CJ Perry is calling her shot.
Formerly known as “The Ravishing Russian” Lana in WWE, CJ Perry is staying busy while she waits for the right time to make her return to wrestling. Perry recently spoke with WrestleZone about her new partnership with BrandArmy and how it allows her to stay connected with fans despite not appearing on TV each week.
“It’s been an amazing experience, I am so, so grateful because it’s just a way to connect to the people, the fans, in such an intimate way. On Instagram and Twitter, only so many people are going to see your posts with the algorithms, and AI and whatnot, so it’s great to be able to post something and everyone gets to see it. You get feedback from people and I read all the DMs,” she noted, “I talk to people on there, I read all the comments, it’s a big range of stuff that I post.”
Perry said she posts some sexier content on BrandArmy that wouldn’t be appropriate for Instagram. She not only has younger fans that follow her, but also Muslim, Christian and Jewish fans, so she also wants to be respectful of their beliefs.
“There’s also a ton of stuff from behind the scenes that I’ve never posted, partly because I was in a storyline with these people, I don’t want to break kayfabe or that fourth wall. I wanted to commit to the character, so I always saved so much of this content from tours and being on the road,” she explained, “practice matches with so many different girls like Toni Storm, Liv Morgan, Aliyah, Nikki Cross—so many great girls and no one has seen these matches that we had.”
Perry is also preparing to shoot a new short for the account, her first time directing a project of this magnitude. Perry said that BrandArmy is different than other platforms like OnlyFans where she can still push the envelope with content she puts out, but her husband, Miro, is still comfortable with it too. She likes that she can still connect with fans in a meaningful way and make them feel like they are getting value from the content.
https://t.co/MAgyLXkE0d subscribe ❤️ pic.twitter.com/XpaRmRNYo8
— CJ Perry (@TheCJPerry) July 16, 2022
CJ Perry spoke about how some of the content she has saved came from her days of training at Dungeon 2.0, Natalya and Tyson Kidd’s gym in Tampa. Perry previously shared that she had been flying to Florida to train with them and lived in hotels for several months, all in an effort to improve as an in-ring competitor.
“I was able to have all of these practice matches because that was the thing with Nattie and TJ, they always wanted to make sure we had at least a five-minute match, sometimes longer, and it had the break spots, timing, Nattie would pretend she was Vince McMahon or Kevin Dunn and emulate it. It was great, I have all of this footage that I so appreciate now because I was looking forward to having matches with these girls, a lot of them, and I didn’t, but I have this,” she stated. “I think they are great and it’s cool to share. I shared one of my matches with Liv and the feedback was great, people loved it and you could tell we had so much fun with it.”
Perry was released by WWE on June 2, 2021, and fans have been eagerly waiting for her return to the ring. Now that she’s had time to reflect on her WWE tenure, Perry says that she still has mixed emotions about the experience and noted that fans will see some of that play out when The Surreal Life premieres this fall.
“I have so many mixed emotions, I feel like I will go through waves. I’ll be really good for a while and I’m like, ‘I’m on this path’ and then sometimes I’ll have emotional breakdowns because I miss wrestling so much and I miss the fans,” she explained. “I think for me, I can’t wait until it comes out, Surreal Life, because it was [filmed in July 2021], so I had basically been done with WWE for like six weeks. I was still going through [assessing her release] and just like having an identity crisis and missing it. Dennis Rodman is on the show and it’s supposed to come out at the end of the year, but boy is the tea and the drama [spilled] over there.”
Perry said that although she pursued an in-ring career, she has a renewed focus on coming back as a manager. Perry wants to do what she is great at, and she’s already taking aim at Paul Heyman, hoping to take the title of ‘greatest of all-time’ away from him.
“I want to come for Paul Heyman’s throne. I know I can,” Perry stated. “WWE gave me these great opportunities, but they put me in this certain situation where Hunter gave me this incredible first opportunity with Miro where I was just the mouthpiece. And I know I can crush it, I know I can help people get over. God has given me the gift to talk, to sell.
“I don’t want to come back to wrestling and be mediocre. I love wrestling and I want to be champion, but am I going to be putting my time and energy, every precious minute that we have into something that I am going to be average? Or am I going to do something where I’m becoming great? And that’s my biggest take of the last year of being away, like yes, I want to come back to wrestling, yes I want to do something absolutely,” Perry said. “I love wrestling, I love the fans, there’s nothing like it in the entire world — but I don’t want to come back and be mediocre. I want to make an impact and tell compelling stories and really come for Paul Heyman’s throne and solidify being the best manager of all time.”
Check out our full video interview with CJ Perry at the top of this post. You can learn more about her BrandArmy site and get new content and updates by subscribing at CJPerry.com.
Read More: Miro Comments On CJ Perry (Lana) Potentially Joining AEW
#TBT And I'm even more focused now than I was then, because empires don't build themselves. pic.twitter.com/pC3XJbifjR
— CJ Perry (@TheCJPerry) July 14, 2022
