Its a shame that Rusev suffered an injury right at a point where his character is undergoing the biggest change of his WWE career. The Bulgarian Brute technically debuted at the Royal Rumble last year, but he really hit the roster with a vengeance after WrestleMania XXX, amassing a yearlong streak of not being pinned or submitting. That streak, which included a lengthy run with the United States Championship, had defined Rusev almost as much as the anti-American rhetoric he and Lana spewed during promos. Rusev had a solid and steady if unspectacular debut period. He was led to the ring by a gorgeous blonde Lana who got her own mini-entrance before she would introduce Rusev. He squashed every opponent put in front of him, and even though most were lower-tier wrestlers, he was impressive enough in the ring to keep fans interested. Then Rusev and Lana dialed up the pro-Russia, anti-American rhetoric, which led to more crowd heat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aexJ_3gnmiY Rusev is a case study in a solid, slow build that established him as a legit threat. Lana was a big part in that development, and she is now poised for bigger and better things in the coming weeks and months.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
