During a recent appearance on Talk Is Jericho podcast, former WWE Superstar Lana (Real Name: C.J. Perry) talked about her release from the company.
Below are the highlights:
On getting the call from John Laurinaitis about her release:
“I got a call from Johnny Ace (John Laurinaitis). Crazy thing is I thought he was calling me about something completely different. I can’t tell you yet what the show is, but I was offered to do another television show, and so they went through the whole process with WWE, and they approved it.
And so I thought he was calling me about more of those details because that’s what we were all discussing the day before. ‘I’m calling you about your 90 days.’ I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’ I couldn’t even understand, and he’s like, ‘I’m calling you about your 90 days. You’re getting released,’ and I was literally standing right next to a pool. My heart dropped.
At the same time, I felt really relieved, which was really weird because I did not expect to feel relieved. I felt like a weight lifted off my shoulder, and I could breathe. If someone would have told me that would have happened, I would have been like, no way because I love my job. I love the people that I worked with. Yeah, things are sh*tty at times, but that’s why it’s a job.
He’s like, ‘Stay in touch. You’ve worked your a$$ off’. I go, ‘Is there anything that I did wrong?’ He’s like, ‘No. You worked your a$$ off. You’ve improved tremendously in the ring. Thank you for working hard. Stay close,’ Johnny Ace’s usual.
I kind of chuckled to myself because I’m glad it wasn’t Mark Carrano that called me because I just see Johnny as this role. Mark kind of becomes homies a little bit more, and Ace is just so corporate. He was like, ‘No, just budget cuts.’ And I said, ‘Okay. Thank you for everything,’ and that was that.”
On telling other WWE wrestlers that she got released:
“I was in the middle of texting Mandy [Rose]. We were texting about other random things, and I’m just like, ‘I just got released.’ She was the first person I told. She’s like, ‘Wait, what?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, they literally just released me,’ and I called Nattie (Natalya) immediately.
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