At a first glance, it seems like having Rusev face off against Mark Henry is a money feud in the making. After all, what better test for The Bulgarian Brute than The World’s Strongest Man? These two can meet power with power and it would be a step up for Rusev to defeat a former World Heavyweight champion.
But once you start looking deeper, you start exposing some flaws that are beneath the surface.
Eventually, this might be a good feud, but it isn’t the right time for it at the moment. WWE’s creative team is allowing their fascination with Rusev to cloud their judgement and they are going to do more damage than good with this feud.
First off, there is the issue that Rusev himself isn’t over: xenophobia is. To an extent, Lana gets a reaction from the crowd, but it is due to her appearance rather than her personality. Both she and Rusev get some boos purely out of being the vessels for the subject matter of “anti-American thought process” as opposed to the performers themselves garnering the heat.
There have been two times where Rusev has gotten a solid reaction from the crowd. The first was when he was against Roman Reigns—arguably one of the most popular stars in the company today, so that’s no surprise—and the second was with this recently finished program against Jack Swagger.
That feud had a lot of factors working in benefit of itself. Swagger’s character had gone through roughly two years of build and was backed by not only a catchy theme song that fans love to chant, but also a fun catchphrase that the audience has been repeating for months. The freshness of Swagger turning babyface gave this a kickstart and then fans jumped for joy, knowing that they would not have to go against the grain by chanting “we the people” along with the Real Americans. Zeb Colter provided a great mouthpiece in opposition of Lana and the feud was banging on all cylinders.
Where was this reaction when Rusev faced Big E for a few months? What about his squash matches beforehand? Surely, the problem wasn’t in the laundry list of people he’s worked with, but with Rusev and Lana themselves. That duo is the common thread amongst all of those feuds and judging by the track record, it is tough to imagine that they will pull this feud off without a hitch.
The second problem is in the logistics of the in-ring performances themselves. Mark Henry is always under criticism by a portion of the audience for being too slow and not having a wide moveset. Rusev is very agile for someone his build, but he’s also very awkward and at times, clunky in the ring. He looks strange when he’s doing certain moves and it comes off more comical than intense.
There is a big threat of this match being booked around the idea that Henry can take a lot of the punishment that Rusev dishes out and then swat him out of the way, but a few solid kicks will knock the big man down. Then, Rusev will struggle to put him in the Accodale, but will eventually succeed and make Henry tap.
Is that match going to thrill the audiences, or is it just going to eat up some time? Would you ever want to see a second match that followed the same pattern at Hell in a Cell?
Furthermore, what is going to be accomplished by having Rusev defeat Henry? WWE is already giving him an undefeated streak and fans expect him to win every match, so there won’t be any shock and awe that he’s defeating someone who, at times, is referred to as a “jobber to the stars” who can’t win important matches. Is a win for Rusev going to wake you up and make you truly start appreciating him as a wrestler, or are you going to pay as much attention to him as you did before?
WWE has been separating a lot of the tag teams and it has put the division on hold at a time when it was flourishing like it hadn’t been in years. Now that Big Show and Mark Henry are seemingly a new alignment, taking Henry out of it to feud with Rusev will do that team no favors. Even if it leads into Rusev facing Big Show next, he will simply repeat the same process, have the same match with him as he did with Henry, and come out of this as the guy who could beat BOTH members of the team.
Winning matches does matter in trying to make a star, but if those feuds have no substance to them, the fans will not get invested in them enough to care about the outcome. Even if they do, WWE has a habit of dropping the ball once that person gets to the zenith. Just look at what happened with Ryback when he was on top of the roster and then lost every pay-per-view match for months on end. Rusev cannot look dominant if he does not win matches, but he doesn’t have to win every single match to still look strong. WWE must be willing to sacrifice the full-on protection of him as a tough guy in order to inject some story into his programs (other than having the next wrestler challenge him, say America is great, and then lose decisively in a lackluster match). Otherwise, this rinse and repeat formula that hasn’t worked for months will continue to tread water. Ultimately, when push comes to shove and Rusev loses, it won’t mean as much as WWE wants it to, and they will lose faith in Rusev, consider him to have been a waste of time, and he will find himself dancing around like a typical comedic monster in the same regard that The Great Khali, “The World’s Largest Love Machine” Viscera, the knuckleheaded Big Show, and even “Sexual Chocolate” Mark Henry have gone through before him.
Do you agree that this feud will end up being a bust, or are you excited for it and think that it is the best course of action?
Leave a comment below and tell us what you think!
