WWE’s Rusev recounted the precise moment his profession modified, which set him on the trail to where he’s today.
Rusev joined WWE in 2010, appearing in FCW and NXT before moving as much as the predominant roster. After his first few years in the corporate, he began exploring what more he could do to achieve the subsequent level within the business, which he discussed on “SHAK Wrestling.”
“So I began digging into my character. What can I do higher? What can I modify? I modify the gear. I modified my attitude. I modified my stance. I began training different styles. I began incorporating Muay Thai, kickboxing, and all these form of different styles just so I can stand out and show that, hey, I’m not only one other guy. I can actually do so much greater than that. And once I used to be capable of show them that, because I even have the fundamentals. I used to be trained at KnokX Pro with Rikishi, you realize, the bumps, the psychology. I had that down. I just needed to, like, narrow down the WWE style, what’s that exactly that you just needed from me?” he recalled.
Nevertheless, he feels that the turning point got here when Triple H took over WWE’s then developmental territory, FCW, which later became NXT. “The Game” noticed what Rusev was able to during a match with Dolph Ziggler, which he thinks was when things began to vary for him.
“So once I got that down, once Triple H took over FCW, which was before NXT, once he took over, once he arrange a pleasant system in play where people might be discovered, might be shown their potential, that is where he saw me after a match with Dolph Ziggler, and all the things just took off from there.”
He then had a six-year run on the predominant roster before his release, following which he featured in AEW only to return to WWE in 2025.