6 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Sept 26)

Downs...

7. History Repeats Itself

What did Rusev do to deserve this?

These are worrying times for The Bulgarian Brute. Through 2014 and early-2015, Rusev was being set-up as WWE's next big monster heel. He was flattening lesser wrestlers on a weekly basis, and capturing the United States Championship cemented his status as a detestable anti-American heat-magnet. With Lana by his side, Rusev was a dominant performer, and looked set for the stratosphere.

Then John Cena came along and ruined everything.

Rusev dropped the US Title to Cena at WrestleMania 31, but that wasn't the end of it, and instead of ending the Cena/Rusev beef there and then, WWE opted to have the Bulgarian lose to Cena again, and again, and again. By the end of it, Rusev was little more than a listless midcarder with nothing to separate him from the pack. He split from Lana, joined the ill-fated League of Nations, and his days as a potential main-eventer looked all but over.

It's only recently that he's started looking like a threat again, but the current Roman Reigns situation just reeks of history repeating itself. Reigns, like Cena, is a divisive and inherently unlikeable babyface who hasn't just taken Rusev's title, but continues beating the monster from pillar-to-post. Last night saw the duo wrestle to a no contest, but the post match Spear and chair assault left Reigns standing tall: a worrying sign for one of WWE's best heels.