WWE has changed the name of yet another Superstar. Prior to a match and victory over Kofi Kingston, Alexander Rusev was introduced by Lana as simply "Rusev". His entrance name plate also read "Rusev", although the commentary team did refer to him by his first name at least once. This marks the third time in recent memory that WWE has tossed out part of a Superstar's name, along with Big E and Cesaro.

And once again, it's fucking stupid.

Nah, just Rusev is badass

The gimmick is shit, pointless and has zero longevity whatsoever. They'll get like one bigish PPV match out of him against a top face like Cena and then he'll fizzle away.

Lana will then strip naked and make everyone happy.

Rusev is pretty much Ryback V2

Ryback's name has been changed to 'Back.

Rusev is a bulgarian version of Umaga, nowhere near Ryback. If the character is booked properly it can go places.

Dead wrote:

Rusev is a bulgarian version of Umaga, nowhere near Ryback. If the character is booked properly it can go places.

I meant as in, being relevant in the beginning and suddendly going to Mid or lower-card status after one or two PPVs.

Saintpat wrote:

Ryback's name has been changed to 'Back.

You're kidding right?

^

The comparisons to Umaga are pretty easy to make, which really just validates Chilly's comment. "They'll get like one bigish PPV match out of him against a top face like Cena and then he'll fizzle away," describes the Umaga character's run pretty well.

The Rock wrote:

Saintpat wrote:

Ryback's name has been changed to 'Back.

You're kidding right?

How are you an admin?

Nearphotison wrote:

The comparisons to Umaga are pretty easy to make, which really just validates Chilly's comment. "They'll get like one bigish PPV match out of him against a top face like Cena and then he'll fizzle away," describes the Umaga character's run pretty well.

Bingo.

This gimmick has been tried several times before and never actually lasts...or they make it last because they force themselves to make it last despite knowing it's terrible. A gimmick like this would have worked in like the 70s and 80s, but not now. The only "place" it can go is through the exit door.

The only person that will get anything out of this is Lana, purely because she's hot. And also her name spelt backwards is anal...

Also LOL @ Usman.

^^

No biggie. I call him Rusev anyways.

Chilly wrote:

Nearphotison wrote:

The comparisons to Umaga are pretty easy to make, which really just validates Chilly's comment. "They'll get like one bigish PPV match out of him against a top face like Cena and then he'll fizzle away," describes the Umaga character's run pretty well.

Bingo.

This gimmick has been tried several times before and never actually lasts...or they make it last because they force themselves to make it last despite knowing it's terrible. A gimmick like this would have worked in like the 70s and 80s, but not now. The only "place" it can go is through the exit door.

The only person that will get anything out of this is Lana, purely because she's hot. And also her name spelt backwards is anal...

Also LOL @ Usman.

Agreed with you both lol

I do think Rusev has a slight advantage over the Umaga character in that he's not meant to be a savage brute or some other racist stereotype. If the character is allowed to evolve (say, hypothetically, into a Terminator-esque heel or something), then he could have potential. If he stagnates, though, he's going to end up jobbing to Santino a year from now.

Rusev is the character Vladimir Koslov was supposed to be.

I agree he'll probably be something like the next Umaga, but that's not a bad thing at all. A good, albeit short lasting, dominant character still serves its purpose for a while and at the worst will give you 1-2 huge matches/feuds. These type of characters are really tough to keep around & keep dominant for an extended period of time but the WWE still benefit from however long he does last if they do it right. People like snitsky and kozlov were fails; Umaga was a pretty big success... Could've done a little more but WWE were prob happy with what they got.

Out of the name changes, I like the Big E and Rusev ones but Cesaro alone still sounds kinda dumb to me.