Rusev: WWE Changed My Character Because of President Trump And The 2016 Election

WWE Superstar Rusev has said that his character was changed in the wake of the US 2016 Presidential Election of Donald Trump.

Rusev, a former three-time United States Champion, spent the first few years of his main-roster run as a pro-Russian anti-American heel, before the character was quietly dropped.

Speaking to Bulgaria's Video DIRBG, the 33-year-old said that the real tensions between the US and Russia helped fuel the character, saying: 

"It's true, we keep up and Vince [McMahon] keeps up with what's going on globally. He noticed that tension between Russia and America at the time and that's when it was decided that I'll go represent Russia and Putin and whatnot. But things changed, [Donald] Trump was elected as US President and he is a WWE Hall Of Famer etc."

Trump was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013 for his work as the host of WrestleMania 4 and 5, as well as his participation in WrestleMania 23's Battle of the Billionaires.