It’s been more than a year since WWE infamously broke up the Rusev Day trio of Rusev, Lana and Aiden English. And yet, week after week, the chants for the gimmick to come back keep popping up. The concept for the trio first appeared in mid-2017, when Rusev was given the key to the city from his hometown of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and declared Rusev Day would be an official holiday. Soon he began claiming that every day was Rusev Day, and he had his manager/tag partner English musically announce his arrival before each match.
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Eventually the gimmick turned all three into babyfaces and elevated Rusev into becoming a contender for AJ Styles’ WWE Championship. However in September 2018 English suddenly turned on Rusev and started claiming Lana had cheated on “The Bulgarian Brute” with him. Rusev quickly beat English on an October episode of SmackDown, then tried to turn heel again by declaring that “Rusev Day was dead.”
And even though his current storyline is a far cry from Rusev Day (involving Bobby Lashley and yet another love triangle with Lana), Rusev can’t help but get those same cheers from fans. In a sit-down interview with ComicBook.com, the former United States Champion talked about his reactions to those chants.
“I feel like it’s real, man. I think it’s organic,” Rusev said. “After the first Rusev Day run, we did great, and all of a sudden, there was nothing for it for one reason or another. But, and then after that was done, I wanted to kill Rusev Day forever. I wanted to be done, I hate like repeating stuff, right? But at the same time, now the people have embraced it so well that, I mean, I can’t fight it.
“If that’s what they want, of course I’m gonna give ’em what they want, because I care what they think,” he continued. “And I want them to be happy every time when they see me. When I leave, I want ’em to be like ‘Man, Rusev, Rusev Day.’ So yeah, we’re full on running with it. And I love seeing it, I love all the fan support, and it’s just amazing to see that something can be gone for so long. And with peoples’ love and appreciation they bring it back. And now it’s running wild, brother.”
This week’s Monday Night Raw will see the continuation of the Rusev-Lana-Lashley storyline and feature the official “divorce” of the real-life married couple.
