Steph De Lander Shares Thoughts On Departing TNA For ROH

Steph De Lander was one of many former TNA stars to request and receive their release earlier this year, and it didn't take long for De Lander to land on her feet, as she's begun to compete regularly in Ring of Honor. In an interview with "TMZSports Inside the Ring," De Lander revealed she's quite happy to find herself in ROH now, both because it allows her creative freedom, and because she is able to wrestle again, having previously missed significant time due to a severe neck injury.

"I returned from my injury in April," De Lander said. "By August, I'm on Ring of Honor PPV. So I'm not just back in the ring. I'm on TV, I'm on PPV, I'm wrestling world champions. I'm working for a new company. I've, yet again, as I always do, I've exceeded all my expectations and my goals. And the best thing for me about Ring of Honor is the creativity, because I can come up with all sorts of stuff, and I can let that bleed out into my matches...I've only had a few matches there, but I can already see the way that it works. I'm just so excited to get in there and work with a bunch of different people, and be able to be creative with my art."

The creative freedom in ROH is the same type of freedom De Lander had with TNA, though that ultimately wasn't enough to override the bad feelings that led to De Lander requesting her TNA release. And several months later, there is still no thaw between her and her former employer.

"At the moment, there is no relationship," De Lander said. "There is no communication. There has been no communication. Like, the last communication there was me saying 'Send me my release papers right now.' And I got them in an email, and that was that."

Since her departure, De Lander has run into some TNA higher ups from her time, revealing that they had ignored her and vice versa in order to avoid confrontation. Despite the bad feelings, De Lander didn't dismiss a TNA return, though she believes its a long way off, if it were to happen at all.

"The way that wrestling is is everyone ping pongs all over the place," De Lander said. "So I'm never going to sit here and say I will never, ever, ever do this thing. But for right now, I don't see that as an option in the near future. Again, things can change. But conversations would have to be had, and I don't care to have them any time soon."

Turning back to her current time with Ring of Honor, De Lander was asked if her recent appearances, including challenging Deonna Purrazzo for the Ring of Honor Women's Pure Championship at Death Before Dishonor, meant she was under contract with either ROH or AEW. According to De Lander, that is not the case yet.

"As of right now, I'm not contracted," De Lander said. "I'm doing pay-per-appearance at Ring of Honor, which I've done at TNA, I've done at Ring of Honor. They've done that with a lot of talent. But yeah, when I said that I still think that that is probably a reality at some point. I'm not going to be a free agent forever. That's just the way that wrestling goes. So again, who, what, where when, how, and why, I don't really know. We're all just going to have to wait and see together."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "TMZSports Inside the Ring" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription