10 Most Ridiculous WWE WrestleMania Entrances
7. Rusev: WrestleMania 31
Ridiculous but undeniably effective, WWE played on the Cold War here by having Rusev invade the United States of America in a big, f*ck-off tank.
The Cold War had ended some 24 years prior, but still, WWE compensated for the lack of real geopolitical tension by simply broadcasting Vladimir Putin’s big face over the TitanTron and changing Rusev’s birth nation. That Alexander guy was Bulgarian, but Rusev is Russian!
It all worked in spite of itself because the Rusev push was as committed as it was refreshing, and the man behind the gimmick played the unbeatable destroyer role very well, showing just enough authentic selling nous to cast himself as a performer of more depth than the comically gurning and chronically tedious likes of Vladimir Kozlov.
WWE went big, too, dwarfing the unimaginative Tron b*llocks by playing the Russian national anthem, dressing the stage in a sea of Russian flags and “servicemen”, and blasting red smoke and pyro from cannons. And then, the camera panned to a gigantic tank, complete with a machine gun turret and the villain of the piece, Rusev, maniacally waving the flag back and forth.
It took something unbelievably expensive to do it, but WWE obscured the cheap heat on the night.