Steph De Lander recounts Drew McIntyre giving her advice on how to approach post-WWE run

Photo Courtesy: IMPACT Wrestling

McIntyre sent De Lander ‘a whole bunch of stuff.’

It has been two years since Steph De Lander’s run with WWE came to an end when she was released from the company. She ventured onto the independent scene and became a regular at GCW alongside Matt Cardona.

De Lander is currently with TNA Wrestling and is their Digital Media Champion. 

She looked back on her exit from WWE and recounted getting advice from Drew McIntyre on how to approach her post-WWE run. De Lander said the following while doing a virtual signing for K & S WrestleFest

Well, they literally said to me, they were like, ‘Do the Drew McIntyre,’ and then come back and be straight to the top… so then I messaged Drew and I was like, ‘Hey. I got told to do what you did. What’d you do?’ And he sent me a whole bunch of stuff… and I make sure that I’m following what he did and I look at people like Drew and Cody (Rhodes) and (Matt) Cardona and Samoa Joe and people that have either been fired and rehired or released, went to WWE later in their career or people that have been in multiple different companies and had really lengthy careers… and even Chelsea (Green). She got released and then did some stuff on the indies and TNA, whatever else. Got rehired and now she’s one of the most over people on the show. So, I think there’s ways to do it but you have to be willing to — you know, I had one day at home this week. You’ve gotta be willing to, after a full loop of TV, be home for a day and then fly out on a Monday to do this. That takes a special kind of person and I think most people — you’ve got to really want it, and I think you can’t half-ass it and if you half-ass it, that’s when it doesn’t work.

De Lander underwent neck surgery in the fall of 2024. She is not cleared to compete, but Mance Warner is going to be defending the Digital Media Title in TNA on her behalf.

The duo formally arrived on the 1/23 TNA iMPACT and ambushed Sami Callihan.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit K & S WrestleFest with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.

About Andrew Thompson 10002 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.

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