In Steph De Lander's opinion, it's important to be authentic; especially when writing a book.
De Lander recently wrote a book entitled "What's The Best That Could Happen?: My Love Letter To Pro Wrestling" and, in it, she covered a wide range of stories and subjects. And while she aimed to remain authentic throughout the writing process, she was also cognizant and aware enough to know that she didn't want to offend anybody or inhibit any future career moves.
De Lander recently spoke with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp and explained her mindset while writing the book, noting that while she didn't deliberately want to bury anybody, she didn't overthink the process too much either.
"There's certain stories where I haven't mentioned the names, people who are involved or people who know about it will kind of know. But I've also tried to be clinical in a sense of like, if I bury someone else, I'm also very quick to bury myself. You know what I mean? So I'll put my hand up and say that I did something wrong or I fucked something up," she said. "My mindset kind of writing it was like, ‘Alright, what I don't want to do is I don't want to say or do anything that's going to land me 3in really hot water with places that I want to work at.’ So that was important for me. I didn't send the book to anyone until it was done, except for my manager who was helping me like organize it. I read little snippets to Mance. So like, ‘Hey, how do you think this sounds?’ Or, ‘What do you think about this?’
But I didn't send it to my family. I didn't send it to any friends. I didn't even tell anyone I was writing it," she continued. "None of my friends even knew until I had the book done and I sent them the snippet being like, hey, this mentions you. Let me know if you want me to change anything. Because I wanted to make sure that it was authentically me and my story, and I didn't want to let other people's opinions change the book and change the story."
Because then I felt like, ‘Well, I'm writing this for me and for everyone else, but also for me. I'm writing it from my perspective. So if I get too worried about upsetting or offending someone or making sure every single person that's mentioned is super happy and whatever else, then all of a sudden it's not my book anymore.’ So I was careful to not bury anyone too much, but at the same time, I also wasn't going to be so overthinking that it didn't end up being my words," De Lander said.
I’m very proud to announce my autobiography ‘What’s The Best That Could Happen?: My Love Letter To Pro Wrestling’ is available NOW for preorder at #BarnesAndNoble for hardcover & @amazon for ebook! ---- orders ship April 18th#StephDeLander #BarnesAndNoble #Amazon
— STEPH DE LANDER (@stephdelander) March 23, 2025
HARDCOVER --:… pic.twitter.com/Jt7WK7Dhpe
Steph De Lander also spoke about vulnerability while writing her first story. However, she also says that the process was helpful to her as it gave her a sense of direction while she was sidelined with a neck injury.
"There’s always emotional roller coasters when it comes to wrestling and especially with injuries. The book was cool in a sense of like, think it helped me because I felt like I was still doing something purposeful and I was using the time wisely and I wasn't just like sitting on my ass and bumming around. Like I was like, ‘Okay, if I'm out, how do I make the most of this and do something that can really further my career?’ I might not have time again in the next few years to write this. So, let's do it now," she said. "But as far as the actual process, it went in waves. There were periods of time where I was really inspired and motivated, and I sat down and just wrote and wrote and wrote. There were times when I was like, I don't want to touch this. I don't want to look at it because I'm not feeling it. I don't want to get in there and force write stuff just because I have this deadline in my head. Like I want to write it as it comes and I want to feel it."
She also detailed her mindset when touching upon topics that she's never spoken about publicly, having to take breaks when writing about sensitive issues, and the ultimate sense of catharsis she felt when addressing these topics. Overall, she says she's okay with confronting her feelings if her story may help someone.
"So there were times where, talking about the vulnerability, there's one particular story in there that I had to step away from, like I purposely left it to like the end. ‘Cause first of all, I was like, I don't know if I want to touch on this or not," she said. "I was going back and forth. So I purposely left it 'til like towards the end, and then once I started writing, I kept having to, like, step away from it. ‘Cause I was getting like too deep in again. ‘Cause it was obviously just bringing up a lot of stuff, but that, too, was like cathartic in a way.
"‘Cause it's like, this is something that I've never really spoken about. People don't know this about me," she continued. "But I know there's also a whole bunch of other people that have been through the same thing that I'm sure if they see I've gone through this, I've dealt with it, and I'm being open about it, it might help one other person and if that helps one other person, then I'm okay with sitting here and feeling my feels for a bit and being vulnerable to help a fan. So it was like a cool process. For the most part, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would."
Steph De Lander spoke with Sean Ross Sapp about a number of different subjects, including the infamous chokeslam through a table that she took in TNA.
Fans can check out the full interview with Steph De Lander, which is embedded at the top of this page.
Steph De Lander revealed on March 23rd that her book, "What's The Best That Could Happen?: My Love Letter To Pro Wrestling," is now available for pre-order.
The book will be released on April 18. Learn more about the book here.
