Rusev: I Returned To WWE To Wrestle More, I Missed The Grind Of Being A Wrestler

Rusev discusses why he decided to make his WWE return.

On April 21, 2025, Rusev made his first WWE appearance in five years. During his time away, the Bulgarian joined AEW, going on to have a stellar TNT Championship reign. However, after losing the title, the star would only step into the ring 13 more times for the company, making no further appearances from December 2023 to when his deal expired. Now, Rusev has opened up why more in-ring time was important when opting to return to WWE.

During a recent appearance on Insight, Rusev told Chris Van Vliet that he returned to WWE because he wanted to wrestle, mentioning how he missed the grind of being a wrestler.

“I wanted to wrestle. I wanted to mix it up with the best. I know that the roster is stacked. I don’t remember the last time it was this stacked, but I just want to mix it with everybody. I wanted to wrestle more and more, and all these European tours and everything. I love all that, I love the grind. Because when we first started, we were five days on the road, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, you go home Wednesday, you’re out on the road again on Friday. And that’s just how life was, as hard as it was, that’s how you get better, just by putting in the work. Because every day you work different towns, you travel. Now the people can only hear about that and be like, Oh, really, that’s what it was. It was so cool. Wrestling, getting beaten up, getting the rental car driving three hours to the next town, getting the hotel, waking up, working out, doing the same thing, makes you feel like a real professional wrestler. I miss the grind.”

-Rusev

Rusev’s last TV match came back in November as part of the Last Time Is Now Tournament, although his move to WWE has afforded him the opportunity to appear on house shows in countries like Japan and Australia since his return. The 40-year-old also made appearances at NXT live events in September, and remains active on Main Event tapings when not a primary focus of the company’s weekly shows.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Rusev as soon as we hear more.