10 WWE Stars Who Need To Turn In 2017
7. Rusev
Rusev was fantastic on WWE's affectionate territory send-up Southpaw Regional Wrestling.
His comedy timing as farmer Big Bartholomew was so good, and his bizarre ramblings about working hard for his chickens so funny, that even he corpsed. And yet he is lumbered with perhaps the most passé gimmick in wrestling - one which has turned sour.
His role as anti-American antagonist has already been supplanted by Jinder Mahal, of all people. His aura as a heel has been diminished almost entirely by his cuckolding at the hands of The Rock and his association with the dire League of Nations. Rusev has jumped the shark, but the danger is that he will be perceived by management as fresh purely because he is running blue ropes instead of red ropes.
Luckily for Rusev, there are already two nationalist heels on SmackDown in Mahal and Kevin Owens. He was made redundant before he even made his SmackDown bow. This surely necessitates a change in direction, one which in an ideal world would make best use of his vastly underrated promo game. Rusev is also vastly underrated in the selling department.
He is capable of generating laughter and sympathy from audiences - a face turn is both necessary and something he is capable of pulling off.