In October 2015 I wrote an article entitled “Eva Marie Dilemma” and I discussed the booking of the Total Divas star, following news that Eva Marie was scheduled to challenge Bayley for the NXT Women’s Championship. I cannot say that Eva has been booked as greatly as I would have liked but it could have been a lot worse. It’s not like Eva’s been pushed to such an insane degree or anything worrying like that. However, there’s another woman we must discuss.
She is a woman that is incredible beautiful. She is a great talker. She’s got a great body. She’s a blonde. This is the sort of woman that would be ideal as your top diva if she were a wrestler. The woman is called Lana and she’s got the look and personality that fits the WWE ideology of what they want their stars to look like. It should be pretty easy for them to push and promote this woman as the top diva in their company, as long as she would be capable to work in the ring. As much as Lana could have possibly gotten away with getting over based on looks alone ten years ago, the expectations of women in wrestling has risen so much now that the women of wrestling all need to step up their game in order to stick around. Lana needs to work as good as she looks, which may seem like a tall order. It may be a tough pill to swallow but that is a fact.
Lana’s actually been a part of some major angles since she showed up on the main roster in 2014. She’s cut controversial promos which got her some mainstream media attention. She and Rusev feuded with John Cena last year and Lana was involved in one of WWE’s biggest pushed programs in 2015 when she split up with Rusev. She’s been given a lot of big opportunities to work with and she’s done a good job at most of them. However, what’s prevented Lana from progressing a lot more since then is a few things. Her lack of wrestling experience is one of them but the second is dealing with the backstage aspects of WWE.
For the record, I cannot say outright whether some rumours are true or false. However, the general feeling which have been stated by the likes of Dave Meltzer and other wrestling personalities is that Lana is not well liked backstage. Wrestling is a business that is essential for wrestlers to build strong relationships with their peers. Especially if you’re trying to be pushed as a top woman, you have to be likeable even within your own company. When you’ve got Paige and Lana going back-and-forth on Twitter or whatever, it makes everyone involved seem unlikeable to the general public. Then there’s the number of reported incidents like Lana shouting at Rusev in front of people at an airport and other reports of heat on Lana. The big thing is, it’s not going be long before this heat burns Lana big time.
Now there are signs that Lana is starting to “burn” already as she and Rusev are nowhere near to being as over as they were before. However, you can eventually cool off from the heat. The Miz was hated when he first started in WWE. The Miz has said this before in promos and it was widely known that JBL picked on Miz on-screen and off-screen. What happened to Miz? He got his head down, improved and eventually main-evented WrestleMania 27.
There’s nothing particularly wrong with holding your ground backstage against the top people in the company. I remember Chris Jericho saying this before. If you stand up for yourself in certain situations, you gain the respect of these guys that now know that you’re not afraid to hold your ground. Even if there is short-term heat, there’s long-term gain too. However, there’s a big difference between standing your ground and barking up the wrong trees if you know what I mean.
Being affirmative in your beliefs is vastly different to causing a scene in a public place. Telling people that they’re wrong is vastly different to causing issues with other employees on social media. Lana has to understand that there is a line between that.
00Now granted, a lot of the “heat” Lana has received has been completely unjustified. I always hated the treatment of Lana and Rusev after their engagement was revealed on TMZ which ruined one of the storylines for WWE. However, WWE is a very bi-polar place to work. Ask Titus O’Neil. It’s a very strange and mind-boggling place to work where touching the owner warrants a 90-day suspension. It sucks but you march on.
Now Lana is currently reportedly scheduled to work Brie Bella at WrestleMania 32. I don’t have high expectations for this match but this is a match which could make or break Lana’s career. Lana has been put in a very tough position because her FIRST MATCH EVER will be held at WrestleMania of all places. The pressure is on and Lana has to really make a nothing match out of Brie Bella seem worthwhile which is extremely difficult. If Lana succeeds, great! You might be able to do something with her. If she loses, it could be the beginning of the end for the Ravishing Russian.
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