Throughout the course of his time with WWE, Rusev has been involved in some interesting WWE storylines to say the least. In September of 2019, WWE kicked off a romantic storyline which saw Rusev’s wife Lana leave him for Bobby Lashley. The storyline carried on for a few months, but it ultimately fell apart and Rusev was released from his WWE contract in April of 2020.
While talking about the storyline on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Rusev explained that when the storyline was pitched it was supposed to lead to a WrestleMania match, but it didn’t end up happening.
“WrestleMania match. That’s how it was pitched to me. I said, Great, I can deal with that. We just never got there. But it was a good story. I understood the story. It was not my favorite story, but I understood it. And when they told me what the final goal was, I said, All right, that sounds good to me. We have a direction, we have a dip, we have a comeback. We have a good story to finish it.”
While talking about his reaction to his wife kissing Bobby Lashley, Rusev said, “It’s acting, though, it’s nothing else, all these Hollywood people, and she’s the only one. How many other WWE female Superstars have made out with so many people? It’s just part of the business. If you start selling it, of course it’s gonna go bad for you, but as long as you take it just to work, it’s nothing else than just to work.”