WWE News - Hall of Famer addresses company wanting to change Lana's name

Former WWE producer Arn Anderson has given his take on reports from 2015 that the company wanted to change Lana’s name after her storyline split from Rusev.

Shortly after Rusev’s loss to John Cena at WrestleMania 31, he separated from Lana and became involved in an on-screen romance with Summer Rae.

During this time, it was reported that WWE wanted Lana to drop her Russian accent and become known by her real name, CJ, as that name was also used by Pamela Anderson in Baywatch.

According to WWE news and rumors, Speaking on his ARN podcast, Anderson insinuated that WWE insulted fans’ intelligence by contemplating a sudden change to Lana’s character and accent.

“If you’re going to do it, why all of a sudden reveal that we’ve been pulling your leg, audience, she’s really from San Diego and her name is this [CJ], so we’ve just been bulls****ing you, but now you can start believing us. We lied to you all along. Now we’ll start telling you the truth.”

Anderson added that he does not think people in the writers’ room think about the storyline arcs of WWE Superstars’ careers when they make drastic changes to their characters.

Please credit ARN and give a H/T to Sportskeeda if you use these quotes.

Lana’s WWE character change

The first major change to Lana’s character came when she turned babyface in the summer of 2015 and aligned with Dolph Ziggler.

Although she did not use the name CJ on WWE television, she eventually dropped her Russian accent in 2018 when she began managing Rusev and Aiden English shortly after WrestleMania 34.

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