Pro Wrestling Real Life Stories: Episode 3 - Lana, Rusev, his real-life fight, Russia, Bulgaria and the American Dream
It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that Lana and Rusev are quite possibly two of the more underrated talents in the professional wrestling business today. Catherine Joy Perry (Lana) and Miroslav Barnyashev (Rusev) have, over the course of the past few years, established themselves as a staple of the WWE roster.
That beckons the question--how exactly did a dancer/model/singer find herself in the swashbuckling world of professional wrestling, much like the Bulgarian power-lifter who came over to the United States of America to live the American Dream? Well, today we are going to be looking at a few real-life anecdotes provided to the fans by Lana & Rusev, which have helped us get an extraordinary insight into the "real" lives of this WWE power couple.
*Fans can look forward to 2 episodes of "Pro Wrestling Real Life Stories" being released every weekend (Saturday & Sunday) in the upcoming days.
#10 Lana -- The Russian-American genius
In an extensive interview with WWE legend Chris Jericho on his podcast Talk Is Jericho, Lana and Rusev opened up about their personal lives for the very first time in an out-of-character aka shoot interview. It was in this conversation that Lana revealed several interesting facts about her childhood, young adulthood as well as latter years--with more than a few amazing details regarding The Ravishing Russian being unraveled.
Anecdotes:
Lana revealed that her parents were Christian missionaries from Soviet Russia who'd come to the US and worked there for a considerable amount of time--adding that just a few years into her childhood; Lana was sent back to live in then-USSR controlled Latvia. In fact, well after Latvia became a separate nation, Lana stayed put in the country--recalling that she attended a very strict school with that "Russian discipline".
Moreover, Lana revealed that she'd derived her on-screen character in the WWE of "The Ravishing Russian" Lana, from her "crazy ballet teachers" back in Latvia. In fact, Lana explained that her ballet teachers were so very erratic, that she vividly remembers a teacher referring to the students who didn't perform well as "stupid fat cow"...Lana claimed that she channels her inner-crazy ballet teacher while depicting her character on WWE TV...