Its time for the match that takes place to get more people on the show!  Its time for the mixed tag team match on the SummerSlam pre show.

Rusev and Lana are a real life husband and wife pairing.  Rusev came in as the unstoppable Bulgarian Brute.  An evil Russian gimmick without actually being an evil Russian.  The monster foreigner that could not be stopped.  Lana was his English as a second language “Russian born” manager who would tell the world that Rusev will crush any and all opponents.  It was a great build up for a new villain but the problem with the unstoppable force is what do you do with him once he’s stopped?

Rusev filled the bad guy role in many feuds but never had anything to really write home to Bulgaria about.  Lana’s accent came and went and a funny thing happened.  People realized Lana is attractive.  That’s not the funny thing.  But her attractiveness led to her joining the cast of the WWE Reality show “Total Divas” which features how the women of the WWE live their lives in the real world when not on camera.  As real as reality TV is.  Lana being married to Rusev in the real world meant that he appeared on the show.  Suddenly this personality that was never showcased on WWE emerged.  He’s charismatic, funny, and absolutely loves his wife.  Suddenly the people love him and are excited to celebrate “Happy Rusev Day”.  The monster now heard the love of the fans.  But a man that gets all of that love, is a monster, has a beautiful wife – where’s the conflict?  What threat could there actually be to him?  Rusev seems untouchable.

So you go after the wife.

Zelina Vega and Cien Almas might be new to Smackdown but they filled their passports for years by distributing punches and kicks to all four corners of the globe.  Zelina could take out half the men on the roster and Almas will take out the other half while they’re distracted watching her.  Almas was an absolute star in Mexico and has impressed everyone with his work in WWE.  He is a name that has no limits.  While he’s on the pre show this year he’s the kind of talent that could be main eventing the show next year.

This match has great potential to shock everyone and launch everyone involved into title matches for the rest of the year.