Lana, who kicked of her WWE career in 2014, has undoubtedly come a long way. From carving a niche for herself in the domain to impressing everyone with her passion to learning the techniques, she continues to inspire several people. In this exclusive interaction, the acclaimed wrestler shares her expectations from WrestleMania, what WWE has taught her and how challenging it has been to play a villainous character.
What are the expectations from Wrestle Mania?
I’m excited for ‘WrestleMania’ week for which I have been training for really long. My heart is running wild because this is the super bowl of wrestling. I have been training every single day and there is so much that could happen. Lana’s ex-husband Bobby Lashley is fighting for his life and the title. There is a lot of great stuff in store for the viewers. It is certainly exciting.
What makes WWE extremely interesting is the aspect of instant feedback. What have been the key takeaways from WWE for you?
I have learnt a lot from WWE. I have grown and learnt so much as a performer, as a ring competitor and actor. I have also learnt life lessons that I can take with me forever. It is important to believe in yourself and be self-confident. The only thing about WWE is that they will have always have an opinion. I love them because they always have a strong opinion. I have been a bad guy for so long on WWE, but now I’m a good guy, which is pretty cool. It has helped me realise that I can never please everyone, and continue to believe in myself. This is an important life lesson because we can’t make everyone happy, but can certainly do right things and be kind. This has been the big takeaway for me.
Playing a villainous character which you have done for long time is fun because it is multi-layered and exudes power because unless there isn’t a villain there can’t be hero. How challenging has it been for you to play someone so opposite to your real self?
What makes it challenging is that everything is online. I love being a villain, it is so much fun. By playing a villain lets me act on bad thoughts which I wouldn’t ever in real life. It lets me lean into my alter ego. As a villain, one has to be selfless too. At the end of the day, we want the good guy to win. We want people to root for the good guy and hate the bad guy. Sometimes, it also gets personal. People don’t know when Lana finishes and CJ begins. So they come after you on Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok and YouTube. That’s when I feel ‘I’m also a real person’. This has taught me just how important our words are. We can either encourage someone or tear them down. It taught me how people hide behind the screen because they don’t have the guts to say thing to you on your face. I feel it is really important to be kind towards others.
All your efforts & thoughts are on the mission of being a champion. Who are the giants that you are really keen on defeating?
I refer to Nia Joax as the ‘dragon’. She is ruthless and has a new boy toy Reginald. We were about to win tag team champion, but she got a new boyfriend who got involved in the match. And because they cheated, we lost. She is bigger, stronger than us, but still takes advantage of us. So we weren’t happy about that. Shayna Baszler is a tag team champion too. They have been bullying me and harassing me for literally nine months, nine commentary tables & injured me. Every time I’m about to be a tag team champion, it is ripped away from me. There are times, when I want to give up and think if I can do this anymore. Maybe it isn’t in my destiny and I’m not meant to be tag team champion. But that’s when I remember the word ‘You got to believe in yourself because if you won’t, other won’t either.”
You have maintained that you look at your career in WWE as chapters…
I was always keen on writing a book for CJ. And segregated every part as chapters. I just took that concept and applied to Lana. The ravishing Russian Lana is human. Even in real life, bad guys may have children wife, mother. Our heroes might often do bad things. There is always multi-dimensional stuff that we do as human beings.
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