When WWE released dozens of superstars and backstage talent in the middle of April, one of the most surprising names on the list was Rusev. Just a couple of years ago, Rusev was among the most popular wrestlers on the roster. Chants of “Rusev Day” could be heard dominating arenas all over the country, and the Rusev Day t-shirt was one of the hottest selling pieces of merchandise. However, WWE never seemed to truly capitalize on the momentum that he had at the time.
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Since leaving WWE, Rusev has shifted his attention to starting a Twitch channel (and even suffering a brief ban when Lana appeared on the channel in a bikini). However, he did recently spend some time chatting with former WWE star Ryback on The Ryback Show.
“I knew it because we waited and the thing was going on [Rusev Day chant], right? I’m like ‘Okay, there’s no way the office doesn’t notice this because it’s before, after, during the show, everywhere’ which I’m flattered because once again, I did nothing different. The people just decided to ‘Hey man, yeah Rusev Day’ for whatever reason. They started the whole thing,” said Rusev.
He continued, “There was a period where I wasn’t supposed to be at WrestleMania [34]. I don’t know if you knew that, the one where I lost to Jinder. In the height of my career of the Rusev Day, I was not supposed to be at WrestleMania. I was not on TV for three weeks. For three weeks I’m not on TV and at this point, I’m sitting backstage and I’m listening to all these people all night chanting Rusev Day and I went to Steve G., one of the writers, ‘Yo this is not right!’ This is my time I actually yelled at a writer, which I feel really bad because he’s like, ‘Well we don’t know what to do.’
“I’m like, ‘What do you mean you don’t know what to do!? Just listen! Just stay here and listen! They’ll tell you what to do!’ And then at the same time, they’re saying, ‘Oh we’re looking for new talent’ and everybody is saying Rusev Day and Shane goes, ‘Duly noted!’”
Based on his comments here, it’s pretty clear WWE dropped the ball during that period of time and it’s kind of mind boggling what was going on backstage while he was so over with the crowd. Rusev’s disappointment is more than understandable, and he also spoke about another time about a year earlier when he was disappointed with the company.
Speaking about when he underwent shoulder surgery in early, it became clear that Rusev still has some hard feelings about what went down at that time as well.
“After I had my shoulder surgery I heard about, you know, Hunter’s got all his boys and they’re texting every day. They’re best friends and after my shoulder surgery, after I give up my life for this freaking company, like not even one person reached out, you know what I mean,” stated Rusev. “Not Vince, not Hunter, not Carano, nobody was man enough to be like, ‘Hey bud, are you ok? Do you need anything? I know you’re in the hospital, you’re by yourself because your wife is at freaking work!’
“I’m there laying by myself in the hospital and nobody cares man and then at the same time you’re like, ‘What am I doing?’ Like why am I giving everything I have and I understand it’s my dream, but gosh darn man. Thank God, I did enough for my investments, I don’t need to work there at all. My wife is happy. Good for her. I’m done. I am done.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcript.
