Steph De Lander Says Her In-Ring Return Following Her Neck Injury Feels Validating

During a recent interview with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp ahead of ROH Death Before Dishonor, wrestler Steph De Lander spoke about returning to the ring after a long layoff due to a neck injury. Below are some highlights from Fightful:

Steph De Lander on Returning to the Ring After Her Neck Injury

“It’s definitely validating, but I didn’t need the validation. I just needed the rest of the world to see that because I knew, I have the paperwork. I have it all signed off. I have my surgeon who is 110% confident in the fact that I can wrestle for however long. I never questioned it or never wavered it on any of that. I knew Ring of Honor / AEW would clear me. I knew I would have clearance at literally every other company. Like if I walked into WWE today, I know they would clear me because I know my injury more than anyone else—bar my surgeon. I know exactly what I had, what I went through to fix it, and now I know that I’m completely cleared. So it wasn’t so much validation for me. It was more so I knew, especially once I got that clearance from AEW, then I knew there would be no more question, and that conversation would definitely be put to bed: ‘She’s healed.’ This was never a medical question. This was TNA feeling some type of way about it and not wanting to touch that subject. But for me, I knew the whole time, but I’m glad that now everyone else has the understanding. I’m 110 % good to go.”

On Wanting to Win the PWI Comeback of the Year Award

“I feel great physically. I went from not wrestling for two years to now I’m wrestling two to three times every single weekend. I feel a certain level of beat up that every single wrestler feels, but my neck feels great. As you said, I dove headfirst in. I don’t half-ass anything. To quote Matt Cardona, this is such a dumb quote. I actually hate it, but he always says, ‘You can’t be half pregnant.’ Which means you can’t half do anything. So I knew I had to dive in head first. I wasn’t going to take it easy; I wasn’t going to dip my toes in. That’s the second match I had since coming back. My first match was a triple threat with Indi and J-Rod where I won the ACW Championship, and that went really well. I felt great after that. The second match I had was a singles match with Megan Bayne.

“We did a fifteen-minute banger at GCW. After that match, I was like, ‘Okay. I’m back. I’m more than back, I’m somehow having better matches than I was having beforehand.’ So once I had a few good matches really early on under my belt, I was like, ‘My body feels great. I’m really confident in my skills. I am now ready to absolutely hit the ground running,’ and that’s what I’ve done so far. My biggest goal for 2026 was to win PWI Comeback of the Year. I do think I will at this point. I don’t know who else is doing it more than me. That’s been a big driving force behind doing absolutely everything that I can because I didn’t want to just come back, I wanted to come back somehow better than before, and I think I’ve done that.”

Steph De Lander was in action at last night’s ROH Death Before Dishonor 2026, where she challenged Deonna Purrazzo for the ROH Women’s Pure Title. Despite a strong effort, De Lander could not overcome Purrazzo and win the title.