Rusev is approaching his first ever one-on-one opportunity for a WWE Championship this weekend (Sun. July 15, 2018) at Extreme Rules.
“The Bulgarian Brute” will challenge AJ Styles for the professional wrestling juggernaut’s ultimate prize at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is at the top of his game after establishing himself as one of the most over talents on the roster with his “Rusev Day” gimmick alongside Aiden English.
In a recent interview with Planeta Wrestling, Rusev detailed his training regimen for his meeting with “The Phenomenal One.” He says he’s training to counter and reverse all of Styles’ moves:
“It’s different than any other match. I have my own training setup believe it or not,” Rusev said. The Lion Of Bulgaria said he’s working hard at his home in Nashville to prepare for AJ Styles.
“It’s all about finding those nice little… studying AJ’s tapes and finding every transition or reversals for every move that he has so I can be prepared for everything.”
Rusev came to the United States at 20-years-old to chase his dream of becoming a professional wrestler. He worked several jobs before joining the Knokx Pro Wrestling Academy in Torrence, California and was trained by former WWE Superstars Rikishi and Gangrel. Being where he is at this point in his professional wrestling career, Rusev said things feel like they “make sense”:
“It all started as a dream,” Rusev said. “Just watching as a kid, just watching Hogan, just watching WWF it was amazing. I always wanted to be a wrestler I just didn’t know how to do it. So when I was twenty I went to The [United] States and started working different jobs. Finally found a school and signed up. It was something that I loved and I never thought about actually going to the WWE I just loved to wrestle because I wanted to wrestle.
“I was doing that for about two years or three years, whatever it was. I had two or three jobs at the same time just I could afford myself and pay rent and school. Then I had a tryout with WWE and I got signed right away. I was amazing. I would have never thought that somebody like me from the small country of Bulgaria could make it in WWE. Here we are about to face AJ Styles for the World Heavyweight Championship and it just makes sense. Everything makes sense.”
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
