In the latest edition of the Warren Hayes Show audio podcast, Warren Hayes interviews Matt Rehwoldt, formerly known as Aiden English in WWE. Over the course of the interview, Rehwoldt discusses Rusev Day, his time on commentary, returning to the ring last Saturday at Zelo Pro’s Stronger Together, as well as his Wrestling With Whiskey YouTube channel.
Our thanks to Warren for sending along the following quotes.
Rehwoldt credits the genesis of the “Happy Rusev Day” term to Randy Orton:
“If I remember correctly, the ceremony, the segment wasn’t called, like, “Rusev Day Segment.” The mayor said “We’re going to call today Rusev Day” kind of a throwaway line. And then backstage, Randy [Orton] goes, to like a backstage interviewer, “Hey, Happy Rusev Day, ha ha ha” and walks away. And that was kind of the first Happy Rusev Day was Randy saying it in an interview. And then after that, you’d hear small chants at the TV or on house shows. And it just kept growing and growing and people just wouldn’t stop.”
When asked about Vince McMahon telling Miro/Rusev that the audience was making fun of Rusev Day:
“I was getting this from Miro who spoke to Vince directly. But yeah, to be fair, sometimes… I can see… the mind that is Vince McMahon is a very wild place. And so it literally could just be point face, what it was, or he could have been saying that to try to get Miro, like angry, and like yeah, fire him up. I wouldn’t put it past him. But there would always seem to be this hesitation behind really pulling the trigger on anything major with us, anyway, so I do take as that’s kind of the way it was seen by the boss. So yeah, it was, it was like, what else do we have to do to kind of show people are into this.
They were trying to push him [Miro/Rusev] as a really strong heel, so I get the urge to be like “No, let’s not immediately jump into like everybody loves him,” I get it. You don’t want to jump into anything too fast. But it kept going. If it’s ironic, people will throw it away in a week or two. They get over that stuff. But when they’re really loving something they stick with it and they did stick with it and stuck with it and stuck with it and stuck.”
You can check out the full interview on Spotify by clicking here.
