WWE Has No WrestleMania Plans For Two Major Stars

WWE is at an impasse with one of its most popular stars, and he may miss out on the company's biggest pay-per-view of the year because of it.

Paul Davis of WrestlingNews.co reports that Rusev has yet to re-sign with WWE and isn't in the company's creative plans for WrestleMania 36 while there is also no planned WrestleMania match for his longtime rival Bobby Lashley:

"Rusev has been backstage at some Raw shows in recent weeks and he was there [last week]...but not used. Meanwhile, Lana was not backstage at Raw because she is currently filming a movie. I was told that her new WWE contract allows her to take time off for outside projects. The word making the rounds backstage at Raw is that Rusev has not signed a new deal. At this point, there is no match scheduled for him or Lashley at WrestleMania although they could be inserted into the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal."

Rusev has been at odds with WWE over his contract status for roughly two years now. "The Bulgarian Brute" first asked for his release from the company in early 2018 due to creative dissatisfaction. His reported release request came not long after he had emerged as WWE's top merchandise seller as the "Rusev Day" moment was in full effect and he had been firmly entrenched as one of WWE's most likable stars. It was WWE's bizarre decision to scrap Rusev's push that really caused his relationship with WWE to begin to crumble.

Despite his popularity, Rusev's push was never sustained, and in early 2019, he openly spoke about how hard it is to get through to Vince McMahon and be noticed by the WWE boss. That led to Rusev making the difficult decision not to re-sign with WWE last year when his wife Lana did on a deal that resulted in "The Ravishing Russian" getting a sizable pay increase. Though McMahon has been wishy-washy when it comes to pushing Rusev, he had reportedly made re-signing Rusev a "top priority" late last year, though that didn't go well. Rusev still hasn't re-signed with WWE, and recently, his relationship with WWE took a turn for the worse.

In February, Rusev was removed from TV due to a "contract dispute," and though he briefly returned to TV and was advertised to compete at Super ShowDown late last month, he reportedly "backed out" of the event with a back injury in a move that certainly seemed to indicate that he and WWE remain on separate pages. WWE, after all, had spent a lot of time and effort focusing on Rusev in late 2019 following his return from a lengthy hiatus. He, Lana and Lashley became the centerpieces of an Attitude Era-like love triangle that Lana claimed was a huge ratings hit for WWE but one that also portrayed Rusev as a loser. Though Rusev has publicly defended this controversial storyline, there has been mounting speculation that Rusev was placed into the scandalous storyline to cool him off in the event that he chooses to leave WWE when his contract expires in the near future.

Should Rusev choose to let his contract run out, he will undoubtedly be one of the hottest free agents in all of pro wrestling, but given the lucrative contracts that WWE has been giving even to seldom used lower card stars, the possibility remains that Rusev ultimately chooses to ink a new deal at some point. For now, though, it appears that WWE-which seemingly dropped the Rusev/Lashley/Lana storyline at the drop of a dime and without any real explanation-is content leaving Rusev off TV altogether, which means that the chances of him appearing at WrestleMania 36 are slim to none, though the pay-per-view itself seems to be up in the air following the suspension of the NBA season.

What's unfortunate for Lashley is that Rusev's plight has become his own. WWE clearly had no long-term plan in place for Lashley once his storyline with Rusev concluded, and now that the love triangle storyline is over and done with for good, Lashley also finds himself without a significant spot on the card and without any sort of clear path to WrestleMania 36 even though WWE's flagship pay-per-view-if it still happens as planned-is expected to have 16 matches or more and could last nearly eight hours when you include the two-hour pre-show.

As talented as Rusev and Lashley are, WWE's influx of part-timers-including the likes of Brock Lesnar, Edge, John Cena and Goldberg-means that it is going to be remarkably difficult for them to find a worthwhile spot on the card, especially given the way WWE gave up on their once strongly pushed storyline as quickly as it came together.

As of this writing, WrestleMania 36 is still scheduled for April 5 in Tampa, Florida, though an official announcement is expected in the near future.