Two weeks ago, Lana was released from her WWE contract. This came 14 months after the company parted ways with her husband, Rusev, who now performs as Miro in AEW.
WWE also announced the releases of Santana Garrett, Murphy, Braun Strowman, Aleister Black and Ruby Riott. All six talents reportedly had 90-day non-compete clauses in their contracts, so they won't be able to wrestle elsewhere until September.
Lana talked about her WWE release during an Instagram live video (h/t WrestlingInc.com). Lana said that she cried after learning of her WWE release, but Miro had a completely different reaction. Apparently, Miro did "cartwheels" following his release last year.
Lana signed a five-year contract with the WWE back in Nov. 2019. Rusev was barely featured on WWE programming in the weeks leading up to his release; it was reported that he was in a contract dispute with the company. Two years ago, Lana and Rusev opened up on their frustrations with the WWE. Having lost the United States Championship, Rusev said he was worried that both he and the title would "get lost."
Miro debuted for AEW on the Sept. 9 episode of Dynamite, approximately five months after he was released from WWE. Nothing has been confirmed, but many are predicting that Lana will sign with AEW as well. The company has quite the track record of bringing in recently released WWE talents, after all.
Lana & Rusev Deserved Better In WWE
Lana's release was very surprising, because her and Naomi were flourishing as a tag team in the women's division. It felt like only a matter of time until they held the Women's Tag Team Championships, but WWE quickly moved away from that.
Both Lana and Rusev deserved better management in WWE, especially when you think about how much "Rusev Day" was soaring back in 2018. It's nice to see AEW capitalizing on Miro's star power, and perhaps they'll sign Lana and do the same with her.