Steph De Lander

De Lander in July 2023

###

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

**Stephanie De Landre** is an Australian professional wrestler of Maltese descent, who currently competes under the ring name **Steph De Lander**. She is best known for the work in WWE in the NXT brand under the name **Persia Pirotta**.

De Lander initially made her debut in the Australian independent circuit before signning with WWE in March 2021, where she was then part of the NXT brand. After being released in April 2022 as part of budget cuts relating to the NXT brand, she began associating herself with Matt Cardona, whom would become one of the most popular couples in the Independent Circuit.

## Early life

Stephanie De Landre was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and raised in Avalon, New South Wales, a northern suburb of Sydney. She is of Maltese descent.

## Professional wrestling career

### Early Career (2017-2021)

De Lander professional wrestling debut on April 8, 2017. She then began competing in the Australian Indpendent Circuit, most notably in Melbourne City Wrestling and Newcastle Pro Wrestling, performing under the name **FaceBrooke**, before signing with WWE in March 2021.

### DDT Pro-Wrestling (2023-Present)

After being released from WWE as part of budget cuts relating to the NXT brand, De Lander began accompaining Matt Cardona, whom she would become his valet. She made her debut in DDT Pro-Wrestling on July 23, at Wrestle Peter Pan, accompaining Cardona.

## Professional wrestling style and persona

   Since departing WWE in April 2022, she began associting herself with Matt Cardona. De Lander revealed that she met Cardona in a tour in Australia in March 2023, while growing up she saw Cardona as a model for her, with De Lander stating that they met on a casual incident. On the other hand, Cardona felt that he needed someone to accompain him,with De Lander being Cardona's ideal partner due to her blonde bangs, piercings and height. Cardona asked De Lander if she could be her partner, with her accepting. Initally promoters were hesitant booking Cardona with her, with Cardona covering her expenses for a wrestling event. However, since their debut as duo, they made a huge success, with De Lander often being booked to every event Cardona was.

She also revealed that they had a lot of the same ideas and goals. However, she was not able to afford the more extravagant items such event-specific gear or professionally shot promos every week; although once they were able to pool their resources, she began to afford it. De Lander also credits Cardona's determination and experience as the driving force behind their success. The pairing is often compared to highly remarkable pair of Triple H and Chyna.

De Lander's wrestling style revolves mainly around a powerhouse approach, being much compared to the Pro Wrestling Hall of Famer Chyna. She also adopted Cardona's a social media influencer character since joining him including being a super-fan of all things wrestling (mainly WWE), as well as adopting Cardona's Internet Championship, declaring herself as the Women's Internet Championship. As such, he riles up fans through two major methods that fans would hate. Whilst some would see a wrestler wearing gear referencing some of the industry's greats as a loving tribute, De Lander's versions are similiar to Cardona's twisted bastardizations that mix the hardcore fanbase's influence with a WWE-based influence.

## Other media

On May 22, 2023, Matt Cardona posted a new episode of *Z! True Long Island Story* as Zack Ryder. De Lander would appear in the episode using her WWE name Persia Pirotta and stole the Internet Championship from him. Cardona would chase her into a limousine trying to get it back from her but was unable to do so as it would explode, in storyline killing both of them. This indicates he had gained the rights to Zack Cardona and had used this to permanently write the character off.

## Personal life

On July 27, in an interview with *Vice Australia*, De Landre revealed that she met the Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis, during a Saturday morning, where DeSantis came to the WWE Performance Center with his children to watch a professional wrestling exibition, where they sit on the front row.

## In Wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ Sitout fireman's carry facebuster
	+ Sitout Powerbomb
* **Signature moves**
	+ Big Boot
	+ Forearm smash
	+ Multiple lariat variations
		- Regular
		- Running to a cornered opponent
	+ Pull-over stomp
	+ Release German Suplex
	+ Over the shoulder facebuster dropped into the turnbuckle pads
	+ Samoan drop
	+ Snake Eyes
	+ Suplex
	+ Tilt-A-Whirl Backbreaker
	+ Uppercut to a seated opponent
* **Nicknames**
	+ **"Deathmatch Queen"**
	+ **"Python Powerhouse"**
	+ **"Indy Goddess"**
* **Entrance themes**
	+ **"Python Powerhouse"** by Wrestle and Flow

## Championships and accomplishments

* **Premier Streaming Network**
	+ Premier Women's World Championship (1 time, current)
* **Other titles**
	+ Women’s Internet Championship (1 time, current)