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Admitting Rusev & Lana are engaged is a new low, even for WWE

9K views 94 replies 68 participants last post by  sean 590 
#1 ·
This is WWE just saying fuck it :draper2

I get that kayfabe is dead, and this is the "Reality Era". But when you just spent the last 3 months building around a storyline (no matter how bad it was), it's insulting to your viewers to not give some type of explanation to how Rusev and Lana are engaged.

Last thing we saw, Lana and Ziggler can't keep their hands off each other making out all over the place and next thing we know Rusev and Lana are engaged? You have how many writers and you couldn't come up with some type of storyline to have Lana turn on Ziggler and rejoin Rusev?

What are you paying "creative" for exactly? :cornette
 
#6 ·
I agree this storyline has been beyond awful. But I'm just afraid it sets a precedent for future storylines to just be completely dropped and changed with no explanation.


WWE don't control their personal life.
That's fine. I'm happy for them. But at least give us some type of on-screen explanation for storyline purposes.
 
#10 ·
What does this have to do with OP? What the WWE DOES control is the stories that they tell on air. They did drop the ball on this one.
 
#11 ·
Maybe I'm wrong here but don't you think WWE could've just ignored the fact that they engaged, they didn't need to put this news on their website, if they didn't show the tmz's article on raw I wouldn't even know they got engaged. WWE can ignore Cena's relationship with Nikki that is presented on the show that they are promoting so what would be a reason to not ignore this situation. With that being said Lana and Rusev are stupid for making this public before the end of this storyline and I honestly can understand why WWE officials would be pissed at them.
 
#9 ·
I literally just started a thread about this in the RAW/Smackdown section. It really bothers me that they could find a way to actually settle a story properly. It's just a slap in the face to everyone involved because it just makes everyone look like idiots. There is no one screen reason for Lana to go back to Rusev. I know their engagement is real life, but that shouldn't effect the story so bad that you just drop the last 2 months like nothing happened.
 
#13 ·
Would it really have been that hard for it to make even a little sense kayfabe wise?

Simply have some shit segment where Rusev comes backstage with Summer talking to her girlfriends about the future wedding, Rusev glances at her jewelry (the one that Ziggler gave her) and asks "Who gave this to you? Was it that Dog Ziggler?!"

Rusev flips out and goes on a rampage, destroying a bunch of shit backstage and says his relationship with Summer is over.

I mean that was just an idea that, even if shitty, at least keeps kayfabe intact and took a whole 30 seconds to come up with. The way they did it last night "Hey guys, FUCK the storyline because let's talk about an angle based on real life that doesn't make any sense kayfabe wise" was lazy as shit and should cost someone their job imo as whoever approved that nonsense clearly doesn't give two shits about the product.
 
#15 ·
They had actually been building to this somewhat with Lana walking out on Ziggler after Summer's revelation that she and Dolph had been seeing each other on the dl annd Ziggler buying Summer those earrings, where they dropped the ball is in never having Rusev and Lana makeup. They didn't even need her on camera they could've done it on twitter.

What this really fucked up was the face/heel dynamics. Rusev the cuckold should've joined Lana the scorned woman on team face and Ziggler the philanderer should've joined the Summer slut on team heel. Instead Lana now comes off heelish and Summer turned face and now no one has any direction.
 
#18 ·
They had actually been building to this somewhat with Lana walking out on Ziggler after Summer's revelation that she and Dolph had been seeing each other on the dl annd Ziggler buying Summer those earrings, where they dropped the ball is in never having Rusev and Lana makeup. They didn't even need her on camera they could've done it on twitter.

What this really fucked up was the face/heel dynamics. Rusev the cuckold should've joined Lana the scorned woman on team face and Ziggler the philanderer should've joined the Summer slut on team heel. Instead Lana now comes off heelish and Summer turned face and now no one has any direction.
so basically business as usual for WWE. :drake1
 
#19 ·
Part of me thinks that WWE didn't really have an established ending to this story line or realized that it was not getting over and are using the real engagement as a get out of story-line free card

Now they don't have to finish it and can just pretend it did not happen

It would not be the first time
 
#20 ·
Im glad the storyline is over, cause we all can agree that it was terrible.

