WWE superstar Rusev has forcefully denied the long-standing rumors that his extended absence from AEW television was a result of his refusal to lose matches or “do business.” The “Bulgarian Brute” parted ways with AEW earlier this year after a frustrating 2024 where he did not wrestle a single match for the promotion.
In a recent interview with Shakiel Mahjouri for CBS Sports, Rusev was asked directly about the reports from The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that he was benched for refusing to put over other talent.
“I mean, there’s a lot of rumors out there, but the problem is wrestling for you, man. Those rumors are spread by one person, you know, by these dirt sheets, so-called dirt sheets, and they have no evidence, no proof, right? They just can go out there, run a story, and they can never — nothing can be traced back to them. ‘Oh, I heard, I saw, de duh de duh…’”
He then pointed out the flaws in that narrative by listing his own losses in the company.
“So, it’s just clearly, if you judge this by this run, obviously doesn’t make any sense. Clearly, when I lost to Sammy Guevara for the title, that didn’t make any sense. When I lost to Daniel Bryan [aka Bryan Danielson] right after that, that didn’t make any sense. When I lost to whoever like, so let the people go back and review whatever I’ve done, and we talk about that, but also you know losing now it’s just part of the business man, you know, not everybody just wins every week.”
Rusev, who returned to WWE in April 2025, also noted that his long layoff—having only one match in the year before his WWE comeback—left him with “a little rust.”