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Steph De Lander: Sex Sells In Wrestling, Teaming With Matt Cardona, Her NXT Release
Steph De Lander (@stephdelander) is a professional wrestler known for her time in GCW, AEW, IMPACT Wrestling and also WWE NXT where she performed under the name Persia Pirotta. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about how she reinvented herself after being released from WWE, how meeting Matt Cardona completely changed her wrestling career, her lipstick line and the origin of its risqué name, her appearances in IMPACT Wrestling and AEW, her goals for the new year, she teaches me some Aussie slang and much more!
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“I would say the biggest difference is just my confidence and knowing myself, knowing what I want, and what I want the people to see of me and think of me and just like the portrayal of what I'm doing. I feel so much more connected to what I'm doing and my character and all of that than I did previously when I was in NXT. So I think you can just see, if you compare my performances in WWE, and on the independents, like I think the biggest thing is just, I look a lot more and I feel a lot more sure of myself.”
“I think it was a mixture of a few different things. But I think the biggest thing, actually, which is so interesting when I got released, I had to do a few shows for my visa stuff on the Indies. But then I kind of felt like it wasn't clicking, I wasn't enjoying what I was doing. And it didn't feel right. So I took a break, I took six months off.”
“I knew it got to a point where I wasn't motivated, I wasn't enjoying what I was doing. And I knew continuing to work through that and wrestle while I was in that mindset was actually going to be detrimental to my career because I didn't want to start putting out work that I wasn't proud of. And I knew my mind wasn't right. So I kind of took a tactical break of like, six months, take a step back, recalibrate, figure out what it is that you want out of this. And also, I had to find my love for wrestling again. Getting released was such a big shock to the system. And it did take quite a while to go through all of those emotions. And I didn't feel like I could process that while I was wrestling. I had to really step back, miss it, learn to love it. And then that's kind of what happened over that period of time. I had the time and the clarity to sit down and really figure out who I wanted to be. And I think that really helped kickstart this amazing run that I've had.”
“I knew that about myself. I knew I was never gonna have a corporate job anyway. But the mentality behind my face tattoo was, I didn't have many other tattoos, like I've got a couple of thin ones on my arms. Initially, I wanted to get a full sleeve or two full sleeves. But I was just thinking about it and I was like, tattoos are so common now. So many people have tattoos, and it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of money to get a full sleeve. Not that I really care about any of that kind of stuff. But it's actually hard to take time off to heal a tattoo when you're wrestling. Because you've got to have a couple of weeks without bumping it and stuff. So I kind of thought, Alright, what's even more dramatic than getting a full sleeve? A face tattoo. I was like, no, not many people have face tattoos. And a lot of girls now do like the little look where they like drawer on like a little something with a bit of eyeliner or something. And I was like, why don't I just do it, just be dramatic as hell, just get it. I didn't tell anyone. I wasn't even planning on doing it that day. I was going to get an ear piercing. And she was like do you want to do it today? And I was like yeah, let's do it.”
“It was all little ideas of things that I wanted to do. But either I had been told by a few different people, you know, bangs won't look good on you, for instance, an ex-boyfriend [said] you won't look good with bangs. Okay, you shouldn't shave slits in your eyebrows. You shouldn't do this. You shouldn't do that. So I'm kind of like sitting there cooking and being like, Oh man, I think it would look cool. I think that would look good. I've been had almost all these piercings since I was 14 years old. So I was getting piercings at a really young age. So I've always been into that. But then when I got released from WWE, it was kind of shedding the old skin of like, okay, I was trying to fit into whatever mould I thought people wanted from me or I thought they wanted from me, and obviously I wasn't doing that very well because I ended up getting released. So what happens if I just really lean into who I want to be and who I feel like I am on the inside? And when I cut my bangs and I cut the same kind of thing. I went to get a haircut and I said, you know, cut the bangs. And she goes, really? I said, she goes, What do you want to do? Maybe maybe some longer softer curtain bangs. I said, No, cut them cut them short. She goes, no one's doing short bangs. Like, no one's doing that look. And I said, That's exactly why I want to do it. Because no one else is. It's not trendy right now. It's trendy to have that soft, feminine look. I want it sharp and edgy. And then I got home and I went, That's not erratic enough. I have to bleach it. So then I get the bleach out because I used to be a hairdresser. So I kind of know what I'm doing. So I just bleach and bleach and bleach it. And then I was like, okay, that's the look, that's cool.”
“The kind of first crop of Australian wrestlers to get signed was Emma, The IIcomics and Buddy Murphy and those kinds. And once they got signed, because they pretty much as I came in, they left. So when I saw them get signed, I was like, Okay, this is this is doable. This isn't a pipe dream. If they can do it, I can do it. And I remember when I had just maybe been at training for a couple of months, I couldn't do anything. But I would sit there and say to everyone, I'm moving to America one day, and I'm getting signed to WWE. They would go Are you sure you want to be saying that to people? And I'm like, yeah, 100% Like, I know that's what I want. I know I will not stop until I get there. I will figure out a way but that is what is gonna happen.”
