One of the most promising superstars who seemingly had it all but fell victim to questionable booking decisions and missed opportunities is non other than Rusev. From his explosive debut and undefeated streak to the wildly popular "Rusev Day" phenomenon, Rusev captured the hearts of WWE fans worldwide. Yet, despite his immense talent and charisma, his journey in WWE was marred by inconsistent storylines and underwhelming character development. What do you think?
You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe
#rusev #lana #miro #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling
You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe
#rusev #lana #miro #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Rusev was set to defend his United States Championship against John Cena at WrestleMania
00:10 31.
00:11 He was red hot at the time and was on the cusp of super stardom.
00:15 He walked into the show of shows in a giant tank as the music played and the soldiers
00:19 lined up in Levi's Stadium.
00:22 His manager, Lana, carried his United States Championship as Rusev made his grand entrance
00:27 for his biggest match.
00:29 Fans were in awe watching Rusev walk out like an absolute boss and considering the fact
00:34 that WWE was putting so much effort into Rusev on his first Wrestlemania, many believed that
00:39 this night would push him to the next level.
00:42 It is still considered one of the best entrances in Wrestlemania history.
00:47 However, he lost his US Championship to John Cena that night, which started one of Cena's
00:52 most memorable runs with John Cena's US Open Challenge.
00:56 But it hurt Rusev's credibility and he remained on the mid card for the rest of his career.
01:02 So why did this happen?
01:03 Why didn't Rusev, who had so much potential, become a multi-time world champion?
01:09 Let's talk about it.
01:11 Rusev, who was born in Bulgaria, moved to the United States in the mid 2000s with the
01:16 dream of becoming a professional wrestler and began training under Gangrel and Rikishi
01:21 at the Knox Pro Wrestling Academy.
01:23 In 2008, he ventured into the independent wrestling scene but didn't spend much time
01:28 there as he signed a developmental deal with WWE just two years later in 2010.
01:34 He went to WWE's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling, where he adopted
01:40 the in-ring name Alexander Rusev.
01:43 He quickly impressed a lot of people with his imposing presence and people saw potential
01:48 in him.
01:49 But there was a language barrier as English was not his first language.
01:53 Management assigned him a manager, Raquel Diaz, but their partnership didn't work
01:57 out.
01:58 Before long he was back with a new manager, Nick Rogers, and again it was short lived.
02:04 While he excelled in the ring and had the right look, something was still lacking.
02:08 His collaboration with the managers didn't seem to benefit him.
02:11 In August 2012, FCW was rebranded as NXT.
02:16 He made his NXT debut on the May 29th, 2013 episode, competing in a battle royale to determine
02:23 the number one contender for the NXT championship, but he didn't win.
02:28 Right off the bat, he was seen as someone who could become a huge star, but once again
02:32 he faced the manager issue.
02:34 He brought on Sylvester Lefford as his manager, but their partnership ended shortly after.
02:40 However, things were about to change very soon.
02:43 He got paired with Lana, and this was the final piece that Rusev needed.
02:47 They had strong on-screen chemistry and fans instantly connected with them.
02:52 Lana became his mouthpiece, bridging any language barriers and enhancing his presence.
02:57 Her portrayal of a confident manager, complimented Rusev's powerful and dominant in-ring persona.
03:03 The pairing was also compared to Ivan and Ludmilla Drago from the 1985 film Rocky IV.
03:09 Rusev started having strong booking and went on to defeat main roster wrestlers like Kofi
03:14 Kingston, Xavier Woods and Sin Cara in singles matches.
03:18 With Lana being on his side, he made his first appearance on the main roster at Royal Rumble
03:23 2014.
03:25 He was the 6th entrant in the match and had a very impressive run before getting eliminated
03:29 by 4 guys.
03:31 His combination of size, power and agility caught the audience's attention.
03:36 Everyone knew that big things were in store for Rusev, and finally he made his main roster
03:40 debut on the April 7th episode of Raw where he squashed Zack Ryder.
