WWE News: WWE Considering Dropping Russian Storyline After Ukrainian Plane Was Shot Down Last Week
WWE tries to keep real life news involved in their storylines. Not only does it add press to their company, but fans that know of the news can be invested in the current story due to it. WWE has managed to tick a lot of people off this way and over time, they have managed to make major mistakes with certain stories. Recently, WWE may have made yet another bad move storyline wise.
Rusev is new to the main roster and has been successful since he came in along with his beautiful manager Lana. Being originally booked from Bulgaria, his manager Lana was from Russia. WWE decided that it would be good to have Rusev jump to supporting Russia as they are more storyline friendly than Bulgaria, where there is nothing major of note. Also, due to Lana’s Russian accent, she can sell the Russian move better than most.
Lana is American in real life. However, but she did spend time in Russia. So she knows a bit of Russian and the accent is easy to pick up on if you’re around it a lot. In other words, she was perfect for the role.
WWE had her come out each week and praise the name of Russian Leader Vladimir Putin. The WWE saw this as a way to stay in the press when it came to Russian news, which had been big over the past year. However, this might have been a bad idea. Russia pretty much forced the Ukraine to join them. Just last week, a civilian plane was shot down in the Ukraine, pretty much telling people that Ukraine is a prisoner of war, in some aspects, to Russia. Any plane flying over, Ukrainian or not, will not be welcomed seemingly. There is a lot of growing problems with Putin and the concept of him being a good man fades every day, which makes for a good story. However, WWE taking sides even in storylines might be bad.
So due to this, it would not be smart for the WWE to continue their current storyline.
WWE does have an out, which is good. Rusev is facing the All-American American Jack Swagger tonight on WWE Battleground. If Swagger beats Rusev, they can take Rusev off of TV for a few weeks and come back with a new concept for his character outside of the Russian Hero.
WWE is treating this as they did with Muhammad Hassan, a very good character WWE had in the early 2005. Hassan was an excellent character, playing a Middle-Eastern man who supported that side of the isle. He was a great heel and wrestler. After the July 7 bombings in London, believed to be caused by Middle Eastern men, WWE scrapped the story with Hassan and released him shortly after. Most thought releasing Hassan was a massive overreaction by the WWE, but they most likely freaked out.
WWE has no plans to release Rusev regardless of what happens overseas, but they probably will end up changing his character and current story heading into August.
Rusev will most likely lose tonight to Swagger, which seems to have been the plan all along. WWE will then slowly remove the Russian affiliation if at all possible. Do not be surprised if Lana, despite her ability to keep Rusev relevant, is not used with him after a while… simply due to her Russian affiliation.
[IMG Credits: Google]
