WWE: Lana’s Second Chance as a Superstar is Crucial

Lana’s coming out party at becoming a solo Superstar two years ago flunked out.  Will she dance her way into the WWE Universe’s hearts this time around?

For the last several weeks, there have been colorful vignettes on Smackdown presenting Lana in a completely different light to WWE fans.  Each vignette showed Lana performing several dance routines in efforts to establish a new chapter for the Ravishing Russian.  Prior to those vignettes, there have been fan videos popping up with Lana’s NXT appearances, sparking the topic of her going solo for quite some time.

Other than Total Divas appearances, WWE fans haven’t seen Lana at ringside since Fastlane, where her real-life husband Rusev would break up his alliance with Jinder Mahal followed with being defeated by The Big Show.  During the Superstar Shake-Up, it was announced that both Lana and Rusev would be returning to the Smackdown brand.

It seems that this time will be a more concentrated effort for the newest female member of WWE Smackdown.  If fans remember, her first attempt at becoming a solo Superstar was a disaster.  The storyline booking with her and Dolph Ziggler was poorly thought out and went on for way too long.  She would leave Rusev for Ziggler to which in response Rusev sought out Summer Rae to try to take Lana out.  The feud should have culminated at SummerSlam that year, however, it dragged out to where it didn’t make sense as Summer looked to have been playing both men.

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The storyline was done so wrong that it was an injustice to all Superstars involved.  It had potential to be great, however it was anything but.  It took some time for all of them to recover from it, and it seemed that other than last year’s WrestleMania 32 match it was just better to keep Lana where she excelled best.  That was being Rusev’s right-hand woman and mouthpiece.  Lana’s mic skills are very strong and her character as the cold-hearted Russian woman was spot on.  All good things come to an end, and while it’s necessary for Lana to evolve, her new direction can’t fail again.

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Smackdown is the ‘Land of Opportunity’ after all, which that is a huge plus.  Lana has it all – the beauty, the brains and potential to make an impact in the ring.  But that can only help for so long before fans don’t buy into her gimmick.  If this dance character fails again, then Lana would be in the danger zone in terms of wrestling.  There’s always the safe bet of her being at Rusev’s side, but if the company attempted to try their hand at Lana’s wrestling career afterward, then fans won’t look forward to it.

All fans know right now is Lana is showing a different side to her this time around.  There is no supporting player beside her.  It’s a clean slate so to speak.  Where she goes from here is up to the company and if they want the blonde bombshell to succeed this time around, they must hit a homerun with her.  The fans need a reason to invest in her second chance, and hopefully, her direction will be clear once she debuts in the ring once more.  There is already some concentration and investment on Lana, and that must be consistent once she makes her way to Smackdown.

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The question is, will she dance her way into the hearts of the WWE universe or will she fall flat on her face?  The ball is in her court this time around, and she must make it count.