Rusev: His realistic future in the WWE
 

If they want to push him and capitalize off the face reaction Lesnar will get from beating Cena they should go with Lesnar/Rusev at one of the throwaway ppvs between summer slam and survivor series.

100% right

I don't know about that.

Survivor Series is too generous

Honestly thought he was going to be fed to Cena at Battleground to make him look strong going in against Lesnar. I guess maybe the RAW after Battleground they will have him do it.

Is 15 minutes too generous?

what

He's gonna get the Ryback push. The one where you are made to look like a monster and then get buried because you aren't a big enough boy in reality for Vince.

holy shit this is hilarious

I usually fast-forward through all Rusev's stuff beyond Lana parading her stuff around. I have no problems with the guy, I am just not interested in that type of character in 2014. That being said, the segment with Jack Swagger on RAW was fucking great. I'm worried that the WWE are going to miss the boat on face Swagger and just use him to keep putting over Rusev, however. I want to see Rusev lose and then go on a quest to regain power. Have him be the guy who writes off RVD. And then let him work with Ziggler en route to having another match with Swagger.

I didn't really get behind Umaga until long after everybody else did too, however. So maybe I am missing out on just how good Rusev is.

Rusev looks like he'd move like a fridge, but he's very agile. That fucking kick he does just looks devastating.

I find Rusev to be rather bland and unentertaining. Essentially, he's like a white Big E.

But with less expression. He honestly looks bored every time he does the Accolade.

But if Big E keeps with the black preacher-ish type speech, he can piss off too.

I'd like to see a Big E, Rusev, Ryback stable.

It is hilarious because of how true it actually is.

Rusev is growing on me. Dude can go.

He is very talented for a big guy.yes he's short but I think if they build him like taz a human suplex and submission machine they may have something there

I think the problem in cases like this, is that WWE think that they "pull the trigger" on guys like this when they really don't. A string of wins over Big E and Zack Ryder is not enough to put this guy over.

If they want him to stick, he needs to go over someone BIG at Summerslam. Ryback was the same, built momentum and then didn't get that big win over anyone and his fire just went out.

If they want some of these guys to work, they can't be afraid to put them over their big stars. So far, they haven't done that.

I wanted to see a Rusev/Ziggler feud around Payback. Dolph's not really doing anything and would be a sympathetic foil for Rusev to beat up. Even better would be Dolph somehow beating Rusev (again, referencing his NXT win over Rusev) and antagonize the Bulgarian Brute. Dolph could try and seduce Lana or something. Gives Rusev an actual personal rivalry that isn't just based on crushing.

* Swagger beats Rusev at Battleground.

* Rusev responds by crushing RVD on RAW and writing him off.

* Swagger and Rusev have an I Quit Match at SummerSlam or something, which Swagger wins. Because America.

* Rusev is super-pissed and misses out on Night of Champions, because you'll have a card packed with title matches.

* Hell in a Cell sees Rusev move into a feud with Ziggler. Dolph wins the first match.

* Survivor Series sees Rusev and Ziggler on opposing teams in an Elimination Match.

* Rusev and Ziggler have a Chairs Match or something at TLC. I know people might think I'm jobbing out Rusev a lot, but I think you could safely put over Ziggler here with him using an abundance of steel to clobber Rusev.

* Royal Rumble time for Rusev.

* Maybe Rusev gets his shit together in time to qualify for the Elimination Chamber?

* Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal time.

Just elaborating on what I had up there.

Fitting, because he often looks like he's moving a fridge. Bland bastard.

But they instead went with a gimmick that is very 1981.

I agree with the people talking about his ability vs how much meat is on his bones moving around the ring... but this whole pseudo-Russian deal trying to draw heat and Lana being the new Vickie Guererro to draw heat has a limited shelf life on top of barely working to begin with. It's boring to watch, and I don't care to even GET to seeing him in the ring if the whole presentaton bores the pants off of me. Then, on top of that, HE looks like he's not into being in a match.

Like tXt said, he should be built like "human suples and submission machine"... only they should start it off like they did when ECW dropped the whole Tazmaniac gimmick and he came back as Taz. Drop the "EVUL FURNER", refusing to speak English, Putin picture trolling, and just be a badass bully. Like Taz.

Then work on the fact that he looks like he's resigned to a menial task for the next 10 minutes.

I find this guy's gimmick cringeworthy from what I've seen on youtube.

Just another excuse for some wrasslers to wave the American flag around.

