What's the story?
According to Sportskeeda’s sources, there's a contingent backstage that wants to make Rusev this year's Money in the Bank winner.
In case you didn't know...
On the April 11th edition of SmackDown LIVE, as a part of the Superstar Shakeup, Rusev — who was out of action at the time — was announced as a part of the SmackDown roster.
Rusev released a video via satellite on the April 25th edition of SmackDown LIVE wherein he threatened to leave America and go back to his home country of Bulgaria if Shane McMahon didn't give him with a WWE World Championship match at Money in the Bank PPV in June.
On May 9th, The Bulgarian Brute released another video via Twitter wherein he first talked about his previous video in which he demanded a title match at MITB. Rusev then said that as Shane McMahon didn't respond to his request he was going to appear on SmackDown and confront him for the same. However, Rusev didn't appear on SmackDown.
The heart of the matter
Our sources have informed us that WWE were ready to start a programme between Rusev and Randy Orton from tonight's Backlash PPV, even asking Rusev to fly out to Chicago.
But, it seems that Jinder Mahal's win tonight may have brought the plans back to where they were for the former US Champion, which is to win the MITB match.
What's next?
This past week it was rumoured that one of the matches for SummerSlam was going to be between Shane McMahon and Rusev. The next episode of Smackdown LIVE will be on May 23rd from Toledo, Ohio.
Author's Take
It would be great to see Rusev work a main event feud with Mahal if he wins the Money in the Bank briefcase. Fans have been dying to see Rusev work a main event feud for the World title due to his charisma and in-ring talent.
