Could "Rusev Day" become the new "YES Movement"?
While WWE may be in a holding pattern at the moment as we are in the holiday season and waiting for the build for the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania to begin, there has been one act that has been entertaining and is currently getting over and if booked right it could become the new 'YES' Movement, and that is the pairing of Rusev and Aiden English or simply known as 'Rusev Day'.
For those that are not familiar with the 'YES' Movement, it was started in in 2012 after Daniel Bryan lost his World Heavyweight Championship to Sheamus in 18 seconds and the next night on RAW the crowd began chanting "YES! YES! YES!" even though Bryan never appeared on the show. The term 'YES' Movement, however, was not used officially until 2013-2014 during his feud with The Authority.
To this day, it is still referenced and is even the reason for the 'YEP' Movement storyline currently on Smackdown with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. If it wasn't for the 'YES' chants Bryan may have never been pushed as much as he was and may have never won the WWE Title at WrestleMania 30. The original plan was Batista vs. Randy Orton for the main event, but due to the fans backlash at this Daniel Bryan faced Triple H and beat him in the main event.
While the "Rusev Day" storyline is just beginning and there is no telling where and how far this can go. If you watched Clash of Champions this past Sunday you would have noticed that Rusev arguably got the pop of the night.
Last night on Smackdown Rusev and English were getting big pops as well. WWE must see something in Rusev since there was a rumour earlier that Rusev was going to get the push that Jinder Mahal eventually got.
WWE does need to tread cautiously through and not book Rusev to look like a joke and become a comedy act because they do have the tendency to do that with foreign heels such as Vladimir Koslov and The Great Khali and even Rusev himself as they did it once before a few years with his feud with Dolph Ziggler, Summer Rae, and Lana with the infamous "RuRu" nickname. They also need to make sure they don't overdo the "Rusev Day" stuff so it doesn't get stale and boring quickly but if they book this right, with or without Aiden English, could become something special.
Rusev has a lot of the tools that management looks for in a top star, and, he is pretty good in the ring too, and, can hold his own on the microphone. So, I see no reason why something that started off small like 'Rusev Day' can't blossom into something much more.