Pro wrestling star Steph De Lander spent two years on the shelf with a serious neck injury that required multiple surgeries and nearly derailed her career.Last month, De Lander made her triumphant return to the ring. She appeared in Awesome Championship Wrestling (ACW) and was put in a triple-threat match against Indi Hartwell and J-Rod for the ACW Women’s Championship. When the dust cleared, De Lander was the one wearing the title around her waist.”It felt awesome because there’s nothing like wrestling,” she told Fox News Digital when asked about her return. “There’s nothing like throwing yourself at the ground. There’s nothing like being body-slammed, right? I hadn’t been through that for so long. Initially, I was nervous about how my body was going to feel, how I was going to hold up. Is it going to hurt more than it did before? But it’s like riding a bike. Everyone says it but it’s so true.ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!”As soon as I got back in the ring, as soon as I took my first bump, as soon as I took some hits, my body was just lit up in the best way. I hadn’t felt the physicality that you don’t get from anything else. I hadn’t felt that for so long. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. I’m in the phase right now of loving getting beaten up, loving getting back in the ring. My body feels great, and I definitely felt back in my element.”De Lander described getting involved in ACW as a bit of a whirlwind.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMShe said she was going to manage her husband, the pro wrestler known as Mance Warner, in a different company before WWE star Matt Cardona gave her some poignant advice.”It was actually Matt Cardona that messaged me and was like, ‘Hey, are you wrestling this weekend? Are you cleared to wrestle yet?’ I was like, I’m cleared by I got a booking to manage Mance at a different company. And he was like, ‘Look, if you just left because you said you wanted to wrestle, you need to wrestle this weekend.’ He was like, ‘There’s an ACW show you should reach out.’ And I was like, they actually reached out to me a couple of days ago and asked if I was available, and I wasn’t,” she recalled.”After chatting with Matt, that basically made me realize this is the opportunity to have an awesome return match at a great company. Start a run at ACW. I didn’t know I was going to be winning the championship, but I just thought this would be an awesome first match back. Having my best friend Indi Hartwell in the match, it felt very poetic.”She pulled out of the show and eventually became the new ACW women’s champion, beating Hartwell who came into the match as the titleholder.De Lander will be back in action for ACW on May 16 for Reckoning. The event will take place at the MJN Center in Poughkeepsie, New York.WWE STAR RHEA RIPLEY DROP KICKS FANS CRITICAL OF FEMALE WRESTLERSShe will be in a tag team match with Hartwell. The two
Pro wrestling star Steph De Lander reveals how colleague’s advice helped lead her to title triumph at ACW
