"You're breaking up with him today" - Ex-WWE Diva reveals message from Vince McMahon and co. after real life engagement got leaked
Former WWE diva Summer Rae was involved in one of the hottest angles in wrestling when she got entangled in the now-infamous Rusev-Lana-Dolph Ziggler love trapezoid in 2015. Unfortunately for her, it had to be cut short as the news of the pair’s engagement went public and Vince McMahon wanted to end it abruptly.
Summer Rae shed more light on what she thought about the whole debacle in a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet. She explained how she thought she was over with the crowd for the first time and how, when the news of Lana and Rusev getting engaged broke, the company explained to her that no one is bigger than WWE.
Summer Rae said:
"We found out that day. I think they called me into the office. I don't even think it was Vince. I think the head writers called me and they were like, ‘Hey, it's on TMZ. No one's bigger than WWE.’ That's a big thing for Vince and Cena would always talk about that, like, no one's bigger than WWE and they don't want you to think that either."
She further revealed that she was ordered to break up her storyline relationship with Rusev and was given the choice to write her own promo for the segment:
"So like, ‘Oh, you want to go to TMZ and say you guys are married, and that kind of ruins our storyline’, which in my opinion, I don't think it did ruin it. It's kayfabe. But, ‘You want to do that? Well, watch this. It's over. You're breaking up with him today. Do you want to write your own promo?’ I'm like, ‘What? They're like, ‘Okay, great. We're gonna put you together with a writer. You guys can go out and write it.'"[H/T WrestlingNews]
The storyline came to an end shortly after that, and it was never brought up again in WWE.
WWE chairman Vince McMahon was furious with TMZ
The news of Lana and Rusev’s engagement was leaked to the notorious TMZ news organization, and things went downhill for the angle with Summer Rae after that.
In the same interview, Summer Rae also shared how angry Vince McMahon was with TMZ and how the leak affected the morale of the writers backstage.
Summer said:
"He [Vince McMahon] was really upset. I think the head writers at the time were really upset too because they had just been so invested in it. I think the fans aren’t dumb like to know that there was never a payoff, like we never had a payoff match. Lana and I never went back and forth. We never had the doubles match, so clearly something went wrong in the storyline.” [29:40-30:02]
Rusev, now called Miro, wrestles with AEW, where he is a one-time TNT Champion. His now-wife Lana did not join any new promotion after being released by WWE in 2021.