10 Times WWE Totally Dropped The Ball On Rusev
8. Regaining The United States Championship For One Month
After dropping the United States Championship to Roman Reigns in September 2016, it would be another two years before he'd win it back from Shinsuke Nakamura on the Christmas night edition of SmackDown.
WWE was finally starting to get behind Rusev as a babyface and it seemed like he was being rewarded (as opposed to punished) for getting himself over, with a third U.S. title reign. The crowd exploded with elation when he won, but the aftermath left a lot to be desired.
The remainder of Rusev's rivalry with Nakamura was nothing special in the slightest. They were hardly featured on the blue brand at the onset of 2019, and in their championship rematch on the Royal Rumble Kickoff show, Nakamura shockingly regained the gold after an "injured" Lana caused Rusev to lose focus.
As noted earlier, it'd be one thing if Rusev held the belt briefly because WWE had plans in place for both men coming out of their feud, but that quickly proved to not be the case. Rather, R-Truth cut Nakamura's latest title reign short two days later on SmackDown, leaving both Rusev and Nakamura directionless for WrestleMania season (and rendering Rusev's one-month run as champ completely pointless).