At one point this year, Lana was poised as a breakout star for WWE. She is a beautiful, talented woman who generated strong reactions from fans. She had been portrayed as a smart, beautiful, villainous woman who once stood toe-to-toe with the Rock on the mic. In an effort to help her stand out, she broke away from Rusev, presumably as part of a face turn that would elevate her to the next level. Suddenly, she turned into a smiling sidekick to Dolph Ziggler, kissing Dolph, accompanying him to ringside and little else. Being arm candy and part of a weird love quadrangle with Rusev, Ziggler and Summer Rae pretty much killed her momentum, but it wasnt the only bad break she suffered this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx1I0PB9ksA Lana broke her hand, forcing her to the shelf just when it looked like the romance angle was reaching its climax. Then she went and posted to her Instagram account about her real-life engagement to Rusev, blowing up the entire storyline. (Nevermind that John Cena and Nikki Bella have been parading around as a couple on Total Divas for years with no acknowledgement of it on Raw.) Now, Lana is inexplicably back with Rusev as the pair attempts to rekindle the fire that made them one of the hottest acts of 2014.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
