WWE: What Lana needs in order to have a successful babyface push

Lana should be pushed as a babyface on WWE Raw, but the way the company is going about her push needs to be tweaked.

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see where Lana’s underdog babyface push in WWE ends up. We’ve seen Lana as a heel so often in WWE, whether she’s a manager or a wrestler, and she was quite good at being an annoying, cowardly heel, even if it never led to on-screen success.

A little over two years ago, Lana had a breakout moment at the Money in the Bank Pay Per View. Many fans counted her out of having a strong performance in the match, but she put in the best work of her career in that match. You could tell just how much work Lana put in for months to shine in that sort of opportunity, and it was a shame WWE never built on her wrestling success.

In late 2020 after the most recent draft, Lana is finally getting a real singles push again. She even won a battle royal in shocking fashion – much to the surprise of fans who feared that she was getting buried after several weekly table spots – and faced Asuka in a Raw Women’s Title match. Of course, she lost rather quickly, but it was good to see her getting that opportunity.

We keep hearing reports of how Lana is in line for a babyface push, but fans aren’t getting behind her as quickly as they should. I think fans are waiting to cheer for Lana, but it’s difficult to when she’s losing so frequently in ways that don’t make her sympathetic enough. Her work is great, but WWE could be helping her out a little bit more.

Firstly, the table spots. Week after week, they have become a talking point, and, now, they are becoming more of an unwelcome distraction. There’s a way to make this all worth it, but it has to involve Lana getting a pay-off at Survivor Series.

Lana needs a moment that makes her a credible babyface in WWE

That pay-off won’t be her earning the distinction of being sole survivor. No, no, that spot should belong to Bayley and Bianca Belair, and Team SmackDown seem like a lock to win this match. Lana becoming sole survivor over the likes of Bianca and Bayley won’t do her any favors in terms of sympathy. However, Lana should have a strong showing and should eliminate somebody on SmackDown, perhaps when it seems like her team has no hope. She could very well be the last woman remaining on Raw in a possible defeat.

What many of us are expecting is for Lana to get revenge on Nia Jax at Shayna Baszler at some point. Sending Nia through a table after Survivor Series, when Team Raw inevitably implodes and we get a post-Survivor Series confrontation on Monday night, would be ideal.

Those future steps help fix a fundamental issue with Lana’s push. It’s nice that we’re establishing her as a babyface and fans are getting clued in a little bit, but there need to be steps taken to make Lana seem credible and like someone worth getting behind. Fans like backing winners, and while Lana won a battle royal, it seemed more like a fluke she couldn’t capitalize on than anything else.

I very much look forward to seeing Lana succeed as a babyface, and I have a feeling a few tweaks that make Lana seem more like a threat would be a wise choice.