Rusev - Full Interview

Alright, I'm here with the man Russef.

How are you, man?

How are you doing?

Good.

Remember I just asked you, oh, it's Sports Illustrated.

These are the naked edition.

I will start, I started taking my stuff off, but he's like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, and here I am dressed.

But first question I have for you, man, you've been in the game a very long time.

What goes through your mind right before you step through that, Curry?

Just be safe, uh, you know, it's not, you know, it's, it's excitement, right?

Being in front of 50,000 people.

I've wrestled in front of 100,000 people, uh, but at the same time, you know that tomorrow you have a family, man.

You have to go back home, you gotta be able to walk.

You have your mom and my wife CJ, you know, the hot and flexible one, so I have to, I have to, I have to know that there is tomorrow, but at the same time you have to put your body on the line because these people are expecting a show.

So a prayer always does well, you know, pray for protection, pray for entertainment for the people, and get your mind right and go out there and do your best.

Absolutely.

So if you had to pick between being in a great storyline or having a great match, which one would you pick if you had to?

I think storylines are the most important thing because the match itself, you know, that's when you resolve that conflict.

But if nobody cares about that match, you know , you can put.

Two monkeys and they'll do a bunch of things and flips and you know who cares, but it's about telling that story of what's happening, why is he beating them up, why is he so angry, why is he doing all these things and then leads from that story that ends up with that match.

Got you.

So you've been in the game for a very long time, so I'd love to know which wrestler.

gets the best out of Rousseff.

You're just excited to get in the ring with.

Oh, that's 100% the tough Irish bastard Seamus.

You know, he doesn't ask you, man.

He just takes, and if you're a weaker person, you fold.

But if you're somebody like Rousseff who loves the challenge and enjoys that, you're just going to go and bring it to.

Him and the more you bring it, the more he brings it, and now everything escalates and it becomes this like, hey man, if we don't taper off, we got to go start boxing on MMA in a little bit.

Is that something you guys just figured out as soon as you got in or did it take some time or you kind of just know as soon as you get in the ring with someone like, you know what, we make sense with different people it's different, you know, some.

And that's why , especially now, before we used to have like the live events where you get to wrestle like 56 times a week.

Now we don't.

Now we just have the, the TV every now and again we'll have these international tours.

So it's very important, you know, and people don't know, but when you lock up with somebody, you know, the first thing when you lock up in there, you start feeling that guy, you try to figure out, OK, is he snug?

Is he stiff?

Is he loose?

What's he thinking?

And uh that's how you start understanding the match.

But knowing Seamus man, it doesn't matter.

Like, he can look at you and it already hurts.

So you've got one of the most devastating finishers in the game, but besides your finisher, who's got the best finisher in the WWE right now?

Oh boy, that's tough.

Well, RKO is really popular, right?

I would say the RKO.

And who's got the best theme song?

If you could steal someone's theme song for one night, who would you still RKO.

That's the voices in my head, and they fit so well for him.

And now we've got some major matches this weekend.

We'd love to know also the Bellas, you can look but you can't touch.

Oh my God, you know, we gotta let you walk out to that.

I think that would go.

I would do it.

I always sing it to them when I see them, but I'm trying to do the, the ass shake, but I just, um, my hips are not like Shakira.

They do lie.

I got you.

So what match are you looking forward to the most this weekend?

Oh, my own, of course.

I think it's the most entertaining match, the most dangerous match, a match that hasn't happened in over 10 years on WrestleMania, so it's a high stake, uh, but the wrestlers that we have, everybody's fighting for something.

And I think that's the match that everybody's looking most out of everybody else.

Do you feel any pressure in this type of match?

You know how iconic these ladder matches are.

Like that's, I wouldn't say pressure.

I, I'm not even nervous, just cautious.

I would say cautious because I've only had one ladder match before that back in 2018.

Or 19 something like that money in the bank.

So it's not like I'm experienced, but I've been practicing, you know, they call me Boy and Roussef now, big boy on Rousseff, uh, because I float like a butterfly, but I crush like a tank.

Let's go.

Let's go.

OK, so Roman Reigny and Punk, who you got in that matchup?

Who do you think is winning?

Uh, I think Roman is winning 100%, um , but also I think it's gonna be probably his best match so far.

I think Punk is a tremendous, uh, professional wrestler.

The longer the match goes, the better Punk gets, um, and I'm excited for that, and we'll see if Punk has lost a step because, you know, he's climbing up there in age.

Um, but they're both tremendous performers, but I do think that Roman takes it at the end because also Roman has 10 WrestleManias under his belt.

Let's not forget that, and that's not easy to be last, last.

You know, punk has never done that.

He may have done a lot of other things, but he's never been the main event of WrestleMania, so they may play a big role for him too.

Also, we have the bloodline.

They can interfere at any time.

So a lot of jokers, a lot of like what are these cards, wild cards.

Yeah, no, that's a really interesting point.

He's never been in the last, last, so.

Kinda it's the main event, so we're super excited to see that Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, who you got?

Oh, Randy Orton, I think I could have guessed that Randy Orton, man.

Randy is just, uh, he's, you know, he was the original legend killer and he's, I've wrestled Randy quite a bit and because of him I started Russef Day.

I beat him in 10 seconds.

Then the mayor came and gave me the city key.

Um, but I never underestimate.

I wrestled with him so many times.

He's so solid, big.

He's only gotten better with, with time, just, just like wine.

So definitely Randy, uh, Rhea Ripley, Jay Cargill, who you got, man?

I love Rhea.

I think Rhea is such a tremendous talent , tremendous worker, uh, tremendous shape, and, you know, uh, but let's not take anything away from Jay, man.

She's big, she's strong, but, but to be honest, she's inexperienced, right?

And.

And being on the top of that stage is just the lights and the people sometimes get to you and it's easy.

Just one misstep can lead you to a lot of disasters.

So, and I believe that Rhea can take advantage of that because she was also with the dirty Dom and I'm sure she picked up a couple of tricks from that.

Liv Morgan, Stephanie Vaccai, who you got?

Man, my wife loves Liv and uh I love Liv too, you know, we tag team back in the day with against Bobby and CJ and and Lana, so, um, I'll take Liv, you know, she's got a new video going on.

She's gonna be dancing over there, so I, I will take Liv.

And finally, last question, Obafemi Brock Lesnar, who you got, man.

Uh, is it just like a simple answer, Brock, you know, Brock is Brock .

He dominates anybody that he wants to.

He can dominate them in 5 minutes.

He can dominate them in 25 minutes.

Um, I take Brock, not all but tremendous talent, very young, very strong , but also very inexperienced.

Once again, inexperience plays a tremendous part once you're in the grandest stage, so I take Brock.