At the Greatest Royal Rumble, Rusev battled The Undertaker in a pretty entertaining Casket match which ended with both The Bulgarian Brute and Aiden English being locked inside a coffin by The Deadman. However, after the match was announced, Chris Jericho was quickly named his replacement and Rusev has now elaborated on what happened behind the scenes to cause that.
"So I was supposed to be in it," Rusev explains. "Vince told me one time, you know ‘you’re gonna work The Undertaker in Saudi Arabia,’ and I laughed at him because I thought he was joking. I’m like, ‘whatever,’ and he’s like, ‘it’s gonna be a casket match.’ I completely laughed at him and was like, ‘yeah and I’m winning, right?’ He was like, ‘alight I’ll talk to you later.’"
"He left and I still completely thought it was a joke and there were other people in the room and they thought that I was being an asshole," he added. "I was like ‘he was joking with me,’ and he was like, ‘no, it’s booked.’ The next day there was a big advertisement ‘Rusev vs The Undertaker’ I was like, ‘oh my god… what a… so stupid.’" So, yeah, that was awkward!
As for what led to him being put back in the match, it seems it wasn't Vince McMahon's decision! "Then they took me out because we’re kinda going a different direction. We’re kinda doing the good guy thing and [McMahon] thought I shouldn’t be buried if I was a good guy. Then he took me out and he put in Jericho. Then The Prince of Saudi Arabia called and said, ‘no.’"
It's interesting that despite Rusev no doubt annoying his boss with his reaction, Vince was still worried about him being buried. The former United States Champion went on to say that it was a great match and "Just going out there and wrestling a true legend and learning a lot from him it was a great opportunity." Are you glad he ended up squaring off with The Phenom in Saudi Arabia?