Steph De Lander Says WWE Told Her To ‘Do The Drew McIntyre’ And Then Return

Steph De Lander exited WWE in 2022, and she says the company told her to do what Drew McIntyre did and then make a return. De Lander was released from the company in April of 2022 and has since worked regularly in companies like TNA and GCW, often alongside Matt Cardona. She spoke during a K&S WrestleFest virtual signing about her exit and said that officials told her to follow McIntyre’s path of revitalizing himself on the independents, then returning to the company.

“They literally said to me, they were like, ‘Do the Drew McIntyre, and then come back,’” De Lander recalled (h/t to Fightful). “So then I messaged Drew, and I was like, ‘Hey, I got told to do what you did. What did you do?’ He sent me a whole bunch of stuff… I made sure I’m following what he did, and I look at people like Drew and Cody and Cardona and Samoa Joe, people that have either been fired and rehired or released or went to WWE later in their careers, or people that have been in multiple different companies and had really lengthy careers. Even Chelsea [Green], she got released and then did stuff on the indies and TNA, got rehired, and now she’s one of the most over people on the show.”

She continued, “So I think there’s ways to do it, but you have to be willing to…I had one day at home this week. You’ve gotta be willing to, after a full loop of TV, be gone for a day and then fly out on a Monday to do this. That takes a special kind of person. You’ve got to really want it. I think you can’t half-ass it, and if you half-ass it, that’s when it doesn’t work.”

De Lander returned to TNA TV on last week’s Impact following neck surgery that kept her out of the last portion of 2024.