CJ Perry, formerly known as Lana in WWE, recently opened up about how hard it was to step away from WWE. She says the adjustment went beyond missing the spotlight and included years of real mental health struggles.
Speaking on Nick Club Wrestling Happy Hour, Perry was asked why she chose to write a fictional spy novel instead of a traditional wrestler memoir. She said she isn’t ready for a memoir because she still has more of her story to live.
She also said she and her husband Rusev have worked through several issues in their marriage in recent years, and that she has grown a great deal since leaving WWE and feels like a different person.
I’m so lucky and so blessed and so, so grateful to have done so many things in my life, but I just, you know, within my personal life, I still wanted, I wanted to grow more, you know? And I had, I’ve resolved so many things with my husband over the last couple years, and I’ve grown so much from leaving WWE till now. Like, I’m a different person.
Perry said she has focused heavily on her mental health. She described a stretch of a couple of years when she was very manic and struggling.
I’m really, really a different person. I’ve really focused on my mental health. There were a couple years that I was very manic with my mental health, and I was really struggling.
A big part of the difficulty was losing the feeling of performing live. Perry said that for a performer there is no greater high than a live crowd, and that doing it at WWE’s level, in front of tens of thousands of people either booing or cheering, is an instant adrenaline rush she believes no drug could match.
She compared chasing that feeling to chasing a drug, and said she eventually had to go on a journey to find happiness without it. She decided that if she kept chasing it, maybe that chapter was simply over.
Uh, I feel like as a performer, you know, there’s no greater high that you get, no greater adrenaline rush and dopamine hit that you get than when you’re performing live.”
“And I, to be able to do it at such a high level in WWE, there’s, there’s really no higher level, you know? You’re performing in front of 100,000 people, and they’re either booing you or cheering you, and that’s like, just thinking about [it], I get goosebumps. And it’s just an instant adrenaline rush that really no drug will ever satisfy.
She previously revealed in November 2025 that she had stopped drinking, and has talked about how working through codependency helped rebuild her relationship with Rusev. She may still be open to a WWE return someday, but she no longer treats wrestling as the only thing that can make her happy.