{"id":86769,"date":"2021-03-14T07:45:29","date_gmt":"2021-03-14T11:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=86769"},"modified":"2021-03-14T07:45:29","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T11:45:29","slug":"report-wwe-signs-steph-de-lander-matty-wahlberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/03\/14\/report-wwe-signs-steph-de-lander-matty-wahlberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: WWE Signs Aussie Stars Steph De Lander &#038; Matty Wahlberg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a report from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwinsider.com\/article\/144761\/two-australian-stars-sign-with-wwe-.html?p=1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PWInsider<\/a> on Saturday, it appears that WWE has signed two of the top stars of the Australian independent scene in <strong>Matty Wahlberg<\/strong> and <strong>Steph De Lander<\/strong>. Steph De Lander <a href=\"https:\/\/squaredcirclesirens.com\/steph-de-lander-receives-wwe-tryout\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was part of the WWE Tryout in London, England<\/a> in June of 2019 at the United Kingdom Performance Center and according to some reports, was intended to join WWE in early 2020 before the Covid pandemic halted international travel.<\/p>\n<p>Steph De Lander has been wrestling since 2017, after training with Australian legend <strong>Madison Eagles<\/strong>. She started out with <strong>Pro Wrestling Alliance<\/strong> (PWA, now PWA Black Label), originally wearing a mask and known as <strong>FaceBrooke<\/strong>. She would go on to work multiple Australian indies, including <strong>Newcastle Pro (Newy Pro), Melbourne City Wrestling (MCW), New Horizon Pro Wrestling (NHPW), Venom Pro Wrestling (VPW)<\/strong>, and others. In only a year into her career, she began to make excursions to the US indie scene, debuting with <strong>RISE Wrestling<\/strong> in April of 2018, followed by working with <strong>SHIMMER, IWA Mid-South, Black Label Pro<\/strong>, and others. In early 2019, she removed her mask and rebranded as Steph De Lander, going on to capture the VPW Women&#8217;s Championship, MCW Women&#8217;s Championship, and the Newy Pro Women&#8217;s Championship.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FULL MATCH - Tarlee vs. Steph De Lander \u2013 VPW Women&#039;s Title Match: Survival IV, Sept 28, 2019\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L-6hpCZQBZA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Matty Wahlberg is another trainee of Madison Eagles (as well as New Japan&#8217;s Robbie Eagles) who also began his career in 2017. Over his career he has wrestled for PWA Black Label, <strong>Wrestling GO!,<\/strong> Newy Pro, <strong>Explosive Pro Wrestling (EPW)<\/strong>, <strong>International Wrestling Australia (IWA), Future Wrestling Australia (FWA)<\/strong>, and others, capturing the Newy Pro Middleweight Championship, Wrestling GO! Silver Medal Championship, and FWA Heavyweight title. Wahlberg recently appeared on the second episode of\u00a0<em>Young Rock<\/em>, the new sitcom based on the life of <strong>Dwayne &#8220;The Rock&#8221; Johnson<\/strong>, portraying <strong>Ric Flair<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FREE MATCH PWA Heavyweight Championship: Matty Wahlberg Vs Caveman Ugg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rcahD1o1Z-0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The two additions, apparently signed for the NXT brand, is a continuing movement that has seen many talents from the Ocean indie scene boom of the past several years that has seen their indie stars head off to major companies. Over the past few years, WWE has added Australian &amp; New Zealand stars like <strong>Toni Storm, Rhea Ripley, Bronson Reed<\/strong> (Jonah Rock), <strong>Brendan Vink, Indie Hartwell<\/strong>, and others, while <strong>Robbie Eagles<\/strong> and <strong>Gino Gambino<\/strong> work for NJPW. <strong>Ring of Honor<\/strong> signed the trio of <strong>Adam Brooks, Kellyanne<\/strong>, and <strong>Slex<\/strong>, and <strong>Shazza McKenzie<\/strong> was beginning to find work with <strong>All Elite Wrestling<\/strong> just before Covid hit.<\/p>\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a> for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Looking to talk wrestling, pro football, or any number of sports? Head on over to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/boards\/index.php\" target=\"_self\">LWOS Boards<\/a>\u00a0to engage in conversation with fellow fans!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a report from PWInsider on Saturday, it appears that WWE has signed two of the top stars of the Australian independent scene in Matty Wahlberg and Steph De Lander. Steph De Lander was part of the WWE Tryout in London, England in June of 2019 at the United Kingdom Performance Center and according to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":86770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3317,2,5,3],"tags":[4213,116,4829,47],"class_list":["post-86769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-featured","category-nxt","category-wwe-universe","tag-matty-wahlberg","tag-nxt","tag-steph-de-lander","tag-wwe"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}