03:45 He instantly adopted the gimmick of the anti-American who was a Russian sympathizer, despite being
03:50 originally from Bulgaria.
03:53 Anti-American gimmicks are nothing new in WWE.
03:55 They have been doing this for ages and it seemed to work back in the 80s and 90s.
04:00 It generated strong reactions from the audience, making it easy for wrestlers to become top
04:04 heels.
04:05 Look at the likes of The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkov, Muhammad Hassan and even Bret Hart
04:11 at one point.
04:12 They all became heels by playing anti-American characters.
04:16 So WWE decided to try this trend again and tested it with Rusev.
04:21 Week after week he came out and praised Russia and got booed.
04:25 Over the next several months he engaged in a series of feuds with various wrestlers.
04:29 He faced Xavier Woods and R-Truth in a 2 on 1 handicap match at Extreme Rules and emerged
04:35 victorious.
04:36 He then beat Big E at Payback and Money in the Bank, Jack Swagger at Battleground and
04:41 Summerslam and continued his winning streak by defeating Mark Henry and Big Show.
04:46 Yeah, he was getting that monster push.
04:49 However, Lana was dedicating the wins to Vladimir Putin as he was winning all these matches.
04:54 So yeah, controversy was bound to follow.
04:57 The mainstream media including the Washington Post and the Daily Beast talked about this
05:02 which garnered even more attention for Rusev.
05:05 Also he was getting a lot of microphone time.
05:08 It was not just Lana who was doing the talking.
05:11 He had improved a lot and got to cut some incredible promos.
05:15 Then he was involved in the biggest segment of his career.
05:18 On the October 6th episode of Raw, Rusev and Lana were confronted by The Rock.
05:24 They had a fun segment and The Rock drove Rusev from the ring.
05:27 It was a moment that demonstrated how much WWE trusted Rusev, showcasing him alongside
05:32 The Great One.
05:34 Everything was going great, all Rusev needed was a championship and on November 3rd he
05:39 won the United States Championship by defeating Sheamus.
05:43 Following this, he joined Team Authority at Survivor Series against Team Cena.
05:47 Being involved in the main event feud was a great move for him.
05:51 It gave him an opportunity to step into the ring with top tier talents.
05:54 However, his team lost that night and he was the second man to get eliminated from Team
05:59 Authority.
06:00 But he never got pinned.
06:02 He lost via count out.
06:03 It was a clever way to keep him strong.
06:06 He proceeded to defend his United States Championship in the next few months.
06:10 By the end of 2014, he had proved his dominance in WWE by being undefeated.
06:16 At Royal Rumble 2015, he entered at number 15 and went on to eliminate 6 people.
06:22 We all know how the crowd crapped on this match and some people might want to forget
06:26 about this.
06:27 But what you don't want to forget is that Rusev was the final wrestler to be eliminated
06:30 by Roman Reigns.
06:32 This was a huge feat for the US Champion.
06:35 But he wasn't happy.
06:36 He wanted to win.
06:38 So what did he do?
06:39 He interrupted John Cena during his interview backstage and let his frustrations out.
06:44 He also got into a scuffle with the franchise player.
06:47 This started the biggest feud in Rusev's career.
06:49 For the next few weeks, Rusev and Cena were involved in promo segments on Raw and Smackdown
06:54 which led to a US Championship match at Fastlane and surprisingly, he got the victory over
07:00 Cena via submission.
07:02 Beating John Cena is one thing, but beating him via submission is a whole different thing.
07:07 This elevated Rusev into an even more dominant champion.
07:10 But Cena wasn't going to go away that easy.
07:13 He wanted a rematch at WrestleMania 31.
07:16 He applied the STF on Rusev until he passed out.
07:19 Cena then revived him with a bottle of water and reapplied the hold until Lana agreed to
07:24 grant Cena a title rematch against Rusev at WrestleMania 31.
07:28 Yeah, what a babyface.
07:31 To be fair, Rusev's heel work as an anti-American was on another level and Cena was positioned
07:36 as an American hero.
