Miro (wrestler)

Miroslav Petrov Barnyashev (Мирослав Петров Барняшев, ; born December 25, 1985) is a Bulgarian professional wrestler.

He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Miro and is a one-time AEW TNT Champion.

He is also known for his decade-long career in WWE under the ring name Rusev, where he became the first and so far, only Bulgarian wrestler to have worked for WWE.

Rusev proceeded to adopt Lana as his "social ambassador", a pairing compared by WWE to Ivan and Ludmilla Drago from the 1985 film Rocky IV.

In matches taped before his main roster debut, Rusev defeated main roster wrestlers Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Sin Cara in singles matches, which aired on NXT in January and February.

In the mid-2000s, Barnyashev moved from Bulgaria to the U.S. with the ambition of becoming a professional wrestler.

He originally lived in Virginia, before relocating to Torrance, California, where he began training as a wrestler under Gangrel and Rikishi at the Knokx Pro Wrestling Academy.

Barnyashev debuted in the San Diego, California-based independent promotion New Wave Pro Wrestling on November 22, 2008, under the ring name Miroslav Makaraov, defeating Aerial Star.

In 2010, Barnyashev signed a contract with WWE and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), which was rebranded as NXT in 2012 (WWE's developmental territories).

In 2010, Barnyashev joined the Santa Maria, California-based independent promotion Vendetta Pro Wrestling (VPW), shortening his ring name to Miroslav.

While wrestling for VPW, he was managed by Markus Mac.

In September 2010, Barnyashev was signed to a contract by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

He was assigned to WWE's Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) developmental territory in Tampa, Florida, where he adopted the ring name Alexander Rusev.

He wrestled his first televised match on the July 17, 2011, episode of FCW, defeating Mike Dalton while being managed by Raquel Diaz.

Shortly after debuting in FCW, Rusev tore both his anterior cruciate ligament and his meniscus and spent six months rehabilitating.

Rusev returned to FCW in March 2012 with Nick Rogers as his manager.

In the summer of 2012, Rusev suffered a broken neck, temporarily paralyzing his arm.

While rehabilitating, Barnyashev travelled to Thailand, where he studied the martial art Muay Thai.

In August 2012, WWE rebranded FCW as NXT.

After his neck healed, Rusev made his NXT television debut on the May 29, 2013 episode, competing in a battle royal to determine the number one contender to the NXT Championship that was won by Bo Dallas.

Rusev wrestled his first singles match on the August 21 edition of NXT, losing to Dolph Ziggler.

Shortly thereafter, Rusev adopted Sylvester Lefort as his manager and formed a short-lived tag team with Scott Dawson named "The Fighting Legionnaires"; they feuded with the team of Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady.

On the October 30 episode of NXT, Rusev ended his affiliation with Lefort by attacking him during a tag team bout.

He performed on NXT until 2014, when he and his manager Lana were called to WWE's main roster.

He is a three-time WWE United States Champion.

Rusev continued to appear sporadically on NXT after joining the main roster in April 2014, making his final appearance on July 24, getting disqualified against NXT Champion Adrian Neville in a non-title match.

Rusev made his main roster debut at the Royal Rumble on January 26, 2014, where he was the sixth entrant in the Royal Rumble match, where he was eliminated by the joint effort of four other wrestlers.

After months of self-promotional videos and speeches by Rusev and his manager Lana, Rusev's return match on the main roster came on the April 7 episode of Raw, where he squashed Zack Ryder.

In May, Rusev adopted a Russophillic, anti-American gimmick that saw him announced as having relocated to Russia, and as having been named "Hero of the Russian Federation".

This angle brought Barnyashev much legitimate heat in his native Bulgaria.

In the same month, his ring name was shortened to simply Rusev.

Over the next several months, Rusev feuded with Xavier Woods and R-Truth (whom Rusev defeated at Extreme Rules in a two-on-one handicap match) and Big E (whom he defeated at Payback and at Money in the Bank), Jack Swagger (whom he defeated at Battleground and again at SummerSlam), Mark Henry (whom he defeated at Night of Champions) and Big Show (whom he defeated at Hell in a Cell).

Lana dedicated Rusev's string of victories to President of Russia Vladimir Putin, drawing attention from the mainstream press – including The Washington Post and The Daily Beast – and criticism after she was interpreted as having referred to the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 before Rusev's match at Battleground in an attempt to generate heat.

On the October 6 episode of Raw, Rusev and Lana were confronted by The Rock in a surprise appearance, with The Rock driving Rusev from the ring after a verbal exchange.

On November 3, Rusev gained his first professional wrestling championship and became the first Bulgarian-born champion in WWE history when he won the United States Championship from Sheamus in a post-Raw match that aired on the WWE Network and proceeded to defeat him in a rematch via count-out.

At Survivor Series, Rusev competed in a 10-man Survivor Series match as part of Team Authority but he was eliminated from the match by countout.

Rusev and Jack Swagger once again feuded in December, leading to Rusev successfully defending the United States Championship against Swagger at TLC.

He was released by WWE in April 2020, debuting in AEW as Miro in September of that year.

Miroslav Barnyashev was born in Plovdiv, which was then part of the People's Republic of Bulgaria.

He attended a sports school while growing up and competed in rowing, powerlifting, and sambo as an adult.