5 reasons why WWE has made Rusev lose 18 PPV matches in a row
Rusev has been one of the most prominent Superstars on WWE television ever since he made his main-roster debut in 2014.
During his first year on Raw and SmackDown, “The Bulgarian Brute” went an entire 12 months without losing via pinfall or submission. He then faced John Cena in one of the featured matches at WrestleMania 31, where his undefeated streak finally came to an end.
Over the next 18 months, he remained a regular presence in WWE storylines, facing Superstars including Dolph Ziggler and Roman Reigns, but his unstoppable aura disappeared and he gradually became just another guy on the roster.
In December 2016, he picked up a win over Big Cass on the Roadblock: End of the Line kickoff show. The match was relatively meaningless, hence why it was on the kickoff show, but it turns out that his countout victory over the 7-footer was the last time that Rusev won on pay-per-view.
Throughout 2017, 2018 and the first few months of 2019, he racked up an unprecedented tally of 18 consecutive pay-per-view defeats, breaking the unwanted record of 17 that was previously held by The Great Khali.
In this article, let’s attempt to find out the possible reasons why WWE has made the three-time United States champion lose on so many occasions.
#5 Was WWE unaware of the losing streak?
From 1991 to 2013, The Undertaker built up a history-making 21-0 undefeated streak at WrestleMania before he was finally beaten at the event by Brock Lesnar in 2014.
WWE producer Bruce Prichard recently discussed winning streaks on his ‘Something To Wrestle With’ podcast, and he revealed that those within the company did not originally plan for ‘Taker to remain undefeated for so long at ‘Mania. In fact, it was not until he faced Randy Orton at WrestleMania 21 in 2005, at which point his record was at 12-0, that ‘The Streak’ became a thing.
With so many weekly television shows and monthly pay-per-views in WWE, it is only natural that Superstars, fans and even the company’s most important decision-makers lose track of who wins at which events and who loses the most often, so perhaps Rusev’s 18-match losing run has built up without those in WWE even realising.
After all, his tally of PPV defeats is never referred to by the announcers, so it’s not as if this is part of an ongoing storyline.