When the first wave of future endeavors was announced, my initial thought was, meh, no real loss. Maybe Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, but anyone with a pulse who follows wrestling knows they’ll be back in Bullet Club t-shirts by the end of the month in Japan, so they’ll be fine. It sucked for Drake Maverick and Sarah Logan who are/were in championship programs literally right now or weeks ago. And it also sucked for Heath Slater, who I figured was going to be one of those company lifers, and whose sole shirt was one that said I GOT KIDS | I NEED THIS JOB.
But really, it didn’t seem like anyone particularly consequential was axed from the company in light of coronavirus screwing things up. That is, until a second wave of future endeavors was announced shortly afterward.
Introduced Alexander Rusev, and then gradually shortened to just Rusev, he was always one of those guys that I was always high on since his ascent to the main roster. I appreciated that even in spite of being the archetypical evil foreigner, he showed a tremendous amount of respect for the ring itself and the business, and I loved the way he was originally built up, with a different face of the month being put in front of him, before he would ultimately meet them at the next pay-per view and then finish them with the Camel Clutch he called The Accolade.
Riding this burgeoning undefeated streak, Rusev would eventually capture the United States championship from Sheamus and hold it for several months, before having an eventual Wrestlemania program with none other than John Cena, whom he’d lose it to at the Showcase of the Immortals™, but not before having an epic entrance where he rode to the stage in a literal tank. Seriously, if this moment couldn’t be considered the pinnacle of his WWE career, then I don’t know what else could.
Either way, Rusev maintained a pretty strong presence for a while afterward, and even managed to turn face, when he for whatever reason, started christening every day as a holiday known as Rusev Day. I mean whatever, the fans ate it up, and it got him over, even if his win-loss record wasn’t nearly as sparkling as it was during his initial run.
Eventually, for reasons I don’t really particularly care to research beyond Wikipedia, WWE seemed to sour on him, and such was easily reflected in how he was treated on screen, if he was even allowed to make it on television. I’m going to guess there was some sort of contract dispute or something of the sort, and Creative basically took him to the woodshed with his character.
His last real storyline seemed almost like it was a punishment angle, with his wife “leaving him” for Bobby Lashley, and it kind of felt like it was trying to emasculate him because there are still casual fans who thinks this shit is real life. But as was often the case with Rusev, he still spun shit into potential gold, as who isn’t captivated by the idea of a jilted ex-husband getting to beat the shit out of his wife’s new lover?
But no blow-off to the story ever got to happen. Maybe it was injury, or maybe it was continued contract issues, but they literally had a scheduled match at I think the Royal Rumble, which was scrapped the night of. In following weeks, Rusev was continued to be buried by Lashley and Lana repeatedly, and then we come to now where Rusev is now no longer employed by the WWE.
Honestly though? I think it’s the best thing that could happen to him, professionally. I add the professionally, because I imagine personally, it will be difficult no longer enjoying the road with his wife, but as couples like Adam Cole and Britt Baker and Jon Moxley and Renee Young have proven, being employed by different promotions is not impossible.
But professionally, the WWE didn’t deserve Rusev, much less utilize him remotely adequately, and now he is free to take the luck he was wished by the WWE on his way out, stick it up their ass and spin some gold out of his future endeavors.
This is where I hope he goes to New Japan to wreck shit out there, because much like Luke Harper was when he was given his release from the WWE, Rusev kind of fits the bill as a hulking figure that NJPW likes to use to match up against their homegrown superstars. Rusev could absolutely work great programs with guys like Tanahashi or Naito in the IWGP World Championship scene.
Hopefully he goes this route and makes me look like a smart smark, but the reality is that he’ll probably look to head to AEW since it’s stateside, and they’d likely pay well to get a talent the caliber of Rusev. But one of these days, I’m going to call it correctly, of a guy that doesn’t get the respect they deserve in the WWE, and then they go to Japan and become a god.
Either way, I hope Rusev finds success elsewhere, because I still think he’s a great worker that deserves some success. No lie, the recent United States championship replica I just got during Wrestlemania weekend, I got largely in part due to the period of time when Rusev raised the bar with the belt before John Cena shot it through the roof with the U.S. Open Challenge.
