Former WWE star Rusev tests positive for COVID-19

Former WWE star Rusev announced on Twitch today that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

“I am absolutely positive for COVID-19,” he said on a livestream today. “I am absolutely, 100 percent, super mega incredibly positive.”

He later posted a video on YouTube, saying he felt fine aside from losing his sense of taste and smell, a symptom of COVID-19.

Rusev, real name Miroslav Barnyashev, told his viewers that he had originally thought he had tested negative. However, a phone call from the doctor’s office confirmed that he had tested positive. 

The news comes as his wife, WWE star Lana (CJ Perry), wrote on social media that both her mother and father have been battling the virus in recent weeks. In a new YouTube video, Lana said that her mother was taken off oxygen and was breathing on her own and is now out of the ICU. Her father is also recovering.

Rusev was released from WWE in April as a part of wide ranging cuts and furloughs within the company. His no-compete clause is scheduled to end later this month.