However, can we at least try to keep some kayfabe? How about you tell your employees to keep their personal lives off of social media? And if they don't like that, tell them to go to TNA.
 
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#22 ·
They only did it because of all the smarky fans these days. It's so hard in this era to maintain kayfabe with the internet and dirt sheets. Glad they put an end to the storyline as it was awful and embarrassing. Rusev and Dolph Ziggler are extremely talented individuals and they can do so much better then a cheesy love storyline.
 
#25 ·
It's not that admitting they were engaged was wrong, it's that the segment needed to be much, much more than it was. We got Summer getting angry at Rusev and calling him a bastard, which was I guess kinda fine, but we needed Rusev to laugh at her and how she couldn't see how she was being played since she's a "stupid American." Lana comes out in classic attire to confirm it was a con, they reunite as heel power couple. It would still be hackneyed storytelling but it is the basic, basic thing they need to do.
 
#29 ·
Fans have only been expressing for months on end how abysmal this storyline has been...Rusev and Lana actually had the guts to take matters into their own hands. Good for them. The handling of Rusev this year is just unbelievable. Look very carefully, Strowman, this will be you within a year or two.

Having Rusev job clean to Ryback like that, obviously Rusev is being punished for derailing the storyline. Ryback has only recently pulled himself from the doghouse, but I guarantee he'll still never win the big one. As for Rusev, I'm willing to bet it gets worse from here.

If anyone needs further proof that WWE just doesn't get their fanbase (or furthermore just doesn't give a shit) then you need look no further on the entire arc of Rusev's character this past year.
 
#34 ·
It was a shit storyline so I'm glad its been forced to be finished.
 
#35 ·
Yeah terrible storyline for sure. Right when it started, I remember just rolled my eyes.

Why did they split them up on TV anyways? Especially if they're still together in real life. (Even pro wrestling, still has to reflect real life events). Bad stuff.

One theory for me honestly is, they just wanted to halt Ziggler's push. They don't like it when Ziggler gets popular, they always try to de-push him somehow. They presented the idea to Ziggler, on paper it sounds good and he agreed, but deep down, the writing team knew this would halt Ziggler's push.
 
#37 ·
The storyline sucked.

Vince got too ambitious in doing something with Lana's cheers.

We'll retroactively make Russev an abuser and Lana a victim - even if it flies in the face of all the times fans saw her bossing him around. She can go face, Russev can look like a dick. We'll put her with Ziggler, people love that guy, but he's missing something to go to the next level. Win-win. Summer is introduced. Build to a mixed tag - as we haven't had one for a while. I get the intention.

Russev hurts his foot and can't wrestle for weeks. Ziggler films a movie. Lana breaks her wrist. Storyline drags and drags because they can't build to that desired conclusion.

So we get Ziggler flirting with Summer too. We get goofy week-wasting filler promos featuring fish, dogs, earrings, Jerry Springer BS, etc... Because WWE holds onto the belief that if they wait a little while longer - they can get to the "big money" match. Instead, it spirals lower and lower and damn near everyone just wants the story to go away.

------

Nevermind the personal end of things. Rumors that Vince was trying to split up Russev/Lana because she'd be more marketable IRL with a more handsome dude. WWE having Ziggler/Lana party in NYC, go to Disney, etc... together - leading to dirtsheet rumors that the couple legitimately split and she was banging Dolph (WWE nailed the Kayfabe there - a lot of sites bought into it). As a man, how do you think the guy playing Russev, the former king of Kayfabe, likes seeing all that stuff?

Plus, I'm sure he can see this storyline is hurting his character / career.

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So they "accidentally" tweet pics featuring the engagement ring + leak the details to TMZ. They're both famous by being wrestlers - so its newsworthy. It's even more newsworthy when you consider that CJ Perry was also a model and actress.

TMZ is a major media outlet for Hollywood info with a highly trafficked site and a TV show. WWE can't ignore it. It's just out there.

Russev gets out of a bad storyline. The world knows they're together. They might even get to work together on TV again - resetting his character to back when he was on top. It's a win-win-win all around - provided they don't job him out forever as punishment
 
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