Views From The Turnbuckle: The Future Of Rusev And Lana

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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the degradation of Bray Wyatt and how working with John Cena ended up really hurting his career. Well, a year later, Rusev is in a very similar situation as a powerful heel that had been protected up until the point that he began feuding with Cena, where he went from unstoppable beast to conquerable foe.

Working with Cena comes with its positives and its negatives and in Rusev's case, he has benefited from working with Cena. David Shoemaker aka "The Masked Man" over at Grantland.com once told me that as much as hardcore fans might dislike Cena, the fact is that he makes the people that we do care about matter by feuding with them. Although Cena has conquered Rusev on multiple occasions, because he is working with a star the caliber of Cena, he has gotten much more screen time and action then he would have otherwise. Rusev would not have gotten that impressive entrance at Wrestlemania if he wasn't facing Cena at the event, and he probably would not be appearing multiple times on Raw if he wasn't working an angle with Cena. By working with Cena,
Rusev has become much more relevant than he would have been if he was working with anybody else.

But Rusev has also given up a lot to work with Cena. His greatest calling card, his unblemished record of never being pinned or submitted, was lost to Cena, as was his United States Championship. After he loses to Cena in their "I Quit" match at Payback, and he will lose, he will have to move on from feuding with Cena, obviously looking like the lesser man.

Rusev reminds me a bit of the classic territory heels and his career would unquestionably be better off he was working in 1975 and not 2015. Rusev could come into a territory for a year, run up a long undefeated streak before eventually losing to the territories' top star and then moving onto the next territory and work the shtick all over again. Unfortunately for Rusev, it is 2015 and he cannot just move onto a new fanbase, the fans are always going to remember the way he was portrayed in his feud with Cena, as a very beatable opponent. WWE has to create a new feud for Rusev that will help re-establish his credibility, and since they were unable to do that with Wyatt, their track record for doing so isn't that great.

Ideally, Rusev needs something that he can both beat, and is relevant enough for a victory over said opponent would actually mean something to the fans. Behind Cena, the next top faces are Roman Reigns and Randy Orton. Like Rusev, Reigns needs victories, so having them face each other would benefit one party while severely detracting from the other. Rusev beating Reigns or vice versa would be a big deal for the winner, but since both guys can't really afford another loss, they should be left alone. Orton would be the perfect opponent for Rusev. Orton is a face that fans care about, and he is so established as a dangerous and credible main event wrestler that he can afford a loss and still bounce back. He is also a very good wrestler, someone that can carry the limited Rusev to the best matches of his career.

Perhaps the biggest reason for Rusev's success has been his partnership with Lana. Lana has been the perfect manager/mouthpiece for Rusev, and much of his heat comes from her work on the microphone. Lana is obviously very talented and WWE has decided to capitalize on her talent by turning her babyface. The plans for her turn have been rumored for a while, and recently we have seen her get good face reactions and tease a breakup with Rusev.

To be perfectly honest, this sounds like a god awful idea. The plan right now is for Lana to turn face, reveal that she is actually American and not Russian, and for her to become the female face of the company. Yes Lana is talented, and yes she has gotten got reactions from the crowd, but a big part of the reason she has gotten that reaction is because of her current character, the snarling, biting femme fatale with the sexy Russian accent. Instead of taking that character and building on it, WWE is going to dump it and start again from scratch. This is not a knock on Lana, but it takes an extremely gifted performer to get multiple characters over with the audience, so why dump one great character for a new character that is very much a mystery?

Beyond all of that, taking Lana and revealing that she is not, in fact, Russian, would make the fans feel stupid forever believing that she was actually Russian. Understandably, kayfabe is largely dead, but WWE cannot just walk around destroying characters. Do that enough times and the fans will stop believing in any characters.

One thing that WWE seems to be behind the times on is that at this point in wrestling, most fans are intelligent enough to recognize when a heel is genuinely good at their job, and the natural reaction for that is to cheer that person. WWE hears those cheers and logically thinks that it would be a smart move to turn this person face, after all, if they were getting big pops when they were a heel, imagine what it could be like if they were a face! The problem with that thinking is that the performer might only be good at being a heel, and turning them face changes their character so much that the fans lose interest in them.

A perfect example of this is what happened to Randy Orton. A career heel, Orton became so entrenched as a great heel that in 2010 WWE decided to turn him babyface. Orton hung around as a colorless babyface for several years, never reaching the popularity he enjoyed as a heel, and it wasn't until he turned heel in 2013 that he really got back into the main event relevancy of WWE.

WWE has done a very good job taking two rookie performers in Rusev and Lana and making them relevant and popular attractions in WWE. However, they now face significant hurdles in continuing their relevancy, and it will take some wise booking and character construction to keep them in the spotlight.

You can follow Jesse Collings on Twitter@JesseCollings

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