“It was incredible. Because for me, so I sit down and I write out my goals at the start of the year of what I want to achieve every year. I do one year, three year, five year and lifetime. And every year it kind of changes. But on my one year, one of them was to just be ranked in the PWI 500. Because somehow I that list has eluded me my entire career which 500 wrestlers I'd never been listed on any of them. So I had just said, I just want to be on the list. So then Matt messaged me one day and he goes, Look, I don't want you to get your hopes up. Because you know what it's like in wrestling until something is printed and out there. Everything can change. But he goes, I think there's a chance we might be on the PWI cover. I said no. And he goes, Yeah, I said, all right. I'll believe it when I see it. And then we did a photoshoot for it. And I was still like until it's printed. And until I see it I'm not gonna get my hopes up. But sure enough, it was real. It's, you know, we were the cover of I think the November issue or something like that. But yeah, it was a very incredible moment for me, because not many people like they told us that the last time a true independent Act was the cover, like the main focus was in the 80s.”
“That’s something that we talk about all the time is, you know, we've been speaking about it the last few weeks, I think, winding down the year and going into the next year. I think it's common for everyone to get a little bit reflective. But we've both kind of been sitting here going wow, like we had such an amazing year. What are we doing next year to top this? Because if you're not going up, you start going down. So we're already brainstorming like certain places we want to go that we haven't wrestled out yet. Different countries we want to go to you know, all what can we add to our act? What can we maximise for our social media? What can we be doing more of? He and I are always thinking of what's next and what we can be doing more of and we're never getting complacent. And I think that's why this pairing has worked so well. Because it's not one person steering the ship and dragging the other person along. It is very equal, we are both super motivated. And we're also both motivating each other.”
“So we were on a tour in Australia, in I think, March of this year for World Series Wrestling, and he came up to me I guess we'd met each other like once before, but just a hi and bye. But he came up to me and he was like, Hey, I have a question to ask you. And instantly I'm gone. I've done something wrong. I've sh*t talk someone I've buried myself somehow like Well, I'm about to get yelled at, it was like this is negative. And he goes, Do you want to work with me on the Indies like you want to be my heater? Wow. I said, Are you serious?”
“Yes and he's going what's next? Yeah, actually the first before he even said that. He goes question, are you signed anywhere? And I said, No. And he goes, perfect. Do you want to be my hater? I said, Yes. 1,000%. He goes, you can take some time to think I said, There's nothing to think about. What are you talking about? Me? Are you sure? Yes 100% yes.”
“I have this conversation all the time. I think so many people in life, but especially in wrestling and independent wrestling. They're their own worst enemy and they get in their own way. And they tell themselves no before someone else tells them. No. And I've always made sure that I don't do that. I've always taken it. What's the worst thing that happens? They say I've always just tried to take the leap. And I said it to Matt when the first couple of weeks, we were sitting down in a diner eating and we were just kind of in that getting to know each other phase. And I said, Look, you don't know it yet. But you picked the right girl. I said I don't have bags of money but anything that you need me to invest money in, I will do. I will spend money on gear I will spend money on whatever I need to for wrestling because I see the investment in this. And as committed as you are to this. I am just as committed if not more, and I'm willing to make this work, I promise you.”
“I think that's definitely the end goal, but it's not like I'm rushing to get there. And I think when I again, when I had that mentality switch, that's when things started coming together for me too. Because when I the firt, when I got released, the first thing I did was I texted Matt Bloom, I said, How do I get my job back? And I got him on the phone, I said, What do I need to do? And I spent the next couple of weeks like what's going on? How do we undo this? And then I thought about and I would dream about it all the time, and it was this unhealthy obsession with like, all I want to do is get back there. And then once I kind of let go of that, and I made peace with what I was doing. And I realised if I do the indies begrudgingly, and I do it dragging my feet, and I do it not really enjoying it, always looking to the next thing, I'm not going to have fun, and I'm not going to put out my best work. So I kind of had to like pack up that WWE box and put it away and really focus on what I was doing. And then have the faith and know that if I do what I need to do, and I work really hard and I commit fully to this. The end result will be I be getting new interest from WWE and from elsewhere, which I have, because of how hot our act is.”
“It surprised me that I thought it was fun. Because I hate deathmatch wrestling. And I'll say it I don't care. I hate it. I don't enjoy watching it. I have respect for the people that do it. Because I could never put my body through that on a regular basis. But I don't enjoy watching it. And it's not my thing. And I openly say that all the time. And if anyone has an issue with it, you can DM me and I won't reply. But no, the biggest thing that I noticed from that was I came backstage and I looked at Bret and I said, I hate that I had fun doing that. He goes, Oh, you've got the bug. And I said I don't have the bug because I will never ever do it again. But I think there was something about the adrenaline and such a build-up and the crowd and the blood like that was the first time I'd ever bled in a match like, oh, there was so many different elements. And the thing too, is, for me, I had to mentally get myself into such a zone to accept the fact that I was gonna get smashed over the head with a light tube that it was just this big buildup of energy and then a huge adrenaline dump. But then yeah, backstage I was like, I feel like I've just gone on like 10 roller coasters and climbed a mountain.”
“I do all the time. Because it's Yeah, it is hopefully a long time from now. But also we've seen careers end in an instant. So I think you always have to think about what's next. For me personally, I've decided and realised that I do want to stay in the entertainment business in some way. I love stand-up comedy.
"Family, my boyfriend and Matt Cardona."
