Rusev

Miroslaw Barnjaschew
Rusev in April 2018
Data
Surname	Miroslaw Barnjaschew
Ring name	Rusev Alexander Rusev Miroslav Makarov
Additions to names	The Super Athlete The Bulgarian Brute The Bashing Bulgarian
height	183 cm
Fighting weight	138 kg
birth	December 25, 1985 Plovdiv , Bulgaria
Announced from	Bulgaria
Trained by	Gangrel Rikishi WWE NXT
debut	November 22, 2008

Miroslaw Barnjaschew ( Bulgarian Мирослав Барняшев; * December 25, 1985 in Plovdiv , Bulgaria ), better known by his ring name Rusev and previously Alexander Rusev , is a Bulgarian wrestler , former power triad and oarsman , who is the first Bulgarian wrestler under contract with WWE was standing. His greatest achievement so far was receiving the WWE United States Championship three times .

Private life

Barnjaschew was born in Plovdiv , Bulgaria . He attended a sports school, which eventually made him a professional rower . He also participated in Powerlifting fighting, where he served as participants for the Bulgarian team for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London was proposed. Since July 29, 2016, he has been married to Catherine Joy Perry, who temporarily appeared as his ring companion under the ring name Lana, but is now also active as a wrestler for the WWE. In September 2019, Barnyashev became a US citizen.

Wrestling career

Beginnings

In mid-2000, Barnjaschew came from Bulgaria to the United States to become a professional wrestler . He initially lived in Virginia before moving to Torrance , California , where he began training as a wrestler at the Knokx Pro Wrestling Academy. His coaches were former WWE wrestlers Rikishi and Gangrel. Barnjaschew made his debut on November 22, 2008 under the ring name "Miroslav Makaraov".

In 2010 Barnjaschew appeared at Vendetta Pro Wrestling (VPW) as "Miroslav". During this time he was managed by Markus Mac.

WWE (2010-2020)

Developmental Territories (2010-2013)

In September 2010 Barnjaschew signed a contract with the wrestling market leader WWE . He was sent to the Florida Championship Wrestling Development League , where he was given the ring name Alexander Rusev. His first televised match was there against Mike Dalton on July 17, 2011. At that time he was escorted to the ring by Raquel Diaz. A short time later, Barnjaschew tore both anterior cruciate ligaments and the meniscus and required six months of rehabilitation .

He returned to FCW in March 2012 and got a new manager in Nick Rogers. In the summer of 2012, Barnyashev suffered a broken neck, which partially paralyzed his arm. During the renewed rehabilitation he traveled to Thailand , where he studied Muay Thai .

NXT (2013-2014)

After recovering from his injuries, Barnyashev came back to Florida Championship Wrestling, now known as WWE NXT, on May 30, 2013 when he took part in a Battle Royal . He played his first individual match after the injury on August 21 against Dolph Ziggler . He was given Sylvester Lefort as manager and he formed the “Fighting Legionnaires” tag team with Scott Dawson . They subsequently feuded with Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady. On October 30 of that year, Barnjaschew and Lefort were separated when the character Rusev attacked his manager during a tag team match .

Then Lana became his new ring companion as a “social ambassador”. From January 2014, Barnjaschew played at NXT several matches against wrestlers from the main squad , including Kofi Kingston , Xavier Woods and Sin Cara.

Winning streak and WWE United States Champion (2014-2016)

Rusev as WWE United States Champion 2014.

On January 26, 2014, Barnjaschew made his debut in the main squad of the WWE as Alexander Rusev at the Royal Rumble . The character was sold as very strong, so he had to be eliminated by four wrestlers.

On April 7, 2014, he played his first match on WWE Raw , where he defeated Zack Ryder . In the period that followed, the Rusev character was portrayed as very dominant. He appeared as a strong admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation to get more negative audience reactions from the American audience. His fighting weight was not given in American pounds , as usual , but in kilograms . After victories, the Russian flag was dropped from the ceiling and Lana, Rusev's manager, made negative promos about the USA.

On November 3 of that year he was allowed to win the WWE United States Championship , in which he defeated Sheamus , which finally established him as a classic Foreign Heel . He lost this title at the major event Wrestlemania 31 in March 2015 to John Cena , who was able to defeat him for the first time by pinfall. In the following years, Barnjaschew initially continued to work with Cena as an opponent, but did not regain the title for the time being. Instead, a split was prepared with his ring companion Lana, which was finally completed in June of that year when he introduced Summer Rae as the new woman at his side. He feuded with Summer Rae against Dolph Ziggler and Lana. In the meantime, he suffered an injury to his foot in a match, which temporarily excluded him from active events. After that, his character's reference to Russia was discarded and he reappeared as a Bulgarian. After his feud against Ziggler was over, he split from Summer Rae and reunited with Lana. Together with Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio and King Barrett he formed the stable The League of Nations . The League of Nations feuded against Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose . After The League of Nations broke up, he was back as a single wrestler. He won a Battle Royal and secured a match for the WWE United States Championship . On May 22, 2016 at the PPV WWE Extreme Rules he defeated Kalisto and won the WWE United States Championship for the second time . He lost the title to Roman Reigns on September 25, 2016 at Clash of Champions .

