WWE News: WWE Pushing Lana To Become Female Face Of WWE, Set To Drop Russian Gimmick Soon?
WWE Diva Lana has made waves in WWE since her arrival to WWE programming. Her first appearance on WWE RAW took fans in, as she was considered a gorgeous, breath taking woman who possessed a killer instinct with her client Rusev. Her ability to look good and act ruthless only made her that more attractive to fans. Rusev came in as an unstoppable monster that Lana basically could use to do any bidding she wanted. He only listened to her, so he wouldn’t stop any beat down until Lana said so. It was a great pairing, but fans quickly realized something.
While Rusev was fun to watch at his best, Lana was the star in the duo. Lana and Rusev are a real-life couple, so the idea that they work so well together isn’t some stroke of luck. The interesting thing is that without Lana, Rusev is considered weak. When Lana had to leave WWE for a brief period of time to work on a WWE Studios film with Edge, she had to be written off TV. This was a big deal, because it was a period of time that WWE was building to WrestleMania.
Rusev is not a skilled mic worker, but this is understandable as English is not his first language. Everyone knows this, but the start of a push for Lana began then without her even being present. WWE fans chanted “We want Lana! We want Lana!.” They did it all throughout Rusev’s promos and even his matches. When Lana returned, fans were loving the fact that she was back.
It should not come as a surprise that WWE has realized how wonderful Lana has been and that they have to capitalize on it immediately. According to The Wrestling Observer, WWE is going to do just that. WWE is planning to split Rusev and Lana and push Lana into a position where she can be the face of the WWE Diva Division. The split with Rusev will reveal that Lana is, in fact, American and not Russian. From here of course WWE will turn Lana into a babyface.
The idea that WWE is considering is changing her name to her actual name to start her babyface run away from her heel Russian period, which is CJ(Catherine Joy) Perry. They may simply stick with CJ as it is marketable for them. It is a happy coincidence that it lines up with the name Pamela Anderson used in the popular show Baywatch. Which is something WWE would certainly be okay with comparing Lana to.
Vince McMahon is a massive fan of Lana and realizes he has to get as much out of her as possible.
WWE is attempting to pull a Sable with Lana. For those unaware, Sable was a manager in WWE for a little while with her real life husband Mark Mero. She was liked by the crowd the same way Lana is now. Everyone looked at Sable and not Mero. This was something WWE realized and thought they needed to exploit. So they had Sable come out and model WWE merchandise or be part of WWE marketing without Mark. So there was a steady rise of Sable love and a wish for only Sable and not Mero.
Mero got wind of this storyline wise and decided to stop the issue from happening and would cover up Sable and tell her that people were her to see him wrestle and not her. Eventually, WWE planned a split with the two like WWE is hinting at doing now with Lana and Rusev. Mero didn’t work out in WWE and went downhill fast without Sable. Meanwhile Sable went on a rocket ship to the top after her split from Mero on TV and even got into the ring to wrestle quite often. The TV split ended up drifting into their personal life and the two split in real life as well throughout all of this.
Like Sable, WWE feels that they need to slowly build to a falling out with Lana and Rusev. It will probably build up in a major way after WWE Payback. Fans will continue to love Lana as they always have, but when the actual split happens it could be part of WWE’s big summer angle.
There is a plan is place to push Lana, but the problem is that she is not a wrestler. While WWE could always get her in the ring to work and then eventually allow her to wrestle on television, that is a long time off. The idea currently is to place her with someone else as a manager eventually or for her to be similar to Paul Heyman and have various clients. She could always have one major one though, which is rumored currently to be Roman Reigns. Plans could always change though.
A plan that will not change is the push of Lana and babyface turn. It is going to happen, but WWE might milk it out as much as possible. They know the fans want it, so it appears that they will build up to make it a huge deal once it happens.
[IMG Credits: fightbooth.com, fansided, 411mania.com]
