Persia Pirotta/Steph De Lander Interview Notes (Patreon)

Fightful spoke with Steph De Lander, the former Persia Pirotta, for the first interview since her WWE release.

She told Fightful that she didn't consider it a shock because of the way talent has been cut since she'd been there and she'd been thinking about it a lot ever since she got hired. The conversation wasn't long, and she knew when she saw a call from Stamford that her time was coming. She doesn't believe there are many people there that could consider themselves immune from it.

SDL was actually signed in 2019, and her original contract would have been up this year.  However, due to the pandemic, they had to operate on three month increments of "wait and see." During that period, the time on her contract didn't start and she wasn't being paid, and WWE had no say over who she wrestled. They just asked that she stay safe and in shape. She said that she actually got hired after emailing Canyon Ceman minutes after Indi Hartwell told her she got hired, because she knew he was on his phone at that moment. Although the was a big part of NXT 2.0, most of the people that brought her into NXT were no longer there.

Her favorite thing in NXT 2.0 is when she and Io Shirai had to work on the fly after Jacy Jayne was sidelined from their match. She felts as if that threw her into the deep end and she could learn more from it.

The transition to 2.0 came in bits, according to De Lander. One week they'd mention the new song, them new logos, then that they were refitting the arena. She doesn't believe that even the people that ran NXT themselves knew exactly what was going on.

De Lander told us that she had considered the releases, and heard rumors they were happening close to Good Friday. She spoke highly of Doudop's demeanor and said they and Kay Lee Ray were hanging out the day before release day and spoke about the possibility of them happening.

As seen on social media today, De Lander already has plenty lined up and many people reaching out about projects. She says she's just at the start of her career, but she will be selective with bookings and take ones that make sense to her. She's planning on staying in the United States for the time being.

Our full interview will be up at NOON EST Friday, and is available now for tier 2 subscribers