’s fully healed. She stated that TNA never felt comfortable clearing her and added that Mance Warner left as well to show solidarity.

“So, basically, I’ve had a neck injury for a while, and I’ve actually had two neck surgeries. No one knows that. I only posted about one, but I actually had two. My surgeon wanted to put a little bit more hardware in there. But fully recovered, fully healed. I actually went to WWE’s spinal surgeon to do the surgeries, and I got clearance a few weeks ago, so, I had been pitching storylines and working towards my in-ring return with TNA. But then, I received a phone call on Monday of this week that basically they never wanted to let me wrestle at TNA again. They just didn’t feel comfortable with that. So then I made the decision to leave, and my husband did too in solidarity.”

She remembers speaking with TNA President Carlos Silva and him stating that TNA was not interested in having her return to the ring for them. De Lander asked Silva if he knew what her exact injury was, but he did not know.

“So I reached out actually to my boss and was like, ‘Look, if there’s been a conversation about me not wrestling again, just let me know,’ and yeah, Carlos (Silva) called me on Monday and told me, ‘Look, we’re just not comfortable with you wrestling,’ and I was like, ‘Well, I’m literally fully cleared’ and he said, ‘Yep, not into it,’ and then I asked, ‘Do you know what my injury is?’ And he didn’t know. He couldn’t tell me what my injury was. It’s definitely based on personal feelings. I mean, I have not been evaluated by any medical professional on the TNA end. They have a chiropractor at the shows and I think one other doctor who I’ve barely spoken with so, they haven’t evaluated my medical history, they haven’t contacted my surgeon, they haven’t looked at any of my medical stuff. It’s just, they made a personal decision and yeah, that’s where we are now.”

Elsewhere during the chat, De Lander expressed that she holds no ill will towards TNA, and she believes they understand why she made the move that she has.

“I mean, I don’t think there is a bridge that has been burned. I don’t have any personal ill will towards anyone. I enjoyed working there. A lot of people that work there, I really respect. I’m hurt about the situation of course, but I also think that they probably understand and I think a lot of people when they hear this interview and actually hear more of the nuts and bolts of the situation will understand too. So, in a few years time, if they see that I’ve been wrestling and I’ve been fine and maybe they wanna offer me something, we’ll have that conversation, or if there are different people in charge that have different opinions, we can have that conversation again too. I don’t wanna never say never to anything, or to anyone. It’s all just how my journey goes but, I think I’m done with TNA for right now.”

There is no word on where De Lander and Warner will be heading promotion-wise. Warner has been working indie dates, but most of his bouts over the last several months have been for TNA.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit TMZ’s Inside The Ring podcast with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.