Bulgarian WWE Star was Originally Supposed to be a Comedic Act

As we all know, Rusev has transitioned from being one of WWE's best heels to now becoming a top SmackDown Live act infamous for his "Rusev Day" gimmick.

Rusev originally debuted on the main roster as a dominant Russian heel, accompanied by Lana. However, it would be impossible to fathom that back then, the creative team had an entirely different direction planned out for him.

According to Whatculture.com's book "Shocking Wrestling Plans You Won't Believe Almost Happened"- Before The Bulgarian Brute's main roster debut, the WWE Creative Team were shown clips of him in NXT. Unexpectedly, they burst out laughing immediately (perhaps due to the 'Classic Golden Era Villain' feel to his character).

Therefore, the creatives started coming up with pitches for him as a comedic act. However, Triple H always saw Rusev as a dominant heel. Thanks to The Game, the creative team had to instantly drop any ideas regarding Rusev as a comedic character.

As former WWE writer Kevin Eck explained--

We started coming up with pitches for him as a comedy act, but we were told that Triple H envisioned Rusev as a monster heel so we had better forget about the character being played for laughs.

Turns out, even Vince McMahon had questions as to whether Lana should remain part of Rusev's gimmick or not (as Kevin Eck states in the book). Can you ever imagine Rusev in his early days without Lana by his side? Sure, he might have gone a little farther by himself, but Lana was an integral part that ensured Rusev's success as a monster heel.

But Vince McMahon was not the only one here, former WWE writer Kevin Eck later revealed that he never thought Rusev would have had any success even with Lana by his side....