WWE: Rusev is Locked in as a Jobber to Top Stars

Rusev is one of the most popular superstars in the WWE due to his solid work in the ring and his excellent comedic timing outside of it. However, it looks like the promotion has no intention of actually pushing him, as evidenced by his booking since dropping the United States Championship.

Due to an injury, Rusev did not make an appearance at WrestleMania 33, but many hoped that his brief absence from television would lead to bigger things for the talented wrestler in the near future. It seemed like these hopes would come to fruition, because Rusev was traded to WWE SmackDown Live in the “Superstar Shakeup”.

A move to the fabled “Land of Opportunity” looked like the perfect situation for Rusev, who would ostensibly benefit from the more inventive booking over on the blue brand. When Rusev called out Shane McMahon, demanding a title opportunity at Money in the Bank, it looked like things would be on the upswing for “The Bulgarian Brute”.

And my, how wrong I was.

Since Rusev has returned from a shoulder injury, he’s been saddled with the same old, uncreative schtick. That title opportunity at Money in the Bank? It never happened. Instead, Rusev lost to John Cena in a useless “Flag Match” at the embarrassingly awful Battleground Pay Per View. Rusev’s loss marked yet another defeat at the hands of Cena, and he played the “Evil Foreign Heel” gimmick again. It’s a title he has been unable to shed during his time in the WWE, even though he receives babyface reactions from most of the fan base.

Must Read: What Are The Odds Of Rusev Beating Randy Orton?

Following his feud with Cena, Rusev earned a victory over Chad Gable on an episode of SmackDown Live. It’s an empty win for Rusev, who didn’t actually look better than Gable during the match, and the win only serves to superficially boost his momentum going into SummerSlam where he will be taking on Randy Orton.

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Maybe Rusev defeats Orton at SummerSlam, but is it worth getting our hopes up for that? Not only is it a non-title program, but it’s another instance of “Ru-Ru” playing the evil foreigner role. I just get the sense that Rusev is a “rebound” win for Orton, who took three straight Pay Per View losses to Jinder Mahal.

Ever since losing his United States Championship to Roman Reigns at Hell in a Cell in anticlimactic fashion, Rusev has been operating on the Dolph Ziggler or Bray Wyatt level. This is to say that he’s a “Jobber to the Stars”, losing more matches than he wins, generating little momentum as far as booking goes, but he somehow remains more relevant than those other two in the eyes of the fans.

There’s nothing wrong with being a “Jobber to the Stars”, because several wrestlers, most prominently Jake “The Snake” Roberts”, have worn this label well in the past. The problem is that the WWE has to give someone operating in the upper mid-card a reason to be taken seriously as a competitor, and Rusev needs more than just random television wins over Chad Gable.

In the period between his U.S. Championship loss and his move to SmackDown Live, Rusev was arguably the most nonsensically booked wrestler in WWE. He was haphazardly thrown into a tag team with Mahal, feuding with the likes of Enzo and Cass and The New Day. Rusev was made to look like a joke, but the Bulgarian George Clooney’s excellent mic work allowed him to remain popular. After all, this is a guy who survived that awful Ziggler/Lana/Summer Rae love angle and somehow came out looking better on the other side of it.

It’s clear to most fans that Rusev is a special talent. Not only is the former powerlifter an athletic beast inside the ring, but he’s legitimately one of the most creative talkers in the business. Southpaw Regional Wrestling, anyone?

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Right now, Rusev is in as much limbo booking-wise as he was before his supposedly reinvigorating move to SmackDown Live, and I wonder if the WWE has any interest in doing more with him. We’ve heard rumors of backstage heat on Rusev earlier this year, and maybe that’s true. But the WWE has failed to take advantage of his return from injury, his positioning on a new brand, and his new outlook without manager and wife Lana. I can only hope fortunes will change for Rusev, perhaps after SummerSlam when more pieces move in a second “Shakeup”, but it’s hard not to be cynical in today’s WWE climate.