Seems pretty realistic to me. He's being built the same way as so many big guys before him - The Great Khali, Bobby Lashley, Umaga, Ryback - all of which were eventually fed to John Cena and then dropped down the card. Interestingly, two of those four have the same kind of "foreign monster" gimmick that Rusev is using now. Not so interestingly, all four of them are just as charisma-free as Rusev.

Is it a big loss? I don't think so. Maybe he'll get a re-packaged deal after this runs out and come back better than before (ala Bray Wyatt). Or maybe he'll just disappear to that place called TNA.

He reminds me of this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Kozlov

It took me ages to remember his name. I suspect in five years time I'll be thinking the same of Rusev.

His ceiling is not nearly as high as his floor is low. He might have a token bad guy run with a mid card title or even the big belt, but with his character and moveset it will be short lived and unimpactful. Without major character development he can find himself in Khali-Santino territory by Summerslam 2015.

The difference is that Russia wasn't really in the news as a threat/powerhouse when Kozlov was there. It was seen more of a throwback to the old USSR gimmick. Now that Russia is in the news it's more relevant.

He'll never get the big belt(s) with this gimmick. Not gonna happen. Even when the titles were split, seeing Rusev win the WHC would've been considered a long shot.

It's too bad. My girlfriend is Bulgarian/Russian and kind of looks like Lana, which makes me inclined to try and like the couple. But I don't.

I thought she was Peruvian?

Hes about to be feed to reigns

Yeah, I really have a feeling they're gonna waste Rusev's first loss on an episode of Smackdown. Kinda like they did with The Shield.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/UbBaSfgNJnE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

New entrance video + theme for Rusev.

This is how I see the booking meetings going from here on out:

"Lets get Rusev over!"
...
"Rusev is over now, how to we push him to the top?"
"Have him go over in a program with Cena"
"Ok but remember we have to make Cena look strong too"
... (Present Day)
"Rusev won by cheating last night, and Cena didn't tap out but only passed out"
"This is not good, now people think Rusev can beat Cena."
"Your right, lets have Rusev lose at the next PPV, but have him look strong."
"Ok, He will lose after 2 AAs"
...
"Cena and Rusev are 1-1 now"
"Should we book Rusev to beat Cena at Backlash?"
"No that's not good, we can't have Cena lose twice, it will make him look bad, especially since Rusev has a submission win over him"
"Right lets book Cena to Go over Rusev, but have Rusev look strong"
"Yes in a submission match, Cena will win with the STF"
...
"We don't really have anything for Rusev to do now"
"Lets create a comedy Tag Team with him and Sandow"

#POTY - tagging because MENTOK THE MINDTAKER

rusev look like slicky tricky damon if std weren't ratchet

it is sad that this is most likely what will happen

I'm a fan of Rusev's after Fastlane. I see him losing to John Cena at WrestleMania, but I hope an Attitude Adjustment from the second rope does it. That being said, I kind of want Bo Dallas to "inspire" Cena, and then toss in the towel for him at WrestleMania, moving Cena onto a program with Dallas and freeing up Rusev to go elsewhere. But that will not happen.

Would still love to see a Rusev vs. Dolph Ziggler feud, with Dolph trying to seduce Lana.

Rusev wins Rubles in the bank and cashes in on Lesnar at Summerslam to win

Lana is a star in her own right. When Rusev loses his streak and fails to win back the US Title, I hope Lana actually ditches him, allowing Rusev to tear things up on his own, face or heel, and for Lana to get a new client.

I'm thinking that the WWE would be best to do John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania, since Cena and Bryan are essentially in the same boat at the moment. Plus, they would have a great, emotionally-charged match. That leaves Rusev without an opponent. Bring in The Rock. He apparently asked to work with Rusev, because he heard he was from Rikishi's school. There is an unresolved and memorable issue there. Imagine if The Rock tapped out to The Accolade at WrestleMania...would be HUGE!

I can imagine the hype video for the match too. Lana doing a voiceover with quick cuts between her and Rusev looking serious in a dark rooms, talking about her mission and the beast she found to represent Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation. He wasn't born in Russia, but he was born in conditions that sculptured him to be the best. She staked her reputation on his reputation; her success on his success. No one can beat her super-athlete...

Cue The Rock showing up and making the challenge and with clips of some of the ways Rock makes fun of Lana and Rusev.
"Rusev has beaten the biggest..." *clips of Rusev beating Big Show* "The strongest..." *clips of Rusev beating Mark Henry* "And he has beaten the greatest WWE Champion..." *clips of Rusev beating John Cena*

They cut to a sit-down interview with Lana and Rusev with an off-camera interviewer.

