Rusev-Summer Rae Storyline Derailed by WWE Failing to Separate Fact from Fiction

Rusev and Summer Rae's love story ended on Monday night, with a spirited slap to a dumbfounded brute and an audience more confused than compelled. 

After months of constructing a soap opera-like storyline, WWE abruptly tore it down. In bringing in Rusev and Lana's real-life relationship into the plot unfolding on Raw and SmackDown, the company blew up what it began. The melodrama came to a close in an awkward and unsatisfying way.

Summer had just proposed to Rusev on Raw last week. The Bulgarian powerhouse agreed, but with the caveat that he had to wear WWE gold first.

In real life, Rusev has been in a relationship with the woman he dumped on TV: Lana. That had been separate from the story unfolding on the screen each week until Monday night.

Over the weekend, TMZ reported, "Sources close to the couple tell TMZ Rusev proposed to his WWE manager gf last month at their Nashville home."

WWE didn't just acknowledge this news but clumsily shoved it into the current storyline. On Monday's Raw, Summer revealed that she found out about this engagement, calling Rusev a cheater. She slapped him, walking out on the bruiser and refusing to play the replacement Ravishing Russian any longer.

This came after months of Lana playing the reformed heel, clinging to Dolph Ziggler's side. This came after WWE had previously chosen to ignore Rusev and Lana's off-screen relationship.

And it all ended in a hurried, baffling way.

It's not surprising that fans and critics alike were confused, Greg Parks of Pro Wrestling Torch included: 

It makes sense if WWE wanted to simply get out of a story that had only been getting worse, but to do so this haphazardly is maddening. Why have fans been investing all this time in seeing where this arc was going if it was just going to disappear?

We're supposed to believe that somehow Lana has forgiven Rusev for months' worth of abuse and insults. We're supposed to buy that Ziggler cares so little about his enemy stealing his girlfriend that he rushes off to his next story with little more than a shrug.

As Matt Fowler wrote for IGN, Ziggler's reaction was lacking. He said of The Showoff, "His backstage reaction video was all 'Yeah, well, I'm happy for her. We had a good run, but now she's picked Rusev and WHAT'S THAT OVER THERE?' *puff of smoke and he's gone*"

Indy wrestler El Ligero summed up the baffling nature of the situation from a booking standpoint:

He's spot on here. Ziggler never got true revenge for Rusev crushing his trachea. Rusev didn't climb a notch on the WWE ladder by crushing Ziggler or being the one to dump Summer. Fans didn't even get to see Lana and Summer face off in the showdown that was teased for so long. 

The TMZ report did not tie WWE's hands. The company has long shaped reality to suit itself. It has long chosen which elements of the real world it wishes to ignore.

Dean Ambrose and Renee Young are dating in real life. WWE simply doesn't bring that up. And why would it? It doesn't make sense in terms of its stories.

The company chose not to present Roman Reigns as Samoan early on. It simply ignored the fact that his real last name was Anoa'i. When he attacked The Rock or battled The Usos, there was no mention of their kinship.

Fans know that Bray Wyatt was once Husky Harris, that he was a part of Nexus. All that is pushed to the side and not spoken of. Wyatt has his own history. He is treated like a separate person.

That's because Roman Reigns is a character and Leati Anoa'i is a real person. Wyatt is fiction, while Windham Rotunda is reality. Ambrose (or more accurately, Jonathan Good) and Young's personal life exists on a different plane than the one The Lunatic Fringe exists on.

To merge those worlds unnecessarily is foolish.

If Wyatt suddenly revealed that was Bo Dallas' brother and that he once served under Bad News Barrett as part of Nexus, it would make no sense. Just as it made no sense to take a hard left turn in the Rusev-Summer angle.

Credit: WWE.com

Acknowledging reality didn't deepen the storyline here; it muddled it.

After all this time trying to build up Summer as despicable and Lana as a changed woman we should root for, WWE flipped the narrative on its head. It was a mistake not to just pretend the TMZ report didn't exist the same the company pretends that Seth Rollins never used the Curb Stomp.

Instead, the way things unraveled, it makes one feel stupid for investing.

The good news is once WWE trudges through the mess that is explaining how Lana would have agreed to marry Rusev, good things are coming.

WWE can turn Lana heel once more. That's the better fit for her. As a babyface, she was just a smiling piece of arm candy. There was no depth to her character.

She'd lost the edge that made her compelling.

As for Rusev, he can stop wallowing in heartache on TV each week. He will no longer have this anchor of a story dragging him down. 

He can be a monster once more, with the ideal manager for him at his side.

WWE can't undo the clunky way it ended Summer and Rusev's relationship, nor can it give fans back all the time they spent watching this garbage stink up Raw each week. It can, though, let Rusev regain momentum by leaving a path of ruin behind him, one that helps fans forget the long, painful summer that was this corny love triangle.