CJ Perry has been a hell of an entertainer on the WWE programming by the name of Lana for almost eight years. WWE introduced an adultery angle featuring Bobby Lashley and Lana back in 2020 which eventually went on to become superhit among the WWE fanbase. The duo apparently was madly in love while the latter was still married to Rusev. They often got involved in making-out sessions that raised questions about whether her real-life relations with Rusev were okay or not.
Now, it was just a vulgar storyline on WWE TV to pop up the ratings while Lana, real name CJ Perry was married to Rusev. Lashley, on the other side, also had his family by his side. The problem with this angle was that WWE didn’t have any real direction. They rather wanted to destroy the Rusev character who had a ton of potential as a babyface. The only good part was that the numbers it scored on social media.
AEW’s CJ Perry Wants “To Be The Best Wrestling Manager” Surpassing Paul Heyman
During an interview with Fightful, CJ Perry reflected on her thoughts on the romantic angle that was majorly discussed in the early 2020s. She mentioned that if one of her bosses believed a particular storyline was good for business, then she considered herself a relevant talent. Plus, that incomplete angle with Bobby Lashley taught her how scandal sells in this industry.
CJ Perry talked about being worthy of pro-wrestling TV appearances
“So, look, it got me the biggest contract I ever got in my life and I’m very thankful for that. I think that, again, what the Bobby Lashley story taught me is scandal sells. So it doesn’t matter, it still sells. People might hate it, we still made WWE a lot of money. Like our YouTube videos made them a lot of money,” CJ Perry mentioned.
“This is a business at the end of the day. If it doesn’t translate into sales, if it doesn’t translate into subscriptions, ticket sales, all of that, viewership, then who cares? I’m just hired talent. We’re storytellers. We all know there’s been a ton of affairs and love triangles.”
Interestingly, CJ Perry also revealed how it’s at least $100,000 per minute that they’re on television on the USA Network on Raw, as per Vince McMahon. So a talent needed to be worth $100,000 a minute to be on WWE television.
Back in late 2019, she was indeed given a lucrative million-dollar contract but eventually, it was that contract that forced WWE to terminate it amid the COVID-19 pandemic budget cuts. After waiting for more than two years, All Elite Wrestling finally signed her to a contract in late 2023. Time will tell whether CJ Perry will feature in another love triangle in the Tony Khan-owned promotion to garner some more attention.
