For many years Rusev and Lana were a pro wrestling power couple, but WWE would sometimes shake things up with their dynamic. Even though Lana and Rusev were married in real life at the time, Vince McMahon decided to put Lana in a romantic storyline with Nic Nemeth (Dolph Ziggler) back in 2015.
During a recent episode of Busted Open Radio, Nic Nemeth talked about what it was like working with Lana, and he also shared some details regarding Vince McMahon’s instructions.
“I think Vince [McMahon]’s rewarding me instead of giving me winning matches or championships was to be like, ‘Hey, he’s with this girl now.’ I think that was my reward, was that I got a girlfriend at work. We’re in a very small room with (Lana and Rusev) and Vince is saying like, ‘Okay, we gotta see- we need you to be passionate together,’ and we have to practice kissing in a very small room with her husband there with Vince watching like this with a pencil (gestures) and you’re like, ‘Oh God.’”
When asked if the intimate segments were awkward for him Nic Nemeth said, “It was also in the 2010s to where everyone’s online; again, not in WWE but in Hollywood it was much more like, ‘Are you okay with this? Are you okay with this? Okay now we go do a scene,’ instead of just like, ‘Go make it gross. Thank you,’ which is kind of the thing that we got. It’s not what you’re thinking in a lights-down hotel room… but it is absolutely the funnest, biggest rush when you get it and you get it right.”
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