Manik Aftab on February 18, 2022
Miro (formerly known as Rusev) joined All Elite Wrestling (AEW) at the height of the pandemic in 2020. The 36-year-old has had success in the Jacksonville-based promotion and is a former TNT champion.
Miro recently sat down with Kurt Angle for an interview on the WWE Hall of Famer’s podcast. He reflected on this time in the original NXT and how his on-screen pairing with real-life wife Lana, real name CJ Perry, came about.
“American Dream, baby, Dusty Rhodes. He was so smart, man, Dusty was so brilliant. CJ, my wife, Lana, she just got signed in May or something and we got to meet then, then it was not until two weeks later that Dusty found out she could speak perfect English and perfect Russian.
“They knew they had me and I knew they were already looking at me because I had this dark match with Dolph Ziggler that Triple H was there and got to see. And he asked who I am and then from then on, we rode that gravy train.
“Then CJ came in, we started doing promos together but once again, when you’re in developmental, you just want to do funny stuff because everybody laughs. Then one day we were told, ‘Hey guys, you should try something serious,’ and we did, we did try something serious and got the inspiration from Rocky 4, Drago and Mila.
“We rode with that, Triple H loved it, and everything from there was like ‘Yeah, yeah, soon you’re going to debut,’ and everything started going. Once the company has something behind you, it’s very easy to go up, the problem is when they don’t.”
Miro is currently out of action due to an injury he suffered during the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament match against Bryan Danielson at the company’s Full Gear PPV event in November 2021.
H/T WrestlingInc
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February 18, 2022 9:13 am
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