07:38 Also, after Lana agreed to give Cena his rematch, a gradual rift between the two began to emerge.
07:44 At WrestleMania, as mentioned earlier, Rusev made his entrance in a tank and got arguably
07:49 the best entrance of that night.
07:51 But he failed to successfully defend his title against Cena and lost the US Championship
07:56 to Mr. Hustle Loyalty and Respect after a miscommunication with Lana.
08:01 It revitalized Cena's career as he started John Cena's US Open Challenge, which allowed
08:06 newer talents like Cesaro and Kevin Owens to shine, but it really hurt Rusev.
08:11 He attempted to reclaim the championship at Extreme Rules the following month in a Russian
08:15 chain match, but failed.
08:17 He suffered another defeat to Cena at Payback in a I Quit match and his time at the top
08:22 was over.
08:24 Fans blamed Cena for burying yet another young talent.
08:27 Rusev never received that kind of treatment from WWE again and slipped down the card.
08:33 He held Lana responsible for his loss and severed all ties with her.
08:37 Soon, WWE began a storyline between Lana and Dolph Ziggler, officially ending her association
08:43 with Rusev.
08:44 The Bulgarian Brute brought Summer Rae in as his new manager, but little did WWE know
08:49 that something else was happening behind the scenes.
08:52 Rusev and Lana were dating in real life, so splitting them up wasn't going to work.
08:57 They tried their best to make this story work, with Rusev facing Ziggler at Summerslam, which
09:01 ended in a double countout.
09:03 On the October 5th episode of Raw, Summer Rae proposed to Rusev in the storyline.
09:08 In the age of social media, fans knew that Lana and Rusev were together and WWE wasn't
09:13 fooling anyone with this.
09:15 Shortly after, TMZ reported Rusev's real life engagement to Lana on October 11th and
09:20 it was incorporated into the television storyline, leading to Rae breaking up with Rusev.
09:25 According to Lana, getting engaged to Rusev got her in trouble.
09:29 On the Talk is Jericho podcast, she said quote "I got in trouble.
09:33 I wasn't on television for three months and I was on television straight for two years.
09:38 When I was not on television for three months, I was made to feel that it was all my fault.
09:43 I had to take the blame."
09:45 End quote.
09:46 Rusev also received the heat as he wasn't booked very strongly following this.
09:50 This storyline did more damage than anything.
09:53 A year earlier he was having segments with The Rock and now he wasn't even booked properly.
09:59 What was the point of breaking Lana and Rusev up?
10:01 It didn't do any favors to either one of them.
10:04 Honestly, they should have turned Rusev face with Lana after he lost the US Championship
10:08 to Cena and maybe booked him in a feud with the then WWE champ Seth Rollins.
10:13 It could have worked, with Lana's presence possibly boosting his popularity with fans,
10:18 but that's not how things turned out.
10:21 Following that awful storyline with Lana, Ziggler and Rae, Rusev joined the League of
10:25 Nations.
10:26 Yeah, remember that group?
10:28 It consisted of Rusev, Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio and Wade Barrett.
10:33 But the sole purpose of the group was to elevate Roman Reigns.
10:37 The fans completely rejected the big dog as the face of the company and WWE desperately
10:41 needed some bad guys for him to work.
10:44 So there was the League of Nations and they did their job quite well.
10:48 At Royal Rumble 2016, Rusev came out at number 2 and was instantly eliminated by Reigns.
10:55 At WrestleMania 32, the group defeated The New Day but after the match they got whooped
11:00 by Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley and Stone Cold Steve Austin.
11:04 It was a fun moment and showcased all 4 members of the League of Nations in a prominent role.
11:09 However, this unit did not last long.
11:13 Just a few weeks after WrestleMania, they broke up and it's a shame because the group
11:17 really had some potential.
11:19 Following this, WWE gave him another US Championship and it was the right decision.
11:24 It seemed like he had no direction after the breakup of the League of Nations, so the title
11:29 reign gave him a sense of purpose.
