Steph de Lander Said She Was Set To Turn On Indi Hartwell In NXT

In an interview with Fightful), Steph de Lander (formerly Persia Pirotta in WWE) said that her story with Indi Hartwell in WWE NXT would have ended with her turning on Indi. The two worked a similar storyline when they were in MCW together. Here are highlights:

On being set to turn on Indi Hartwell: “I know. It’s funny you mention that because that was initially where our story was gonna go. I was gonna turn on Indi and we were gonna kind of run through the same story that we had done in MCW. Even to the point where I had shown them what we did in Melbourne and I told them all of the history. We had meetings. I told them everything and as like, ‘This story writes itself. We literally did it in Australia and then what the ultimate screw over, we’re meant to be going within three months of each other and then I get screwed for two years.’”

On the story not happening: “I was like, ‘This writes itself as far as I’m concerned.’ For wrestling, reality is the easiest thing for the fans to connect to. I’m like, ‘I don’t think anything gets more real than this.’ So before the 2.0 change over and even the early days, that was the way we were gonna go with the story. But then obviously everything changes in wrestling and they decided to keep Indi and I together as a team for a bit longer. Then we started doing all the Duke and Dexter stuff. It was still eventually, I think, lead to a feud between myself and Indi and it sucks that we weren’t able to do that.”

On understanding why it didn’t happen: “But I also understand that we’re creating a television product and where I was right now, when I first started I didn’t have enough of a following or I hadn’t done enough in WWE, for people to care about me enough to make that story as juicy as it could have been. Whereas I think if we let all this InDex and DuSia stuff play out and then we did the big Persia verse Indi, then I think it would have been a much hotter story. That’s what they said to me and I agree with them. Not for nothing, the stuff that we did with InDex and DuSia, so many people have so many opinions on it, but at the end of the day, I’m like, ‘I was on TMZ. I don’t think a five minute wrestling match would have gotten me there.’ So I have no regrets about anything.”