{"id":158355,"date":"2026-04-15T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T11:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=158355"},"modified":"2026-04-14T23:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T03:14:10","slug":"under-the-radar-rusevs-steady-rise-back-to-the-top-in-wwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/15\/under-the-radar-rusevs-steady-rise-back-to-the-top-in-wwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Under the Radar: Rusev\u2019s Steady Rise Back to the Top in WWE"},"content":{"rendered":"

After five years away from WWE, Rusev returned<\/a> last year on\u00a0 Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania. Attacking Akira Tozawa and Otis of the Alpha Academy, he declared that he would fix them and make them better than they were at the time. Taking care of them with ease, he moved on to a multi-match feud with Sheamus. That culminated in a Good Ol\u2019 Fashioned Donnybrook Match<\/a> at Clash in Paris, where he\u00a0won.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Following that, he had a feud with Dominik Mysterio and Penta over the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Since then, he\u2019s barely been on television and had one of the worst performances in Royal Rumble history. It would be reasonable for people to think he was on the chopping block. But the past couple of weeks suggest that WWE still believes in him and that he can be an integral part of Raw.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

WWE Trusts Rusev with Young Talent<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

A lot of people probably weren\u2019t surprised at Rusev getting eliminated by Oba Femi. But he only lasted 32 seconds in the match, so WWE could\u2019ve just written him off, declaring they were done using him. But that interaction led to many confrontations and a match<\/a> that\u00a0largely went\u00a0back and forth until the end. Femi had to fight for\u00a0the victory\u00a0instead of it being a squash match.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He was also paired with JD McDonagh against Dragon Lee and Je\u2019Von Evans in a loss on the April 13 Raw. <\/span>But he looked good throughout the match, showcasing the strength he\u2019s always had. Wrestling young guys like Evans and Femi allows them to learn from him in many different ways. He could\u2019ve been a jobber after the past couple of months, but WWE has him in matches with up-and-coming talent to show his veteran status.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He is in a Huge WrestleMania: Vegas Match<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

If fans watched Rusev’s Royal Rumble exit and were told he was in a WrestleMania match two and a half months later, they would laugh. They\u00a0would\u2019ve\u00a0thought that he was going to be a jobber for Evans, Femi, or some other young wrestler. But\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0in the WWE Intercontinental Championship ladder match, and\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0earned the right to be in there.<\/span><\/p>\n

He defeated Otis in a qualifying match on Main Event two weeks ago. But after the tag match on Raw, fans saw a side of him they haven\u2019t seen in months. When McDonagh got pinned, he was enraged. He took his frustration out on everyone in the ring, as well as IC Champion Penta and Rey Mysterio, also in the match. The five men were laid out as he yelled, showing everyone that he is still a feared man in the ring.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Loss\u00a0Wouldn\u2019t\u00a0Hurt Him at All<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Everyone has an equal opportunity to climb the ladder on Sunday<\/a> and win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. But even if Rusev\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0win, things could still be fine between him and the company. When a wrestler is on the chopping block,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0very\u00a0apparent. They become\u00a0a jobber, have an embarrassing string of losses, or disappear from television. Given his Royal Rumble appearance and Main Event matches, fans thought Rusev was done.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

But\u00a0that defeat has led to a strong showing with Femi and a\u00a0major\u00a0match at WrestleMania: Vegas.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0taken that low point in his second tenure with WWE and turned things around. What happened on Monday is a clear\u00a0indication\u00a0of how powerful he can be in the ring when he gets that chance.\u00a0He can take a loss, as WWE clearly sees value in him based on his\u00a0last couple of weeks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After five years away from WWE, Rusev returned last year on\u00a0 Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania. Attacking Akira Tozawa and Otis of the Alpha Academy, he declared that he would fix them and make them better than they were at the time. Taking care of them with ease, he moved on to a multi-match feud […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5338,"featured_media":157946,"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":[202,9655],"class_list":["post-158355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-raw","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-rusev","tag-wwe-wrestlemania-42"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158355","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=158355"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158390,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158355\/revisions\/158390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}