4 things you didn't know about Lana

Lana is one of WWE's most recognisable Superstars. Having debuted in NXT in 2013, the Ravishing Russian made her way to the main roster, as Rusev's manager. Together the two have teamed up to win three United States championships and achieve mainstream success as stars of the E! hit reality series Total Divas.

Lana has since become a WWE Superstar and has had marquee matches, even challenging for the SmackDown Women's Championship. She has also made history as part of the inaugural Women's Royal Rumble Match and the first ever all-female Evolution pay-per-view.

While Lana played a cold, vindictive, Russian heel in WWE that role was inspired by some real-life trauma that she experienced while growing up in Russia.

The truth is most wrestling fans don't know the real story behind Lana and C.J. Perry, the woman who portrays her, but a recent interview on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia pulled back the veil on the woman wrestling fans know as Lana.

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So, sit back, relax, and get ready to be surprised with 4 Things You Didn't Know About Lana.

#4. Lana Was Body Shamed In Her Early Years

As one may expect, life in Russia is vastly different than life in most other parts of the world. Lana moved to Russia at the age of 5 and fell in love with ballet, but instead of being encouraged for her newfound passion, Lana was belittled and made to feel less than.

Lana opened up to Lilian Garcia on a recent episode of the Chasing Glory podcast and revealed that despite the fact that she was only 5'4" and 90 pounds, she was repeatedly fat-shamed in Russia.

Lana's developing body became a major focus for her Russian ballet instructors, who chastised her for being what they considered overweight. Lana revealed,

"I've had shoes thrown at me, 'You stupid fat cow!' Literally, 'You're pathetic.' I remember one time, I always worked really hard, and my teacher was like, 'You're like a stupid donkey working hard going in circles. Yeah, the donkey's working hard and you're literally going in circles.' Screaming it!"

The endless shaming led to some significant medical troubles for Lana. Find out more with #3 on our list.

#3. Lana Suffered From Eating Disorders

The painful toll of never being able to please her Russian instructors took a toll on the young C.J. Perry. Lana began suffering from body dysmorphia and at 14 years old, started meticulously counting every calorie she ate.

Things became so bad for Lana that she began limiting herself to only 400 calories a day and developed bulimia, an eating disorder characterized by self-induced vomiting. She was hospitalized for the disorder at 17.

Lana began hating herself and started writing notes to express her hatred,

"I would literally write myself hate notes and be like, 'I'm a fat cow. Don't eat until you reach this. You're stupid. You're dumb.' I would put hate notes in this little thing next to my bed and I would put all those notes and I just hated myself because that is what that world, and that society created. They always said, 'You are dumb. You are ugly. You are stupid. You're fat.'"

Lana started to weigh herself obsessively and her disorder progressed to the point that she would see herself only as overweight, especially when looking in the mirror.

Things started to get better for Lana once she returned to the United States at 18. After returning to a normal diet, she gained 30 pounds. Her disorder; however, reared its ugly head, after she was accepted to a dance program at Florida State University and told to drop weight. Lana returned to bulimia, something she believes intensified due to stress.

The condition didn't last long, this time. Lana was able to find an excellent therapist, who helped her retrain her thoughts and conquer her eating disorders. She has not suffered from them since.

#2. Lana Never Felt Like She Fit In Anywhere

Lana moved to Russia when she was only 5 years old and stayed in the country for the next 13 years. Life was difficult there, especially for an American.

Lana described people in Russia as generally unfriendly and refusing to say hello in the streets. She was criticised as being fake for smiling and told not to smile. Lana told Lilian Garcia, "People think Americans are really fake."

Lana claims that her formative years were extremely troublesome and recalls her grades lowered just because she was an American. She was never fully accepted in Russia.

Things didn't get better for Lana when she returned to the United States. The WWE Superstar often felt like an outcast, as she had to adjust to the more friendly American way of life. Lana had difficulty grasping American slang and while she was essentially a foreigner in her home country, she had no accent and looked like the average white American.

Due to her Russian roots, Lana never felt like she belonged in white middle-class America and to this day describes herself as a Russian America. Lana felt like an outsider in her birth country,

"I didn't identify with Americans. I felt foreign and I didn't fit in with a middle white class. I related to minorities. I related to black people. I related to Hispanics because I grew up a minority, but I didn't look like them because I'm not them and so then, I didn't completely fit in with them. I didn't fit in with the middle class white people."

#1. Lana Endured Religious Persecution In Russia

Lana left the United States at the age of 5 because her parents were missionaries. Their Christian faith called them to Eastern Europe to minister to the people of Russia. Russia; however, with its communist roots, was often unwelcoming to people of faith. Lana notes,

"As a little girl, I never felt I fit in because I was American in European culture and on top of it, I was Christian in an Atheist society. That was even more like, 'Woah!' I was the only person. It wasn't like the South where everyone goes to Church or people in America, when they get an award, they go, 'I want to thank my Lord & Savior. I just want to thank Jesus, or I want to thank God.' No, that's not how it is over there. It was communism and if you believed in God, and you went to the Orthodox Church, or the Lutheran Church, you were sent to Siberia, so it is an atheistic country."

Lana was frequently criticized for her belief in God,

"They would look at me and go, 'You believe in God? You're just scared of dying and that's why you created God. That's why you created heaven. It's because you're scared of dying. You're just a weak person."

Lana still kept her faith and despite becoming an outcast for it, went to church every Sunday along with her parents. Her father; however, would soon find himself in trouble with the Russian government.

Because he believed that all Christian denominations should get along and come together in prayer and service, Lana's dad was labelled a 'religious terrorist' by the Russian government. The family was then forced to leave Russia and were unable to return for two months.

Readers may listen to Lilian Garcia's interview with Lana in its entirety HERE.

Edited by Riju Dasgupta