Lana Says Her WWE Character Stemmed From Vince McMahon And Dusty Rhodes' Love Of... GAME OF THRONES?
You might be surprised to learn of a connection between the wonderful world of WWE and HBO's mega-popular fantasy drama series, but here we are! Find out what Lana has to say about it after the jump...
The Ravishing Russian and her Bulgarian Brute's popularity may have waned of late, but at one time they were two of the most over heels in WWE. When the duo first arrived on the scene, Lana (real name CJ Perry) was portrayed as Rusev's (Miroslav Barnyashev) handler; able to control the level of punishment he dished out on his opponents, while also being the only one who could call him off.
Lana recently appeared as a guest on AfterBuzz TV’s The Tomorrow Show with Keven Undergaro (via Uproxx), and revealed the surprising inspiration behind this character dynamic:
"The whole idea of me controlling the brute was Dusty’s idea, which is an interesting spin, so it becomes not just like Russian, but it was like I was in charge of the brute, and the more conniving character, was Dusty’s idea from Khaleesi — she controls the dragons … Dusty was so brilliant [and] he basically predicted everything that me and Rusev eventually did on TV.
“He was like, ‘You are going to control the brute. Control him, control him, but at one point, if you push him too far, he will turn on you.’ And that’s exactly what we ended up doing. I was always the intense one, and then at one point, I pushed him too far, and he tried to kick me back to Russia. And that’s what brought up Dolph.
“[The Dolph storyline] was so much fun. Vince got that whole idea from [Cersei Lannister]. I remember having that whole conversation with him and saying, ‘What about [Cersei], being conniving?’ He was like, ‘Yes!’ And that whole Dolph Ziggler story came from [Cersei] from Game of Thrones!”
I never would have guessed in a million years that Vince McMahon was a Game of Thrones mark, but there you go. Lana and Rusev went through an ill-advised parting of ways a while back, and things haven't really been the same for the pair since reuniting. Perhaps a simultaneous face turn for both Superstars is the answer?
You can check out the full show below, and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section.