Retired basketball player Dennis Rodman wasn’t just a popular figure in the NBA, but also in pro wrestling. Back in the mid-90s, Rodman channeled his savage skills in basketball into wrestling when he joined the NWO as a part-time wrestler. His most notable wrestling appearance was when he wrestled alongside The Immortal, Hulk Hogan, at WCW’s Bash at the Beach PPVs. That said, Rodman had some knowledge about the pro wrestling industry.
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The NWO member once even tried talking former WWE superstar, CJ Perry a.k.a Lana, out of her wrestling career. During their stay at the Hollywood mansion in The Surreal Life, Rodman advised Lana to retire from her pro wrestling career.
However, Lana took umbrage to Rodman’s advice. Lana was released from WWE in June 2021 during the pandemic due to the company’s budget cuts.
Lana recalls being nagged by Dennis Rodman to retire from wrestling
In an interview with WrestleZone, Miro’s wife Lana recalled feeling annoyed by the 61-year-old NWO member. According to her, Rodman was nagging her to consider another career path and “evolve”. Perry stated-
“He kept telling me, ‘hey, you gotta retire, you gotta retire and evolve’ and I was getting so annoyed. I’m like, ‘Dennis, like you literally are 60 years old and you’re still [working].”
But Lana proved Rodman wrong later when she did her WWE Ravishing Russian gimmick, managing Dennis Rodman and Frankie Muniz. Lana made a believer out of Rodman, and his perception of her changed immediately. As Rodman stood corrected, he encouraged Perry to be a manager in wrestling.
“I ended up managing Dennis Rodman and … Frankie Muniz, and I did the whole Russian spiel, and his respect for me changed immediately.”
Vince McMahon did not want to pair Rusev and Lana because he thought she was “hot”
Speaking with Wrestling Inc, Lana revealed that Vince McMahon was initially against the idea of pairing Rusev and Lana. When the couple made their debut, they played the gimmick of evil Russians. While the idea was to gather heel heat from the fans, Vince McMahon thought the fans would end up cheering for Rusev because Lana was “hot”.
“Vince was a little bit more traditional, and he almost didn’t want me to be paired with Miro because he’s like, ‘A hot girl can’t be with a heel guy, or he’ll get cheered.’”
Although Lana thought Vince McMahon’s logic didn’t make sense, at some point, fans began cheering for the couple while they were still heel characters. This led to WWE splitting the pair and involving Lana and Dolph Ziggler in a romantic angle.
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