RUSEV

w/ Luke Harper vs. Cena/Ambrose

 

vs. Big E

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x20t2xc_ab1-money-in-the-bank-big-e-vs-rusev_sport

(French Commentary)

 

 

RUSH

& La Sombra vs. Shocker/Negro Casas

 

 

 

Why are we running the finals of the tournament in round 2?

I really slept on this matchup being so early when I did my brackets. I voted Rusev, decided to rip it off like a band-aid and get it over with quickly. It's a hard choice though, and I couldn't argue with anyone who votes Rush.

Man this is the toughest matchup of the 2nd round, I really want to vote for Roooooosh but Rusev has had such a killer year

When you have two guys who have such high quality stuff all year, I think Rush's injury time has to be the deciding factor.

Rusev probably had the best year all around in anyone this year. Rush, from what I've gathered, is a very close second. Bad draw for the CMLL star

I don't want to. I'll vote later when I can write a long, obnoxious post about my decision.

Unfair

 

A VOTE FOR RUSH IS A VOTE FOR BABY DRACULA!!!

That Rusev/Big E match is fucking awesome. Probably my favourite of the year. I need to watch some Rush.

Rush seems pretty damn awesome.  Too bad he's against Rusev.

 

But if they either teamed up, the name Rusev Rush is right there.  Then again, if they teamed up it'd be a license to print money.

Rush as a Russian sympathizer would be strangely awesome.

Rusev probably had the best year all around in anyone this year.

Seriously? I like Rusev but no way he was the best worker in his company alone.

Rush as a Russian sympathizer would be strangely awesome.

Rush was practically born to wear some weird Russian athletic track suit and a smaller silver version of Rusev's medal.

I wanna see them against each other.

 

Face/Heel dynamic totally works either way.

Rush would turn Russia face.

I'm trying to figure out how much of my enjoyment in watching Rusev comes from Lana. Is it wrong to say Rusev would be in a similar spot to Harper or Ryback without her? Obviously the guy can go, and has worked some very good matches against a handful of guys that don't crank them out all that often. Rusev has had a lot of good stuff, but probably nothing I would say was truly high end.

Someone woo me. This is hard. Like, terribly difficult. 

 

Not voting now. Will watch these matches later to confirm FEELINGS! Cause everytime I watch Rush with Casas in there, it doesn't matter, he's lights out great. Problem is when he's not in there with Casas I always feel a wee bit off. Rusev was your outta left field Hoss of the Year. 

To me this is about as close to a tie as you can possibly get. 

 

I said early on in this thing that I thought from a holistic perspective Rusev, Nakamura and Rush might very well be the best guys in the whole field and I stand by that.  Each guy was the best or second best character in their respective promotion and country during the time period.  While none of them were the absolute best in ring worker in their respective promotion or country, all three had very strong years.  While Nakamura and Rush were draws and presented as bigger stars than Rusev in theory, there was a considerably period of time where Rusev segments, angels and matches, got bigger reactions than anything on WWE shows. Like Nakamura with the I-C belt, Rusev's getting the US title (in a very good, and extremely underrated match with Sheamus, which was the first time WWE Network was used to promote a one off match I might add) gave extra weight to the title to the point where John Cena is now challenging for it on ppv's.  Like Rush, Rusev excels at high energy sprints, and can draw considerable heat and reactions from the live crowd (as can Nakamura) through body language, facial expressions, et.  

 

Rush was a better worker than Rusev last year but the improvements Rusev made were incredible, and it got to the point where his body part selling and psychology were adding a ton to his matches in segments.  While Rush had a hot feud with Negro Casas, Rusev had amazingly not feuds with Jack Swagger and Big E. of all people. Rush is a great promo from what I can tell, and him as an En Busca de un Idolo judge s one of the more underrated performances of the year,but my Spanish isn't near good enough to fully appreciate all of this. 

 

In a sense you could argue that Rusev was better protected by booking than Rush, and you wouldn't necessarily be wrong, but it's worth noting that Rush was allowed to completely steamroll Negro Casas in a hair v. hair match in a fashion that was more decisive than what Rusev did to Cena.  And Rusev wasn't presented as a main event guy until very recently.

 

Rusev has been great this year, to the point where if someone called him the top hand in the WWE, I wouldn't object to it.  With three weeks left to Mania his match is the one I'm most looking forward to and it's not because of Cena.  On the other hand I'm super excited that Rush is back too. 

 

The best tiebreaker argument I can come up with for Rush is that most of the high end lucha guys have been fucked by the draw, and it seems wrong to vote another one down.  

 

The best tiebreaker argument I can come up with for Rusev is that Rush missed a substantial portion of time in the voting period.

 

I should probably throw a sympathy vote to Rush, but fuck it. I'm voting Rusev.  Aside from maybe The Briscoes he's my favorite act in wrestling today. 

Rusev is a complete performer now. He's great at sprints. He's proved he can go long. He tells a great story. He sells his fucking ass off. He's great at improvising. He's a valiant warrior. He sticks up for his woman. He moves around so well and everything he does is leading to something else. No wasted movements. He draws legit heat. He's even halfway decent on the mic now though I guess outshined by Lana.  Their entire act is perfect.

 

He had a ridiculous number of high quality matches on both TV and PPV with a wide variety of opponents. I really do think Rusev is the best all-around performer in WWE right now.

I don't know if I would declare him the best (only because Rollins is killing it right now) but I definitely think he's top 5, maybe even top 3.

OH HELL NOOOOOO!!! Dylan turning his back on Rush, is quite the betrayal.

 

Gonna have to reprogram him.

 

...and I know just the man...er...parrot....er...Ingobernable to do it!

 

 

 

Is a vote for Rusev a vote for Lana? Meaning, is she part of the equation for him? Part of his act?

No. Or else a vote for the Brooklyn Brawler is a vote for Heenan and that's just silly.

Is a vote for Rusev a vote for Lana? Meaning, is she part of the equation for him? Part of his act?

 

I included how he interacts with Lana into my vote but even without Lana he is a top 5 guy in WWE. She makes the act an all-timer.