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WWE star Lana is certainly one of the more interesting talents to grace the WWE stage in the past decade, with The Ravishing Russian having numerous peaks and valleys in her ever-changing career in WWE.
The real-life wife of WWE star Rusev is currently in the midst of a very polarizing storyline with her husband Rusev and fellow RAW star Bobby Lashley, and the angle is drawing a very mixed reaction from WWE fans.
While the current Lana storyline remains one of the most consistently watched segments on WWE's YouTube channel, droves of fans are calling for the storyline to end, and WWE SmackDown announcer Corey Graves even admitted on his new show that he would like to see the angle put to bed.
With Lana's career full of controversial and memorable moments, let's take a look at five little known facts about the polarizing Superstar.
#5 Lana is actually American
Despite being billed as a Russian-born Superstar, Lana is actually American, and her real name is C.J. Perry. Perry was born in Gainesville, Florida, and she has no Russian ancestry, as her parents are of Venezuelan and Portuguese descent. As a student, Perry attended Florida State University where she studied dance and acting.
Despite being American, Lana does have ties to The Soviet Union, as her family moved to the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic when Lana was young, and she therefore holds dual Latvian and United States citizenship. Lana actually lived in Latvia until she was 17 years old, and then moved back to the United States in order to go to school.
Lana's accent has been somewhat of an enigma in WWE, as the Russian accent seems to come and go without explanation, and following her recent return to WWE TV, it seems as though the accent might be gone for good, with occasional moments of the accent showing up on TV.
#4 Gained recognition cheering for the FSU from the bleachers
Lana attended college at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, and she earned her very first taste of fame during her college years, but not as a dancer or performer, but as a fan spotted in the bleachers at FSU games.
Lana, along with other female college students, would routinely dress up as cowgirls and cheer on the FSU Seminoles during games, and she began to amass somewhat of a following as more and more girls would don the cowgirl gear and cheer alongside Lana at the football games.
During one 2005 FSU game in particular, ABC cameras highlighted Lana and her crew cheering along in the bleachers, and following the TV exposure, offers began to roll in for Lana which led to opportunities in the acting, dancing and modeling world.
With regards to modeling, Lana was actually a spokesmodel for Red Bull for a brief time while she was in college, and the big modeling gig is what prompted Lana to move to LA following her time in college in order to pursue a modeling and/or acting career. It looks like Lana's time as a die-hard FSU fan paid off in serious spades for the current WWE star.
#3 Was once part of a girl group called No Means Yes
Lana is very trained and accomplished performer, having studied dance at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Hispanico, Broadway Dance Center, and Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, all located in New York City.
Lana also has a background in singing, and in 2009 signed on to be part of a girl group known as No Means Yes. The group released several songs before breaking up in 2010, and Lana had the following to say on her time in the short lived music group.
"A girlfriend of mine in college referred me to the man that was putting the group together. I honestly was so scared to sing and I didn't even know a song to sing at the audition so I sang "Jesus Loves Me". I remember them saying "we can work with her tone because she has the right look and she is a model that break dances". I am so thankful to this day for that experience because I do not think I would have ever gotten the role in Pitch Perfect if I hadn't overcome my fear to open my mouth and sing."
#2 Rolling Stone Magazine rated her 2015 storyline with Dolph Ziggler as the worst of the year
Back in 2015, the previously heel Lana turned babyface when she famously kissed Dolph Ziggler and RAW and aligned with The Showoff, effectively turning Lana into a beloved face in the company.
Despite the initial momentum of the storyline with Dolph Ziggler, the angle was derailed when Lana and Rusev made the mistake of going public with their real-life engagement, a move which many feel might have been the downfall of both Lana and Rusev as it pertains to their respective WWE careers.
At the time, WWE officials were reportedly not happy that Lana confirmed to TMZ that she and Rusev had gotten engaged in real-life, thus undermining the storyline romance between Lana and Dolph Ziggler.
The storyline between Ziggler and Lana was quietly dropped after news emerged of Lana and Rusev's real-life engagement, and later in the year, Rolling Stone Magazine voted the storyline between both WWE Superstars as the worst storyline of the year. Following the storyline, it has been the belief of many WWE fans that both Rusev and Lana never recovered from the detriment of going public with their relationship.
#1 Lana is the first female in WWE history to make in-ring debut at WrestleMania
Lana is best known in WWE for her time outside of the ring as Rusev's manager and real-life wife, but Lana has made history in the company as it pertains to her in-ring career.
Back in 2016, Lana became the first female in WWE history to make her in-ring debut at WrestleMania.
Lana, along with 9 other WWE Superstars, competed in a 10 woman tag team match on the WrestleMania 32 pre-show in Dallas, and the bout was dubbed Team Total Divas vs Team B.A.D. and Blonde. Lana's team lost the match when Naomi tapped out to a returning Brie Bella, but the bout was a major milestone for Lana, as it marked her WWE in-ring debut.
Lana's in-ring career in WWE has been very rocky since making her debut at WrestleMania 32, and she has received on again and off again pushes as a wrestler, but since recently returning to WWE TV alongside Bobby Lashley, it looks like Lana's in-ring career might be a thing of the past.
What are your favorite Lana moments? Let us know in the comment section and be sure to follow SK on Twitter and Facebook!
