Lana Explains How the Rusev Character Was Created

In recent years, being a true heel in WWE has been an extremely difficult task for most superstars. But, one superstar has managed to pull it off for nearly three straight years, and that superstar’s name is Rusev.

During a recent interview with Complex, Lana, who is of course the wife of the former United States Champion, explained how the Rusev character was created.

“But Triple H was the person. They were already in talks about bringing Rusev up. Triple H had seen a lot of our stuff, but it was more comedy stuff that we were doing, and he was like, ‘I want you to try to do something serious.’ Triple H told me to watch Rocky IV. He told me to try different hair things. So I showed him, I was in Pitch Perfect. And I was trying all these different things, and he told me to try an accent. I showed him a picture of me in Pitch Perfect as a Barden Bella where we were all buttoned up with our hair in a bun. And he said, ‘That’s the look.’ And so that’s where I started creating the suits and the buns. At first, he said I should just do Russian, and then I started playing around with a Russian accent because I had never really done much of that in English. But then in two weeks, like that, I was put on NXT TV. Three months later, we debuted at the Rumble.”

httpss://youtube.com/watch?v=6aYzUvS00T8

WWE briefly tried breaking Rusev and Lana up, and, at one point, the breakup was supposed to lead to Lana getting a major push in the women’s division. But, her planned push was scrapped after her and Rusev’s engagement became public knowledge, and they were put back together shortly thereafter.

Do you think we’ll ever see a Rusev and Lana face turn? Or are they destined to be the “evil Russian” heels forever? Let us know in the comments below, or over on Facebook!