In all of my amazement at this year’s ArcadeCon in Dublin, I’ve somehow managed to let my plans to deliver an in-depth, thought-provoking article this week slip through my fingers, so instead I present you with this! If that’s not the best self-promotion you’ve ever seen, I don’t know what is.
Welcome to the grandeur and brilliance that is ‘Under the Spotlight’; the weekly column that I came up with at the start of last summer, in order to express my feelings on the wrestling industry through weekly inputs, each Sunday putting another aspect of the product, be it past, present or future, under my microscope. This week, the topic of discussion shall be Rusev and his imminent clash with Jack Swagger, in what will surely be the Bulgarian Brute’s most anticipated match to date in the WWE.
Personally, looking at this rivalry from what I can only imagine to be the beginning of a long-running feud, I would have given Russia’s newest son one last squash match against the likes of Xavier Woods (or even someone with an ounce of credibility) before we let him face the ‘Real American’. Despite the fact that Jack Swagger’s career has been running steadily below the mid-card for quite some time now, even with the brilliance of Zeb Colter by his side, there is one thing the people do know him for, and that’s patriotism.
They may achieve their patriotism through somewhat racist – yet somewhat excusable – mannerisms, but if there’s one thing people love more than booing racist heels who complain about their own country in order to show their love for it (I know, right?), it’s cheering an American who’s facing off against a guy that seemingly can’t stand America yet doesn’t exactly seem willing to leave.
Then again, Rusev doesn’t exactly seem like he’s in the loop half the time. The lovely Lana does all of the talking in Russian and English, then Rusev chimes in with a few lines of what I can only assume to be Bulgarian (the native language of the country that he’s actually from). Wow, and I thought Cesaro being a ‘Real American’ was weird, and don’t even get me started on Lana actually being from Florida…
Honestly, if they didn’t show that twat, Putin’s face every damn week, and print the bloody Russian flag on every surface they can find whenever Lana and Rusev are in the ring, I’d say Rusev didn’t even know he was actually celebrating Russia! He stands there with a straight face, looking like he’s bored half the time, until he gets in the ring and completely eviscerates his opponent! And while it may sound like I’m complaining about it right now, you may be surprised to hear that I think it actually works for him, and completely fits in with his character.
We see at the end of every match, Rusev has the Camel Clutch locked in tight on his opponent until Lana swoops in and tells him to stop. Or even just before that, when she makes a fist and orders Rusev to “CRUSH”! Anyone with a television can see that Lana has control over Rusev, it’s not like I’ve just cracked WWE’s un-crack-able code. But what if she has more control than we think?
When he was on his own down in NXT, all we saw was him coming to the ring, kicking the shit out of someone and walking away. Perhaps in WWE Creative’s little book of stories, Lana saw how dominant Rusev could be, somehow managed to brainwash him (although I doubt I would need much convincing from Lana to do anything she wanted me to) and began using her new play-thing to begin her march against America, merely using Rusev to do the dirty work when all motive came from her.
It would explain the Bulgarian situation and how Rusev randomly – yet subtly – jumped over to Team Russia. It could be an interesting road to go down in terms of storyline, should Rusev and Lana ever part ways and the former were to turn face. Either that or I’ve gone completely crazy writing this at two o’ clock in the morning. Either way, it could be plausible.
Back to the matter at hand, however, this match is going to be one to watch when Battleground comes along, and for the same reason that I wanted Rusev to have one last PPV squash match before they squared off, I would like the bout to result in a draw. There’s something very American about SummerSlam, and considering it’s also the second-biggest WWE event of the year, I think a match with ramifications of this nature would be just begging to be displayed at a big-time Pay-Per-View.
Also, like I said before, I can see this being a rather long rivalry, and if Rusev was to destroy Jack Swagger at Battleground (or god forbid, vice versa), then all future bouts between the two men would be a waste of time. They could pull off the story of Swagger barely losing the match, then coming back to knock Rusev off in their rematch at SummerSlam, but I don’t think Rusev should be beaten just yet.
In my opinion, after drawing at Battleground, Rusev should win a hard-fought battle against Swagger at SummerSlam and continue his reign of destruction into the latter half of the year and even into 2015. Then, after barely losing the Royal Rumble, he can set his sights on his first WrestleMania, still undefeated in one-on-one competition, still unpinned in a WWE ring. Who does he face, you ask?
Who is the one person in the WWE more patriotic than Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter? No, it’s not Hulk Hogan. It’s not Hacksaw Jim Duggan either… We’re talking about full-timers here. Anybody…?
… John Cena.
Nobody puts more work into respecting the American Army than John Cena does, nobody in the WWE can match the patriotism that he brings to the table. So if the rumours are true (and let’s face it, they’re usually not), then Cena will lose the WWE World Heavyweight Championship to Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, and Roman Reigns will win the 2015 Royal Rumble to face (and beat) Lesnar at WrestleMania 31. Where does that leave Johnny?
Well tracing back to this year’s ‘Mania, John Cena faced one of the brightest prospects in the WWE after merely nine months or so of actually being on the main roster. By the time WrestleMania rolls around next year, Rusev will be nearly a year on the roster and will hopefully still be clutching to his undefeated streak. And if WrestleMania is good for anything, it’s good for breaking streaks.
Too soon? It is true though. Despite the fact that I nearly burst into tears whenever I picture The Undertaker walking up the ramp a broken man back in April, that’s not the only streak to be broken at WrestleMania. In the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal this year, we saw Cesaro lift the Big Show and throw him over the top rope in a moment reminiscent of Hulk Hogan’s victory over Andre at WrestleMania III. What if Cena can do one better?
When Hogan beat Andre, it was the Giant’s first time getting pinned after an astounding 15-year undefeated streak. So although people would be incredibly pissed off (as usual) that John Cena had taken Rusev’s year-long streak away from him, just think about how historic that moment was at the Silverdome in 1987. Streaks were made to be broken apparently, given the tragedy that occurred in New Orleans this year, so a WrestleMania match against the biggest star in the WWE would not be a bad place for Rusev’s streak to end.
And in one of my better segues, it all begins at WWE Battleground. Jack Swagger beating Rusev either now or at SummerSlam would be a poor idea when you could really up the ante by having John Cena pull the trigger. I understand that it can be hard to keep a streak alive for a year (never mind twenty-two, *sobs*) but I think it would be worth it. And as we all know, if I say it’s going to happen… it probably won’t.
That’s all for today, folks! If you enjoyed the stuff about the things, do all the other stuff and things with Facebook and Twitter and whatnot, and leave some random words in the comments below because nobody writes anything in there anyway.
Twitter is the place to find me if you want to complain about this ludicrous display, and you can do so @AdamOB_SLTD. Or you can compliment me on my spectacular work, it’s really up to you. Most people choose to do nothing, so do you really want to follow the crowd? Go on, give me a follow and stuff. You know you want to.
If you’ve read the whole thing, cheers for making it this far. If not, thanks for clicking the link anyway. See you all next week when I probably have something worth uploading.
Tschüß!
Self-Professed Conversational Wizard.
Admin, Editor and Writer for SLTD Wrestling.
Creator of 'Under the Spotlight'.
Studying Computing in Games Development.
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