Lana Reveals Her Favorite WWE Match of All-Time

In an interview with Gerry Strauss for the 411 Wrestling Interviews Podcast, WWE star Lana revealed her favorite WWE match of all-time — The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18. She discussed that match, as well as how much she loves Rusev’s match with Roman Reigns at Hell in a Cell last year, below.

“My favorite WWE match of all-time — anything with Rusev in it [laughing]. Anything that Rusev is in, or I’m in [laughing]. No, I do think Rusev is incredible. I watch like a lot of his matches and I’m blown away. I really, really like Rusev and Roman’s match at Hell in a Cell, because, a lot of their stuff is, they’re incredible, they have incredible chemistry. It’s really exciting that Roman is actually on Smackdown Live because, I’m hoping that, once again we’ll be able to face him. I mean, Rusev, they are just these two big guys that are super, super athletic, and they are big, and they’re obviously attractive men, like woah, a lot of athleticism. They have incredible, incredible matches and incredible chemistry. I always really enjoyed watching it ringside and always, even watching it back, those might be some of Rusev’s favorite ones. But probably of all-time, WrestleMania 18, The Rock vs. Hogan. WrestleMania. That was such an electrifying match, like if you actually see, if you watch it, it’s like how they listened to the crowd, how they acted, it was just, that’s when, that’s when I go, ‘God, I love the WWE Universe so much’, because they really do have such a part of our show, when they’re so into it, booing or cheering, or just having an emotional reaction to what we’re doing, it just makes it so much greater. That’s just, literally, an electrifying match to me. And it wasn’t just, we’re in this time of all this high flying, and you know, almost like I’m watching gymnastics and almost watching cirque du soleil or watching, seriously I’ll watch some of these high flyers and it’s great, it reminds me of my break dancing friends at Florida State, and they’re doing all these break dancing moves, and that’s great, that’s great, that’s wonderful. But I think we cannot forget, it can’t just be about the moves. We’re storytellers. We have to have emotion. Without emotion and just a bunch of moves, it’s no different than watching a gymnastics routine at the Olympics, which I love, I watch it, it’s great, but this is a fight and this is, make me feel something. I don’t want to just be like ‘Oh, that’s a cool move. That’s cool. Woah, that was cool. That was like some headspins, or some windmills, that was really, like my break dancing friends.’ No, make me feel something. I want to connect with either booing you or cheering you, or make me feel something, because this is something like, we’re storytellers, we’re not just athletes. Yes, we’re athletes, but we’re also storytellers and entertainers.”

She also discussed her favorite match that she’s been part of, mentioning how fun her Mixed Match Challenge matches have been, as well as her Money in the Bank Ladder Match.

“I have several. I have several for so many different reasons. Sometimes I watch matches back and I literally am laughing my butt off because I’m like, I’m insane, like I’m literally out of mind. Like I will watch things back that I’m like, I can’t believe what happened to me, like what took over me. There was, probably of this just like having freaking fun and ridiculousness, a couple of the Mixd Match Challenge matches that I had, I just watched that and I was laying on the floor and I’m like ‘I am out of my mind’ and all of a sudden, and this is why I like being a bad guy, because of all this heat. We had a match, it was Rusev and I against AJ [Styles] and Charlotte, and we had a chopping contest, a chop-off, a chop-off contest. And you’re supposed to only chop once, and I couldn’t make the chop sound on Charlotte so I just went nuts, and kept on hitting her like a crazy person. And you know, Charlotte Flair, like I don’t know, her chops, wow, talk about pain. I think I was bruised for days. And I watched it back, and I’m just laying on the floor, and it went viral, and it went into like the millions, and I’m like, this is what it’s all about. Once again, emotion. But that was just like, so much fun. Stuff I did with Naomi, we went out there for the Mixed Match Challenge, we were supposed to have a little dance battle, and both of us, we’re dancers, former ex-dancers, former professional dancers, so we always say, that was like a decade ago we were professional dancers, and they think, we can’t bust out of the same moves we did in 1993, not really, but that’s how it feels, so we’re like, what are we going to do, we’re both nervous. Then all of a sudden, the music hits, and we just keep going, like going, both of us are trying to outdo each other, like, whatever you can do, I can do better. Just going and going. And the boys are like, we have to, trying to get my attention, and we’re just like, we’ve gotten lost in our dance battle. And we watched it back, and literally I was dying. I don’t know what came over us. We just got lost in having fun of who could dance better. So those are just great moments and so fun that you really get to see us having a lot of fun. That’s what I love about Mixed Match Challenge. But I think when it comes to just competitive, probably my Money in the Bank ladder match last year at Money in the Bank. I was really proud of that. I don’t think anyone could have thought I would have a ladder match. A lot of people were like, ‘I bet you wish you weren’t wrestling anymore because you have a ladder match’ and I’m like, ‘No, I’m excited to have a ladder match.’ It was so much fun, I hope to be in a ladder match again this year. It was great, it was a lot of fun. I enjoy challenges. It was a very high-stakes match and I want to be in high-stakes things, in high-stakes situations, high-stakes matches. So that I was really proud of.”

In the full interview, Lana talks about how long she expects to stay with WWE, what her favorite WWE match of all-time is, if she prefers working as a heel or babyface, the evolution of her ‘salty’ character, if she likes being underestimated in the ring, on how hard it was to maintain her Russian accent and why WWE had her drop it, and MUCH more! Check out the full interview, which runs at over an hour, below.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the 411 Wrestling Interview Podcast on 411mania.com.

Introduction (0:00)
On what she’s been up to since WrestleMania and going to Coachella (1:17)
On how her experience at WrestleMania this year compared to past years (4:40)
On if she likes being underestimated in the ring (10:28)
On her “salty” hashtag and what it means (12:03)
On using real-life frustrations as fuel for her character motivations (16:43)
On if she prefers being a heel or a babyface (19:33)
On her new comic book project Dark Country with Jason Starr (25:26)
On her time growing up in Europe and if she misses it (30:21)
On how long she expects to stay with WWE (36:35)
On how hard it was to maintain her Russian accent and why it was faded out (40:13)
On her experience training before getting in the ring (45:15)
On the separation between her personal and professional life (52:24)
On if she feels the urge to put her life out more following Total Divas (53:50)
On what her favorite WWE match of all-time is, and her favorite match of her own (56:05)
On her experience working on the Pitch Perfect films (1:02:39)
On when Rusev Day was born (1:03:50)
On if she’s still training in the ring and wants to continue working in the ring (1:06:25)

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