Former United States Champion Rusev has gone from competing inside Hell in a Cell for the very first time last month, to not even being on the card Survivor Series in just under two weeks time.
This alone is a travesty, but the fact that Rusev lost his United States Championship to Roman Reigns and failed to recapture it at Hell in a Cell was supposed to mean that Rusev would be pushed towards the main event picture.
The night after Hell in a Cell, the former US Champion was fed to Goldberg as a way for the former WCW star to prove he could still deliver The JackHammer and he still had what it takes in the ring, then this week he was defeated by Sami Zayn so that he can’t even be the one to answer Dolph Ziggler’s open challenge.
Surely, given the impact that Rusev had back at Survivor Series in 2014, he would be the perfect person to have been added to the team rather than Braun Strowman, but WWE has once again overlooked The Bulgarian Brute.
It seems that Rusev does have a creative push in his future, but instead of it being as a heel, WWE is going to test him out as a face.
Rusev has never been a face in WWE, not since his debut back in 2014 and it would be a big test for the former NXT Superstar to see if he is accepted after such a dramatic change.
Lana was cheered by the WWE Universe when she first debuted on the main roster, and so WWE decided to break-up the real-life couple because they didn’t like the fact that the WWE Universe were warming towards a character they hoped to become a beast.
Obviously, Rusev and Lana spoiled this plan by becoming publically engaged, which meant that WWE were forced to put them back as a couple and together they have become a dominant force.
The problem is that Rusev has been used so many times to put over other talents, when will WWE allow him to become the star himself? He is without a doubt, one of the most consistent performers on WWE TV and can make any talent on the roster look good.
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Rusev completely deserves to be a World Champion, but the problem is the fact that both Champions are currently heel, so perhaps a face turn is the only way Rusev can move forward.
Rusev has been booked to face Brock Lesnar at a live event on December 3rd and it is thought that this is where WWE will try out Rusev’s new character. Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar have both been booked as heels heading into the epic Survivor Series match with Goldberg, and it seems that this could continue.
It might be the perfect place for Rusev to try out a new character and if he manages to perform well against someone of Brock’s calibre then it would make sense for WWE to then push him forward towards a World Championship shot.
There is also the probability that Lesnar will destroy Rusev, there is no way that The Bulgarian Brute will be victorious in the match, so it could be a match that only further hinders how much effort WWE has put into Rusev’s character over the past few years.
It is unclear how Rusev has gone from being an undefeated superstar who had an incredible feud with John Cena, to now being in the position where he can’t even be a part of the Survivor Series team.
Of course, there have only been six matches announced for the show so far, with the three elimination matches, the match between Dolph Ziggler and Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Championship, Brian Kendrick up against Kalisto with the Cruiserweight Championship on the line and the marquee match between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar.
This means that any match that Rusev is involved in now will be one that has little riding on it and little significance to the event overall. Hopefully, a character change is the thing that will thrust Rusev into the title picture he deserves to be in, otherwise it is hard to see what WWE creative will come up with for the future of the former United States Champion.
