wrestling / TV Reports

411’s WWE Chronicle Report: Lana on Dealing with Depression, Growing Up in Latvia

November 21, 2020 | Posted by Robert Leighty Jr.
Lana WWE Chronicle CJ Perry Image Credit: WWE

-Air Date: 11.21.20
-Run Time: 29:26

-Nov 12, 2020: Lana tweets out that she is going to be featured on WWE Chronicle. She is nervous about the responses and gets varied responses as some are happy for her and others make table jokes and state the WWE doesn’t care about her. Lana questions how dark of a human you have to be to send hate. She doesn’t care what people say as she is going to prove them wrong like she has done her entire life.

-This is WWE Chronicle: Lana. The events take place from Oct 20, 2020 to Nov 16, 2020.

-Nov 7, 2020: Nashville, TN: Lana heads to her mom’s home. She was born in Gainesville, FL and then moved all over the world before settling in the former Soviet Union in Latvia. Her mom was a professional dancer and her dad a minister. They had to travel 2 hours to get to a phone to call anyone. She tried out for National ballet team and that is where she had a lot of discipline instilled in her. She was working 7 days a week dancing plus having school work. She would sleep with weights on her legs to help become more flexible. Her teachers would always tell them they were fat cows. Damn! I am already a bigger fan of Lana now for just having to put up with all that crap.

-She started making vision boards as a 12 year old and is something she has continued to do. She remembers only having $50 in her account in 2011. We flashback to 2013 Diva Search Contest as Lana tries out to become a WWE Diva. It was a 6 month process and it got down to 35 including Alexa Bliss and Jo Jo. From the 35 people, 10 were sent to a camp with Sara and Norman Smiley. She made the group of 10, but wasn’t one of the 5 they signed. A few weeks later on her birthday she got the call and was sent to NXT.

-She discusses one of her teachers that she used as an influence for the original Lana character when she was first paired with RUSEV. Lana wanted to be a professional ballerina, but knew that wouldn’t go that far as her main goal was to entertain stadiums full of people.

-She pulls out a notebook she started writing in when she started in NXT. She talks about her first match being at WrestleMania 32. Se remembers being nervous as he made the walk, but kept telling herself she was born to do this and this is where she belongs. She gets emotional looking at the photo from the show of all the women and how much history they made. She is ok with not being the face of the division, but she just wants to be remembered as being part of it.

-RAW: Lana shockingly wins her match to get on Team RAW, but still ends up going through a table for the sixth time.

-The Producer asks her father about his daughter being in the WWE. He says his daughter has had a calling to entertain and make people laugh, but he soon realized wrestling was more dangerous that he thought.

-Lana talks about wanting to bring fashion into wrestling and talks about a designer that works for Madonna that is now doing her clothes. She says it is a process because they have to remember that her gear needs to be durable since she is a wrestler. She had a ton of pink and black stuff made and when the team with Nattie was over she didn’t want to wear it anymore out of respect. Nattie told her she would be honored if Lana kept wearing the colors. She gets emotional speaking about Nattie and how she has been there for her these last 7 years.

-Nov 8, 2020: Lana heads to a warehouse in Tampa to train with Nattie and TJ. She comes at least twice week and it is a blessing now since they can’t do live shows. Again, credit to her for working hard through all the hate she receives from trolls online. Nattie would always tells that the one thing in wrestling that is truly real is the way they treat each other. She may not win the most matches or have the best matches but she hopes she makes people feel something.

-The producer asks Lana how hard has it been to stay so positive in the last year. She breaks down talking about no fans and of course losing that person she has been on the road with all the time. She doesn’t know how she keeps pushing through as in the past she had the fans booing her to give her energy. Now she feels alone and all she has to interact with fans are social media and she is tired of the trolls. It has taken a toll on her mental health and questions why she even tries because if she has something happy to share, people will tell her to kill herself. It all changed for her when she started training with Nattie and says it saved her life. It saved her from her depression.

-Lana gets her hair done while reading about ‘The Little Engine That Could’ and compares herself to it. She warms up backstage before her match and heads out to face Shayna Baszler. Shayna wins as she should and Lana gets put through a table for a 7th time. There has to be a time that Lana gets revenge for all this to pay the story off in the right way and hopefully that happens before they drop it.

-Lana talks about working different jobs and wondering if she would ever catch a break. Throughout her journey in WWE she has kept on following her own path no matter what people think.

-Next Lana is doing a photo shoot for a magazine. This is her first on location shoot since the pandemic. She enjoyed being able to interact with people and is blown away by the pictures. She loves what she does and this isn’t work for her.

-Nov 16, 2020: RAW: Lana talks about Survivor Series and how important this is for her. It means a lot to her that she made the team. She earned this chance and she is thankful that this is more than just being invited to the dance and being told to stand on the side. Lana loses the match for her team on RAW as she taps out to Asuka. Lana goes through the announce table for the 9th time.

-Lana says you can’t be a master at something until you work 10,000 hours and obviously she doesn’t have that in the ring yet. She has to go out there and knows there will be failures. It was hard for her at first to accept she would fail. She realized it was better to fail and pick herself up than not go out there at all.

-Lana’s father says a prayer for his daughter as the family joins hands together. He jokes that he also prays that she wins on Sunday as that is his personal prayer.

-Lana quotes John Cena with “never give up” and she wants her happy ending. She tells herself that she has to get back up and she hopes it will encourage someone else. Even when it seems hopeless you have to keep on going and that alone shows you are succeeding. If you chase your dreams anything is possible.

-This was better than I expected and good for Lana pushing through everything. I love this series as it shows sides of these men and women we don’t get to see on camera. The Ambrose one is still by far my favorite entry, but this was good. Lana opened up here and gave us a glimpse of what she has to deal with as far as online trolls and yeah, it sucks. I figured Rusev won’t be mentioned, but she at least referenced his absence once. I hope the WWE pays off this story the right way for Lana in the end and she does get the happy ending she wants. Thanks for reading!