There have been many instances of WWE creative not pushing wrestlers who naturally got over with the fanbase.
One major example of this was with Rusev Day. The duo of Rusev and Aiden English became one of the hottest acts in the company in 2017 and 2018, but never really got presented as such on SmackDown.
WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg, who was lead writer for SmackDown at the time of their rise, spoke about the pair on his Oh You Didn’t Know podcast.
Road Dogg was asked if he and those high up in the company saw the rising popularity of Rusev Day.
He responded:
“So it’s yes, yes, we saw it. Yes, we saw Rusev Day getting over. I honestly don’t know what happened to Rusev Day. One day, we were pushing it and the next day we weren’t. Honestly, when I say we weren’t pushing it, it didn’t go away. It didn’t just disappear, we just weren’t doing anything with it anymore.
“Every time I would pitch something it would get shot down. So I don’t know what happened. I’m not going to say anything, because last time I said something, I got a phone call and I’m not gonna have that happen again.
“But honestly, I don’t know what went down that all of a sudden we stopped running with it because it was going really well.”
Road Dogg carried on, saying that he believes that Vince McMahon not being a fan of Aiden English led to the group’s push being shelved.
He added:
“I think it was getting over and I don’t know if Vince was a fan of Aiden English. I feel comfortable saying that. I don’t know if he was a fan of Aiden English. He’s a great singer. He’s a great wrestler.
“He’s, I mean, he’s not a beautiful man, but neither am I. Well, look, he doesn’t, his body looks like everybody else’s, just he’s not tanned and he looks like me or whatever. You know what I mean? Like he just looks different.
“And I don’t mean nothing bad by that. You can’t say nothing nowadays without having to qualify it with everything. God, the dude is not good-looking, what do you want me to say?”
transcription via Inside the Ropes
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