10 Wrestlers Who Killed Their Own Push
7. Rusev & Lana
Rusev and Lana have incurred plenty of misfortune throughout their WWE run. They found initial success as a pro-Russia, anti-USA heel act, with Rusev picking-up the United States Championship, and establishing himself as a monster heel. That came to an end through his feud with (and subsequent burial to) John Cena, and the duo split shortly after.
The couple decided to make their real-life engagement public on social media. This supposedly didn’t sit well with management, as Lana’s onscreen character had just left Rusev for Dolph Ziggler, while Summer Rae had proposed to ‘The Bulgarian Brute.’ Both performers saw their status dwindle in the aftermath, with Rusev’s push greatly diminished, and Lana publicly shamed by The Rock on an episode of Raw.
Lana was reportedly being considered for the Raw General Manager’s role at the time, but this was shelved. Nobody knows for sure that these punishments came as a result of Rusev & Lana’s actions, but they were too close together to be pure coincidence.
The duo have since reconciled, and their relationship has made it onto television, but neither has been pushed to the same extent since.