It’s hard to imagine much scaring Rusev. The most physically imposing presence on WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event’s card, his power wasn’t built solely in the weight room. It was forged through setbacks that would have folded lesser men.
Rusev challenges Intercontinental champion Dominik Mysterio in a triple threat match with Penta this weekend. A win would earn him his first WWE title in seven years. The result may be out of his hands, but as Jey Uso can attest, the ferocious impression Rusev leaves is very much within his control.
“I wrestled Jey Uso in Japan,” Rusev told CBS Sports. “I had to light a fire behind him because I wanted to go, man. I told him, ‘I’m going so hard, and I’m not going to apologize, because I had a period of time where I’d have one match, not knowing when the next match is coming.’ That’s a very scary situation. Now we have this hot crowd in Japan. Let’s freaking go! Let’s give it 150%.”
Don’t phone it in when you’re wrestling Rusev. He’s making up for lost time and won’t tolerate anything but excellence. The 39-year-old has wrestled as many matches in the past six months as he had the rest of the decade. Before returning to WWE in April, he’d competed just once in 16 months. Benched for much of his AEW run, Rusev denied rumors that refusing to lose kept him off TV. Whatever the reason, he seemed ready to go.
His absence had some benefits: he spent ample time with his parents for the first time since he immigrated to the United States 20 years ago, built a home in Bulgaria, enjoyed time with his wife and rested his body. Yet even as he cherishes family time, Rusev can’t shake how that “dead time” lingered over him.
“In the past five years, I have had 20 or 30 matches. Back in the day, I had 30 matches in 30 days,” Rusev said. “The dead time sticks out the most. We only have this body and age for so long. We can’t do this job forever, so we must take advantage of it while we’re young. I sat on the sidelines for so long, unable to do what I love, which is performing for people in professional wrestling.”
Rusev thrives when cornered — a curious trait for someone whose presence commands a room. He’s in excellent shape, wrestling better, and no longer is one-dimensional “foreign monster” persona forced on so many before him. The catalyst for that transformation was his 2020 WWE release.
“You go out in the wild, in the dark, in the abyss, and have to figure everything out for yourself. You don’t have the producers or the creative team…” Rusev said. “I dug deep inside myself to find out who I am and what I wanted to stand for. From there, we started developing ‘The Redeemer’ character.”
Rusev workshopped the persona with a close circle that included his wife, C.J. Perry, formerly known as Lana in WWE. “The Redeemer” sought redemption, for himself and others, through the brute force of competition. He signed with AEW later that year and enjoyed a memorable reign as TNT champion.
Though no longer billed as “The Redeemer,” this truer version of himself defines his current WWE run. “The Bulgarian Brute,” now an American citizen, is no longer the inauthentic Russian villain he once played. It’s not the first time he’s turned adversity into opportunity. That resilience dates back to his early days in WWE’s developmental system.
Rusev signed with WWE in 2010, a life-changing opportunity for a former taxi driver, but he couldn’t find his footing with a crumbling foundation. In 2011, he tore his ACL and meniscus, sidelining him for six months. After returning, he broke his neck, temporarily paralyzing his arms. Finally healthy, he faced another setback: an ultimatum giving him 60 days to improve or be terminated.
“Again, I was pushed against the wall with nowhere else to go,” Rusev said. “I remember that very vividly… After having that meeting about, ‘You have this much time left here,’ I once again went back and started revisiting my character. What could I do better? If you ask something of me, I’ll deliver.”
Success is relative. Rusev may not command the same chants that made “Rusev Day” a phenomenon in 2017, nor ride a tank to face John Cena at WrestleMania. But he’s spiritually fulfilled and physically fit. History shows Rusev excels when fighting from behind. With an Intercontinental title opportunity ahead, he might be better positioned than most realize.
