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Old 05-13-2015, 05:37 PM   #15885
Black Widow
 
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Quote:
When the creative team was shown clips of Rusev matches and promos from NXT so that we could start working on ideas for him when he was called up to the main roster, I and several other members of the team burst out laughing.

With his loincloth-type ring attire, over-the-top facial expressions, wild hair and primal screams, the guy was unintentionally hilarious. This was a heel character straight out of the 1970's that would never work today, I thought.

We started coming up with pitches for him as a comedy act, but we were told that Triple H envisioned Rusev as a monster heel so we had better forget about the character being played for laughs ...

It turned out that some people above my pay grade saw some of the same flaws with Rusev's presentation that I and others on the creative team did. Before Rusev made his WWE debut, his ring attire was changed and he was instructed to tone down the facial expressions and screaming and to wet his hair so that it didn't look look so wild.

While the changes were for the better, I remained steadfast in my opinion that Rusev would never get over to the level that Triple H was expecting.

During that time, Vince McMahon also questioned whether Lana should remain part of the act or if Rusev was better off going it alone. I didn't think Rusev had a great chance of being a success even with Lana by his side, but without her he had zero chance.

Fortunately, McMahon decided to keep Lana with Rusev, and it wasn't long before "The Ravishing Russian" became one of McMahon's favorite characters (go figure).

Just like Tensai, Rusev was given a huge push from the start with the intention of having him work on top against Cena. The plan was for Rusev to be Cena's opponent at WrestleMania.

After Rusev began appearing regularly on Raw and SmackDown, I still wasn't sold on him making it as a top guy, but it did become apparent that my initial thought that he would suffer the same fate as Tensai was wrong.

Before long, I realized that Rusev was everything that Triple H thought he would be.
This guy is right Rusev is trash and always will be.
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