What we learned from the WWE this week: July 03, 2017

#4 The WWE know how to hold a grudge

The buried Russian?

Speaking of Rusev, the return of his wife Lana has been one confusing mess from start to finish. Fans were admittedly happy when the Ravishing Russian made her Smackdown Live debut, but her sudden insertion into the Smackdown Women’s Championship scene felt incredibly premature. In hindsight, we can probably say that Lana was just being used to give Naomi something to do while the rest of the roster battled over the Money in the Bank briefcase.

Lana failed to win the title at the first time of asking, in what was a pretty short, underwhelming match. She has since been given two further opportunities, and each time she has failed. The trilogy of matches have left her looking utterly sub-par, and it is difficult to see where she goes from here. The word ‘burying’ does get thrown about a little too much these days amongst wrestling fans, but on this occasion, it seems the word is totally apt.

The more cynical wrestling fans will claim that this is all the result of Vince McMahon holding a grudge over Rusev and Lana for announcing their engagement in the middle of a storyline in which the pair were separated from each other. The feud between Rusev and Dolph Ziggler wasn’t exactly setting the world alight, but in Vince’s eyes, putting the breaks on a story angle yourself is a big no-no.

If it is the case that Lana’s treatment is the result of a Vince Mcmahon grudge, then it is very worrying to think what the future holds for Lana. Perhaps this will result in her being future endeavoured before long, which would be yet another example of Vince cutting his nose off to spite his face.