4 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Oct 31)
2. Rusev Day (Redux)
September 26th 2017 is already circled in wrestling fan calendars as the second annual Rusev Day following the 'Bulgarian Brute's admirable efforts to drag comedy out of his dispiriting feud with Randy Orton, but WWE finally appeared to go all-in with his deluded new veneer as he got up to no good on this week's show.
Ru-Ru and English were both sidesplitting this week, proving yet again that the former United States Champion is infiniately better when he has somebody else parroting his rhetoric to bounce off. It remains confusing why WWE persist with separating him off from these seconds, but after Lana and Jinder Mahal were both cast aside, hopefully his third time alongside the former Vaudevillain will be the charm.
Defeating Big E (yes, he actually won the match), Rusev confidently bounded into Shane McMahon's office and managed to score himself a Survivor Series qualification match against AJ Styles next week. With the 'Phenomenal One's current problems with 'The Modern Day Maharaja', he might even win that too!