"That part wasn't uncomfortable" - Aiden English on his storyline affair with Lana (Exclusive)
Former WWE NXT Tag Team Champion Aiden English, aka Drama King Matt, was a special guest on the latest episode of Sportskeeda Wrestling's UnSKripted with Dr. Chris Featherstone.
During the Q&A session, English was asked about his infamous storyline affair with Lana, and the wrestler shared his honest views about the whole angle.
English played a pivotal role in the popular Rusev Day gimmick, but instead of fully capitalizing on the team's momentum, WWE booked an unwanted love triangle featuring English, Rusev and Lana.
The former WWE star was involved in an angle titled 'One Night in Milwaukee,' which was the supposed video evidence of his romantic relationship with Lana.
English revealed he wasn't uncomfortable with the idea of having a kayfabe affair with Lana as he was a performer who got paid to play characters in any given situation. The former WWE star had no problem being Lana's love interest as long as it added to the storyline.
"I'm not uncomfortable in the sense of, 'Oh, you've got to do a romantic or even like fake romantic angle with someone, even if you had to kiss someone. I am both, and both especially about me and my wife, we're both performers, so we get it.
"There is no issue in doing something romantic or even a little bit sexual or whatever if it's for the part. So, that part wasn't uncomfortable. The idea of like I had to fake this affair with Lana, that was never an issue."
English, however, did have an issue with how WWE portrayed the entire angle. The former WWE commentator labeled the storytelling "crummy" and felt WWE missed the boat with the feud.
English explained that his planned split from Rusev (Miro) had the potential to be a very personal rivalry. However, he also felt the story ended up being worse than a C-grade movie and pulled no punches while criticizing WWE's storyline direction.
"You know what made me uncomfortable? It was a bad idea," added English. "That it was just crummy storytelling. And I'm like, you have all this meat on the wine, if you really wanted to split us up, which we didn't want to do anyway. I'm like, 'Fine, but you have all this meat on the wine of just, 'Okay, I can be mad at her for splitting us up maybe and be jealous and all this stuff.' And just make it really personal, like, 'hey, make it about Rusev Day.'
"Her taking him away from me and like breaking up a great team as opposed to like, toggery, not even C-movie, like D-movie level like soap-opera stuff. Real Bush League, you know, and it lasted two weeks. I'm like, 'Okay, great.'
Fought against it: Aiden English had many ideas for his WWE storyline with Lana and Rusev
English noted that he had some appealing ideas for the feud and was personally quite happy when he turned on Rusev.
The former NXT star said WWE could have offered an old-school tag team break-up storyline, but Vince McMahon had made up his mind about going ahead with a cheesy romantic narrative.
"That's what was uncomfortable, the idea of it, we had all these ideas. I'm like, alright, 'If we're going to break up if we're going to do this.' I felt good after we had the big turn. I beat the crap out of him with the microphone, all this stuff; we can make this a really personal feud and just straight up like, old school wrestling.
"Tag Team breaks up over a woman. This could be freaking great stuff. And then, again, it all has to be a cheesy gimmick, and we fought against it, but there was just nothing. Again, the boss's mind was settled, and it was what it was," English added.
English's affair with Lana lasted a mere two weeks before WWE had Rusev defeat the former Vaudevillian.
During the latest UnSKripted, English also shared his thoughts on a scary Enzo Amore incident, Miro in AEW, his time in the WWE, and more.
If any quotes are used from this article, please add a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling and embed the UnSKripted video.