Rusev slammed the dirt sheets and said 90 percent of what they put out is garbage.
On TMZ’s Inside The Ring, he and his wife CJ Perry, who went by Lana in WWE, talked about the influence of the dirt sheets. Rusev compared the situation now to his first run with WWE, when he didn’t even know who was covering backstage news.
“So, my first run in WWE, I never knew anything about dirt sheets or any kind of dirt sheet reporter,” Rusev said. “Nobody cared about these things. All of a sudden, it became this huge thing about dirt sheets and all these other guys who write stuff. Ninety percent of the things people write are just crap.”
Perry had a different opinion. She feels the dirt sheets were around back then as well, but Instagram has changed the way wrestlers come across the news.
“I feel like the dirt sheets were always around back then, but the difference is that now people use Instagram,” Perry said. “People always used Twitter as well, but now you see it a lot more because of Instagram. Our algorithms feed us wrestling stuff, and these dirt sheets also post on Instagram accounts, so we see it even quicker. I don’t necessarily go read the full articles, but I see stuff.”
Rusev explained why something reported about WWE’s plans can be right at the time but no longer be the case a few days later. He said WWE can make changes at the last minute, even after an idea has been approved backstage.
“You did know, but also because somebody said that they could have probably been greenlit on Tuesday,” Rusev said. “By the time Wednesday night comes, everything could be scrapped and rewritten on Thursday. Everything is changing by the hour, by the minute, by the day. It all depends on who’s in what mood as well.”
Perry added that ideas are often worked on before creative decides whether or not they make it to TV.
“A lot of times, ideas are shuffled around, and creative people will be like, ‘Hey, what about this idea?’” Perry said. “And then they’ll maybe keep it, you know, flush it out for a little bit, and then they decide not to go with it.”
The conversation began after Rusev was asked about reports that WWE is planning to form a group with him, Ethan Page, and Big Cass. Self Made PW reported the news on Wednesday.
When asked about the potential group, Rusev called it “internet booking” and said he had never heard of the plan. He also joked that Page found a new partner while he was off TV.
Rusev had similar criticism of the dirt sheets back in November 2025. On SHAK Wrestling, he denied rumors that he refused to lose matches during his AEW run.
In the same interview, he said the people behind those stories had “no evidence, no proof” and could report them without having to name a source. That doesn’t make much sense, since a source is usually not named because the person who leaked the information could even get fired.