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What's the story?
The crowd is chanting his name and his merchandise is selling out online, but Rusev found himself backstage at SmackDown with no match or onscreen segment for the second week in a row.
Well, the Bulgarian Brute has taken to social media to comment on the situation.
In case you didn't know...
Rusev first came into WWE as a major heel on a crazy undefeated streak. He had an incredible peak when he faced John Cena at WrestleMania and made his entrance in a tank.
However, a shaky spell where he was in a never-ending rivalry with Dolph Ziggler and a spell as Jinder Mahal's partner before 'The Modern-Day Maharaja' climbed up the card that derailed one of the most dominant trains in the WWE.
While being paired with Aiden English looked like putting the nail in the coffin of both men, they've somehow managed to become one of the most entertaining and possibly most popular acts in WWE.
The heart of the matter
Well, while Rusev Day merchandise has been flying off shelves, Rusev has found himself on the shelf.
Rusev Day t-shirts were recently the WWE shop's best seller before Rusev Day calendars sold out quicker than expected, but the former United States Champion has now spent two weeks backstage with no obvious reason as to why.
Well, Rusev took to social media to post his comments alongside his wife, Lana.
What's next?
SmackDown Live airs on Tuesday! Will we see Rusev this week? Who knows.
Author's take
While it's great to see both Rusev and Aiden English turn lemons into lemonade and get themselves over, recent rumors as to why we haven't had much in the way of Tye Dillinger potentially have me worried about Rusev's future.
It should be noted that "Rusev Day" chants took over a segment with Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan a few weeks back when Rusev was obviously not part of the segment.
On the flip side, I like to be optimistic. I'm going to hope Rusev has been kept off TV so he can return as a babyface and get a huge pop- although there's no heel champion on SmackDown Live right now, so I'm not too sure who he'd come up against.
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