Posted on 12/03/125 by Colin Vassallo
CJ Perry sat down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast
Creative Studio in Hollywood, California to discuss the
launch of her new podcast “Identity Crisis”, taking time
away from wrestling, her husband Rusev and his return to
WWE, how the Lana character was pitched to her, being part
of a hilarious moment with Nia Jax, being involved in
multiple romantic storylines, and more!
On signing a WWE Legends deal:
“I’m still processing it. It’s funny, because I would say
it’s been kind of controversial. One of the biggest things
that I had on my podcast last week was announcing that I’m a
WWE legend, and you thought I stole their Christmas presents
or something, people were so mad. People were like, it’s a
stretch, and they’re fighting, and then other fans are
coming in and defending me. So I just want to acknowledge I
understand, I was that shocked too. I absolutely understand
that there’s a huge difference between the character Lana
and Randy Savage on the legend scale. I get it, but this is
what WWE calls their contracts, being a full WWE superstar.
My agent called me. I was crying. I was shocked. Yeah, they
gave Miro a contract, and they gave me the WWE legend
contract at the same time.”
On her WWE release:
“I was shocked. I was on television and in big, big
storylines the whole time. Had a great relationship with
Bruce and Vince, everyone. I was devastated. But now looking
back, I’m thankful, because that’s life, and sometimes our
hardest moments is our moments that teach us. Now looking
back, I realize, not in a mean way, but nothing’s guaranteed
in life. We can’t compare ourselves to other people, because
we all have a different journey. And also, we don’t live
forever, so everything has to come to an end, so let’s focus
on all the great things I was able to have, versus it may be
finishing too soon.”
On how the Lana character was pitched:
“So Lana in NXT would come to promo class with Dusty Rhodes
with at least five different characters and promos, not even
kidding, with boards of storylines. I don’t know if you ever
saw GLOW, when I watched it, I was like, I think she took my
real life story, because that’s what I was doing. And Dusty
loved it. Because, I don’t know about everyone else,
everyone else was like, ‘You’re doing the most.’ But was
just working hard and Dusty loved it. He’s like, ‘You’re
going to have a very long career in this business.’ Because
I was always like, ‘Oh, you don’t like this idea. What about
these other five?’ And so me and Rusev started working. One
of the five ideas I was working on was me and Rusev, but we
were doing more comedy, and he was the Bulgarian trying to
un-brainwash me. I was the Russian that became Americanized,
and he wanted to un-brainwash me, and it was very comedy and
fun.”
Were you guys dating at the time?
“No, no, we were just friends. He would come over and we
would shoot a bunch of promos, and I guess that’s how we
became close. Then the next thing I know, Dusty said to me,
‘We only want you to do one promo. We want it to be serious
and see what it looks like.’ I did it, and then the next
thing you know, Miro was like, let’s do something serious.
And then we were put together. We did one serious promo.
He’s like, ‘Let’s not do comedy, let’s do serious.’ And then
next day, I was on NXT with him. I was just serious without
an accent. And then Hunter pulled me aside. He’s like, ‘I
want you to only talk Russian. Let’s start this and we’ll
see how far [it goes.] And then it was just an evolution.
Triple H was very hands-on. He’s a genius. And he was like,
‘Okay, let’s try a different hair, a different suit or
something.’ So that’s how the suit and the bun came about.”
On the negative reaction to the Russia storyline:
“It was insane. People booing you, in comments, people
telling you to go back to Mother Russia, it was crazy. I
think I did notice a lot of hate. Partly the reason why I
don’t post my family on social media too much is because I
would post it like my little nephew, and people would just
come for the child, like, ‘Move back the Russia, you stupid
child.’ I was like, Oh my God, that’s so inappropriate right
now. So you know, I have to just remember I’m that
character. It’s kind of like Game of Thrones. Everyone hated
the king or Cersei, right? And people see us as that
character. They don’t see me as CJ with my little nephew.
They see me as the evil Lana who’s being mean to their
children in America. So we’re going to be mean back.”
On getting put through the announce table every week:
“I was just the biggest heel at the moment in the business
because of the Bobby Lashley story. I was teaming up with
Nattie, and we were heels. Vince wanted to have his new
schtick for Nia that she was going to put someone through
commentary every single week, and he was going to turn her
into a massive babyface. So I was like, ‘I want to go. I’ve
always wanted to go through a table. It’s my dream.’ That
was told to Vince, and Vince thought that was so hysterical
that I ever dreamed of going through a table. He thought it
made the most sense if they were trying to make her as a
babyface, to put the person that was hated the most through
the table. Because everyone, Liv wanted to go through it, a
whole bunch of other girls were like, ‘No, me, me!’ So she
put me through [the table], and it was the same day that
Miro had an AEW interview on a podcast, and it was just
something with his interview and me doing that at the same
time that the fans assumed I was being disciplined because
of Rusev, but it wasn’t that way at all. It just really
worked into my favor that the fans really had my back like
that. One second they hate me and like that, they turn. God,
I love our fan base. You guys are the best. So then the
following week, I think originally, the plan was to put
another girl through the table. And Vince was like, ‘No, I
want to try again Lana.’ And then by the third week, I had
become a full-blown babyface online. And it was so much heat
for Nia and Shayna, he was like, I think this is going to
make them a bigger heel and you have bigger babyface. So
let’s run with it and see where it goes. So that’s what
happened.”