Miro Discusses Heat He And Lana Had In WWE When They Got Married
Former WWE United States Champion Miro was on a recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast where he discussed his big moments in WWE. He also discussed the one time he and his wife Lana had backstage heat. He recalled the storyline with Summer Rae and Dolph Ziggler where in the middle of the story, he and Lana got married in real life while he was in a storyline relationship with Rae. He recalled Vince McMahon’s reaction to it and the nixed plans for the storyline.
“Literally, I have no idea. I’ve never had heat with anybody,” Miro said. “I remember the one time I had was about the wedding, but it was not our fault either. They said we leaked the pictures, which is not true at all. So we were in the angle, [it was] me and Summer against Lana and Dolph, and the one summer, we did get engaged, but she sent that picture to the office and to some of the girls. It’s her happiest day of her life. She’s getting engaged.
“Somebody leaks that and they blame her. They blame me. I do jobs for six months. Our story gets cancelled that night we were in Chicago. I remember it because I was supposed to win the IC title. I was supposed to get married with Summer. They nixed it that night, and when I talked to Vince, he’s like, ‘well, TMZ, it’s like CNN. It’s world news. Everybody knows it’s true… Everybody will go against it.’ So CJ did nothing for a long time, and I was doing jobs forever.”
Miro said that Lana reminded him that his U.S. Title feud against John Cena was originally meant to happen at SummerSlam, but Daniel Bryan’s injury forced their story to be fast tracked to WrestleMania. Before then, Miro was on a dominant run in WWE, but he recalled a match against Jake Hager, f.k.a. Jack Swagger, on an episode of Main Event where Miro lost by DQ and Vince McMahon pretending to be mad about it.
“She reminded me that originally, we were supposed to work Cena at SummerSlam instead of Mania, and after, they were supposed to kibosh me from there, but I think Bryan, he hurt his head or his neck, so he was out and that moved everything to me and Cena at Mania,” Miro recalled. “They had a plan and that was the good thing about that. They had a plan, and they stuck to it, which it paid off because you protected me for so long.
“I think one time, it was me and Jake, we had a PPV match, and Vince didn’t want me to lose at all. No pins, no submissions, nothing but I think they couldn’t figure a way out of the match, and I had to hit him with the flag and it was a DQ. It counted against me losing, and I remember my producer. I remember him, Vince, getting out of his chair. I was told that from the producer.
“[He went] up to him and said, ‘thank you for f–king up the kid’s career or something like that.’ He’s like, what? It didn’t mean anything because then the producer goes out later on in the night. He’s like, ‘oh, I was just kidding. Haha.’ You know how he is.
Miro would later go into a storyline with Cena which led to what Miro has called one of the greatest WrestleMania entrances of all time. Miro went through how he found out about the entrance and how special that moment was for him.
“Me and CJ were always just messing around in our minds thinking, ‘oh, what if we have an army, and we have the flag, and the anthem, and the guns and the tank.’ We just were just talking amongst ourselves, and I don’t know if we manifested it, but then three days before WrestleMania, they call us to go to the stadium for rehearsal,” Miro said. “I said great. I take CJ. We go. They didn’t want to let us in the stadium because I didn’t have a credential, but before, they changed the poster. My face was on the big WrestleMania poster. Next thing, they took it out. I don’t know why. They took my face out, but it doesn’t matter.
“So we get there, and I see this tank. And I was like, ‘oh that’s pretty cool,’ and they’re like, ‘well, this is for you.’ I’m like, ‘f–k out of here.’ I didn’t believe him, and then my friend hit me up. He’s like, ‘man, they’re looking for Russian soldiers for your entrance. They’re looking for extras.’ I’m like, ‘yeah, right.’ He sends me the ad or whatever it was. He had long hair, so he cut his hair so he can be in the entrance. He’s my first manager Marcus Mac. We started back in 2008 or whatever it was. He is from Finland. He speaks Finnish.
“I’m Bulgarian, but people don’t know. The next thing you know, we’re together at WrestleMania 31. He’s was one of my soldiers. It was just a beautiful moment, and the tank, I was kind of upset because the tank left before the cue. It was supposed to be my music then the tank. It didn’t happen. I was like, ‘no wait! wait!’ But nobody waits and then the tank moved, and I remember, I’m going to take my sweet time because I want to live in this moment. And when I got to that tank, when I got up, I just stared at everybody. It’s like you’ve made it in a sense. This is my moment. This is what I lived for.”
Miro discussed Lana’s spot where he inadvertently hits her and she takes a dive off the apron. He revealed that Vince McMahon and nearly 15 other people went up to her during day to tell her how important that spot was. He said they told her that if she messed up that spot, then it would kill the match.
“CJ, she had a lot of pressure because of that bump she had to take off the apron,” Miro revealed. “The final spot was I’m charging Cena, he moves, I hit her, she dives off the apron, lands and crash and burn. Probably 10 or 15 people, including Vince McMahon, that day went to her and said how important that bump is, and if she didn’t do it good, she’s going to kill everything. 15 people, first WrestleMania and she’s like all in her head. And of course, she did great.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.