Rusev

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[goc]

This is another guy I have to put in the Roman Reigns category where I think it's quite likely he'll be a top 100 wrestler in a few more years but right now there just isn't enough on the resume.

 

He's done an amazing job of growing as an overall performer since getting called up from NXT, where I don't think anyone was really raving about his work. Since then it's been about 16 months of him getting better seemingly every month. He's been presented as a tough brute heel since his debut but he's somehow one of the best guys at long term selling and appearing vulnerable at the right moments. His matches with Cena weren't as good as what I was expecting but he seems to have rebounded quite nicely now with the recent triple threat on Raw and the Cesaro match from Smackdown.

 

If he keeps improving the way he has so far, he could end up being an all time great. If he just stays at the level he is now, he's still going to be pretty darn good.

[Parties]

Looks like a prodigy now, but way, way too early to list him. Even if you include his NXT run, he's only been around for two years. Everyone on my current list had better two year stretches (or several of them) than the one he's just had.

[InYourCase]

Nope. He was one of the best workers in 2014 (I think I had him in my top 20) but I don't see him progressing much anytime soon. He was excellent at those 6-8 minute sprints with Swagger and Big E but with the way he's being booked, I don't see those returning anytime soon. Looked like he could be something special, how he's just a guy. One good, not great year is not going to put him anywhere near my list.

[Laney]

Too early for him to be considered for me. He had a very good year in 2014, but by no means would I consider him one of the elite last year. If I'm not putting my WOTY for 2014 (Styles) on my list, then there is no way I can defend putting Rusev on there.

[JRGoldman]

I hope this comparison makes sense, but when I watch Rusev (who at this point has no shot to make my ballot purely due to lack of volume) I think in a weird way it makes me want to rate Hansen higher. I think Hansen in Japan really took the formula of "foreign monster who is secretly smarter than other people" and perfected it, and I think a lot of Rusev's success can be attributed to him working with this formula. Granted he has been great in his own right and has added tweeks to it, but Hansen really laid the foundation for the run Rusev initially got. Maybe I'm making a bit of a stretch here, but I hope people can at least see where I'm coming from.

[JerryvonKramer]

Absolutely zero chance.

[2PhoneShawty]

Holy shit has this guy improved, and I absolutely love his work. He's better at selling than anyone in WWE, and one of the best in the business(at selling of course), but he has only been good since 2014, but I don't see how anyone who's debuted in the 2010s on a major promotion is going to make my list. I can't think of a single one that even has a chance right now.

[El-P]

And here's a guy that should get more and more talk as the years go by. If he keeps on going strong like he did this year and gets for instance some shit to do in Japan, he probably gonna get a good shot at the final list. 

Also, time to rename this thread into Miro.