SmackDown Live star Lana appeared on the Baby Huey & Bimbo Jimbo radio show earlier this week on 107.7 The Bone (San Francisco, CA). Topics discussed include the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble match, Rusev’s reaction to Lana joining the cast of Total Divas (and dropping her Russian accent) plus reports that she was in the WWE doghouse after news of her engagement went public while they were feuding on television.
You can listen to the full interview in the embedded audio player at the bottom of this article. Here are some highlights:
Women’s Royal Rumble
Lana said she’d “so, so, so grateful” to be a part of the historic event and was crying and screaming when she heard she’d be a part of it. She was overwhelmed with gratitude and relishes the opportunity to be part of such a positive milestone for women’s wrestling.
Rusev & Lana On Total Divas
“He definitely wanted to do it,” she said. “He fully supports me, and so he was excited to do it. He’s a character. He’s so funny. So, he’s just himself on that like ‘Sure if cameras want to follow me around that’s fine. I might just be naked at my pool. It’s not my fault the cameras are here.’ Which you guys are going to have to watch Total Divas. That might happen next week.”
Lana says she wasn’t worried about it damaging her WWE character because “we are storytellers.” When she is on WWE television, she portrays a Russian villain. On Total Divas, she is herself – and compares it to Hollywood stars who portray roles in movies.
“To me when just like when you watch a movie or you watch a TV show to me you know Nicole Kidman or Leonardo DiCaprio you know that they are actors, but also great actors find that extension of themselves. So, when I walk through that curtain I find the extension of myself of being the Ravishing Russian in there. We are actors, we are entertainers, and most of all we are story tellers…I was actually really excited because to me it’s giving the world the chance to see that we are story tellers.”
Reports That She Had Heat With Management After Her Engagement
Back in October 2015, TMZ broke the news that Rusev and Lana were engaged ‘in real life.’ Great news, except for the fact that the two were involved in a heated WWE storyline at the time that saw Lana aligned with Dolph Ziggler (who could forget those denim jackets?) and Rusev romantically linked to Summer Rae.
WWE scrambled to make sense of the situation, eventually acknowledging Lana and Rusev’s engagement. WWE.com wrote:
“The Ravishing Russian had been romantically linked to Dolph Ziggler in recent months and Rusev fielded a proposal from Summer Rae just last week, but it would appear that any lingering problems between the power couple have been resolved.”
There were reports that WWE management was understandably not happy about their storyline being undermined and there were reports that Lana had backstage heat as a result. In her chat with Baby Huey & Bimbo Jimbo, Lana set the record straight:
“The truth was that Vince McMahon just decided to go a different route, and that’s just what it was. Rusev and I were trending for like three days straight ‘Rusev and Lana are engaged’ He just made the decision at that time he goes ok I want to bring them back together…People are always going to talk. I think for 6 months after that the headline was Lana has nuclear heat, (laughter) and I am like great! You know, you’re talking about me.”
Check out the full interview here:
