10 WWE Careers That Flatlined After WrestleMania

4. Rusev - WrestleMania 31

Rusev WrestleMania 31
WWE

Oh, Rusev...

After a dominant spell in NXT, the Bulgarian Brute had quite an impressive start to life on the main roster. There, Rusev embarked on a lengthy undefeated streak that saw him capture the United States Title and even be the first person to submit John Cena in 11 years.

Surely, Rusev was a future main event star who would be winning World Championships for years to come. Only, of course, that never happened.

For Rusev, he ran up against Cena on the Grandest Stage of Them All, losing his United States Championship to Big Match John at WrestleMania 31. Looking even more like a total badass, Rusev entered that match in a f**king tank. Still, the nowadays Redeemer didn't have enough firepower to fend off John Cena at that 2015 edition of the Showcase of the Immortals.

With that loss, the bloom was off the rose for Rusev. The mystique was gone, the dominance was over, and Rusev quickly became just another guy on the roster.

Before you knew it, Rusev was involved in a bizarre love triangle - or should that be quadrilateral? - with Lana, Summer Rae and Dolph Ziggler, and then he was dumped into the League of Nations. While Rusev Day was admittedly a whole bunch of fun, Rusev's career was on a downward spiral after that WrestleMania 31 loss.

Still, at least Miro is now in AEW, where he'll surely be used as a top tier player, right... ?

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.