When Steph De Lander was initially released from WWE, it hardly made headlines around the IWC.

Sure, the performer previously known as Persia Pirotta was a known commodity within the WWE Universe, as she worked multiple angles in NXT both as a friend of Indi Hartwell and a love interest of Duke Hudson, but she was never really used in such a way as to convince fans or talent evaluators that she would become a premier performer worthy of following into the future.

Well guess what? That happened, as after linking up with Matt Cardona on the indies following Chelsea Green's hiring by WWE, De Landers has become one of the most prominent heaters on the indies today, working as the “Indy God's” second while also making a name for herself as a hard-hitting singles star in her own right.

Discussing her release from WWE in an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, De Landers explained how her mindset has changed over her year and a half on the indies and why she's open to a return to WWE if that were to become a possibility at some point in the future.

“I think that's definitely the end goal, but it's not like I'm rushing to get there. I think when I had that mentality switch, that's when things started coming together for me too. Because when I first got released, the first thing I did was I texted Matt Bloom, I said, ‘How do I get my job back?' I got him on the phone, I said, ‘What do I need to do?' I spent the next couple of weeks like what's going on? How do we undo this? Then I thought about, and I would dream about it all the time, and it was this unhealthy obsession with all I wanted to do was get back there,” Steph De Lander said via PW Mania.

“Once I kind of let go of that, and I made peace with what I was doing. I realized 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 pack up that WWE box, put it away, and really focus on what I was doing. 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.”

Could the day eventually come when De Landers returns to WWE, either as a solo performer or as a sort of Chyna to Cardona's Triple H? Only time will tell, but after being a fringe player looking for an identity in NXT 2.0, it's safe to say De Landers is now an established force in professional wrestling.

Steph De Lander almost quit wrestling after WWE release.

Elsewhere in her conversation with Chris Van Vliet, Steph De Lander revealed that she strongly considered walking away from wrestling entirely after WWE released her from her NXT contract. Fortunately, after a few months to get centered, she returned better than ever before.

“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. I knew my mind wasn't right. So I kind of took a tactical break of six months, take a step back, re-calibrated, and figured out what it is that you want out of this, and also, I had to find my love for wrestling again,” Steph De Lander said.

“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, and learn to love it. 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 kick start this amazing run that I've had.”

Fortunately for fans of professional wrestling, De Lander refound her magic and has been able to ride it to heights previously unimaginable in NXT. While being released from WWE was unfortunate, the move ended up being the best thing that could have happened to De Landers.