1. Retire Rey Mysterio
All these ideas have some merit, but they will establish him as a watchable heel, nothing more. For Rusev to truly get attention from the WWE Universe, we have to make them HATE him. And wouldn't we hate anybody who took away somebody we loved? If I could return to the Rocky IV comparison for a minute, what was the one thing he did which established him as the big bad guy of that film? The answer is he beat Apollo Creed to death. And everybody loved Apollo Creed! Now obviously in the wrestling world, there's no such thing as beating people to death, despite the wonders that would do for storylines, so we have to go to the next best thing; retiring them. Triple H got over in his big heel push in the McMahon-Helmsley era when he forcibly retired Mick Foley from active competition, and Brock Lesnar has the distinction of doing the same to Hulk Hogan in 2003 (in storyline, anyway.... Hulk Hogan seems determined to die in a wrestling ring) So Rusev would get over big if he forced a beloved face to retire. The only snag with this storyline is, someone's got to retire. Enter Rey Mysterio. And despite the boos he got at the Royal Rumble (which he didn't deserve or earn, nothing personal, Rey!) Mysterio has been consistently beloved by the fans for over 20 years, and has given us some fantastic matches in the past. But unfortunately, the key phrase there is "in the past". Rey's best days are well and truly behind him, and the days of his highflying peak are long gone. He mostly competes in thrown-together tag teams these days, whenever he's not out injured. His body is battered after years of high impact wrestling, his knees are basically held together with spit and prayers, and in the past few years he's violated the Wellness Policy because of his addiction to painkillers. Its not fair for Rey to keep dragging his body through matches of ever-diminishing quality and life on the road, he's given us more than enough, its time for him to hang up his boots and mask for good. And as is tradition in the industry, you do the job on the way out. So what I propose is this; A feud is set up between Rusev and Mysterio for late this year, where Rey does the Ultimate Underdog dance one final time. It can either be set up as a "beat him into retirement" brawl, or Rey's career can be a match stipulation set up by the shrewd and calculating Lana. Personally, I'm in favour of a hybrid..... Establish Rey's career is on the line, have Rey win in an upset victory, then have Rusev beat him so badly in a post match assault that he's forced to retire anyway. Rey gets to go out with a victory, and Rusev is an untrustworthy, backstabbing heel who ended the career of a beloved crowd favourite in brutal fashion These are some of my ideas to make Alexander Rusev a star in 2014. What would you do differently? Let me know!!