WWE SummerSlam 2017: Is Rusev Just a Rebound for Randy Orton?

Does Rusev stand a chance at WWE SummerSlam, or will he just act as a stepping stone for Randy Orton’s resurgence?

With SummerSlam standing out as the WWE’s second biggest event of the year, it’s only natural that each and every star on the roster wants to be on the line-up.

Given the fact that the event has been increased to four hours in recent years, and is treated much akin to that of WrestleMania with fans traveling from all over the world just to see it, exclusion from the card is a telling tale for a WWE Superstar that they’re not a priority.

That was the case last Tuesday night for Rusev, whom despite not making a whole lot of impact in the early half of 2017, has been making his presence felt as of late, and spoke last week about his desires for a worthy SummerSlam opponent.

He backed up his demands with a win over Tye Dillinger – a critical victory for the Bulgarian athlete who was still hot off the heels of a loss to John Cena at Battleground, not to mention months toiling away in obscurity prior to that feud.

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Rusev’s search for competition would not go unanswered, as former multi-time WWE Champion Randy Orton would be the man to accept the challenge, signing his name on the dotted line with an RKO for good measure. So, with Shinsuke Nakamura gearing up to take on Jinder Mahal, Natalya officially challenging Naomi for the SmackDown Women’s Championship and The Usos getting their rematch with The New Day, this development gives us a much clearer image of what the blue brand has to offer us at this year’s so-called “biggest event of the summer”.

The question remains, however; does Rusev vs. Randy Orton promise to be anyone’s match, or does this bout simply provide “The Viper” with a rebound of sorts after three consecutive pay-per-view losses to Jinder Mahal, not to mention a platform to compete on one of the biggest events on the WWE calendar?

Quite frankly, it doesn’t take too much analysis to draw the conclusion that Rusev will merely be cannon fodder in Randy Orton’s resurgence.

For starters, if the WWE planned on doing something big with Rusev, surely they wouldn’t have let his demands for a WWE Championship match go to waste several months ago. In fact, that whole narrative with Rusev refusing to compete on SmackDown Live unless he was met with appropriate opportunity was dropped in favor of Jinder Mahal’s own rise to the title picture.

It wouldn’t be until months later when the man actually showed up, completely disregarding all of the claims he made to go back to Bulgaria so he could instead get involved in a program with John Cena, essentially painting the man as all talk and no trousers.

It certainly didn’t help that Rusev’s return to active competition would be for such a ridiculous flag match at Battleground that did nothing other than put John Cena right back in the limelight as the WWE’s great American hero for however long he intends to stick around this time. So when you take all of that wasted opportunity into account, it’s easy to see why you should be skeptical about Rusev taking on yet another seemingly high stakes match in the upper mid-card on SmackDown Live.

Especially when you look at Randy Orton’s summer thus far. “The Apex Predator” has done wonders in putting Jinder Mahal over as an unlikely WWE Champion, albeit under shady circumstances each time around, so the man that won the 2017 Royal Rumble, and went on to claim the Holy Grail of sports entertainment at WrestleMania 33, is well overdue for a tick in the W column.

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Of course, this summer in WWE alone has taught us that you should never say never, but it would come as a genuine upset if Randy Orton doesn’t walk out of Brooklyn with his arm raised this month. Last year, Orton main-evented the pay-per-view despite a loss, and Rusev got so battered before his United States Championship defense against Roman Reigns that he couldn’t even compete, so with that in mind, perhaps you should think twice before going all in on “The Bulgarian Brute” at this year’s show.

Playing devil’s advocate for a second here, one could argue that a win over Randy Orton would position Rusev nicely for a WWE Championship match against a potential new titleholder in Shinsuke Nakamura in the fall, since “The King of Strong Style” will need some strong heels like Rusev, Baron Corbin and Kevin Owens should he emerge victorious.

Even so, who’s to say Nakamura wouldn’t benefit even more from a win over a future WWE Hall of Famer like Randy Orton instead? And a big win over Rusev at SummerSlam would do well to justify Orton being placed back into the championship picture so soon after leaving it.

Next: Comparing Shinsuke Nakamura to Roman Reigns

What do you think? Does Rusev stand a chance against Randy Orton at SummerSlam, or will “The Viper” use him as a stepping stone on his way back up the rankings on SmackDown Live?