CJ Perry – the former Lana – has revealed why she cried over her Survivor Series 2020 victory.
Survivor Series 2020 saw the then-Lana featured in the traditional 5-on-5 women’s Survivor Series Elimination match. During the match, ‘The Ravishing Russian’ wasn’t allowed in the ring by her teammates, eventually winning as the sole survivor by default after the final participants – Bianca Belair and Nia Jax – were counted out.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, the real-life CJ Perry revealed how plans changed prior to the show:
“A funny story, about the payoff [going through tables courtesy of Nia Jax]. Survivor Series came and Nia was supposed to put me through a table in the middle of the match, and that had to change because of politics. I’ll leave it at that [laughs].
We had all this crazy stuff planned. We had planned…Bayley was excited about it, Bianca, everyone was super excited. I was going to be doing a bunch of wrestling. We get there, and then Vince [McMahon] changes everything. He pulls TJ [Tyson Kidd] and is like, ‘I don’t want Lana in the ring at all. She is just going to stand there and win by countout.’
I’m crying to Pat Buck. I run to the corner and I was acting dramatic. ‘You girls are so dramatic, most of us boys would be like, Yeah! I don’t have to get in!’ I’m crying in the corner, I call Nattie, she comes to me, ‘I’m just winning by standing there.’ ‘You’re still winning, it’s okay.’ ‘I just want to prove myself. I want to wrestle.’
“Nattie, Pat, Miro, TJ were like, ‘Calm down, you’re still winning.’ That was an example of how much I wanted to wrestle. I didn’t want to win in those situations, which is pro wrestling, so maybe I shouldn’t have been so emotional. I wanted the chance to prove…I was a babyface at the time. I just wanted to wrestle and show what I was training for.”
A double countout means…
@LanaWWE is the SOLE SURVIVOR for #TeamRaw at #SurvivorSeries! pic.twitter.com/v46u0wCJJG
— WWE (@WWE) November 23, 2020
Lana would receive a Raw Women’s Championship opportunity against Asuka the next night, losing by disqualification. She remained with WWE for another half a year before being released in June 2021.