Lana came back after a bunch of flashy promos hyping her return. She danced around a chair and everybody got all excited about it. When she came back it was rumored she was given the gimmick that Emmalina and Eva Marie had been given but failed to execute. Regardless of that Lana still had her Russain accent after totally breaking kayfabe on Total Divas for the past two seasons by using her true America accent. Rusev is still very Bulgarian though, that is a shoot.
But if there was ever a chance to have Lana switch up her accent it would have been during the debut of her new gimmick. But the Ravishing Russain was still pretty her same old self in a shiny new dress and now she wrestles. Dave Meltzer commented on a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE has pretty much killed her character already.
Now they’re trying something different with Lana as she is apparently being paired up with Tamina Snuka. Lana was devastated by her third-straight loss to Naomi and was still unable to capture Naomi’s new glowing title. The Ravishing Russian sat in the ring and cried after she submitted to Naomi in under a minute. She had failed to capture the gold once again and just sobbed until Tamina came to the ring.
Tamina told Lana to get up and motioned to follow her. It has been noted the relationship had a real Orange Is The New Black feel about it from the get-go. Meltzer said Lana was paired up in developmental with a bodyguard named MaryKate who now wrestles as Sage Miller. Some fans might know her as Rosie Lottalove which is the name she used in TNA. She retired from pro wrestling in 2012 but returned after losing over 130lbs.
WWE didn’t call Sage Miller to the main roster so Tamina is probably filling the role of Lana’s bodyguard on the main roster. Let’s just hope the vibe between the two changes because SmackDown Live can’t turn into a Netflix prison dramedy.