INTERVIEWER: But is Rusev ready to beat the most electrifying man in sports and entertainment?

LANA: What does that even mean? Is he getting electrocuted or something?

It cuts back to Rusev's path of destruction, with the Lana voiceover talking about how Rusev is not intimidated by The Rock. He walks on red carpets, hands out awards, and has his million dollar smile -- but Rusev comes from a place where that dream was unobtainable. Rusev fought his way out, and Rusev fought his way up...to immortality.

Feels like is not saying it's exactly like. I don't think Rusev is as good of a wrestler as Brock either. I would go into further detail but you are unable to comprehend most things correctly.

That fucking face! What is Rusev thinking?!?

:lol:

I can honestly say "caveman" isn't the first thing I think of when I see Lana. Rusev and Lana could pick up that gimmick though.

Seriously I think he has a future. I hope he beats Cena again at WM and continues on this winning streak and eventually winning the WWE title (possibly the IC title beforehand unifying the belts) and is hyped up like some Russian Goldberg or something.

It might be cliche but I think it would attract viewers who would tune in to see if "is this the moment Rusev loses".

This is it! This is the picture that Cena uses to undo Lana's gimmick.

This is true but those guys didn't come up in NXT either. Rusev has the talent to transition to a different type gimmick kinda like move into Mark Henerys spot once he is done.

We'll probably be getting Rusev vs. Cena again at Mania. Have John Cena put his career on the line for some added drama.

<font color=goldenrod>Cena putting his career on the line and losing to make Rusev one year unbeaten (well, unpinned and unsubmitted) would be a tremendous swerve and about as close to a "Streak is Over" type thing that they could get this year. Of course once the shock value wore off you know he'd just come back somehow within a few weeks but it'd still be cool.</font>

It would be epic. Everyone would be thinking that Rusev would take it, but Cena losing would make people shit bricks. You could even leak reports that injuries piled up, or that Cena wants to be a father and it's time to get off the road.

Rusev just needs to fuck somebody up tomorrow on Raw, go on a rampage. He'll be alright (I.e. No worse off than 90% of the roster).

I was wrong.

Rusev Udrea!

Rusev Maschka!

Great WM match with who for better or worse is the face of the WWE. No way he's going to be forgotten like Kozlov. Kozlov had no personality, no passion and no Lana.

So Rusev will be dead before years end? Man that's cold

So stupid they are building tension between Rusev and Lana after 1 loss. He needs her like Brock needs Heyman.

RAW PREVIEW for Tonight:

I think Rusev will follow a similar path to that of Kurt Angle at best, in that he'll eventually get in some solid world title reigns, but he'll never be "the guy."


I think Rusev will achieve more than just being a 'main-event jobber' (i.e. Sheamus, Alberto Del Rios), or being a guy that has a title reign or two and then goes back to mid-card status (i.e. Chris Benoit, RVD, The Miz, etc.), but I can't see him being "the guy."

Rusev will be fine.

"Rusev Crush" flashing on the screen as Rusev made his way out on the tank was actually a WrestleMania highlight for me. All Rusev needs to do to bounce back is to respond to Lana cutting him off from Putin's money by getting all nasty and shit. He'll probably have a Steel Cage or I Quit Match with Cena at Extreme Rules.

Yeah, I think it is obviously Ryback now after Raw. Will probably cost Ryback the match against Rusev on Smackdown.

Remember, the other day? We were at that party?

Nah but man, I've seen so many asinine things from them over the most recent history, I've kinda just been "meh" about what they do with things.

Johnny Curtis is being absolutely wasted.

They've successfully done nothing with Dean Ambrose and I slowly see the crowd reactions for him dim more and more. Shitty written promos didn't help.

I actually skip Bray Wyatt promos now because I'm like "eh, probably the same shit."

I'll probably make a thread about this later, but Ryback has finally won me over, completely, in a weird retroactive way. But I'll elab later. Regardless, they're not doing shit with him.

They had something with Roman...but the booking of the Rumble fucked him royally. Not him winning, but the pacing of how he won.

No one really believes Rusev will take the belt back from Cena at Extreme Rules. The shit is filler. And boring.

New Day gimmick was racist, stereotypical and garbage above all, so them getting boos made sense, and the smartest thing they did was turn them heel...but that doesn't even have legs yet.

