Rusev has talked about his early years in WWE and the challenges he faced in its developmental territory.

The former WWE US Champion recently talked to Chris Van Vliet on “Insight” about his early years in WWE, and how Rikishi — who trained him — helped him get a trial.

“It was 2010 SummerSlam in LA. And I went out there with a torn ACL, which is something else. I had to go to the bathroom, wrap my knee with a duct tape ’cause it was giving up. I wrapped that thing up and hiding away from everybody and going had a try out,” he remembered. “After that Johnny Ace came and he said, ‘Hey, do you have any problem relocating to Florida? I said, ‘No sir, I don’t.’ And, yeah, that’s when they offered me a contract and I had to wait another year to fix my paperwork, ’cause you know I still [had] a little issue with the paperwork situation.”

He recalled how he had to wait until March 2011 for his paperwork to be sorted out, after which he joined WWE’s developmental territory, FCW. His time in WWE started on a tough note as he had to get surgery and later broke his neck, which, he felt, would’ve resulted in him being let go. 

“So I was in developmental, you know, they eventually, after a few months, they found out my knee was broken, my ACL. So I had to get the surgery. So six months I was out. I came back, you know, started climbing a little bit. Two months later, I broke my neck, which was very — I don’t even know how I broke my neck,” he said. “And I thought after that, you know, I was trying to be realistic, be like probably they’re going to fire me, you know, it makes sense.”

After his return, he showed a different side of himself, which included a different wrestling style, which WWE management was impressed by, while the new structure under Triple H, which eventually became “NXT,” had a structure that helped him become a better wrestler.