Miroslav Barnyashev (born: December 25, 1984) is a Bulgarian gaming YouTuber and Twitch streamer better known to wrestling fans as Rusev in WWE or as Miro in All Elite Wrestling.
About[]
Born in Plovdiv, in what was then the People's Republic of Bulgaria, Miro attended a sports school before competing in sambo, powerlifting and rowing as an adult, later emigrating to the United States at some point in the mid-2000s to fulfill his ambition of becoming a professional wrestler, eventually making his professional debut in 2008 under the ring name Miroslav Makaraov. In September 2010 he was signed to WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling and given the name Alexander Rusev. When the developmental system was rebranded to its current name NXT, Miro was paired with another developmental signing Lana in 2013 and at this time his career began to take off, leading to him debuting on WWE's Royal Rumble pay per view in January 2014 before making his debut on their flagship show Raw in April of that year which also saw his ring name shortened to Rusev, and that November he became the first Bulgarian-born champion in WWE history when he won the company's United States Championship.
In April 2020, Miro was one of many WWE wrestlers and agents to be released from the company as a cost-cutting measure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a move which draw ire from wrestling fans for a myriad of reasons, not least the company's corporate sponsorships more than covering the money saved as well as the company making a $18.5m donation to Donald Trump's reelection campaign shortly before Florida governor Ron DeSantis classified WWE as an "essential business" to allow them to keep recording programming in the state of Florida.
YouTube & Twitch career[]
With his release from WWE confirmed, Miro launched his Twitch channel on May 8, 2020, with his YouTube channel following on May 25th. Initially focused on gaming, later Miro started hosting Q&A sessions with his followers, posting vlogs with himself and wife CJ Perry, videos where he talks about his WWE career, and also chats with friends he made in the WWE such as Sheamus and Cesaro.
In late July 2020, Miro was hit with a temporary Twitch ban, with speculation that it was related to a stream where his wife CJ Perry appeared on stream wearing a bikini.[1]
Personal life[]
- Miro married Catherine "CJ" Perry, better known as Lana in WWE, in July 2016,[2] having previously become engaged in October 2015 - ironically at a time where the pair were involved in an angle on WWE television where the two had separated, with Rusev paired with Summer Rae and Lana with Dolph Ziggler.[3]
- Miro became a naturalised American citizen in September 2019.
- In July 2020, Miro announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
References[]
- ↑ Twitter: @ToBeMiro I was too sexy for Twitch. I learned my lesson. See y’all tomorrow
- ↑ WWE: Rusev and Lana get married: photos | WWE
- ↑ Instagram: @tobemiro It’s was a long road. 14 years in the making. So much hardship and obstacles along the way, but in the end who cares! I’m proud to be an American!