WWE Hall Of Famer Thinks Miro Could Have Been WWE Champion
A WWE Hall of Famer that worked creatively in the company believes Miro definitely could have been a WWE Champion.
Prior to his current run in All Elite Wrestling as Miro, he was known as Rusev in WWE. After signing with WWE in 2010, Rusev made a big impact in 2014, which led to three reigns as the United States Champion.
By late 2017 and into 2018, WWE had started a “Rusev Day” character for Miro, who was paired with Aiden English at times along with Miro’s wife Lana. It was a phenomenon that really grew to become bigger than the company probably expected, but many fans look back on it thinking that WWE didn’t go far enough with Rusev based on how popular he was.
In 2018 going into the July pay-per-view called Extreme Rules, Miro earned a WWE Championship match against AJ Styles. While Styles found a way to retain his title, it was the farthest that Miro went in WWE in terms of being a major championship contender.
The “Road Dogg” Brian James is a WWE Hall of Famer that was a member of WWE”s creative team in the 2010s including a run as Smackdown’s head writer in this era.
On the latest episode of Road Dogg’s “Oh You Didn’t Know” podcast covering Extreme Rules 2018, Road Dogg was asked if Miro could have been WWE Champion during his career there.
“Of course, he could be a champion, honestly. He could have beat AJ that night and been the champion. And I’ll tell you why. I think him and Lana were a great package. I think she was beautiful to look at. He was a killer.”
“I think it was a great package. I think it was right out of central casting for Rocky 17, you know, and they worked perfectly together. He got in shape. He was legitimately hilarious when he would speak in broken English.”
“He could have been an entertaining babyface or a heel champion because I do think the promos would have been, could have been, classic and we would have had a ‘Rusev Day’ every year and had a big celebration. So yeah, he definitely could have been the man. Maybe he still will be, you know what I mean?”
There was also a Roman Reigns-Bobby Lashley match at Extreme Rules 2018 with a “Rusev Day” chant supporting Miro. According to Road Dogg, he thinks that the fan hijacking the show with “Rusev Day” chants may have hurt any serious push for Rusev/Miro at the time.
“See, that right there is I think the reason. He didn’t get pushed because of the fans. I honestly do. They’re hijacking other parts of the show… It wasn’t really about Rusev or they would’ve done it during his match.”
“Like that’s when you do it. He was wrestling. Now they’re doing it just because they hate the guy in the ring. You know what I mean?”
Miro would go on to leave WWE in 2020 and jumped to AEW in September of that year. Miro is mainly being featured on Collision these days.