According to reports from Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE had plans for Rusev to return and challenge for WWE Championship at the upcoming Money In The Bank PPV.
These plans were apparently nixed after Officials decided to put the title on Jinder Mahal. Reports state the decision to make Mahal champion was taken sometime at Friday before Backlash.
Per Observer, the company hadn’t finalised the plans of the championship match for the Bulgarian Brute. Though after the promo he delivered a few weeks ago it was the logical direction for his character.
It’s stated that currently, the company does not has a roadmap to bring Rusev back on Television so it’s hard to tell when we will see him making his SmackDown Live debut.
It’s worth noticing that Rusev had announced that he will be appearing on the May 16th episode of SmackDown Live but he never showed up for the event.
It was later revealed he was attending Nashville Predators’ NHL game at the time. Though the backstage reason for him not appearing seems to be the fact that WWE had to nix the plans of his return.
