Ever since the Superstar Shakeup from earlier this year, Rusev has only appeared on Smackdown through a series of pre-taped videos. In the videos he demanded that Shane McMahon give him a title shot at Money in the Bank. This may sound like great news for fans of Rusev, yet it has been announced that Jinder Mahal will defend his WWE Championship against Randy Orton at the show. Even the Money in the Bank ladder match does not have Rusev appearing in it as one of the participants. Rusev mentioned in the videos that he would either get a title match at the show, or he would leave WWE to stay in Bulgaria. “The Bulgarian Brute” promised to confront Shane McMahon on Smackdown before Backlash, but he did not appear, and he has not sent in any more of his videos ever since.
Plans for Rusev have changed dramatically as a result of Jinder Mahal’s last minute championship victory. Originally, the plan was for Rusev to fight (and possibly win) a match against Randy Orton for the belt before WWE decided to give Jinder the win at Backlash. The Wrestling Observer reported these plans a while ago, and now they have stated that Rusev will likely no longer be pursuing the top prize over on Smackdown. It seems now that WWE is just waiting for a different way to reintroduce Rusev to the audience, or they could be waiting until they forget about his demands to face the champion or quit the business. He and his wife, Lana, are both coming over to Smackdown soon, but they will both be having separate careers from this point forward.
For weeks now we have heard rumors about Baron Corbin or Rusev shocking the wrestling world by winning the WWE Championship, but WWE decided to go in a completely different direction once they chose Jinder Mahal for that role instead. No word on what Rusev could be doing once he does return to Smackdown, but if you’re hoping to see him in the main event scene, you’ll likely have to wait for a while. It is possible that Rusev could either interfere in the WWE Championship match at the show, or insert himself into the ladder match somehow. However, these do not appear be what WWE is setting up for, and it appears that any plans to have Rusev challenge or win the title have been completely dropped.