While it wasn't all that surprising to learn of the releases of some of the dozens of WWE Superstars and Employees recently let go as part of a massive company-wide purge, Rusev was definitely a shocking cut.
Although he hadn't been seen on TV much since his angle with Bobby Lashley and Lana came to an end, The Bulgarian Brute was still very popular with fans.
Rusev, real name Miroslav Barnyashev, has now shared a new video to Instagram, and while he doesn't go into too much detail about his release, he does mention being "fired," before brushing it off and announcing that he'll soon be debuting a new Twitch channel so people can watch him "play video games."
Rusev will have to wait out the remainder of his 90-day no compete claws before returning to action (by the looks of things, he won't be bored), but once he's free to wrestle again, there's bound to be interest from a lot of promotions.
AEW seems like the safest bet, but Cody and Tony Khan have said in the past that they don't want to hire too many former WWE talents. They would be smart to make an exception for Rusev, however.