Rusev has once again been stopped dead on his tracks after suffering a foot injury during a WWE Smackdown taping last week.
The injury resulted in Rusev in crutches after the incident. Compounding his woes was the fact that he was not given medical clearance to compete, meaning he had to forfeit his place in the WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.
Mark Henry eventually took Rusev's place in the match. Ryback came out the winner and the new Intercontinental Champion previously held by Daniel Bryan. Bryan was forced to vacate the IC title due to injury.
As it stands now, there is no clear timetable on when Rusev would return. Other than getting back on the winning track, Rusev is in the middle of a pending feud with Dolph Ziggler which includes his former handler Lana.
It will be recalled that Rusev and Lana split after the former kept on blaming Lana for his string of losses to John Cena. That included the 'I Quit' match which (per storylines) was not the case.
Rusev dumped Lana and the ravishing Russian eventually hooked up with Ziggler. An enraged Rusev did not approve and attacked Ziggler, only to earn a slap from Lana in the end.
The feud was expected to be carried over until WWE EC had Rusev not gone down to injury. And now everything is left hanging at least Rusev gets back to 100%.
Rusev had initially left a fine imprint of being indestructible but his string of losses and now the foot injury have erased that immortality-like billing. So one has to wonder what character Rusev would evolve to though remaining a hell will most likely be the case.
But time is of the essence for Rusev, especially with a roster of superstars who could be easily bumped up to take his place. Healing may take some time for the Bulgarian Brute and hopefully he does and work his way back into the WWE scene soon.
