Last night, they show a backstage segment with Lana trying to convince rusev to drop Aiden English and at the same time, ending the team.
So they made it look like this was the first step in splitting rusev from Aiden English and have him return to his old persona with Lana. If that true, I feel this would be a same because the team finally started to truly get over with the fan and having him restart from the start might kill any momentum the guy had. He’s great as a heel but right now fans want to cheer him so wishy fight it, just run with it and see if you can make money with it.
I think they’ll end them being a tag team but they’ll continue on with the gimmick with him as a solo act while having Lana in his corner. What that means for Aiden? Nothing good.
I don’t know about Rusev Day, but it was definitely the end of Lana 's fake Russian accent. It was jarring hearing her speak "normal without any explanation.
Can’t have performers getting more over than the company wants them to, now can we? That’d be silly and mean WWE makes a ton of money they weren’t counting on being able to make.
i don’t think that it’s a question of the company not liking that someone got over on their own but like john talk about on review a smackdown with all the big name teams on the smackdown side, they’re really no place for them as a team anymore.
Plus the rumor going around is that Rusev will get a main event push as a Heel after this since they truly need heel main eventers on Smackdown and Rusev as proven he could perform as a main event act in the pass.
I think the narrative that WWE doesn’t like when somebody get over organically is such a stupid narrative at this point.
Matt Hardy and Zack Ryder got over on their own merit and got squashed back down by booking.
CM Punk and Daniel Bryan got so over despite awful booking that WWE had no choice but to push them to a certain level and try and keep them below the likes of Cena on the booking sheet.
Strowman has plateaued - which is ridiculous because he looks exactly like what Vince wants at the top - but to be fair he could still be in with a chance of being the guy as it’s only been since the start of this year that they’ve been cooling him down.
Rusev is one of (if not) the most over babyfaces on SmackDown… yet, he’s booked as a heel and not booked to win either. He’s not being pushed and the rumour (as you say) is that he’ll get a push, but only as a heel. Why? He’s been an organic babyface for MONTHS and could have been pushed high enough to fill a slot at the top well before now. The only reason he hasn’t been is because they didn’t think this gimmick would do as well as it has and now they’re scrambling to end it before he outshines the guys they have plans for at the top.
There’s even an argument for Nakamura, Balor and Joe being held back because Vince doesn’t see it, but those guys haven’t done much for themselves to varying extents as well, so I won’t make it.
All you example outside of strowman all have something in common, while they we’re over with the crowd, it didn’t translate into money in the end. Ryder and hardy didn’t make any money for the company even with them getting behind them and releasing a lot of merchandise for them.
Punk got over because of what wwe gave him which was a open Mic and told him to just shoot on wwe. It got over and for a while, he was one of the biggest merchandise seller so they keep pushing him until his backstage attitude got him in trouble and they thought it wasn’t worth it anymore. Punk was his worst enemy.
Bryan wrote it in his book that the reason they stop his push at first was because while the fans we’re behind him, they wouldn’t go at the merchandise stand or on the website and buy his merchandise so in their mind, Bryan wasn’t over so they didn’t push him. Then fans started to send the message that they like him by buying his merchandise and they got behind him.
Strowman is a long term plan in Vince McMahon eyes. He’s his new pet project and doesn’t want to rush it which is normal since strowman while super popular isn’t ready to be the top guy on raw because He’s can’t go 25 minutes which is something you need if you want to be the main guy. Right now strowman is a one trick pony just like Goldberg was in the late 90’s. Fans love him not because He’s a great wrestler but because they want to see the destruction. Vince knows that the long game is the best option with strowman
And the argument that nakamura, Balor and Joe are being held back is dumb. Joe is in a main event position, nakamura as been in a main event position since his debut and Balor got the championship on his first day before getting injured and opening vince’s eye that balor shouldn’t be even near the main event picture because He’s while He’s a great wrestler, he lack the charisma that a Daniel Bryan or a Seth Rollins have.
The whole WWE doesn’t like when somebody get over organically is a narrative created by the dirt sheet and the smart fans to justify why they favorite aren’t getting the push they think they deserve without knowing the whole story.
The wrestling business is all about the money, it always was and it will always be about the money. If a certain star is over and making money for the company, they will get behind them even if it wasn’t in their plan. If they stop making money for them, they will drop them instantly. That’s as simple as that.
Neither Hardy, nor Ryder, got pushes. Hardy was brought back in and squashed by Edge. He won one cage match and then went back to the midcard with zero follow up on any momentum he had left. Meanwhile Ryder was emasculated by Kane, Cena and Eve Torres and made to look like a joke. The fact that neither sold tons of merch directly correlated to how seriously they were treated by the booking they received.
Also, I just wanna point out, I’m not a massive fan of either guy so I’m not sure why I’d be mad they didn’t push them from a personal perspective, as you seem to think I am.
I’m not a huge Rollins fan but I’m happy they’re pushing him as RAW’s top guy right now because he’s more over than he’s ever been before and it makes for good crowds and good business.
You fool, the bookers only put him over just to continue Daniel Bryan’s burial by jobbing him out to a mid-upper-low-midcarder who has the workrate and loves the business and the boys but isn’t a good stickman who can pop a crowd or draw a house! Fuck Roman Reigns.
So… am I an Internet genius yet? Happy Rusev Day everybody!
For extra credit: He needs to slow down, pick a body part, work a hold, sell more and be allowed to blade. And the feud needs to go nine months before they touch.
More a case of WWE dropping a dumb idea that they were teasing so they could do this Daniel Bryan thing this week or they dropped it all together because the reaction they got for it.
Saying that it was WWE’s plan all along to tease a break up (which is what they did) and then do nothing just because isn’t an explanation that stands up.