11:31 Soon, Lana returned as his manager, but this time the dynamic was different.
11:36 This time they were presented as a couple and not associates and it worked.
11:40 WWE did the brand split in 2016 with Lana and Rusev moving to Raw with a US Championship.
11:47 This was the time when Roman Reigns had lost the WWE Championship and he needed something
11:52 to keep him relevant and the US Championship seemed perfect for him.
11:56 So Rusev lost the championship to Reigns at Clash of Champions in 2016.
12:02 Around this time, Lana and Rusev got married in real life and were involved in a hilarious
12:06 segment on Raw where Reigns pushed Rusev onto Lana, allowing her to fall onto the cake.
12:11 Even though Rusev lost the title to Roman, he was having some real great moments.
12:16 He started a feud with Enzo Amore and defeated both Enzo and his partner Big Cass on different
12:21 occasions.
12:22 He wasn't doing anything substantial around this time, but his character work was great.
12:27 In 2017, Rusev was drafted to SmackDown, which gave him a fresh new start and new opportunities
12:33 to reinvent himself.
12:34 His first appearance on the brand was on the July 4th episode of SmackDown where he confronted
12:39 his old rival John Cena.
12:42 This led to a flag match at Battleground, which he lost.
12:45 He then started a feud with Randy Orton and lost to The Viper at SummerSlam in 10 seconds.
12:51 His losses garnered him fan support and the crowd began to cheer for him.
12:55 He got his revenge on Orton by defeating him after a distraction from Aiden English.
13:00 Soon they got paired together and became a tag team, with Lana being their manager and
13:04 this got him over.
13:06 He introduced a new version of his character where he would proclaim that every day was
13:10 Rusev day.
13:11 This turned Rusev into a character who constantly celebrated his greatness.
13:15 Aiden English often introduced him with a song singing praises of Rusev day.
13:20 His theatrical performances added an entertaining and unique aspect to Rusev's entrances and
13:25 promos.
13:26 The gimmick allowed Rusev to show more of his personality and connect with the audience
13:30 on a different level.
13:31 Soon, Rusev day became one of the best things on WWE with fans chanting his name everywhere.
13:38 He was getting massive fan support, but reportedly, WWE did not want him to get over.
13:43 They wanted to keep him as a heel.
13:45 WWE attempted to manage the positive reaction by editing Rusev day chants from the crowd
13:50 and limiting Rusev's television appearances.
13:53 However, despite the efforts, the chants became louder and louder.
13:58 At Royal Rumble 2018, he entered at number one with a thunderous ovation.
14:03 He lasted over 30 minutes in the match before being eliminated by Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy
14:08 to a chorus of boos.
14:10 At Wrestlemania 34, he was involved in a fatal four-way match against Randy Orton,
14:15 Bobby Roode and Jinder Mahal for the United States Championship.
14:20 Fans were clear that they wanted Rusev to walk out as the champion, but he did not win.
14:25 In fact, he was the one who got pinned by Mahal.
14:28 He was in the perfect position to become the fan favorite with a Rusev Day gimmick, but
14:32 WWE kept him as a villain for no reason, which hurt his momentum.
14:37 This was a missed opportunity in WWE's part for not booking him as a main event talent
14:42 around this time.
14:43 He was red hot and could have pushed the boundaries for the company.
14:47 He did get a very special opportunity to face The Undertaker in a casket match at the Greatest
14:52 Royal Rumble.
14:53 Of course he lost the match, but this wasn't about winning or losing.
14:57 Being in the ring with the Deadman is in itself a huge achievement and he could say down the
15:01 line that he shared the ring with The Undertaker.
15:05 In this, he became the number one contender for AJ Styles WWE Championship at Extreme
15:10 Rules and again lost.
15:12 WWE gave him these little moments so that fans wouldn't complain, but never treated
15:17 him as a main event talent.
15:19 Finally, he turned face when his momentum died out and started a feud with his partner
15:23 Aiden English who turned on him.
15:26 English claimed that he had an affair with Lana.
