Lost in the controversy surrounding Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s post-show antics, debate about the latest development in the women’s division and wonder at the agility of the Monster Among Men on Raw last night (Feb. 20) was the latest comedy bit/tag match for WrestleMania 33 hosts The New Day.
While it had the usual hit/miss ration of any Kofi Kingston, Big E & Xavier Woods segment, this one was noteworthy for being the political/cultural reference it contained... and maybe some clues that might provide about WWE’s plans for another fan favorite pair.
As you can see in the above video, the central gag was that Lana - a Russian - hacked Woods’ iPad to steal the blueprints for the new ice cream the longest reigning tag champs have been talking about for the last several weeks. Not that they needed to, but the commentary team made it pretty clear this was in reference to reports that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election, allegedly to leak materials which would help WWE Hall of Famer Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton and become our 45th President.
Tempting as it is to try and determine what it might mean for the Trump-allied McMahon family’s product to joke about the hacking scandal, it probably doesn’t mean anything other than that some writers thought it would be a funny gag. Best I can come up with is maybe their playing it as a joke is support of the President’s claims the hacks had no impact on his victory, but that’s a stretch. Wrestling references the headlines all the time without deeper meaning, and this was likely just that.
Just as unlikely, but a lot more fun, is wondering if the segment offers any clues for Lana & Rusev’s future (sorry Jinder Mahal, we’re not too concerned with what’s next for you). This is just as much of a stretch as analyzing Raw for political intent, but this was the first time in a while we’ve seen the Ravishing Russian look in charge of her husband, or herself.
In recent interviews, Lana’s spoken about how the original vision for her character was a leader and power-player along the lines of Game of Thrones’ Daenerys Targaryen or Cersei Lannister. Could those talking points have been issued just in time for a much needed reset for her and Rusev, back to their NXT gimmick whereby Lana controls her beast of a partner?
Probably not, since the Mother of Dragons or the Queen on the Iron Throne probably could have kept a trombone-wielding hype man from stealing her iPad (this analogy got weird, didn’t it?), but it’s possible... right?
Alright, I’ll go back to wondering what excitement our hosts have planned for Mania.
But, my point is... that Russian hacking angle sure was something, huh?