Welcome to Last Word on Mania month at Last Word on Sports! All month long we will be doing articles to build up for Wrestlemania 31 on March 29, 2015. Be sure to read everything this month by clicking this link. Enjoy!
“This isn’t a Cold War. There’s nothing cold about the covert violent exchanges between the United States and the Soviet Union.”
– The Americans on FX
Professional wrestling in North America has a long standing tradition of trying to treat foreigners as villains for a quick patriotic reaction. Fritz Von Erich, patriarch of the Von Erich family was actually a Texan with a Canadian tag team partner Waldo who portrayed evil German pseudo-Nazi’s before an eventual babyface turn. Yokozuna was a Samoan wrestler that the WWE took great lengths to make people believe was Japanese, wrecking havoc on America as revenge for the atomic bomb. The image of the Undertaker breaking a Japanese flag over his knee in his casket match against Yokozuna is still one of the most surreal images of my childhood. The Hart Foundation used the sibling rivalry between America and Canada and turned it into bad blood. The WWE even once tried to reclaim that magic with “The UnAmericans”, a faction of wrestlers where none of them were Americans.
I’m of course missing one, and that’s Russia. From Ivan Koloff (actually a Canadian) to Krusher Khruschev (Barry Darsow, who preferred to play golf and repo your car) to Nikita Koloff and Vladimir Kozlov, professional wrestling has loved using Russians and playing to the Cold War to ensure instant heel heat. It’s even more interesting when one of them turns into a good guy, like with Nikita Koloff and “dancing” Vladimir Kozlov. Since then, the Cold War has ended and Russia never really felt like a villain meant to expose for heel heat. When new WWE wrestler Alexander Rusev came up to the WWE at the Royal Rumble in 2014, he was presented more as a Bulgarian strongman than an invader.
Then came Lana.
Things changed for Rusev, who dropped his first name and defected to Russia, as he was now a hero to the Russian Federation. He dedicated victories to President Vladimir Putin and waived the Russian flag in might and pride. The most impressive part was when a giant Russian flag would fall from the ceiling, blocking the lower rows of the WWE arena as he sang the Russian National anthem and Lana berated the WWE audience for being American. Rusev and Lana were the new WWE power couple, and more importantly, they emphasized the difference between America and Russia. It was okay to be patriotic, as long as you’re patriotic about America.
The real crux to Rusev was his dominance. He was beating everyone. He wasn’t the tallest wrestler but at 300lbs, he emphasized a sort of grounded power. Rusev has been one of the shining jewels of the WWE in 2014, an example of a guy they actually got over and haven’t messed up with. He even confronted The Rock on Raw without looking bad. The WWE used his success as a heel to have him beat Sheamus in a post-raw WWE Network experience for the United States championship. It made sense for Rusev to be U.S. Champ. It would be the first time in a very long time the “United States” of the title could be used for any effect, and the first time the belt would be treated with importance in a long time. The situation needed that next elevation of severity, and it came from none other than American hero of the 1980s Hulk Hogan.
Sad day for America and WWE Universe,Rusev as US Heavyweight Champion makes me sick,John Cena where are you when we need you brother. HH
— Hulk Hogan (@HulkHogan) November 4, 2014
John Cena, “The Marine” himself, was a perfect foil for Rusev. While Cena never wrapped himself in the American flag in the way Jack Swagger would, Cena does try to push the idea of being an American soldier. He doesn’t represent America as a country but America as a culture, as a people. There’s no better choice to try and take the “United States” back for America than Cena, even if at one point the title was considered underneath him. But the greatest reason for this feud lies in how it has represented the actual Cold War better than any feud in professional wrestling in the 80s, prior or since.
The Americans
Currently, my favourite show on TV is The Americans on FX, quoted above. Very quickly you recognize that it’s a show where you follow a family of covert spies from the Soviet Union living on American soil and raising natural American children while also murdering Americans and trying to infiltrate the U.S. government to pull their secrets. At first it feels strange to root for the bad guys as you get to know the husband and wife but soon you realize the true conflicts are not the Cold War. What the show also displays is that America, despite being the “hero” to most, is not portrayed as good guys. They do not hesitate to be villainous and the Russians do not hesitate to point out where Americans have killed innocent people. It’s not a show about good and evil but about conflict. Conflict of the family, conflict of country and conflict of self.