15:28 This led to a match where Rusev emerged victorious concluding their feud.
15:33 He then went on to win the United States Championship yet again.
15:37 The US title became his go to championship and he really elevated the status of this
15:41 championship.
15:42 This title reign however, did not last long as he dropped it to Shinsuke Nakamura.
15:47 He remained in WWE for a few more months before taking a sabbatical.
15:52 What followed next is widely considered as the storyline that destroyed Rusev's career
15:56 in WWE.
15:57 Yeah, we're talking about Rusev, Lana and Lashley.
16:02 Rusev returned in 2019 on the September 16th episode of Raw without Lana, raising questions
16:08 about her whereabouts.
16:10 A few weeks later, Rusev was having a match against Seth Rollins.
16:13 That's when Lana came out, but she was not alone.
16:17 She came out with Bobby Lashley and the two began making out on the ramp as Rusev watched
16:22 in disgust.
16:23 Yeah, this was the beginning of one of the most uncomfortable storylines in the company.
16:28 Week after week it became more and more unsettling.
16:31 Lana even accused Rusev of being a sex addict.
16:34 The tension between the couple intensified with Rusev being humiliated by the provocative
16:38 actions of Lana and Lashley.
16:41 This led to several in-ring confrontations and segments that furthered the storyline's
16:45 drama.
16:46 Lana lied that she was pregnant just to play mind games with Rusev.
16:50 The storyline progressed with Lana filing for divorce from Rusev.
16:54 On the December 30th, 2019 episode of Raw, the angler reached a peak with the wedding
16:59 of Lana and Bobby Lashley.
17:01 However, it was interrupted by Liv Morgan who revealed that she was also having an affair
17:06 with Lana.
17:07 To say this storyline was non-PG is an understatement and it was like a daily soap opera.
17:13 You didn't know what was going to happen.
17:16 The storyline continued into early 2020 with a mixed tag team of Rusev and Morgan facing
17:21 Lashley and Lana with the latter coming out victorious.
17:24 On the February 17th episode of Raw, Rusev teamed up with Humberto Carillo but ended
17:29 up losing to Bobby Lashley and Angel Garza and this was Rusev's last appearance in
17:34 the company.
17:35 It was underwhelming.
17:37 On April 15th, he was released from his contract as part of budget cuts stemming from the COVID-19
17:42 pandemic and the storyline ended.
17:45 However, his wife Lana was still there.
17:48 You could say whatever you want about that storyline but it received a lot of attention.
17:53 Look at the YouTube views on those segments.
17:55 They're in the millions.
17:57 However, the angle didn't help Rusev.
18:00 It made him look weak.
18:01 Also, the fact that WWE never booked him as a credible superstar after he lost the US
18:06 Championship to John Cena at WrestleMania 31 is a shame.
18:11 There were some opportunities where WWE could have propelled him to the top of the card
18:15 but they never did.
18:17 They must have had some preconceptions about who Rusev was, but clearly he wasn't something
18:22 they wanted him to be.
18:23 He is a charismatic guy who got over by himself.
18:27 After leaving WWE, he made his AEW debut in September of 2020 as Miro and for the first
18:33 year he was booked perfectly.
18:35 He captured the TNT Championship and enjoyed a strong reign, introducing a Redeemer character.
18:41 His compelling promos and dominant in-ring presence left fans thinking where was this
18:45 in WWE.
18:47 Although he is not seen on AEW TV that much anymore, but there is an argument that the
18:53 run he had in his first year after arriving in AEW was better than anything he's done
18:58 in WWE.
18:59 In 2023, his wife Lana also came to AEW as CJ Perry, but they didn't work together.
19:06 Later, fans learned that the couple had been separated in real life.
19:10 We hope Miro comes back stronger than ever and becomes the main event talent that we
19:14 know he can be.
19:16 He is just 38 years old and still has 5 to 10 years in his career left.
19:21 It might be the case that we haven't seen the best of him yet.
19:30 "
19:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]
19:35 (upbeat music)