Rusev: I owe a lot of my WWE success to John Cena
Getting to work with John Cena was a pivotal experience in the career of Rusev.
Rusev and Cena were rivals early in Rusev’s first WWE run, with Rusev playing the foreign heel against babyface Cena. They faced off for the United States title at several pay-per-views, including the biggest stage WWE has to offer — WrestleMania — with Cena getting the victory at WrestleMania 31 in 2015.
With Cena’s in-ring career nearing its conclusion, Rusev reflected on their feud in a new interview with VoxCatch. He credited Cena for much of the success he’s had in pro wrestling.
“I learned a lot from John Cena. You know, I got to wrestle him quite a bit throughout my years in WWE. And I owe a lot of my success to him, because I got to learn from him, wrestling him, beating him as well,” Rusev said. “So I’m always going to be thankful for that.
“And that moment was special. You know, it’s WrestleMania, that’s the pinnacle of every professional wrestler. And to go out on a tank with my wife Lana in front of 75,000 people was absolutely a dream that you can’t even have when you’re a kid, because — especially in Bulgaria where I come from, it’s very hard to dare to dream. So this was like a very surreal moment. And I’m thankful to God and Jesus because he made it all possible.”
Rusev said he would “absolutely” love to face Cena again and would like to be Cena’s final opponent.
“He started my career, now I can end his, which [would] be very appropriate,” Rusev said. “And karma always strikes back at the end of the day.”
Cena only has eight WWE appearances left on his retirement tour. It will conclude on Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13, with the identity of his final opponent not yet known.
Rusev returned to WWE earlier this year after a stint with AEW. At WWE Clash in Paris on August 31, he defeated Sheamus in a Good Ol’ Fashioned Donnybook match.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.