Why WWE Dropped The Ball With Rusev

An obvious red herring, the 'Bulgarian Brute' emerging before Maria could finish her reveal diluted what would have been a huge pop for his theme before it even had the chance to escape. During one of his post-WWE podcast interviews, Jon Moxley spoke with frustration about how the company toyed with the electricity of his 2018 return in the same way. There, their insistence that Seth Rollins allude to him before his arrival was an irritant, but this was a re-wiring compared to just ripping the mains clean out as they did with Rusev.

Crowd control is pro wrestling. It forms every part of every match, and in WWE's televised Sports Entertainment world, extends to entrances, exits and even f*cking advertisement breaks. This was the Premier League striker firing wide with an open net in front of him or the NBA star missing a lay-up - the type of less-than-ideal mistake that can (but shouldn't) happen in sport but categorically can't (and does) in this work of athletic fiction.

The pop was lost, but what next? Did the commentary team have time to linger on his new look? Or the hows, whys and wheres of his disappearance? Or even a potential new tryst with Maria? Of course not. All of that was going to be taken care of by poor old Mike Kanellis, made the victim yet again by his manipulative wife in this tired, tired story.

Rusev had gone from first draft to third wheel in the time it took him to reach the ring.

CONT'D...