7 Ways Feuding With John Cena Has Hurt Rusev

3. History Suggests A Bad Gimmick Change Is Coming

WWE has had a number of foreign heels start off with a big push at the start, then it slowly goes away and they turn into babyfaces that suddenly lose a lot of matches. Here are three "foreign" heels from the last decade or so that became faces. The Great Khali - They brought him in as a monster heel. He beat The Undertaker clean at one point. He even won the World Heavyweight Title. Then he became a comedic babyface that really didn't do a whole lot and was one of the worst performers in the company. Vladimir Kozlov - He was brought in as a guy with a wrestling background that they told us was pretty devastating. They gave him a strong push on the Smackdown brand with feuds against the likes of Triple H and Jeff Hardy. He didn't get over. Then he became a comedy tag team with Santino. Tensai - He's not really a foreigner, but they changed his name from Albert (or A-Train) and had him get significant wins over the likes of John Cena and CM Punk. The gimmick was lame, he didn't get over and he became part of a dancing big man tag team with Brodus Clay. History suggests that in a year or two when Rusev isn't thriving as a heel, WWE might turn him into a face comedy figure. This could have been avoided if he would have won this feud with Cena. It's called long term planning.