CJ Perry had a pretty wild idea for Lana after her storyline with Bobby Lashley ended, and it involved another WWE legend. Perry says she once pitched the idea of becoming Ric Flair’s latest romantic interest and even joked that Lana could become his sixth wife.
Speaking on the Heel Faces podcast, Perry was asked whether she ever pitched WWE a storyline that was rejected despite believing it could have worked. She admitted there were plenty of ideas over the years, although she understood that getting attached to every pitch was a quick way to become frustrated.
“I mean, I would say a lot of stories. But, you know, you’ve got to believe in yourself. You better believe what you’re pitching is going to make you a massive success, or why are you pitching it?”
Perry said she generally respected Vince McMahon’s final decisions because she viewed WWE as his company and understood that he ultimately controlled the creative direction. She was also fortunate enough that many of her pitches actually reached McMahon, meaning she usually received some explanation when WWE decided against an idea.
“But also, I had a lot of respect for Vince and creative. I was always very lucky to get most of my stories to Vince, or the writers would. So I would always get feedback of why not. And, you know, at the end of the day, he’s the director, and this is his company. We’re just in his sandbox playing.”
There were even occasions when Perry would pitch something, get turned down and then watch WWE use a similar idea with somebody else. Instead of getting bitter about it, she said she deliberately trained herself to look at that as proof that the original idea was good.
“So if he feels some type of way, he usually would have different reasonings why, and for the most part, I would see it. You know, sometimes they would give it to someone else afterwards, and I’m like, whatever.”
Perry knew getting angry every time that happened wasn’t going to help her. She instead tried to separate having a good creative idea from necessarily being the right performer to execute it.
“But that’s show business for you. Not everything is for you, and that’s okay. If they gave my storylines to someone else, I would always trick my mind out. I believe it’s very important to trick your brain out because you could get real bitter real quick.”
That mindset led Perry into the Ric Flair story. After finishing her romance angle with Lashley, she thought Lana getting involved with Flair could be the next ridiculous relationship twist for her character.
“I’m trying to think. There was one. So I did pitch me being, like, me and Ric Flair maybe being, like, a romantic interest after Bobby Lashley. And, like, ‘Oh, it makes sense. I can be your sixth wife,’ right? And we would joke about it being Ric.”
Perry said it wasn’t some massive, detailed pitch that she’d spent months fighting to get on television. She described it as something she pitched “lightly,” but WWE eventually went in a similar direction with Flair and Lacey Evans instead.
“And then they literally—I think I pitched it lightly, nothing crazy. But then they gave it to—not, I’m not going to say they gave it to Lacey. Lacey Evans went into that romantic story with him.”
Interestingly, Perry doesn’t seem bothered that she wasn’t the one who got the storyline. Looking back, she actually thinks Evans was a better fit because the angle could directly feed into her physical rivalry with Flair’s daughter, Charlotte Flair.
“And I felt like, honestly, she was a much better fit for that. I think, like, her and Charlotte, she was more of an aggressive in-ring competitor than me, and she could do a lot of very aggressive, durable things. And her and Charlotte were almost the same height and just looked like they could have these really aggressive matches.”
Perry also felt Evans being Southern naturally fit the character and situation better than Lana would have. While Perry could have performed a Southern accent, she recognized that Evans could draw from something closer to herself.
“And I think resolving that conflict in the ring, what she’s doing with her father, was more important than if I did that. So, being able to step back and go, ‘No, that’s the right casting.’ And she’s Southern on top of it. I could do a Southern accent, but that’s an extension of herself.”
That’s ultimately how Perry looks at wrestling storylines in general. No matter how good somebody might be in the ring or on the microphone, she believes the audience first has to completely buy that person in the role they’ve been given.
“I just felt like that was legitimately better casting for it. And at the end of the day, this is casting. We have to be able to completely buy you as that character, 100%. If not, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how good you are in the ring or how good you are on a promo. If we don’t buy you as that character, it’s not working.”
So WWE fans came surprisingly close to getting Lana and Ric Flair together after her wild relationship with Bobby Lashley. Perry may not have gotten the storyline herself, but she has no problem admitting that Lacey Evans ultimately made more sense for the role.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
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