Lana May Not Return To WWE

Last week, Lana tweeted and then deleted some remarks about the Divas Championship Match at Survivor Series. Her comments were fairly generic, except for an accusation that Paige had “bullied” her in developmental.

The fiery Brit shot back and things pretty clearly left kayfabe for at least a second, with Paige claiming that Lana leaked news of her engagement to TMZ and that she was angling for a “storyline.” WWE.com quickly published a story about the tiff, which gave off the impression that both Divas were “in character.”

Dave Meltzer then reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE officials — who were already unhappy with Lana over how events played out surrounding her real-life engagement to Rusev and how news of it effected her angle with him, Summer Rae and Dolph Ziggler — were legitimately angry with the injured Diva because of her tweets, likely because the subject of “bullying” in developmental is a sore one considering the controversy that lead to Bill DeMott’s exit, and the company’s public service efforts like Be a STAR.

The WWE.com story was a way to cover up the potentially damaging tweets to make them seem like they were a planned storyline all along, which they were not.

Rumors Monday afternoon had Lana returning with Rusev on Raw in the engaged couple’s hometown of Nashville. The absent Diva worked out at the Performance Center last week and would be cleared for a non-physical role, but with Rusev returning on his own, a decision was obviously made to not bring her back in her former role. On F4WOnline.com’s post-Raw recap show, Bryan Alvarez said he would be surprised if Lana ever returns to WWE. Despite the animosity toward her, which should eventually die down, her return hinges on WWE having a role for her on television. The company’s storyline options for her will be limited due to the nature of her character, so it could be awhile before she pops up on television again.

Dave Meltzer added on Wrestling Observer Radio that Lana has “nuclear heat,” which is definitely true. This includes the locker room, who are also pissed off with her. This animosity likely played a factor in Paige and even Rosa Mendes calling her out on Twitter since people are comfortable calling out someone who’s unpopular. Unless it’s for storyline purposes, WWE performers rarely call each other out on social media.