I could just make this article about The Americans and why it’s one of the best shows in TV history but I’ll instead just relate it to John Cena and Rusev. In this feud, we have seen John Cena look more like the villain than his Bulgarian counterpart and we have seen Rusev and Lana look human, more human than even Nikita Volkoff when he joined up with Dusty Rhodes. While I’m not sure if it was intentional, the WWE has presented us a conflict between two superpowers: John Cena the American and Rusev the Russian. It isn’t about who is good or bad but who is going to come out on top and what’s going to be left behind.
After Cena pretty much tortured Rusev to give him a rematch for the United States championship, the feud has been on a bit of the backburner as WWE has tried to focus on salvaging their main event babyface and making us care about the past in WCW vs. WWF with Sting and HHH. It’s unfortunate because the WWE has, unintentionally or not, given us one of the most layered, conflict heavy feuds in quite a while. Maybe others have been bored seeing Cena and Rusev clash at WWE Fastlane and seeing Cena look stronger than a man who has yet to be pinned, but that’s what engages me in this.
The Cold War
The result of the Cold War, to not give you a history lesson, was the Soviet Union falling and being broken up while America enjoyed its time as a Superpower. America’s capitalism reigned over Soviet communism. I’m not sure if that’s what we’re going to see here. John Cena, while only 37, is a falling Superpower in the WWE. This will be his second straight WrestleMania not fighting in the main event or for top gold. Last year it was Bray Wyatt in the midcard and now he faces Rusev for the United States championship. This is not a John Cena ready to lead or be a superpower. This is the twilight of a once unstoppable dynasty. John Cena’s 2010 Los Angeles Lakers years are far behind him. He can still dominate but he’s not getting passed the OKC Thunder or San Antonio Spurs. It’s hard to say how far he’ll drop, or if Sunday is going to be the night he is pinned. It’s possible he has one more trick up his sleeve, and that trick will land him the United States championship. It’ll be a return of his integrity that he can beat the Bulgarian brute but it’s still Cena standing on a platform he used to be too good for. Cena’s first major win at WrestleMania was the US Title and here he is, more than a decade later fighting for it again.
Rusev is intriguing. A win against John Cena would be showing he’s dominant but a loss would open him up to go straight for the WWE World Heavyweight championship. That first pinfall or submission loss would be a tough pill to swallow but Rusev has already gone from Royal Rumble debut to the last man eliminated. If Roman Reigns finds himself with the World title, he might have a Rising Titan in Rusev to contend with. It might actually be better for Rusev to let go of the title and forget about that first big loss. It wasn’t until Kurt Angle took a loss against Tazz and later on The Rock that he could make a case for himself being in the upper echelon of the WWF at the time. Some might be demanding John Cena “do the right thing” and lose to Rusev but if John Cena wins, he’s actually stepping off his plateau of being a main event WWE performer and giving it up to Rusev, the man he’d be beating. Rusev would have an open road right to the WWE World Heavyweight championship, something Cena can’t demand anymore. We saw it when Bret Hart lost the Intercontinental title to British Bulldog and The Rock dropped the same title to Triple H. It’ll be Rusev’s chance to move to something greater than his opponent.
There is the possibility that Brock Lesnar retains in the main event and John Cena, new United States champion, takes the title to a higher importance and treats it as something desirable again. But even if this happens, nobody comes out of this looking better than Rusev. Rusev, beyond maybe Seth Rollins, is the most capable heel in the WWE and most deserving of either a main event program for the championship or the championship itself. Why worry about America when you can rule the world?
When Rusev and John Cena clash at WrestleMania 31, there’s so much more on the line than just the United States championship. We’ve seen Rusev clutch Cena out cold and Cena torture Rusev on Raw. There’s nothing cold about this encounter, but unlike the spy espionage in The Americans, there’s nothing covert about these two. This is out in the open. This is violent. This is more than the sum of its parts. What happens when the falling Superpower meets the new Superpower at the biggest stage in wrestling?
“They kill us. We kill them. That’s the world we live in.”
– The Americans on FX
