Steph De Lander wasn't afraid to take a chokeslam through a table. In fact, she says, she was ecstatic to take the move.
And her enthusiasm led to an extremely memorable moment between herself and AJ Francis. During a segment between Francis, PCO, Rich Swann and herself, SDL saw her date with PCO ruined. And it was not ruined by the wrong order at a restaurant or any other normal date-breaker. It was a chokeslam through a table that ruined the moment, and possibly the evening. And it was De Lander who took it.
De Lander recently reflected on the moment during her conversation with Sean Ross Sapp for Fightful. In her interview, De Lander said that she was "stoked" by the idea of taking the move.
"I don't exactly know how it was pitched. I'm sure it was something along the lines of like, ‘This is the idea that we have as long as you're comfortable with it.’ I instantly was like, ‘Oh my God, that is the best idea ever. I'm so happy about this. Like, I'm stoked.’ Because I knew it would look awesome. The whole segment itself was like so ridiculous, right? Like there was so many layers to it that was so ridiculous, but I knew it would look awesome. I knew that AJ Francis would make it look awesome and he would push the shit out of it on socials. I would make it look awesome and I would the shit out of it too. You know what I mean? So I knew, it was gonna be a good moment. But it was one of those things where like, I've only taken a couple of chokeslams. Like I'm huge when it comes to the women's division, right? So I'm usually the one giving chokeslams. So I've maybe taken three in my career. But I knew how important it was to like do my end of it and get up there. When we got backstage everyone was like, ‘Oh my god, are you okay?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I'm fine. What are you talking about?’ They were like, ‘That looked so brutal. you got so high.’ I was like, ‘Really?’ and then I watched it back," De Lander said.
De Lander said she didn't see the move until a little later, and that's when she realized just how good of a job everybody did.
"So like, I didn't think I didn't realize how high I was until I watched it back and I was like, ‘Oh, that's crazy, dude," she said.
.@AJFrancis410 and @GottaGetSwann RUINED @PCOisNotHuman and @stephdelander's first date!
— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) June 21, 2024
Subscribe to TNA+ to watch #TNAiMPACT NOW: https://t.co/VpfTemyOYk pic.twitter.com/ZP8KS4R8UT
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.
