CJ Perry nearly missed one of the biggest moments of her WWE career, and it took Rusev personally stepping in with Vince McMahon to make sure she was part of WrestleMania 31. The former WWE Superstar, better known as Lana, revealed that her appearance alongside Rusev for his match against John Cena was still uncertain just five days before the event.
While speaking with Wrestling with Heart with Stanley Karr, Perry opened up about what happened behind the scenes before WrestleMania 31 in 2015. Rusev was preparing to defend the United States Championship against John Cena, a match that featured his memorable entrance on a military tank. However, Perry revealed that Vince McMahon had offered her a WWE Studios movie alongside Edge, leaving her worried that accepting the project could cost her a spot at WrestleMania.
“Rusev really fought for it too because I remember I got Vince gave me this movie in WWE Studios with Edge and it was March before April before WrestleMania and I I didn’t want to do it. Like I wanted to do the movie of course, but I knew like that could have me lose my spot.”
Perry explained that she believes McMahon was trying to shift attention away from Lana and put more of the spotlight on Rusev. At the time, Lana was generating significant heat as his outspoken Russian manager, but McMahon wanted Rusev to become the bigger villain heading into his showdown with Cena.
“And I think that the hindsight, you know, you always hindsight is always better view of it all, right? Hindsight I think that Vince wanted it was almost his way of giving me something because he wanted the focus more of the beat on the Rusev against John Cena because I would get a lot of heat and at the end of the day I’m not the person resolving the ring against John Cena. Rusev is resolving it and so you have to have more heat on the leading character. The leading villain has to have the most heat because he is the one fighting the babyface.”
That wasn’t the only change happening behind the scenes. Perry revealed that McMahon had already started cutting back on her speaking time months earlier because he wanted Rusev to handle more of the promos. Looking back, she believes the decision also helped set up her eventual babyface turn.
“So, I I remember Vince started telling me, ‘Okay, we need a we need to lessen your verbage a little bit.’ This was around Big Show, this is probably around October, November, and put it more cuz Rusev needs to talk more. We need to get more heat on him. And little did I know that setting me up for the babyface turn because all it needed to be a little more on him, a little less on him me”
Perry recalled that when she was temporarily absent from television, WWE introduced a lawyer to represent Rusev. The audience responded by chanting for Lana, something that caught McMahon’s attention and gave him the idea of eventually turning her into a babyface.
Despite her popularity, Perry still had no guarantee that she would be involved in WrestleMania. She said the decision remained unresolved until Rusev approached McMahon and argued that Lana deserved to be there after spending the entire year helping build his character.
“And then Vince had to decide if he was going to put me in WrestleMania or not. And I come back and literally it was like 5 days before I still didn’t know, and then Rusev went and he was like, ‘I really think that she should be a part of the act, you know, cuz we’ve done it the whole year.’ And he was, ‘Okay, if you feel that way, then let’s do it, you know?’ He’s like, ‘I I I I agree with you.'”
Perry admitted that dealing with McMahon could be unpredictable, but she believes Rusev’s decision to speak up made all the difference. She also explained why talent sometimes needed to push for their ideas, even when there was no guarantee WWE management would agree.
“And um which is so interesting. You know, I wonder I it’s just interesting. You never know with Vince how pitching can go, you know? And but you have to fight for things, you know? The The worst case scenario they say no, ‘That’s not what we’re going to do.'”
In the end, Lana was part of the WrestleMania 31 presentation, accompanying Rusev during his memorable tank entrance before facing John Cena. Perry also recalled a backstage storyline detail that explained why Lana was allowed to be at ringside despite the growing tension between their characters.
“So, um Vince watching it back is so funny. Like I literally laugh so hard when I watch it because I had the on the backstage I had the promise him that I would never show compassion again. And then when I come out in the ring and I whipped his the title walking down with the Russian army commentary says the only reason why Lana is ringside is because Rusev made her promise that she would never show compassion again.”
Perry said those smaller character details are something she misses about professional wrestling, believing they helped give storylines more personality and depth.
“And it’s character work like that that’s like I agree with you and it’s like we I miss those things in pro wrestling, you know? It’s we have a lot of factions now, but like those small little nuances of character work you it just adds so much entertainment, you know? Even though it’s a serious story, it adds an element of entertainment to it all and dimension.”
Rusev ultimately lost the United States Championship to Cena at WrestleMania 31, but the entrance became one of the most recognizable moments of his WWE career. More than a decade later, Perry has expressed interest in reuniting with Rusev on WWE television, making her latest comments another reminder of how important their partnership was to both of their careers.
What makes Perry’s revelation even more interesting is how close she came to missing a moment that helped define the Lana character. WWE had already spent months building Rusev and Lana as a package, yet her place at WrestleMania still came down to a last-minute conversation with McMahon. Had Rusev stayed quiet, one of WWE’s most memorable WrestleMania entrances could have looked very different.
Do you think Vince McMahon should have included Lana at WrestleMania 31 from the beginning, or was he right to consider putting more focus on Rusev? Let us know what you think in the comments section below and leave your feedback.
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.
