{"id":134686,"date":"2025-05-02T07:01:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T11:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=134686"},"modified":"2025-05-02T07:01:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T11:01:25","slug":"can-rusev-successfully-fix-otis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/05\/02\/can-rusev-successfully-fix-otis\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Rusev Successfully Fix Otis?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The April 21, 2025 episode of Monday Night Raw marked the return of Rusev to WWE. After five years away, he returned by interrupting a tag match before it started. The New Day successfully escaped without any harm done to them. However, the Alpha Academy wasn\u2019t too lucky.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both Otis and Akira Tozawa got beaten down, with Otis getting put in the Accolade submission, forcing him to tap out. The next week, a vignette aired with Rusev explaining why he returned to WWE. He lost everything, but then was able to find himself again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His goal was to find and fix wrestlers who were being wasted. It was announced that his first match back would be against Otis on Monday. Given his statements, he feels Otis is being wasted in his current position.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Will Rusev fix Otis, or will he still be the same after the match?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rusev returns to destroy Alpha Academy: Raw highlights, April 21, 2025\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K1SRfYFgzbE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Otis Is Too Good To Be A Comedy Jobber<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WWE fans love Otis because he\u2019s a naturally funny guy. Over the years, he has perfected the nature of being a comedic wrestler. Whether he was with Tucker, Chad Gable, or the Alpha Academy, he has had several moments that have made the fans laugh. However, he is no joke inside the ring.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was a successful collegiate wrestler and trained at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. When he takes things seriously, he gets things done. Even in the brief glimpses of him being serious, he has been capable of doing heelish things.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last summer\u2019s storyline with Chad Gable showed that he can handle being the strong bad guy while doing what\u2019s right in his eyes. He\u2019s exactly what Rusev is looking for in an opponent. Otis is someone who should be taken seriously if a character change comes his way because he has legitimate wrestling credentials.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Rusev Sees Potential in Otis\u2019 Size and Strength<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When people think of big men in WWE, they think of massive guys who destroy their competition. Guys like Braun Strowman, Bron Breakker, and Bronson Reed constantly show off their physical advantages, easily defeating opponents. However, Otis isn\u2019t included in that list even though he has the same attributes as them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reason is that he hasn\u2019t gotten a chance to truly show his strength. Doing the caterpillar and yelling \u201cOH YEAH!\u201d may pop the crowd, but those things don\u2019t show off his abilities. In order for him to truly put himself to good use, a massive character change has to happen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rusev needs to communicate to him that he needs to be more serious, which is why he is fighting him next week. Otis could be more popular than he already is, with the match against Rusev potentially being what brings him to that change.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Rusev Has a Chance To Do Something Good<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The one thing that\u2019s nice about WWE vignettes is that they are straightforward and to the point. It\u2019s clear what Rusev\u2019s goal is and how he is going to achieve it. By fighting people who he thinks should be better and need a change, he is potentially changing people for the better.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That strategy is the opposite of Karrion Kross, as his opponents have all fallen on hard times or have turned on their allies. Potentially showing Otis that he is being wasted in a comedy group could help him gain even more popularity. Most people just know him as the funny fat guy who makes people laugh.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They don\u2019t know that he has legitimate wrestling credentials from before WWE. Making him more serious or turning him heel will unlock a new side of himself. Rusev can potentially spark a change that can transform Otis for the better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\"><i>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/a><i> for more on Rusev, Otis, WWE, and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81788927\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Netflix<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usanetwork.com\/wwe-friday-night-smackdown\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>USA Network<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cwtv.com\/shows\/wwe-nxt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>The CW<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/tubitv.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Tubi<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aetv.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>A&amp;E<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments) and\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Peacock<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(WWE Main Event as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>YouTube<\/i><\/a><i>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/events\/1773457579022155776?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>WWE Speed<\/i><\/a><i>).<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The April 21, 2025 episode of Monday Night Raw marked the return of Rusev to WWE. After five years away, he returned by interrupting a tag match before it started. The New Day successfully escaped without any harm done to them. However, the Alpha Academy wasn\u2019t too lucky. Both Otis and Akira Tozawa got beaten [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5338,"featured_media":134695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,25,4,3],"tags":[7860,5380,202,47],"class_list":["post-134686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-raw","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-alpha-academy","tag-otis","tag-rusev","tag-wwe"],"modified_by":"Chinyere Okafor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5338"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134686"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134694,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134686\/revisions\/134694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}