The Suplah podcast


Sam BrooksJune 24th, 2015BlogComments Off on Lana Ruined by Bad Booking – A Woman’s Perspective

Lana Ruined by Bad Booking – A Woman’s Perspective

05_LANA_04302014JR_069

How WWE Has Ruined the Character of Lana

So, here it is. The Suplah.com debut of Ellie Wilmer. There’s only one thing I want to talk about: Lana.

First off, I’m still a wrestling noob. I don’t always follow it to the best of my ability, and many storylines confuse me as they do any other person. But, one storyline I always loved was Lana’s.

When Lana started out she was strong willed, she knew what she wanted, and she would go to any lengths to get it. She was interesting, complex and someone you wanted to always see more of. Rusev would have been nothing without Lana coming out every time to get the crowd going. Some people loved to hate her, some people just downright hated her. I however thought she was one of the most interesting things about WWE.

Now, of course, you have to consider the fact that I am female, so I love a good representation of a female character. One thing I loved was that there was no romance involved with Lana and Rusev, at least to begin with – Rusev was purely a hobby for her. She wanted to help build him up to become a champion in WWE. You could say that she did nothing, and that she was just there for display, but take into consideration the actual storyline: she was the one setting out the diet he needs, she was the one giving him a workout schedule, and she was the one building The Bulgarian Brute after his injury in 2012, and subsequent run in NXT. The point is, she was there as her own character, not a tag along, not a cheerleader and certainly not a person to mess with.

Then we have the weeks of Lana and Rusev’s relationship splitting at the seams. It was inevitable they would split. But one thing during these weeks that really ground my gears was the mistreatment involved. The belittlement of Lana night after night was just unnecessary and would have never happened to a male in the WWE universe (unless Stephanie McMahon was front and centre). Maybe I’m taking this too seriously? No, hear me out.

When Rusev eventually tells Lana to piss off the night after Extreme Rules, one bit always sticks with me: “Lana needs to learn her place.” This. This one line was the beginning of her downfall, simply by inferring she is less than everyone else in that company. As this segment goes on, Lana comes out to explain her actions for finishing the John Cena match that was the night prior. Even in this segment you can see her character has been altered and scaled down, to the point where she is no longer the headstrong person that she used to be.

perche-lana-non-era-a-raw

I’m not gonna lie, if this happened to me I’d be a bit beaten up too. But this just isn’t Lana’s character. She would not stand for this, and she would make herself known on her own. She would make sure everyone knew her name and forgot Rusev ever existed. But no, the writers for WWE don’t even know their own characters, and she runs off to Ziggler. Not even to be anything significant to him. To just be his fucking cheerleader. You could see this as Lana being manipulative and wanting a rise out of Rusev. But the sad thing is, that it’s not. She did it because she was sick of being treated like a piece of gum, stuck to the bottom of Rusev’s shoe, so she moved to someone nicer; good old bland Ziggler. Only this hasn’t worked out well.

Yes, she has since had multiple confrontations with Rusev, and that has been in her old ‘Give ‘em hell’ attitude, but what she has become now is so much worse than ever happened with Rusev. She has just become Ziggler’s pin cushion. Everything he does slightly wrong gets pinned on Lana. Hell, she doesn’t even have to be there and she can get the blame. She is a shadow of her former self. A once strong character now resembles that wet towel around the neck of Samoa Joe; she’s there and no one knows why, but they’re not going to touch it in case Joe puts them on the sidelines.

It’s a sad day when a character with so much potential and such a big fan base turns into a moist towel. No matter how many “#freedom” selfies she posts on her Instagram.

Home | Blog     

RSS Facebook Twitter Youtube

Recent Shows ...


Follow The Suplah

                               

Latest Episode