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What's the story?
Ahead of their Mixed Match Challenge match next week, Rusev and Lana took to social media to mock Charlotte and Bobby Roode's entrance.
Well, after Charlotte was alerted to the video and asked for her thoughts on it, she responded hilariously.
In case you didn't know...
Rusev and Lana have been making the most of their Mixed Match Challenge opportunities, firstly imitating Elias and Bayley ahead of their first round match, which saw Lana pick up her first ever win in WWE.
Well, earlier this week, 'The Bulgarian Brute' and 'The Ravishing Russian' took to social media again to impersonate their opponents - this time pretending to be The Robe Warriors!
The heart of the matter
Earlier today, WWE India tweeted the video to Charlotte, asking for her thoughts on Rusev and Lana's impersonation and the authenticity to Roode and Charlotte's entrance, but no-one could have predicted the current WWE SmackDown Women's Champion's savage comeback...
For anyone who doesn't know, "Lana" is merely a character played by CJ Perry and, while the WWE Universe is usually only ever exposed to Lana, the Total Divas audience and anyone who has watched the WWE Studios movie Interrogation alongside Edge will have been exposed to Perry's usual American accent.
CJ Perry is actually also an actor and singer from Gainesville, Florida, but has been performing as both a valet and a wrestler in WWE since 2013. Outside of WWE, she's found fame in Pitch Perfect and Banshee but undertakes a full-time WWE schedule alongside real-life spouse Rusev.
What's next?
WWE's Mixed Match Challenge airs on Facebook Watch immediately following SmackDown Live every Tuesday for audiences in the USA, and the full match goes on WWE Network on Thursdays for the global audience.
Author's take
I personally absolutely love this. When I read it on Twitter, it popped me big time! Completely unexpected and one of the things I adore about the crossover from wrestling onto social media.
This falls into the category of "shoot" in quotation marks. You'd never see it on WWE television, it isn't a worked angle, but you can pretty much guarantee there's no real heat between these two. It isn't a shoot in the context of being a serious confrontation, but it doesn't exist as a storyline either.
It merely exists to pop the hardcore WWE fans and, well, probably the rest of the talent - and, boy, it did its job!
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