10 WWE Superstars Who Need A Character Change

Rusev is so criminally underutilised in WWE. He’s so talented both in the ring and on the mic. And yet he’s still to make it to the main event. Until recently, I would have argued that, given his stellar heel work throughout his entire WWE run, he was set to be a heel for his whole career.

However, my opinion was very quickly changed in his feud with Roman Reigns. Rusev, the US Champion was innocently trying to celebrate his wedding to Lana when Reigns, the babyface, interrupted them, insulted the groom, drank their champagne and was the direct cause of Lana ending up face-first in her own wedding cake. Did the noble babyface show remorse? No. He laughed. We were then presented with a scenario where the so-called bad guy, Rusev, attempted to defend the honour of his wife (how dastardly) while the supposed good guy, Roman, mocked him and beat him up at every turn. Try explaining that one to a non-wrestling fan.

As I mentioned earlier, I used to think that Rusev was a heel for life. However, after seeing the way he managed to garner sympathy from the viewers in this particular storyline, it made me realise that Rusev is obviously one of those rare talents who could excel as either a heel or a face. He really is that good. Granted, the whole sympathy thing was probably helped by the fact that it was Reigns he was up against – a man despised by much of WWE’s fanbase. But still, Rusev definitely came across as the face in this scenario.

Perhaps a Rusev face turn, which would probably come out of left-field to most fans, is just what he needs to make it to the top of the card, which is, arguably, where he belongs.