Rusev Reveals Why He Was Initially Pulled From Greatest Royal Rumble

And now we know why. Earlier this year, WWE presented one of their biggest live events in history with the Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia. The crowd was approximately 60,000 strong with one of the most packed cards you’ll ever see WWE put on. One of the major matches was an appearance from the Undertaker, who faced Rusev in a casket match. What you might remember is Rusev being swapped out for Chris Jericho at one point before being put back in. Now we know what really happened.

You remember the Greatest Royal Rumble? No? Well then check out our full results.
Last night on Ride Along, Rusev and Aiden English discussed the incident and revealed what happened. When Vince McMahon told Rusev that he would be in the match with the Undertaker, Rusev laughed in McMahon’s face. That and a tweet directed at Undertaker, which said “bury me softly, brother”, got him pulled from the match. Rusev claims he was then put back in due to a phone call from the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who wanted him on the card and in the match.

Rusev did make it and had a good showing.

The Undertaker spoils Rusev Day with a vicious leg drop on the apron: Greatest Royal Rumble

Opinion: You never know how accurate this is, especially given that it’s airing on an official WWE show, but I’ll take the explanation for lack of anything else. Maybe Rusev went a bit too far by laughing in McMahon’s face (though the context would be rather important) but at least he was on the show. Now the fact that the Undertaker won may be a bit counter productive, but at least Rusev got to be featured instead of being left on the outside looking in, which would have been a huge wasted opportunity.

Do you think this is what happened? Will Rusev win the WWE Championship at Extreme Rules? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 27 wrestling books. His latest book is the NXT: The Full Sail Years Volume III: From Dallas To New Orleans.

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