Persia Pirotta shares original creative plans before WWE release

Former NXT Superstar Persia Pirotta recently opened up about WWE's creative plans for her that were eventually nixed. Pirotta said that she was slated to feud with Indi Hartwell before her surprise WWE release.

Pirotta was introduced to NXT last year as a close friend of Indi Hartwell. That made sense since the duo had also worked together during their time at Melbourne City Wrestling (MCW) several years ago.

During a recent interview with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, Persia stated that WWE wanted to recreate her MCW angle with Hartwell. The idea was for her to turn heel and feud with her tag partner. Pirotta even had conversations with NXT's creative team, and she explained how the storyline wrote itself due to her history with Indi Hartwell.

"That was initially kind of where our story was going to go. I was going to turn on Indi, and we were going to run through the same story we did at MCW," recalled Pirotta. "Even to the point where I was showing them what we did in Melbourne, and I had told them the history of our friendship. I had meetings like I told them everything and that this story writes itself. We literally did it in Australia, and what the ultimate screw-over for us was to meant to be going within three months of each other; she gets it, and I get screwed for two years." [23:18 - 23:57]

As a tandem act, Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta got over with the NXT universe, and WWE then decided to keep them together for the foreseeable future.

The Australian superstars branched out into different angles, but the end goal was always to focus on a rivalry between real-life friends.

While Pirotta said she was disappointed about not facing Hartwell, the now-former WWE star understood the ever-changing dynamics of TV production and didn't have any major regrets.

Persia Pirotta reveals why WWE held off on her feud with Indi Hartwell

Persia Pirotta, now known as Stephanie De Landre, admitted that she wasn't extremely popular when she first arrived in WWE in 2021. While Pirotta shared a deep bond with Hartwell, WWE fans weren't aware of her work outside the company, and she was happy teaming up with her NXT colleague until their planned program.

Persia felt that a series of singles matches with Indi Hartwell could have made for a compelling story on NXT, and she noted that the writers were also of the same opinion.

"Like when I first started, I didn't have much of a following or hadn't done enough in WWE for people to care about me enough and make the story as juicy as it could have been," explained Pirotta. "Whereas I think we let all this InDex and DuSia stuff play out, and then we do the big Persia vs. Indi, then I think it would have been a much hotter story. That's what they told me, and I agreed with them, and yeah." [24:45 - 25:00]

Persia Pirotta's release will not stop her from pursuing her professional wrestling dreams. The superstar opened up about what she intends to do following her WWE exit. You can read what she had to say right here.

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