Lana recalls the days of taping multiple shows in advance at the WWE Performance Center and how Vince McMahon having time to rewrite and rethink segments changed the course of direction for several performers.
Lana, CJ Perry, was one of the top female WWE Superstars throughout the course of the pandemic era. Prior to her release, she was a regular fixture on Monday Night Raw and through the course of the pandemic was paired with Bobby Lashley, Natalya, Asuka, and Naomi.
Early on in the pandemic, all of the content was filmed in advance at the WWE Performance Center. Because all of the content was taped in advance, this gave the opportunity for segments to be rewritten or sometimes, scrapped altogether.
One such incident happened when Lana managed Natalia in a match against Mickie James in a segment where they were supposed to debut Chelsea Green before Vince McMahon changed his mind.
Lana explained, on the most recent Talk is Jericho podcast with Chris Jericho, being at a taping for 19 hours to film one 60-second backstage segment and how glad she was when the WWE Thunderdome came into play so that segments could no longer be rewritten after being filmed.
“I was so excited that we were back to live television and that Vince could rethink it and rewrite it seventeen times. Because that's what was happening,” Perry began. “One time, I was there for 19 hours to do a 60 second backstage. Nattie and I did this whole segment with Mickie James and debuted Chelsea... I was managing Nattie for the first time and Chelsea was supposed to debut with Mickie and we did it all. We did it all. We went home, you know, I'm in bed, and we get a call from one of the writers that they're cutting it. Vince looked at it and said, no, cut the whole thing.
“We had to go back to film another backstage, all of it, Chelsea didn't debut, we had the match and all. It was just like constantly weird stuff like that. That it was just once we went to live television, I was excited. I was like, yay. We can't rethink it. It's out there like, for better or for worse.”
This was one of the multiple debuts for Chelsea Green that didn't go the way plans were originally written. Upon her actual debut on Smackdown, Chelsea Green re-injured her wrists and would be on the shelf for the rest of her WWE tenure as she was released shortly after this year's WrestleMania, just like Lana.
Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp spoke to Chelsea Green about not only her debuts but several ideas that she pitched along the way. You can check out the full interview here.
