Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
For better or worse, it appears WWE is in “rinse and repeat” mode with Rusev, who will be doing a variation of his redeemer gimmick from AEW. He expressed on Raw that he left to go find himself, got rejuvenated, is no longer fighting for the wrong reasons, blah blah blah, but it ultimately came down to how he’s going to beat down people who are in need of “fixing” in his eyes. This is why he went after Otis and Akira Tozawa, and he’ll be facing Otis in action on next week’s Raw.
My question for you today is “Who are some other WWE Superstars Rusev should target if he’s looking to beat some losers into rehabilitation?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
As far as my answer…
First and foremost, you can sense my apathy to this, as I think it’s a boring retread of a story I wasn’t even fond of the first time in AEW. There’s no energy to Rusev’s character based on this promo.
Second, I think Karrion Kross is a much more interesting character when it comes to manipulating talent and trying to prey on the “losers” in a sense. I’m far more invested in watching his influence on AJ Styles and Sami Zayn than to see Rusev just beat up some jobbers.
Third, I think if this is going to work, Rusev should be joining the Seth Rollins, Bron Breakker, and Paul Heyman group. I don’t like Breakker as a non-speaking brute. That should be Rusev’s role, while Breakker can be the “future of the business” guy more like in the Randy Orton capacity, if we’re going to equate this to Evolution. Rusev can be the Batista.
But to answer the question more directly, I would find it INFINITELY more interesting if Rusev were to go after the loser heels just as much as the loser babyfaces. If it’s just Otis and Akira Tozawa, it doesn’t matter. Sure, you can fight Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde and Dragon Lee as the lesser-pushed LWO members, but there’s no substance. Now, if Rusev were to also attack Carlito just the same, or Austin Theory and Grayson Waller, or to attack Jimmy Uso because he’s been lapped by Jey, I’m way more down than if he just beats up Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne and cycles in new opponents like that.
Give me Rusev against The Wyatt Sicks, rather than against Apollo Crews. Tell a story where he wants to bring out the best in Santos Escobar instead of him just laying waste to Angel and Berto like everyone else does.
If you’re going to “redeem” people, simply squashing enhancement talent babyfaces isn’t enough of an angle. That doesn’t change anything. Freshen things up, as I’m already bored and we’re only one attack and a vignette into this.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!
