You should never pull your plants out of the pots unless you're transplanting. You've caused that plant great stress by doing that. We cant tell anything by the picture of it still covered in coco dust, but otherwise the plant just looks hungry imo.
As spek said, defoliation is counterproductive when it isnt needed. We trim trained bushy plants to allow more light to the parts of the plant we want. For example, I look at what branches look like they have a chance to grow up into the main canopy. When I cut leaves off, it's with the purpose of getting more light to those branches so they have a chance to grow too. From the look of your plant, you probably didnt need to do much at all, if any.