Steph De Lander Paid For Her Surgeries & Post-Surgery Recovery, Doesn’t Think TNA Has Budget Set Aside For Proper Medical Team

It was a lengthy recovery process for De Lander.

Fresh off exiting TNA Wrestling, Steph De Lander joined TMZ’s Inside The Ring podcast. In the interview, she shared that she underwent two neck surgeries, one of which she did not share with the public.

De Lander stated that she paid for her surgeries and post-surgery recovery. She shared that she was not on a salaried deal with TNA. She said when she was out of action, there were conversations with TNA about what it would look like when she returned, and the possibility of a pay raise for her was discussed.

“So I’ve paid for both of my surgeries. I paid for P.T. for both of them. My insurance maxed out so I currently have a $9,000 AdventHealth bill sitting there, that I’m gonna get to at some point but, yeah, it was 100 percent covered on my end and if you’re not working at TNA — I was not on a salary, I was not getting paid every week regardless. If you’re not there, if you’re not on the road, if you’re not working, you don’t get paid so, yeah, financially, it was a very big hit as well.

The agreement was always, we will get to a point where as long as I’m fully cleared, I will get back in the ring again. We’d even had conversations about money. ‘Hey, we’re gonna pay you X amount, but once you’re back in the ring wrestling, we can renegotiate and we can give you a pay rise.’ So there was definitely the notion presented to me of we are gonna get to a point where you are back in the ring again…”

De Lander went on to state that she believes TNA does not have the budget set aside to put a proper medical team in place to assist wrestlers with major injuries.

She had been trying to get in touch with TNA’s chiropractor to get a recovery plan going. De Lander said she was trying to get that organized for 18 months. She clarified that she did not break her neck, but she underwent a fusion surgery for bulging discs.

“I think it’s because they don’t have a budget set aside for injuries and a proper medical team. At WWE or AEW, there is a fully-staffed medical team. They have doctors, they have PTs, they have all sorts of people whose job it is to take care of the wrestlers when they get injured, to rehab them back to full health, and then to let them continue their careers as wrestlers. Unfortunately, TNA does not have it set up like that whatsoever. As I said, majority of my communication about my injury was through their chiropractor, who I spent 18 months trying to get a return to the ring protocol out of it, and I only got it a month ago. So, they really don’t have a setup for injuries, especially for spinal injuries, and that’s honestly why I wanted to be open about my story is, A, I want people to know the truth of the injury and the situation because I’ve already seen a bunch of misinformation online. So I wanted to set that straight of I had a one-level cervical spinal (injury) of my C5, C6 joint, or vertebrae, which is the most basic, straightforward neck injury that so many wrestlers in WWE and AEW have had before, fully recovered and returned to the ring. I did not break my neck. That’s not what happened. Even though my boss told me I broke my neck, I did not. Just to clear that up, I had a fusion because I had a bulging disc.”

The last time De Lander wrestled was at a TNA taping in August of 2024. She and her husband, Mance Warner, both left the promotion.

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.