Alexander Rusev: What lies ahead for the promising NXT standout?

At the 2014 Royal Rumble, NXT standout Alexander Rusev debuted on the main event roster through the 30 man elimination match. He indeed started his career with some serious momentum too. Thereafter, WWE has repeatedly shown us vignettes of Rusev and Lana, teasing of his Raw Debut and hyping his in ring Raw debut.

Alexander Rusev

In the Royal Rumble, Rusev came as the sixth entrant and fought against some of the very well established stars like CM Punk and Seth Rollins, who in turn made him look strong. Although Rusev did not eliminate any wrestler, he stayed in the ring for a considerable time. Moreover he showed some aggression and impressive moves.

He was eliminated in the end by four wrestlers-Punk, Rollins, Cody Rhodes and Kofi Kingston, all of whom were forced to team up in order to eliminate the Big Bulgarian. All the wrestlers sold the elimination very well to the crowd.

Last Year, Bo Dallas was the surprise entrant from the NXT in the royal rumble. Dallas followed the Rumble with a couple of months feud with the then Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett. Although the storyline was completely dropped all of a sudden, the current NXT champion , Dallas certainly gained through the rumble stint. Dallas now garners a good amount of heat as a heel and would at some point of time make inroads in the main roster.

Alexander Rusev has the build which WWE looks out for. He is also well versed with wrestling moves-he did some training in Thai style wrestling.Like some of the currently pushed superstars like Reigns and Big E, he has that intimidating build with athleticism which makes kayfabe look real.

Alexander Rusev is a former Olympic-caliber Bulgarian powerlifter who was trained in California as a pro wrestler by former WWE Superstars Gangrel and Rikishi. According to WWE.com, he was signed by the company in April of 2011, but suffered several injuries, including a torn ACL and broken neck. He was thereby not able to continue and took some time off to train. In that time, Rusev supposedly added further new moves and developed his skill set.

Rusev is 6’0”, 305 pounds. He is athletic and agile, and can pull off some interesting kicks and moves. Moreover, Rusev also fits a larger than life character like Umaga or Viscera. Even Batista debuted as a bodyguard who had the muscle power flowing. Rusev can be very intimidating and can easily get over with the crowd through his raw strength and wrestling skills.

However Rusev’s Mic skills are limited and that may be a cause of worry. He would need a top quality manager in order to shine on the roster. Currently accompanied by Lana, who surely would add a dimension to him, in the future he would need to either improve on mic or get a new manager of the caliber of Paul Heyman if he wants to be in the top card.

Lana seems like a good manager, but will she have the right mic skills?

Alexander Rusev looks like a good midcard prospect who would be widely viewed as an athletic brute force. Given a good manager, Rusev may even blossom on the Main event scene. But for that he would need a top quality storyline and some genuine booking. Suddenly booking him as a big heel like the way Tensai was booked, only to have him down to line to John Cena on multiple occasions would not help. Also, a Ryback type push which was accompanied by an obnoxious heel turn would not help matters much either. He needs organic growth and positive booking which establishes him as a monster heel.

It would be interesting to see the way WWE introduces Rusev in the first place. Would he be introduced as a baby face or as a monster heel? What do you think about Alexander Rusev and Lana? Do you think they will make it big? Please do comment your views.