Rusev Admits "Rusev Day" Was Never Meant To Be Popular

WWE star Rusev has looked back on the Rusev Day era of his career, and how it wasn’t meant to take off in the way that it did.

In 2017, a heel Rusev aligned himself with Aiden English. After accepting the key to the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria from the mayor, it was declared that it was Rusev Day. From there the gimmick evolved to Rusev proclaiming that every day was his special day, complete with merchandise and a custom introduction from English.

Even though the Bulgarian as supposed to play the heel with the obnoxious presentation, the gimmick became extremely popular with the fans. With chants of ringing out through the arenas each week and with the t-shirts selling by the thousands, the company stumbled on something big. Given the spike in popularity, many hoped to see more from the WWE star, but Rusev’s push slowly died out as the months went on.

While speaking with Chris Van Vliet, the Raw star was asked about the popularity of the gimmick, to which he admitted that it was never meant to be over and that even he was shocked by how much it took off:

“I don’t know. It was never meant to be over. It was never supposed to be anything. It was just supposed to be a celebration and here’s the key from the mayor of Plovdiv, my hometown. And it just worked for some reason, I was a heel. But then I started to relax a little bit, show more of my personality and I guess people started buying that. Then Aiden [English], of course, Aiden is such an essential part of this, with the songs, with introductions, with everything. Without him, probably wouldn’t even be the same. But just the combo work, man, it was just me having fun and doing the backstage with the New Day, and then the first shirt. Oh my God. They did one shirt of Happy Rusev Day, which is the first one. I remember putting it out in a backstage promo and there’s the huge reaction from the crowd. What? It’s just a shirt. It’s not that big of a deal. But then it just starts picking up steam and people love chanting Rusev Day and celebrating Rusev Day. I got that sweet treatment. I have a beach towel, I have sunglasses now that says Rusev Day. I have all these things that say Rusev Day. I was like, what is happening here? I couldn’t believe it. And then, yeah, we’re just getting over little, little by little. It was a good time, even to this day, Hey, happy Rusev Day.”

Babyface Plans For Rusev Day?

Later in the interview, the former United States Champion was asked if there were plans to make him a full babyface due to the success of his character:

“I don’t know if there was any direction for it necessarily. I remember I’ve been off TV, and I’ve never been off TV. I remember being off TV for a couple of weeks, and I was like, What is going on? Why are we off TV? Before the shows, these people are chanting Rusev Day, and it’s not like, oh, let me get my sh*t in. I thought it was good for the show. If these people were chanting something, we should give them what they want. That’s why I started fighting for it, hey, let’s do something. Then it was getting a little more traction. But I became a United States Champion.”

When it was brought up that the gimmick could have been a lot more in WWE, the former United States Champion responded that it was made from those above him:

“A lot of things could be. I went over there, I talked to the boss, and I laid my cards in front of him. Everything I can, I did, but what comes after that? It’s not up to me.”