It’s official—love is in the air, and also possibly still on a barbed wire bat somewhere in Indiana. TNA Wrestling’s most delightfully chaotic couple, Steph De Lander and Mance Warner, have announced their real-life engagement, proving once and for all that the couple that bleeds together… probably bleeds together again at Fancy Wrestling 3.
De Lander shared the big news on social media, posting a photo of her engagement ring with the poetic caption:
“Love is like the open sea… here’s to forever with you ♥️🌊🌈☀️🌴”
Romance? ✅
Emojis? ✅
Mance Warner possibly proposing while covered in thumbtacks? Pending.
The two TNA stars have been on-screen lovebirds in the promotion this year, but the real-life relationship has roots going back over a year and a half, beginning with a match where, fittingly, they beat the ever-loving crap out of each other. That match? The gloriously named BLP Fancy Wrestling 2 in June 2023. Yes, these two fell in love during a hardcore match. Nicholas Sparks, take notes.
Steph later revealed she had a “pre-match crush” on Warner, which somehow bloomed after several chair shots and at least one broken table. That’s what we call “extreme emotional connection.”
Since Warner’s arrival in TNA earlier this year, the two have also been aligned on-screen, taking their romance public with a shared feud against King of Chaos Sami Callihan. For those keeping track:
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De Lander went from being romantically linked with PCO (yes, that PCO)
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To divorcing him on-screen
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To inheriting the Digital Media Championship from him like a twisted legal loophole
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To losing said title when it was retired (RIP Digital Media Division, you were weird and we loved you)
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To now being engaged to Mance Warner, who is entered in the International Championship tournament
Warner’s next stop is a triple threat match in the first round of the tournament against Callihan and AJ Francis, because if wrestling weddings are cursed, then wrestling engagements must be tested by combat.
Here’s to De Lander and Warner:
Wrestlers. Lovers. Possibly the first couple to swap vows over a kendo stick.