Lana explains how she can drop the Russian accent on Total Divas

Pro wrestling in 2018 is not what it once was, and likely will never be again. Instead of wrestlers protecting their characters and maintaining kayfabe at all times, the curtain has been pulled back to expose the reality of a make believe world. It is still a business dependent upon the implied competition of legitimate sport but we’ve come to a point that some of its workers are treating it more like the movie business.

Case in point, here’s Lana explaining how she dropped her Russian accent on Total Divas when she has one as her character on WWE television (from an interview with 107.7 The Bone with Baby Huey & Bimbo Jimbo):

“I wasn’t nervous. Maybe other people were nervous, but I wasn’t nervous because we are story tellers. When I walk through that curtain on SmackDown Live I am a Russian villain, at least at this point in time. To me, just like when you watch a movie or you watch a TV show you know Nicole Kidman or Leonardo DiCaprio you know that they are actors, but also great actors find that extension of themselves. So, when I walk through that curtain I find the extension of myself of being the Ravishing Russian in there. We are actors, we are entertainers, and most of all we are story tellers…I was actually really excited because to me it’s giving the world the chance to see that we are story tellers.”

The future of the industry appears to be pushing further and further toward her ideal than that of the old school. Whether or not that’s a good thing is up to you, the individual, to decide.