On Monday night Raw, Shane McMahon held another installment of Raw Underground, a seedy fight club-style segement.
Raw Underground featured longtime combat artist Arturo Ruas, who sports 17 years in the fight game, among other fighters.
In Ruas’s no holds barred bout, the undefeated Brazilian freestyle wrestling champion thrashed his opponent with ease.
Ruas, a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu who is highly skilled in capoeira (a traditional form of Brazilian fighting), should get the oppurtunity to work his way back to more TV time on NXT, or even get his shot on the main roster in due course.
It’s anyone’s guess how WWE will use Ruas, whose real name is Adrian Jaoude. Perhaps against MMA guys such as Matt Riddle (just spitballing here), or a proficient former amateur wrestler like Shorty G. Maybe even Timothy Thatcher. Who knows?
However, the dilemma with WWE remains that it has a lot of wrestlers in the company, and only limited amount of slots.
But I have seen the Lebanese-born Ruas wrestle at an Evolve Wrestling show in Brooklyn, and he is a well above-average submission specialist. The thing is, he will need to work on his mic skills, but that is doable.
To that end, I like to see Ruas get more TV time and develop into a quality sports entertainer.
— Jerry Del Priore
