"That's when the trouble began"- Vince Russo pinpoints when Lana's WWE career changed (Exclusive)
Former WWE writer Vince Russo believes Lana’s WWE career began to go downhill after it emerged she was engaged to Rusev in real life.
Lana became involved in a romance angle with Dolph Ziggler in June 2015, while Rusev formed an alliance with Summer Rae. The storyline abruptly ended on the October 12, 2015 episode of RAW, one day after TMZ reported that Lana and Rusev were engaged to be married.
Russo worked as WWE’s head writer in the late 1990s. Speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling’s Writing With Russo with Dr. Chris Featherstone, he said the engagement news “really p****d off” WWE’s higher-ups:
“Bro, that’s when the trouble began,” Russo said. “When they were going on social media talking about their real relationship, getting married, pictures on the beach and all that. That’s what really p****d the WWE off. All out of spite, all out of spite [WWE ending the romance storyline], that was the beginning of the end.”
Watch the video above to find out Vince Russo’s thoughts on Lana’s possible future in the wrestling business after leaving WWE. He also gave his opinion on why WWE released Ruby Riott.
Reason why Vince McMahon axed Lana’s romance storyline
Lana’s husband, Miro (f.k.a. Rusev in WWE), discussed the 2015 romance storyline on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast in 2020.
The former WWE Superstar said he was supposed to win the Intercontinental Championship and get married to Summer Rae. However, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon nixed the idea because he considered TMZ to be “world news” and he thought fans would turn against the storyline.
Miro also explained that someone leaked pictures to TMZ to prove that he was engaged to Lana. He said WWE blamed them both for the story being leaked, even though they did not intentionally inform fans about their engagement.
Please credit Sportskeeda Wrestling’s Writing With Russo if you use quotes from this article.