CJ Perry Recalls How Story About Her & Rusev’s Engagement Changed WWE Storyline

CJ Perry and Rusev are couple both in real life and on screen, and Perry recently recalled how their real-life engagement led to their on-screen pairing. Perry (as Lana) and Rusev got engaged in 2016. Up until that point, the two had been paired on screen but not romantically. In fact, at the time of the engagement they had actually as a team on-screen.

Perry recalled the whole matter on TMZ Inside the Ring. She noted that Vince McMahon decided to end their split storyline and unite them romantically on-screen because of a TMZ article about the engagement. You can see highlights below:

On the Start Of Her Relationship With Rusev:

“Well, we were dating before we were a romantic couple on-screen. So, we started working together — in the very beginning and we were best friends. So we were just best friends working together in NXT. And then a couple months in we started dating, but we didn’t tell anyone. And then we never showed that we were dating on screen until we were dating on screen. We were already engaged. And Vince decided to do it. Because we were in a separate storyline.

“And then when TMZ broke that we were engaged, Vince said that TMZ is global CNN news. And like he went to Rusev and he’s like, ‘We’re going to have to cut the story line with you and Summer Rae, and Dolph Ziggler and Lana. Because TMZ is like exactly like CNN, and it’s global news.'”

On How The Engagement News Changed Things:

“So we trended for thee days. And we were one of those characters that were very — I guess, kind of like Liv where we really hid our like we live by kayfabe… so I think that was like the heart and soul of it, too. Vince liked that, and so he just couldn’t get over the piece that it’s okay to do both right now. And in general they do that. There’s other story lines that were going on at the same time that they were breaking kayfabe. And so it’s just — you know, life becomes situational just like wrestling is situational. And Vince in that moment decided that he wanted us to be back together, because he wanted to be closer to the truth.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit TMZ Inside The Ring with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.