Steph De Lander opens up about leaving Persia Pirotta in the past.
Steph De Lander was formerly Persia Pirotta in NXT. She was released by WWE in 2022 and has since thrived in promotions like TNA and GCW. Part of that success can be attributed to her association with Matt Cardona, somebody who knows all about leaving their WWE persona in the past and has repeatedly declared that Zack Ryder is dead.
Speaking in an interview with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, Steph De Lander spoke about her initial struggles with leaving Persia in the past and initially wanting to keep that door open to the same character in case she ever got a quick call back to go to WWE.
"It's cool and it's interesting too because when I first started teaming with Matt Cardona, he would always say like, ‘Persia is dead, Zack Ryder is dead, like that's done.’ At the start, I was kind of like, ‘Yo, can you stop saying that? Because like if I need to be Persia again, like I don't want to kill her and then in two years have to be like, ‘Hey.’ But retrospectively looking back, it's kind of like he had to have that acceptance that Zack Ryder was done, and he's now Matt Cardona, and then I had to go through it myself and have that acceptance of like, Persia is done, and now I'm Steph De Lander. It's funny. At first I was resistant to it just because when I picked that name, I didn't think I would have that name for one year and then be back to Steph De Lander. So, letting go of that was kind of like letting go of my WWE career at that time. But now I'm like, yeah, it's pretty freaking cool that what I've done now so surpasses what I did at WWE."
Fans can read Matt Cardona's perspective on his relationship with De Lander here.
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.
Check out the full interview with Steph De Lander embedded at the top of this page.
