One of the more divisive storyline angles during Bobby Lashley’s tenure in the WWE was the infamous cheating storyline with Lana and Rusev; in this angle, Lashley and Lana, the latter of whom was the girlfriend of Rusev in kayfabe at the time (and married to him in real life), began a sordid, very public love affair. While being involved in such a narrative with someone else’s real-life wife might seem aberrant and downright grimy — even by Vince McMahon standards — Lashley says that Lana, whose real name is CJ Perry, made the angle a lot less awkward than it could have been for the two of them.
“I can say this, and I’ve said this several times before, but then again I’m very positive with everything,” Lashley said on a recent episode of the Chris Van Vliet podcast, Insight. “But I can honestly say it was 100% Lana that was able to make me feel comfortable doing it, and then to just try to do things, to really further that whole feud.”
Lashley went on to say that it would oftentimes be Lana who would come up with ideas to fortify the storyline and that a high level of professionalism was maintained because Lana was a consummate actress.
Lashley continued, “She was on top of everything. She was always like, Alright, I got a photographer over here. We need a photographer over here. We need to walk so the people see us together, so it’s not like something where they’re just like, oh, they don’t care about it. So I was like, alright, but all I’m thinking about is who am I supposed to wrestle or go smash?
She’s like, No, we need to come over here and take these pictures. We need to go do this. She was like, pulling me in all these different directions. And I was just like are you cool with all this? She’s like, yes, because she knows acting and she’s able to put herself into characters.”
Although the infamous Lana and Rusev cheating angle was excoriated by many WWE fans at the time, with Lana in particular catching flak because it was what seemed like the umpteenth time her character was involved in a “cheating on Rusev” angle (although much of the blame for that should be placed on Vince McMahon, who seemed to have a intense predilection for recycling Lana and Rusev cheating storylines), Lashley remains adamant that the disparagement of Lana is unfounded.
“Lana is a sweetheart, and I know that some people were hard on her because it seems like she tries too much, she tries too hard, and sometimes it comes as not sincere to people and I think some people kind of jumped on her about it,” Lashley added. “But working with her, I think she’s a sweetheart and she really helped me feel comfortable in that role.”
Conversely, Rusev AKA Miro, the man on the humiliative receiving end of the Lana cheating storyline (the two have since separated in-real life), reflects back on the experience in a less fond light. In fact, Vince McMahon originally had a different idea for the storyline that would have made it even more embarrassing for the real-life married couple.
“They wanted [Lana] to say I was a sex addict, but the original pitch was that I have erectile dysfunction,” Rusev revealed on an episode of the AEW podcast, Unrestricted. “They really wanted to kill me, completely. I don’t think in anybody’s eyes how the babyface has erectile dysfunction that he’s a good guy. There’s nothing wrong with people who have erectile dysfunction, people take care of it, but that was not the case here. There was no coming back from it. Absolutely no coming back from it. I told them, ‘Vince, this is going to bury me completely.’ He already had the man who took my wife, then I have erectile dysfunction, and I’m going to lose. I wasn’t supposed to lose, that just changed with time. I said it was a better idea if we do the sex addict thing, and he went for it right away. Thank God I did not have erectile dysfunction as a character.”
What do you think of the comments shared by Bobby Lashley on the infamous Lana and Rusev cheating angle in the WWE? Do you think the Bobby Lashley, Lana and Rusev angle was a catalyst for Lana and Rusev divorcing not too long after in real-life? Let us know in the comments.