They've had so many opportunities to make new stars (Cody, Dolph, Wade, Kofi, Ryback, etc) and they just....don't. If you don't give a guy shit to work with, he can't do anything. Zack got over on his OWN, and they snuffed that out. Why? Why not just see where it would go? Ryback was getting wild fucking reactions (I once said that he wasn't as over as his catchphrase. I was wrong) and you just....turn him? To do what? Don't even get me started on this Cesaro mess.

My optimism has waned, considerably. The one thing they got right in this past couple of years was DB winning the title at Mania....and that wasn't even the original plan. Meh.

Lana's star starting to outshine Rusev's

backstage NEWS is Vince has BIG PLANS for Lana

I'll say it again...

I can't figure out why they haven't done more with Fandango myself. The dude has a good look, is a pretty decent worker, and seems to pull off whatever crap they saddle with him. The dude either needs to scrap the gimmick or evolve it dramatically. A heel *new name for Curtis* aligned with The Authority could be pretty good.

What made Ambrose so effective as a babyface out the gate was his drive and focus. He wanted to get his hands on Seth Rollins more than anything. Then he lost... and lost... and lost. Now Seth Rollins is the WWE World Heavyweight Champion and Ambrose is... aimless. Nice passion there, buddy. The Hell in a Cell loss should have come with a stipulation that if Ambrose lost he wouldn't be able to put his hands on Seth Rollins unless it was a sanctioned match ever again. That would at least explain why Ambrose sits on his hands as Seth does whatever he wants.

I've never been too into Bray Wyatt as a wrestler. As a speaker, he is fantastic. His promos can meander, but when he has a target, he can be really great. He just needs that target. This feud with Ryback seems odd, since both men really need a win. Why isn't The Wyatt Family still with this guy? At least then they could get a run with the Tag Team Titles and make Wyatt look good by association.

Ryback works in a certain role. Unfortunately they take what could be white-hot and make it luke-warm. I'm not the guy's biggest backer, but his recent face turn was pretty well-received. Then it went nowhere. Now they're building him up again. Pretty sure that will go nowhere too. Cool. Do they want to make money off the guy or not?

Roman Reigns winning the 2015 Royal Rumble would have been poorly received anyway you did it, I believe. The guy just doesn't have a journey behind him yet. If they really wanted to get people used to the idea of Reigns in the main event, I think they probably should have put the WWE World Title on him at Money in the Bank. It wouldn't have carried the pressure of being the "Story of the Year" Royal Rumble/WrestleMania push spot, and Reigns could have gotten a few months trial run as champion before he dropped the title to Brock Lesnar -- setting up a potential WrestleMania chase for Reigns. The story of redemption for Reigns would have at least added something to the build. Reigns winning his second World Title in the main event only to meet his new arch-nemesis in Seth Rollins would have been a really cool era-transitioning moment too.

Rusev should have sold the Cena loss for longer. Give him some recharge time until he came back as a renewed monster presence. You can't keep having monsters lose and expect them to still be threatening.

The New Day's face shtick turned out to be pretty horrible. Kofi Kingston and Big E should have been bigger deals by then, anyway. Kofi has got that "ultimate babyface" potential in the way he carries himself. When he channels "The Wildcat," he gave off those Ricky Steamboat vibes. Not trying to be blasphemous there, but it's a comparison I am willing to draw. He's basically been booked to be your bland mid-card try-hard personality though. If he was allowed to bring his inventiveness to his regular matches instead of just going through the motions?

Big E could have been tearing up people and beating them with a 5 count, in matches that hid his flaws on television whilst he worked to get better as worker on house shows. Instead he also just became a smiling babyface. Xavier Woods debuted in a position that should have made him a fan-favorite for the ages -- standing up ethically to The Authority despite being "the new guy." Then he got jobbed the fuck out and no one cared. At least now they are doing something that is genuinely entertaining me. I feel sad for the potential they have lost, but in the role they are currently in (heel faction), I actually think they and Cesaro & Kidd stand to be the freshest tag team rivalry in a long time.

Cesaro was booked so fucking badly last year. I've spoken a lot about it, so I'll just say that I feel your pain on that one. And I've got no fucking clue why they are not doing anything with Cody Rhodes. That guy could actually have a really fantastic feud with Bray Wyatt.

Noid, the answer you seek on "why the fuck they are booking xxx horribly" and "why they aren't using xxx" is John Cena.

They could have done something amazing with Rusev, but nooooOOOOOOOooooooo. Now Crazy Edgar's (RIP) prediction comes to life after Crazy Edgar's death. It's almost as if Crazy Edgar and the Condors are posting from the grave.

'Tis not a prediction, but rather a prophecy...

Thus spoketh the Condor.