This day, I look is a popular AEW star who recently teamed up with Sting and Darby Allin to defeat The House of Black at All Out PPV. However, most wrestling fans met him in 2014, when the Bulgarian wrestler received the call-up to the NXT WWE main roster from him. Announced as Rusev, he broke down in tears. That run included going on a winning streak, capturing the United States Championship, crossing paths with The Rock in a surprise appearance on Raw, and entering a WrestleMania match with John Cena (which many would argue was a mistake for Cena to win).
Along the way, her manager Lana was a big part of the act, and the two would go on to a variety of storylines together and even against each other. Neither Miro nor Lana, whose real name is CJ Perry, are in WWE anymore, but they are still in each other’s lives as a married couple.
Miro and CJ Perry met through wrestling
Miro and CJ Perry met when they were both in the WWE development system. In an interview with Reel Talker (h/t WrestleTalk), Miro stated that the two started out as friends, riding together between shows. “We were always next to each other while traveling with different people in cars,” Miro explained. “I felt like something was up, but I didn’t want to scare anyone. I didn’t want to push her away.”
The Redeemer certainly managed not to scare off his love interest, as he eventually reported asking her out on a date, which she agreed to. “The next thing you know, we kissed and then we moved in together. Then we bought a house,” Rusev recalled, going over the gist of her love story.
Miro and CJ Perry’s real-life relationship affected their wrestling storylines
WWE had partnered Miro and CJ Perry on screen for the first leg of their main roster career. However, during the summer of 2016, the company separated them when Perry became a baby and became romantically involved in kayfabe with Dolph Ziggler. Meanwhile, Miro was linked to Summer Rae, openly taking aim at Perry when he started dressing up and adopting some of the same mannerisms as her.
Things took a dramatic turn when TMZ reported on Lana and Rusev’s real-life engagement. While, in modern times, wrestling promoters and fans generally understand that wrestling angles are fiction and that performers have real lives outside of the business, WWE management, however, did not take kindly this development, feeling that it undermined the story they were telling about the separation of the two. . The company dropped the story, and Perry ended up off television for a time. On a visit to Talk is Jericho (h/t SportzWiki), Perry explained that he was upset by the leaked photos and news coverage of the engagement. However, he claimed that he only shared the images with his friends and that one of them must have leaked them, inadvertently sabotaging his position in the company.
Miro and CJ Perry endured ups and downs in their respective careers
There was a moment in time, particularly in 2014 and early 2015, when Miro and CJ Perry seemed like a legit power couple in wrestling. Here was a would-be main event wrestler with a manager who accentuated his act to perfection and could realistically have taken on other kayfabe patrons. However, after Miro decisively lost his feud with John Cena, he was never the same. The closest he came to breaking out again was with his infectious Rusev Day gimmick, but WWE never seemed willing to invest in him, or even turn him into a baby, despite the huge backlash that version of him was getting from the fans and had no clear direction. like a heel.
Perry had her moments off as a wrestler, but her tenure in WWE can best be summed up as the period when Nia Jax repeatedly put her on the tables. Supposedly, her creative choice was designed to garner sympathy for her, but for the most part it just reinforced the idea that she really had no business trying to compete with the top fighters she faced in the division. feminine.
Since then, Miro has enjoyed his successes in AEW, including a brief and dominant stint as TNT Champion. However, he has mostly found himself lost in the shuffle of a packed roster, spending long periods away from television. With Perry out of wrestling since his departure from WWE in June 2021, it’s fortunate that he had other outlets, including acting and singing activities from him. It’s also lucky that Miro and Perry have each other.
In an interesting turn of events, this summer a chapter of Miro’s problems with The House of Black involved Julia Hart appearing to be trying to seduce him. Miro rejected the advances and said that only a woman could touch him. Several fans suspected that this sequence could hint at CJ Perry joining him in AEW. That deal has yet to materialize, but it speaks not only to the bond between Miro and Perry, but also to the fans’ investment in them to want to see that couple on their TVs together again.