Before he became one in all WWE’s most trusted heel characters throughout the mid-2010s, Rusev’s path to the major roster was initially halted after first signing with the corporate initially of the last decade. During a recent appearance on “Identity Crisis” with CJ Perry, his real-life wife and former WWE star, Rusev shared that he suffered a significant injury during his early days with the promotion, but luckily his profession skyrocketed once he was healthy.
“Rikishi got me a tryout at 2010 SummerSlam in Los Angeles and so they liked me, they signed me, they gave me a contract,” he explained. “Impulsively, I find myself in developmental WWE, green as grass. I had no idea. After which began I broke my knee, broke my neck. That set me back slightly bit. But then in developmental I spent like a yr and a half probably at most after which made it to the to the major roster. So my profession really fast form of like took off.”
Rusev on discovering his character in WWE
Rusev continued by outlining his difficulty with constructing his WWE persona, explaining that he turned to his favorite popular culture icons from the Eighties to assist him create “The Bulgarian Brute.”
“It is so hard to seek out the identity because that is also one other challenge is, whenever you go to developmental, it’s like, hey who you’re? And you are like, I’m Miro from Bulgaria. I got here to be an expert wrestler. But that does not work out for anybody, brother. You must find something more entertaining right? You must find that character that is going to attract these people, the eyes, the cash … that took me some time,” he said. “I began going watching all my favorite bad guys from like Kickboxer, Blood Sport from the 80s and all these. That is how I began drawing inspiration for my character.”
After reflecting on the early stages of his WWE profession, Rusev advised that newer skilled wrestlers should give attention to using their true personality outside of the ring and amplify it by 1000 to find their character, slightly than attempting to create something that they are not. The 39-year-old also admitted that he could possibly be legitimately mean and nasty if he desired to be, and would give attention to incorporating those emotions into his on-screen persona as an alternative of pretending to be a personality that does not align with him.
In case you use any of the quotes in this text, please credit “CJ Perry” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.