The Descent of the mighty Super Athlete named RUSEV!

[Prince Vee]

RUSEV, THE BULGARIAN BRUTE, THE RECIPIENT OF THE GOLDSTAR MEDAL, SOVIET'S HERO

This is how the WWE has been portraying him from the day he debuted on the Main Roster. I really was impressed by the impact he made on the Royal Rumble 2014 (shhh not 2015!!)

Well he had an undefeated streak. It doesn't matter how many jobbers he had squashed to keep that streak alive but he had some good matches with Jack Swagger, Big E, Mark Henry and John Cena as well.

I didn't mind him losing the streak to Cena or Lana called off the match by uttering He quits!! to the referee at Payback.

But I thought he'll become more of a monster after breaking up with Lana. I thought they'll buildup the storyline in a way that he never quits!!

Well then there's comes Vince and his set of Creative team. They wanted to make Lana as the next face of divas in WWE (over the bunch of talented divas they got in the Roster already). They made Rusev look insanely pathetic by calling him a quitter and a coward!!

For god's sake at one point he was the only heel in WWE apart from the Authority!! He should've been the next top heel.

He lost his streak.
He lost his Championship.
He lost his Goldstar medal (Apparently)
He isn't the Hero of Russian federation anymore.
He lost his biggest asset Lana.
Now he's injured!

Will WWE make him look like an unbeatable monster once again? Will he find his way to the top once again? Where do you see him going when he returns?

What are your thoughts??

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

The advantage of being a monster, heel or face, is you can always be built back up. See: Mark Henry's Hall of Pain. One of my favorite heel runs in recent memory.

That said, it is a weird change of pace for Rusev. It was bad enough they booked him to lose 3 matches in a row. I have no problem with him losing to Cena twice and moving on. Three times was overkill.

That said, a feud with Ziggler would be a good way to garner him heat. Have him destroy Ziggler at first. Then next match DZ makes it a fight and still loses. Have both move on from there. The real hard part about undefeated streaks is the booking beyond the eventual first loss. People like DZ. Rusev should crush him.

 

[Mustang Sally]

The advantage of being a monster, heel or face, is you can always be built back up.

Yes, there's that.....and while I agree having Rusev lose three times to Cena was probably overkill, one thing is for sure: we all know who he is by now. The stage is set for whatever comes next.

For sure, things were going to change after he first started losing matches .....and yes, Creative can keep up his momentum or let him die on the vine. I like that he's still got something to do, and his program with Lana might produce some interesting theater. The sight of him practically pleading with her to come to ringside on Monday was so out of the ordinary that it made me want to see where they might go with it. I mean, Rusev said "please?"

Finally, yes, a lot of folks on this forum will tell us it was the stupidest segment they've ever seen and they're sure it will mean a quick professional death for Rusev.

I say, let it play out....and let's see how the guy is going to be booked in the future before we write him off. A heel who wrestles scientifically and maintains his nasty attitude should have a place in today's WWE, imo.
I really like the way the guy works.

 

[MartialHorror]

This sucks if Rusev really was injured. I was kind of expecting him to win at EC, if only because he keeps getting his ass kicked.

 

[Aquaman6686]

My thoughts are that Rusev isn't special. He's just another wrestler. Booking him as an unstoppable monster was the mistake. It wasn't feasible to see this nobody dominating athletes like Jack Swagger, Mark Henry, and The Big Show. Rusev should have lost to Swagger at SummerSlam, not to Cena at WrestleMania. Now that the burden of "I can't lose" has been lifted, Rusev can only become more interesting.

 

[MartialHorror]

In my eyes, the only reason Rusev should've lost to Swagger- and I don't really think he should have- is because fans were more invested in the storyline. They were heavily on Swagger's side and in some ways, they stole the show simply because of how strong the reactions were.

By the time Cena fought Rusev, I think fans knew that Cena would win, so didn't really care. It also didn't help that for some absurd reason, Rusev went into that feud looking weak. He had technically lost to Ryback via countout, without ever getting revenge and was made Roman Reigns' bitch at the Rumble. 'Cena Vs Rusev' was supposed to be his biggest storyline, but fans were much more involved in the storylines involving Swagger, Show and even Henry. The only consolation is that the Cena storyline got a better response than the Big E storyline. lol.

 

[Radical]

I don't really care much at all about Rusev. His entire attire annoys me and not in the "I want to pay to see him lose" way but in the "wake me up when it's over" way. That's the wrong way to come across in the wrestling business.

As opposed to a guy like Kevin Owens who, some people may say, looks ridiculous (with that pot belly and long basketball shorts) but to me, he looks more of a badass and more interesting. I would be more interested to see Owens vs Cena than Rusev vs Cena. Even in the short two weeks, the interest in seeing Owens vs Cena is greater than all of the weeks and matches combined between Rusev vs Cena. They just weren't interesting. Mostly because Rusev had a winning streak and you KNEW it was going to be broken by Cena in Cena fashion and not just broken but brutally broken, three times in a row!

However, I will give this consolation to Rusev. Yes, he has now lost matches to pinfall or submission but those were all to John Cena. He's basically the exception to everything. That means Rusev is still undefeated (from pinfall/submission) to EVERY other guy on the roster. That's still a pretty big deal. If the announcers want to acknowledge it that could help if they want to build up Rusev with a big win streak again and ask "Who NOW will stop Rusev since he is stronger and meaner than ever?" It won't be Cena because he promised us he would move on so it has to be someone else.

Rusev is injured right now and no word on if he's going to be back soon or not. The picture of him in a cast doesn't bode well but regardless, when he's back, it would make the most sense to just put him back on a big win streak looking strong until someone who could use the rub actually steps in a beats him.

As much as I don't care for Rusev, he really is in no near danger of becoming insignificant, that is, unless the fans really stop caring about him now that he's not this Russia vs USA guy and he may not have Lana by his side and he has to get over just being a sweaty, hairy guy in trunks up to his nipples. That might pretty hard to do!

 

[Navi]

I don't care much for Rusev either, especially after that bad acting on last Monday's RAW. Absolutely horrible.

This was always going to be a problem with him after he got his first loss. Didn't expect it to be against Cena, but not only did he lose to him once, he lost to him in three separate PPV's. So who else on the roster are they going to sacrifice to build him back up.

He's already gone through Swagger, Show, Henry now I guess they can start on the undercard. Maybe Rose, Slater, Fandango and go up from there. The issue is no one will be interested in a Rusev/Rose feud or a Rusev/Slater feud. The WWE always seems to do this, they build up a guy, have him take a fall, and then stand around scratching their heads wondering what to do next.

Hopefully he won't be out long and while he's gone they can come up with something for him. I'm not fussed either way.

 

[SoulTrain4]

Rusev is awesome and has already added some interesting wrinkles to his character. He can now show some personality, which he did in spades on RAW.

He was my favorite to win the IC strap but now I hope he just heals up quickly.

Losing to Cena was expected, they obviously had plans for him post-Russia/USA feud. They can now use his injury in story if they choose and I don't see why they wouldn't.

Lana supposedly cares for the big jerk so him being hurt is good fodder for their characters. Maybe you have him run a guilt trip on her and she leaves to take care of him only for him to continue treating her like shit or, and this would be hilarious, for him to be faking the whole time (kayfabe).