Various feuds and WWE United States Champion (2017-2020)

As part of the Superstar Shake-Up, he switched to the SmackDown Brand on April 11, 2017 . Here he formed a team with Aiden English for a long time , who had previously only announced him singingly, but then also appeared as his regular tag team partner. Together with Lana, they were active under the name Rusev Day . Rusev, as the leader of the team, had several feuds with other wrestlers, including Randy Orton and Andrade Almas . In the course of their partnership, a separation of Rusev and English was indicated several times, ultimately also carried out after English turned against Rusev and Lana. After Rusev won the brief feud against his former partner on the October 23, 2018 broadcast on SmackDown, English disappeared from the shows. Rusev won the WWE United States Championship for the third time in his career some time later, in the SmackDown episode that aired on December 25, 2018 (his birthday) but was recorded a week earlier . For this he defeated the reigning champion Shinsuke Nakamura . A month later he lost the title in the kick-off show of the Royal Rumble 2019 again to Nakamura. After losing his title, he founded a tag team with Nakamura. As part of the WWE Draft, Rusev moved from SmackDown to Raw on October 14, 2019 . On April 15, 2020, he was released from the WWE , along with numerous other people, as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic .

Outside of wrestling

Together with several other wrestlers from the VPW at the time, Barnjaschew appeared in a music video for the song The Whole F'n Show by Kushinator, which was also used as entry music by Rob van Dam in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . From 2016, Barnjaschew appeared in the reality series Total Divas .

Wrestling successes

World Wrestling Entertainment

• WWE United States Championship (3 ×)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rusev's WWE profile. Retrieved April 22, 2014
2. ↑ Rusev at Genickbruch.com. Retrieved April 22, 2014
3. ↑ Alexander Rusev: NXT's brewing storm.Retrieved April 22, 2014
4. ↑ World Wrestling Entertainment Signs 'The Bashing Bulgarian' Retrieved April 22, 2014
5. ^ Gary Cassidy: WWE News: Rusev is now officially an American. September 28, 2019, accessed June 25, 2020 (American English). 
6. ↑ Alexander Rusev at Gerweck.net.Retrieved April 22, 2014
7. ↑ Winter Wonder Slam (Jan. 2010) Retrieved April 22, 2014
8. ↑ FLORIDA CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING TELEVISION REPORT: ALL FCW CHAMPIONS IN ACTION; JOHNNY CURTIS GETS ANOTHER SHOT AT THE FCW TITLE; ALEXANDER RUSEV MAKES HIS TELEVISION DEBUT. Retrieved April 22, 2014
9. ^ 3/2 FCW results Kissimmee, Fla .: Sheamus appears, Hero and Claudio in three-way match, FCW champ Tyler Black, Tough Enough winner & contestants. Accessed April 22, 2014
10. ↑ WWE NXT TV report ( memento of the original from September 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 22, 2014 
11. ↑ JAMES'S WWE NXT RESULTS 8/21 & 8/28 & 9/4 Retrieved April 22, 2014
12. ↑ Making money: Sylvester Lefort's lucrative path to NXT.Retrieved April 22, 2014
13. ↑ JAMES'S WWE NXT RESULTS 10/30 - Week 70: Paige vs. Summer Rae, WWE prospects in action, Overall Reax. Retrieved April 22, 2014
14. ↑ JAMES'S WWE NXT REPORT 11/20 - Week 73: Bo Dallas returns, Beat the Clock Challenge ensues, Ohno / Hero wrestles prior to his release, Overall Reax. Accessed April 22, 2014
15. ↑ JAMES'S WWE NXT RESULTS 1/1 - Week 79: Zayn / Generico in 2/3 Falls match, Kingston, Natalya, Overall Reax.Retrieved April 22, 2014
16. ↑ RUMBLE PPV NEWS: Batista, undercard losers not included, this year's surprise entries, Bray's big night, The Crowd. Retrieved April 22, 2014
17. ↑ RAW NEWS: Bryan's first night as champ, Taker update, Cesaro joins Heyman, Warrior returns, RVD returns, Paige debuts & wins Divas Title, other NXT intros, more Accessed April 22, 2014
18. ↑ Results of the WWE Network Special from November 3, 2014 on cagematch.de
19. ↑ Report on Wrestlemania 31 on cagematch.de
20. ↑ WWE Monday Night RAW # 1153, report on cagematch.de.Retrieved on August 22, 2015
21. ↑ WWE: Rusev possibly injured, report on cagematch.de.Retrieved on August 22, 2015
22. ↑ WWE Extreme Rules 2016 results + report from May 22, 2016
23. ↑ WWE "Clash of Champions 2016" PPV report + results from Indianapolis, Indiana (25.09.2016) Wrestling-infos.de. Retrieved September 26, 2016
24. ↑ Rusev Captures WWE US Championship on Christmas Edition of SmackDown. Retrieved January 16, 2019 . 
25. ↑ Rusev released from WWE contract , ringsidenews.com, accessed April 17, 2020
26. ↑ Vendetta Pro superstars appear in Rob Van Dam's Theme Song Video by Kushinator ( September 23, 2013 memento in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved April 22, 2014

Web links

Commons : Alexander Rusev  - collection of pictures

• Rusev profile on wwe.com