Why People KEEP Going Missing From WWE Television (WWE News)

Where are Rusev and the Street Profits?

WWE Royal Rumble 2025 The Street Profits Montez Ford Angelo Dawkins
WWE

For those wondering why certain superstars have vanished from WWE TV in recent weeks and months, it appears that there's a fairly straightforward answer.

Per Mike Johnson over at PWInsider, WWE hasn't used some talents lately for the simple fact of not wanting to waste them in pointless matches or segments, and instead are holding off on using them until there is something more meaningful on the table. In particular, three names specifically mentioned by Johnson are Rusev and the Street Profits.

In the case of Rusev, the Bulgarian Brute last wrestled on main WWE programming on the 21 November episode of SmackDown, where he lost to Jey Uso in The Last Time Is Now Tournament. Prior to that, the 40-year-old had been in the Intercontinental Title mix with Dominik Mysterio and Penta. Rusev has also since picked up a win over Otis on the 6 December episode of WWE Main Event, but he's been entirely absent from the Raw brand for two months by this point.

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For the Street Profits, it's a somewhat similar situation as Rusev's for Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford, with the Profits spending the summer and into October in the mix for the WWE Tag Team Championships held by the Wyatt Sicks, but the team hasn't competed on SmackDown since a loss to the Wyatts on the 10 October edition of WWE's blue brand. Their most recent match of any sort was a WWE Main Event win over Los Garza back in November.

Some would say it's sensible to keep valued talent off TV when there's nothing of note for them to do, whereas the other side of the coin is that, with an extensive creative team and with so much weekly TV time to fill, surely there's no excuse not to find something for the likes of Rusev and the Street Profits to be doing.

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Of course, with the 2026 Royal Rumble on the imminent horizon, maybe we'll see Rusev and the Profits pop up in the men's Rumble match, though that remains to be seen.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.