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Rusev has been the center of WWE’s latest controversy as his status with the company seems slightly up in the air. This is following a series of events over the last few weeks or so that may hint that he’ll be parting ways with WWE.
First of all, he has been consistently over since his ‘Rusev Day’ gimmick started, and ‘Rusev Day’ chants have interrupted almost every angle the WWE have attempted to run on SmackDown including Shane McMahon having to ‘duly note’ them and Paige having to work through them on her debut as General Manager.
Despite this overwhelming fan favorite response, Rusev has continued as a heel and has seemingly been passed over for several opportunities. He wasn’t even set to wrestle in an actual match at WrestleMania until his merchandise sales forced WWE to add him to the United States Title match, in which he lost.
So Rusev being held back is the context, but the spark was Rusev being advertised to wrestle against The Undertaker in a Casket Match at the Greatest Royal Rumble event, conducting an interview with TMZ, being replaced by Chris Jericho in the Casket Match and then changing his social media accounts to remove all references to WWE.
This has led to speculation that Rusev was about to be given a huge moment against Undertaker, but was then punished for something. One theory is that WWE didn’t like a tweet he directed towards ‘Taker, which also referenced his current main roster position saying ‘Bury Me Softly.’
Another theory is that the WWE were unhappy with the TMZ interview he conducted, although having watched the video I can’t see why as Rusev and his real-life wife Lana represented the company very well throughout.
When you also factor in the reports that Rusev actually asked for his release before WrestleMania, which is one of the factors that led to him being added to the United States Title match, you have a very unclear picture of Rusev’s WWE status.
Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer was asked whether or not this was a work, and he seems confident that this is part of an ongoing storyline. Another thing to suggest this would be the involvement of Lana who tweeted she didn’t want her husband in a Casket Match and asked the WWE to find someone else.
However, if this is a storyline, or Rusev is on his way out of the company so no longer cares, it seems that Rusev is definitely not shying away from stirring things up even more, as his latest comment on Aiden English’s Instagram shows.
Why would Rusev say that he’ll miss Aiden English? Could he be leaving the company? Is he spoiling a move to Raw for one of them in the Superstar Shakeup or is he just trolling for the sake of trolling? We’ll find out soon enough I guess.
