Rusev Crush

Who is WWE’s biggest heel at this moment?  Brock Lesnar?  Maybe.  But the truth is Lesnar’s not really a heel.  Paul Heyman is, but Lesnar has never once cheated or done anything remotely heelish.  He’s just awesome at kicking ass.  Behind Lesnar you have The Authority, a group most people are jaded with, but who have the brilliant Seth Rollins.  He was the guy no one expected to be the heel coming out of The Shield, but has done a brilliant job with it.  Behind him, is Rusev.  Who isn’t just one of the biggest heels in the company, but also the most credible one.

At Fastlane, Rusev had his first match against John Cena.  He won, after a low blow, following the brilliant Lana’s distraction, to continue his remarkable unbeaten run.  Sure, it wasn’t a completely clean victory.  But if you look at the layout of the match, Rusev dominated Cena in a way only one man has before, the World Champion Brock Lesnar.  He looked strong and while Cena still refused to tap out, he was left unconscious.

So what happens next?  This is obviously setting up a rematch at Wrestlemania and what WWE do there is very important.  You feed Rusev to Cena, which would seem to be where the WWE is going, and it’s all worth nothing.  Rusev may have plowed through the mid card, but he loses to Cena and it seems to prove he’s not a top guy.  What does Cena get from it?  Very little.  Maybe nothing.  On the other hand, Rusev’s momentum is swept from beneath him.  A monster that has been slain is no longer a monster.

So that means Rusev has to win.  He has to go out and beat John Cena clean.  Cena isn’t the old man WWE have been suggesting he is, no one is buying that.  But he is on the downturn and it is time to start using him to put guys like Rusev over.  It does have to be noted that Rusev does eventually have to lose.  He’ll grow stale quickly otherwise.  However, it shouldn’t be to Cena.  It should be to a Dolph Ziggler or a Roman Reigns.  A guy who needs that rub.  And that rub becomes so much bigger if they are facing the guy who made John Cena tap out at Wrestlemania.

Which is the second important part of this.  Rusev needs to make Cena tap.  One of the best things about his run has been that he has made everyone he faces tap.  It’s a completely dominant way to win matches and if he does it to Cena it means so much more.  Cena never gives up, we have heard it a million times before and the moment where he does give up, that moment means the world to the person who makes him do so.

Sadly, this opinion once again hits the brick wall that is WWE creative.  The chances are Rusev will go into Mania against Cena, get beat and disappear into the void that took the likes of Vladimir Koslov.  The former monster heel who with that one defeat, loses all that credibility.  I sincerely hope it doesn’t, because in Rusev and Lana WWE has a classic heel duo, who are genuinely unlikable and should be a mainstay of the main event for years to come.