Miro left WWE with many fans feeling he should have achieved more, but the Bulgarian star knows he’ll reach the mountain-top in the on-fire AEW promotion.
The 36 year old, formerly known as Rusev in WWE, debuted for AEW in 2020 during the pandemic, but with just three singles losses to his name in two years, The Redeemer is on course to gatecrash the main event.
An exceptional run as TNT champion seemed to be propelling Miro towards the world title picture, but a six-month injury layoff stalled Miro’s obvious momentum.
Now he is back and in a conversation with talkSPORT, Miro says he is ready to fulfil Tony Khan’s ambitions for him.
“Everybody knows I’m world champion material. From Tony Khan, to the audience, to you, to me; to call it otherwise would be short-changing the man who paid so much money to stay in this company for the long-term,” Miro said.
Once upon a time, fans were crying out for AEW to have bigger wrestlers. Miro is one of the natural heavyweights, but now names like Wardlow, Keith Lee and Samoa Joe can rub shoulders with him.
Those names excite Miro, especially Joe.
“I respect [Samoa] Joe, a lot. He’s such a legit ass-kicker that I would love to face him and have that classic, put that meat to work,” Miro said.
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“Wardlow is the young guy of the group. He’s got a lot more to learn. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s got the audience behind him, but there is a difference between being on the road for 10, 12, 15 years and doing it consistently.
“He’s got the powerbomb symphony or whatever you call it, but once you test yourself against one of these big guys like me or Joe, who you have a hard time to pick up for one of your powerbombs, then plans change, my friend.
“What’s your second move? What’s your third move? That’s where the challenge for him is going to come,” Miro explained.
During his six years on the main roster in WWE, Miro achieved a lot. He had a memorable United States title run and a singles match with John Cena at WrestleMania to name a couple.
Miro says 16-time world champion John Cena has help mould him inside the ring more than anyone or anything else.
“Almost everything I do in the ring is because of John Cena. We’ve seen maybe 10, 15 maybe 20 matches on TV that I had with him whether it was PPV, TV or whatnot, but what people don’t know is I probably had 1,000 matches with him not on TV.
“That’s where I learned the most. I learned when I’m kicking his ass and these people are chanting something, I know he’s going to try and satisfy these people so he’s going to try and come up with something and how do I counter that.
“It’s a lot of the psychology you learn with him. Just taking the time. More than 50 percent of professional wrestling I’ve learned from Cena and working with him. I can never be thankful enough of him for doing that.
“But even nowadays, I always respect John. How work ethic was always unmatchable. And now when I’m doing the acting stuff, I text him every now and again to get advice and he’s always very, very generous with his advice,” Miro said.
Miro also had some comedic run-ins with The Rock in WWE.
His stoic demeanour played well with The Rock’s over the top insults and when The Great One targeted Lana, Miro’s real-life wife, CJ Perry, it made for some memorable segments.
But Miro thinks the Hollywood superstar just targeted him because he got the better of the WWE legend in New York.
“It was just ‘Hey, look at me, I’m The Rock, I need to make fun of everybody.’ So it is what it is at that point,” Miro said of their backstage segment where Rock implied he’d had relations with Lana.
“The first one was better, the one in Brooklyn. He showed up out of nowhere, we had a little talk and scuffle. I think that left a sour taste in his mouth.
“Even though he beat me up a little bit, I got the better of him. Maybe he was just sour about that so he had to come back and talk bad about Lana, imagining things.
“We all know Rocky just likes to talk. It’s not even offensive, it’s like that kid in your school like ‘look at this loudmouth.’ How many times can I beat him before he stops talking? Clearly, that’s impossible,” Miro said with a smile.
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