Aiden English gives credit to RAW Superstar for the origin of 'Rusev Day'
Former WWE Superstar, Rusev, made headlines this week after he appeared on Ryback's podcast. "The Bulgarian Brute" detailed a time backstage where he found out that Vince McMahon didn't fully buy into the audience's love for the big man. The WWE Chairman was apparently under the impression that the crowd was mocking him.
"Everything I'm doing, it seems the people are liking it. Why am I getting over and you're telling me to do the opposite? I didn't understand, I had a conversation with Vince and he told me that with Rusev Day, they were just mocking me, they didn't mean it." H/T: Fightful
It gets worse. When Rusev, real name Miro, brought up the fact that his "Rusev Day" t-shirts had sold out, Vince allegedly fed him the excuse that the company probably just didn't make enough of them.
Matt Rehwoldt, formerly known as Aiden English and Rusev's former tag partner, was recently a guest on the Warren Hayes Show. During the interview, he expounded upon Rusev's experience with WWE Creative.
"I was getting this from Miro who spoke to Vince directly. But yeah, to be fair, sometimes... I can see... the mind that is Vince McMahon is a very wild place. And so it literally could just be point face, what it was, or he could have been saying that to try to get Miro, like angry, and like yeah, fire him up. I wouldn't put it past him. But there would always seem to be this hesitation behind really pulling the trigger on anything major with us, anyway, so I do take as that's kind of the way it was seen by the boss. So yeah, it was, it was like, what else do we have to do to kind of show people are into this."
English said that WWE was keen on pushing Rusev as a really strong heel, despite his growing popularity.
Rusev Day wouldn't have been a thing without Randy Orton
WWE may not have wanted Rusev to show parts of his personality in an attempt to generate major heel heat, but if it wasn't for Randy Orton, they may not have had to fight it so hard.
Aiden English told Warren Hayes that "The Viper" was the real catalyst for the "Rusev Day" chant.
If I remember correctly, the ceremony, the segment wasn't called, like, "Rusev Day Segment." The mayor said "We're going to call today Rusev Day" kind of a throwaway line. And then backstage, Randy [Orton] goes, to like a backstage interviewer, "Hey, Happy Rusev Day, ha ha ha" and walks away. And that was kind of the first Happy Rusev Day was Randy saying it in an interview. And then after that you'd hear small chants at the TV or on house shows. And it just kept growing and growing and people just wouldn't stop.
Many fans consider Rusev to be one the biggest missed opportunities in WWE history. Maybe one day they'll get a chance to rectify that, but for now Rusev remains a free agent. WWE released him, along with over a dozen other stars, back in April. A return to the company at some point hasn't been ruled out.