Former WWE Superstar CJ Perry took some heat on social media after a remark she made to a self-proclaimed homeless person. A Twitter user named Adam said how it’s “Hard to keep going when you’re homeless. Everyone ignores you. Everything is a reminder of what you once had,” in response to a since-deleted tweet from Perry, per Wrestling Inc.
Perry, who went by Lana in WWE, quote-tweeted Adam on Sunday, reminding him that he has a device to tweet from, but that’s when social media sounded off. Perry then responded that she has been homeless more than once in her life. “Let me clear something up about something going around about a tweet,” she wrote. “Most people don’t know that I was homeless 2 different times chasing big dreams. I have plenty of empathy for the homeless because I was homeless. But I was grateful because I had a phone to tweet from.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
She followed that up with a longer response: “I understand my Eastern European upbringing and motivational speech did not resonate with many of you,” Perry said. “As a kid and teenager, I had shoes thrown at me, I was whipped by my ballet teachers because they ‘believed in me.’ I apologize if I seemed insensitive and caused more damage. I truly was trying to motivate in the way I know how. Which I failed and I apologize for. When people would do that to me it always helped but I see it did not help in this situation. And I am sorry for that.”
“It’s insane talking about being homeless and now starting to remember all the places I slept that I blocked out of my memory. We truly do block trauma out of our memories and brain. I can thank many ppl on Twitter from re-triggering my trauma of being homeless.”
Perry, 37 was released by WWE in June 2021. She has not joined another professional wrestling promotion but has kept herself busy with multiple projects. During her time in WWE, Perry was a manager to her husband Rusev (now Miro in All Elite Wrestling) and was a competitor in her final years with the company. She never won a championship but was the sole survivor in the Survivor Series elimination match at Survivor Series in 2020.
