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What's the story?
Yesterday, WWE SmackDown Live Rusev sent out the tweet below sarcastically praising the addition of 16-time World Champion John Cena to Team SmackDown for the men's 5-on-5 Elmination match at the Survivor Series PPV.
Today, John Cena responded to Rusev in a light-hearted fashion, using Twitter also.
In case you didn't know...
On the latest episode of SmackDown Live, Rusev (w/Aiden English) lost a match against Randy Orton, meaning he would not get the final place on Team Smackdown for Survivor Series in the men's 5-on-5 bout.
It was then announced the next day (yesterday) by SmackDown Live Commissioner and Team SD Live Captain Shane McMahon that John Cena would be the fifth member of their brand at the PPV against RAW.
This news about Cena being included as part of this match came as a shock to many fans, as it was heavily rumoured that he was going to be the special guest referee for the scheduled Survivor Series main event between Universal Champion Brock Lesnar and now former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal.
Instead, Cena is now actually wrestling at the PPV (and Jinder Mahal lost his title to AJ Styles on Tuesday's SD Live episode). WWE chairman Vince McMahon apparently made the creative changes to the card, according to Dave Meltzer.
John Cena and Rusev have feuded with each other in WWE many times in the past. Most recently, they faced each other back in July at the Battleground PPV in a flag match.
Cena, who is a free agent within WWE (i.e, he can appear on RAW or SmackDown) has not wrestled with the company since September's RAW No Mercy PPV, when he took on Roman Reigns in a losing effort.
Cena has been on a hiatus from the company as he continues to go further in the direction of a Hollywood career, filming for multiple future big movies.
The heart of the matter
As mentioned and shown above, John Cena tweeted back to 'The Bulgarian Brute'.
Rusev humorously criticised Cena in his tweet, who he called his 'friend ', by citing the fact that Cena had not 'qualified' for Team SmackDown 'fair and square'.
Cena played off Rusev's 'friend' remark, and replied in hilarious fashion, jokingly asking if his 'once solid friendship with Angry and Honest' Rusev was now in question', accompanied with #RusevDay.
Big Match John included some Bulgarian in the tweet; '????????? ?? ??? ???????'. This roughly translates to 'Sorry my friend' in English.
What's next?
John Cena will be alongside Team Captain Shane McMahon, Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakmura and Bobby Roode as they take on Team RAW's Kurt Angle, Jason Jordan, Braun Strowman, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe in the 5-on-5 men's elimination match at the Survivor Series PPV on November 19th, in the Toyota Center, Houston, Texas.
It seems like Rusev will not be on the Survivor Series PPV card, but we will find out more when SmackDown Live comes back on the air next Tuesday.
Hopefully, he will continue his current tag team with Aiden English, as it is quite popular among fans.
Don't forget, just like today, tomorrow and every other day is RUSEV DAY.
Author's take
I think that adding John Cena to the Survivor Series PPV as part of Team SmackDown was a genius move by WWE.
Cena guarantees more interest in the PPV, whether you or I like it or not.
Unfortunately, as great as Rusev is, he does not quite yet have the drawing power of John Cena.
However, I believe if WWE improved their booking of Rusev, he could really be a huge star. He is one of the most popular WWE Superstars with the hardcore WWE Fanbase, despite being a heel. There have been rumours WWE will be turning him babyface.
With his charismatic and comedic ways, Rusev could easily make this work.
