Lana recalls her "future endeavors" phone call.
Lana was abruptly let go by WWE on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. She was on TV all the way up until her release and felt completely blindsided by the release, as she explains on the latest Talk Is Jericho podcast with Chris Jericho.
Lana would explain that when she got the call from John Laurinaitis, she was under the impression that he was calling her to talk about a TV show WWE had recently cleared her to take part in and that's when Johnny told her that it was time to talk about her 90-day no-compete clause.
Despite this, John Laurinaitis was very complimentary of Lana and the hard work that she put into progressing in the squared circle.
"I didn't want to get fired. I wanted to make sure I was an essential worker, you know that they're like, 'No, we need you.' I know from day one, my future endeavors --- all of those future endeavors start day one of working in WWE, so I was preparing for it. So I rented this house and decided to take my family on a family vacation here. So I could train a lot more and not have to travel. Two weeks in, I rented it for a month, two weeks inI got a call from Johnny Ace. The crazy thing is I thought he was calling me about something completely different. Because I was ---- I can't tell you yet what the show is, but I was offered to do another television show and they went through the whole process with WWE and they approved that. So I thought he was calling me about more of those details, you know, because that's what we were all discussing the day before, you know?
Lana continued, "He goes, 'I'm calling you about your 90 days. I was like 'Wait, what?' I was like, I couldn't even understand. He's like, 'I'm calling you about your 90 days. You're getting released.' I was literally standing right next to a pool. My heart dropped. At the same time, I felt really relieved, which was really weird. Because I did not expect the feel relieved. Like I felt like a weight lifted off my shoulder and I could breathe. If someone would have told me that would have happened. I would have been like, 'No way,' because I love my job. I love the people that I worked with. I mean, yeah, things are shitty at times. But like, that's why it's a job, you know?
"He's like, 'Stay in touch. Thank you. He goes, you've worked your ass off.' I go, 'Is there anything that I did wrong? He's like, 'No, he's like, you worked your ass off. You've improved tremendously in the ring. Thank you for working hard. Stay close.' I'm glad it wasn't Mark Carrano that called me. Because like, I just see Johnny as this role, you know? Mark kind of becomes like homies a little bit more and like Ace is just like, so. corporate. He was like, 'No, just budget cuts.' I said, Okay, Thank you for everything.' That was that."
Lana concluded by saying that should she stay in wrestling, which she wants to, she never wants that feeling to hit her again and wants a clause in her next contract to make sure it never happens again.
"I felt really relieved in the sense of like, I've been waiting for this call. That's the part I don't like about the environment. I want to -- whatever wrestling contract I have next if I stay in wrestling, which I hope I do, I want a no-cut clause, that was the worst."
Elsewhere on the same podcast, Lana explains why she was happy to see WWE go back to live television inside the WWE ThunderDome because Vince McMahon was rewriting several television segments.
One of these incidents even resulted in Chelsea Green not debuting. Learn more here.
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