10 Times WWE Quit Storylines For Weird Reasons
5. Rusev's Championship Quest Is Nixed For Jinder's Journey
The experimental period that regularly follows 'Mania season has been known to throw some rather strange scenarios into the WWE landscape. However, it has often opened the door for largely under-utilised fan favourites to seize their moment further up the card too.
That latter point appeared to be the case for Rusev as the Bulgarian Brute was thrown over to SmackDown during the Superstar Shake-up, only to find himself seemingly on the cusp of a WWE Championship match with Randy Orton. After stating in a personally recorded message that he wouldn't compete on the blue brand unless he was granted a title shot at Money in the Bank, the stage looked set for a strong Rusev main event push.
Yet, that was never to be. Instead, reports stated that WWE were aiming to target the Indian market over the coming months, so Jinder Mahal was given the WWE Championship ball to run with at Payback a few weeks earlier instead. Any plans to have Rusev and Orton collide for the title were quickly binned off and the former was nudged into a losing war with John Cena soon after. He'd then later lose to The Viper in 10-seconds at SummerSlam.