Back In The USSR: Is Rusev's New Pro-Russian Gimmick Offensive?

[Guest Magic]

Be warned, you'll wake up with a bitching hangover.

[Maxximus 353]

I'm fine with Putin. Who cares really? No one that's who. All these nay saying patriots and concerned catholic parents are all trolls and master rusemen.

[DC 536]

I just love the fact that they appear to be bringing back the stereotypical Russian heel gimmick... and it's working so far.It reminds me of when Umaga debuted and there was a deluge of comments about how a Samoan savage gimmick couldn't work in the modern era.

 

I hope "they" are just as wrong about this as they were about Umaga.

[Guest Ciaran The King]

WWE's current Russian/European gimmick isn't so much offensive it's just really bad timing. At a time when the Ukranian situation is gathering steam and many countries are heavily involved especially Russia it's not very intelligent to try and profit from it. Personally I just think WWE look silly

[Guest John Hancock]

Bad timing, or good timing? Surely a pro-Putin, anti-European, anti-American, semi-Soviet gimmick wouldn't make any sense, and would just be an anachronistic throw-back if the Ukrainian crisis wasn't happening?

[dsrchris 190]

Yeah, if anything well done WWE for doing something relevant, instead of waiting until it's about 6 months too late and then trying to do something.

[Guest Ciaran The King]

Not to be all doom and gloom, but Putin (Russia) are currently linked to the Ukraine where people are dying. So if you read the papers, watch the news then you will see how it connects. I also think is there nothing more WWE could do than another anti American gimmick!!!!!

[dsrchris 190]

Dude, this has been happening forever and a day, so Ukraine has nothing really to do with it other than being annexed by the current "big bad of the world" in the news.

 

During the 80's we had the cold war, and the Russians were bad guys, during the early 90s there was Desert Storm so WWE had Iraqi bad guys (and an American defector, ooooh), in the early 2000s we had Muhammad Hassan (although admittedly the guys in balaclavas strangling the Undertaker may have been a smidge too far.

 

My point is that this has always happened in wrestling. People use current events to help the audience to associate and empathise with the story they're trying to tell. This is no different, regardless of what you or any of those other folks on the internet (or the PC brigade) think.

[Guest John Hancock]

Not to be all doom and gloom, but Putin (Russia) are currently linked to the Ukraine where people are dying. So if you read the papers, watch the news then you will see how it connects. I also think is there nothing more WWE could do than another anti American gimmick!!!!!

 

I think you missed my point.

 

I think a two year old blind child could see "how it connects", it's not exactly high brow, the Ukrainian crisis has been going on since February, everyone's fully aware of it.

 

What I was saying is you've misunderstood what WWE's motive behind the Rusev angle is by saying that it's bad timing, like they just happened to have a pro-Russian character at the same time as a Russia-lead political crisis. He's got that gimmick BECAUSE of what's happening in the Ukraine, not despite it. Saying this is bad timing on WWE's part is like saying the Sgt. Slaughter angle during the Gulf War was bad timing, or the Muhammad Hassan angle during the War on Terror was bad timing, or the Un-Americans during the Bush administration was bad timing. They're all current affairs gimmicks, Rusev is a current affairs gimmicks and, if anything, it's slightly late. You could say it's in bad taste, or it's politically insensitive, or it's trivialising an important issue, or it's jingoistic and geographically and political ignorant, but you absolutely cannot say it's "bad timing", that's just factually incorrect.

[Guest Ciaran The King]

Apologies for insisting the Rusev/Lana gimmick was bad timing, what I probably meant to say is there would never be a good time for this current gimmick. It's in bad taste and doesn't belong in WWE in 2014

[DC 536]

doesn't belong in WWE in 2014

As I said earlier, there were a lot of people who were saying a Samoan savage character didn't belong in 2006 after Umaga debuted and that was made to work very, very well.

 

This part of the gimmick has been running for only a few shows now and as Lana is Russian, it makes sense for her to praise the Russian President.

[Guest John Hancock]

This part of the gimmick has been running for only a few shows now and as Lana is Russian, it makes sense for her to praise the Russian President.

 

Hmm, not really sure about that. If this was last year, and Lana had the same gimmick, you wouldn't be hearing a peep about Putin.

[DC 536]

Hmm, not really sure about that. If this was last year, and Lana had the same gimmick, you wouldn't be hearing a peep about Putin.

It's not last year though.

[Guest John Hancock]

I don't get your point then. Ciaran isn't saying the gimmick doesn't make sense, he's saying it's in poor taste.

[DC 536]

He's saying it doesn't belong in 2014 and I'm saying that in 2014, because Lana is Russian, it makes sense for her to praise the Russian President.