WWE superstar Rusev recently looked back on his early days in the wrestling business, revealing that he never thought he had a realistic shot at making it to a major promotion like WWE or TNA. The “Bulgarian Brute,” who began his wrestling career in 2008 and signed with WWE in 2010, detailed his journey on the debut episode of his wife C.J. Perry’s new podcast, “Identity Crisis.”
Rusev, who grew up as a fan in Bulgaria, explained that he initially only knew of WWE and just wanted to learn the “craft” of pro wrestling, not necessarily join the company.
“I was so fascinated by the craft, by what they’re doing that I just wanted to know how they freaking do that. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I want to go there and do it with them.’ I just wanted to learn how they do it and why is it so cool.”
It wasn’t until he had been training for about a year and a half at Rikishi and Gangrel’s school, KnokX Pro, that the possibility of a real career was presented to him.
“It wasn’t maybe until a year later in my training where they pull me in the office and say, ‘Hey, you may have an opportunity to go to either TNA or WWE.’ I’m like, ‘Get the f**k out of here.’ Like, ‘What are you even talking about? These guys are gods. They’re on TV. I see them, they’re seven feet tall, 400 pounds jacked. And I am 24 year old Bulgarian that — I mean, I’ve been training for a year and a half. That’s just, I didn’t think that was realistic at all.”
Rusev recalled that about six months later, Rikishi secured a tryout for him at SummerSlam 2010 in Los Angeles. WWE signed him on the spot, just two years into his training.
“And all of a sudden, I find myself in developmental WWE, green as grass. I had no idea. And then started, I broke my knee, broke my neck. That set me back a little bit. But then in developmental, I spent like a year and a half probably, at most. And then made it to the to the main roster. So my career like really fast kind of like took off.”