As is standard with a debuting WWE superstar, they start with a winning streak to get over with fans. It's not just the big monsters, either. Bo Dallas, Fandango and Adam Rose all started with winning streaks. Only a select few manage to stay unbeaten for eight months and Rusev is one of those. He is currently the United States Champion, with rumours of an imminent return for the European Championship, and shared ring time with The Rock when 'The People's Champion' made a surprise appearance in October. So the WWE management clearly have faith in Rusev. Lana continues to push the Vladimir Putin line and caused controversy by seemingly referring to the Malaysian Airlines MH17 tragedy. Picked up by the mainstream media, it would have been easy for WWE to promptly end Rusev's streak but it's still going strong. How should the streak end? Lessons must be learnt from Ryback's rapid decline. He had connected strongly with fans, then the WWE stupidly booked him to face CM Punk when they had no intention of changing the title. Ryback lost the match, lost momentum and soon turned heel. Rusev is already a heel but there are ways to keep him strong in defeat. John Cena, Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan have all lost plenty of times but they're the main players in WWE. Rusev should keep his U.S. Championship until WrestleMania, where he faces Cena - Russia versus America. SuperCena will win but Rusev needs to shake off the defeat and continue to crush opponents. It's not the defeat that'll hurt Rusev, it's the manner of defeat.
From Chester-le-Street, with Newcastle as my spiritual home. 24 years old, I'm at Sunderland University studying for a Sports Journalism MA. It's all about football and WWE. Wordplay jokes and puns are also encouraged.
