Massive shots fired at Rusev's AEW career on WWE RAW

Rusev's former ally-turned-rival took aim at his AEW tenure live on the latest edition of WWE RAW. The former Miro officially departed from the Tony Khan-led promotion earlier this year.

The Bulgarian Brute has been on a mission since returning to the sports entertainment juggernaut this past April. In his first match back in WWE, Rusev defeated Otis in under seven minutes. He then squashed the Alpha Academy member's teammate, Akira Tozawa, last week and continued to punish his opponent with his brutal submission hold after the bout until his former League of Nations ally, Sheamus, arrived and forced him to back off.

On the June 2 episode of Monday Night RAW, Rusev delivered a promo lashing out at The Celtic Warrior for supposedly not helping him in his time of need years ago, and he sent an ominous warning to the latter for opposing him a week earlier. Later, in a backstage interview, Sheamus acknowledged his long-time friendship with the former US Champion but claimed that the latter's WWE career had "imploded because of his own bad decisions."

He then took aim at Rusev's career "outside of WWE," stating that it lasted "about as long as Rusev Day, 24 hours." Sheamus was, of course, referencing the Bulgarian's five-year stint in AEW, where he signed in 2020 after being released by the Stamford-based company as part of the COVID-19 budget cuts.

Despite being pushed heavily during the early half of his AEW run, Rusev's (then going by Miro) booking in the promotion seemed to lose traction since the end of his dominant TNT Championship reign in 2021. The Redeemer's appearances became more and more sporadic over the years, and he ultimately parted ways with the company in February after being on an extended hiatus since Worlds End 2023, reportedly due to creative differences and other possible reasons.

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