5 Things you may have forgotten about Miro fka Rusev

#1 Rusev once suffered a career-threatening injury

Rusev once could've been paralyzed for his whole life

Just a few weeks after Rusev made his FCW debut, the Bulgarian Superstar accidentally tore two major ligaments in his knee (ACL and meniscus) during a match. As a result, he spent almost six months on the sidelines rehabilitating and made his return eight-months later. Unfortunately, before Rusev could build some momentum, he got injured once again. But, this time, it was very serious.

During a spot in one of his matches, Rusev accidentally landed on his neck that broke one of his seven cervical vertebrae and left one of his hands temporarily paralyzed. While Rusev was able to walk on his legs afterward, he was told by the doctors that he was lucky, as that type of injury had the potential to end his wrestling career as well as paralyze him for life.

Rusev then took a year-long hiatus from in-ring action and used it to rehabilitate and traveling Thailand, where he learned the Muay Thai, widely famous as Thai boxing. Rusev made his in-ring return in the summer of 2013, by the time FCW had rebranded as NXT, and soon got involved in the NXT Championship picture.