Rusev Receives ‘Second Chance’ at WWE Extreme Rules

Rusev’s WWE career feels a lot like a roller coaster, and it could very well go back up in two weeks at Extreme Rules.

It wasn’t long ago when Rusev was establishing himself as one of the top heels in WWE; the man came out in an actual tank for his entrance at WrestleMania 31 before facing John Cena for the United States Championship.

Even though Cena defeated him for the mid-card title, how can the company decide to put a superstar on a tank if they didn’t plan on him having a bigger main event push down the road? Right?

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While the WWE has had several anti-American characters with storylines to make someone the bad guy because they were against America; and having Rusev and Lana hold the United States Championship made it that much more classic. Did I mention the tank? When did Iron Shiek or Nikolai Volkoff get sort of entrance at Madison Square Garden?

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Despite having the look of a perfect monster heel, Rusev would begin to descend the WWE card as he was unsuccessful in reclaiming the United States Championship from Cena. With the combination of a leg injury and Lana getting heat for announcing their engagement despite the love triangle storyline with Dolph Ziggler, Rusev’s stock fell faster than a tank.

However, Rusev was able to earn a shot at the United States Championship again by facing Kalisto at Extreme Rules in a couple of weeks. While he hasn’t been consistently strong for the past several months, this could be his chance to revitalize his career in the WWE. He’s already made an impact by making the statement that he’s going to eat the heart of Kalisto; which is sort of poetic because it’s going to be the heart of the five-foot-six, 170-pound luchador.

While wrestling fans enjoy a good story of an underdog winning a championship and holding it for a while – i.e. Rey Mysterio from 2006. But for every goodie two-shoes, there has to be an evil villain that brings the balance that professional wrestling has always been known for; a constant battle between good and evil.

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Rusev is sort of a throwback character that is based on geopolitical views and it could be a great move for the WWE considering that we are coming up on a Presidential election that is definitely going to be one of the more, dare I say, polarizing election seasons with Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton currently leading their respective primaries.

This is the perfect time to have an anti-American superstar claim the United States Championship to strike while the iron is hot. Rusev is also a very decent big man in the ring. Despite being six-foot and 300 pounds, he is agile with his sidekick and can bring back some heel nostalgia with the camel clutch submission hold.

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While it’s too early to tell if the United States Championship would put Rusev back on track to being a main event heel, it would certainly be an improvement to being a side note from the League of Nations stable that lasted only five months and made almost no impact in the WWE Universe.