8 Horribly Outdated Wrestling Acts

2. Rusev

rusev lana
wwe.com

What’s this? A Russian who doesn’t like America? Hold on a second, let me check the year. Is Ronald Reagan still in office? Is the Cold War still going on? Otherwise, there’s really no good reason to have Rusev's dated gimmick still around.

Rusev was nearing the main event scene a couple years ago when he battled John Cena at WrestleMania, but now he’s pretty much sunk in the mid-card. Perhaps he doesn't have the charisma necessary to receive a massive push, but his gimmick absolutely limits him. This act simply can’t be main event worthy in 2016.

If he was repackaged as a badass brawler who just happened to be Bulgarian, and who happened to have a hot, evil wife, then cool. But Lana and Rusev saying things like “You stupid Americans!” and “You Lazy Americans!” just feels so tiring. Didn't we already see this act like 30 years ago with Nikolai Volkoff, The Iron Sheik, Krusher Kruschev, and Ivan and Nikita Koloff?

The only person who still seems to think that evil foreigners means big business is Vince McMahon.

Advertisement
In this post: 
Rusev
 
First Posted On: 
Contributor

As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at." Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week. Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com