Lana On What Vince McMahon Taught Her, Triple H's Involvement With Enzo Hotel Angle, Training In NXT
Lana appeared on The Tomorrow Show with Keven Undergaro, which was co-hosted by Sean Waltman, and discussed her WWE character, her dream of being the Women's Champion, Vince McMahon and more. They sent us these highlights:
When her goals are before pregnancy:
"Oh my Gosh, there are so many things. I definitely would like to wrestle, for sure. I mean, I would love to be Women's Champion before a child. Why not? Like I said, it's WWE, anything can happen. It's sports entertainment."
Vince McMahon taught Lana to keep "evolving":
"I've learned so many things from Vince McMahon, I mean he's just like a knowledge of stuff. But one thing he told me about my character... Lana, has to evolve, just like as humans, we have to keep on evolving and keep on changing. We should never stop changing, and we should never stop evolving, and I was like, 'woah, that's really deep, let me take that with me for life!'"
Triple H and Dusty Rhodes came up with Lana's persona by having her watch Rocky IV:
"Triple H actually was a big person and Dusty Rhodes telling me to watch Rocky IV and instantly I was like, 'You want me to be this? You want me to be that serious person?' Because I feel like I'm a light-hearted person, I love comedy, and even all the stuff I was doing at WWE when I first came to developmental was, everything was more like light-hearted stuff. So I'm like, 'Rocky IV?' But that's what we did when I saw it, we tried it, started doing that influence... I watched it a lot."
Enzo / Rusev storyline highlights and how Triple H brings things to the "next level"
"The hotel stuff was awesome. The thing that we did with the hotel, actually Triple H produced the whole thing. So, that was great. I mean, he took it to a whole other level. He made the whole pre-tape and backstage so much better."
Vince McMahon and Dusty Rhodes bringing their love of Game of Thrones to WWE:
Lana: "I know he [Vince] loves Game of Thrones. Yeah, he loves Game of Thrones and he loves Cersei."
Sean: "Dusty was a huge Game of Thrones fan."
Lana: "So that's another inspiration, it's just so funny, this is why you should watch a lot of things because I think you can get inspiration from a lot of things . So the whole kind of idea of me controlling the brute was Dusty's idea ,which is an interesting spin, so it becomes not just like [a] Russian [gimmick] but it was like I was in charge of the brute, was and the more of like the conniving character. [It] was Dusty's idea from Khaleesi – she controls the dragons and that was like everything, and Dusty was so forward for his time. Dusty was so brilliant, he basically predicted everything that we, me and Rusev eventually did on TV."
The impact that WWE producer Ryan Katz had on her:
"Oh my gosh I love Ryan Katz! He's amazing! He was the first person to say Rocky IV. He was actually with me in my tryout,we got the job together. So they were trying him out for film, at my tryout, they were using him, the documenter, and then they hired him from that. I remember I would text him, because he's so creative, he's so brilliant, he's one of my close, close friends. I would text him like, 'oh let's shoot this promo.' I'm not even signed to WWE and he would come over to my apartment and we would shoot these promos and create, he's just such a creative mind. But when he when I first started in developmental, [he said], 'I think you should do really the Russian thing, I think you should just mock the Rocky IV thing, I think you should be really serious and really stern and really Russian.' and I'm like, 'uhh really? I have to be serious all the time?"
Training to wrestle during her free time at NXT:
"I don't like to overly plan life but I've trained. I've been training since the beginning of getting there and would like to reap the reward of all those days off that I go. I go to the NXT a lot, all the time, and I don't have days off and I'm there training or coming early to the live events, so of course, I would like to have a match at some point, but it's all about the story so I don't have to rush it. It doesn't have to be tomorrow, even though if Vince McMahon needs it tomorrow, if I have to have a singles, then we'll do it."
Sean Waltman compares Lana to Miss Elizabeth:
Sean: "I always looked at you, like, more like the Miss Elizabeth. If I had to compare you to anyone."
Lana: "Miss Elizabeth is one of my favorites of all time."
Sean: "She always maintained that classiness, number one, and although they tried to do the wrestling with you, it's not like it's been a regular thing. Elizabeth never wrestled, and nor should she have, and my personal opinion is that Lana should never wrestle. That's what the other ladies do. And she's so much different."