What started as a catch-phrase has turned into an officially celebrated holiday. Rusev Day has been officially declared in Knoxville, TN.

With his first-ever WWE Championship match upcoming this Sunday at Extreme Rules, the declaration couldn’t have come at a better time. Not surprisingly, it was a town with a connection to wrestling which announced the holiday.

Glen Jacobs posted the following to Twitter:

Great time tonight at @PowellAuction! Thanks to everyone who attended and helped out! And thanks to @timburchett for declaring it #RusevDay in Knox County!

— Glenn Jacobs (@GlennJacobsTN) July 13, 2018




Rusev spoke with ESPN earlier this year about how “Rusev Day” has taken off.

“I had no idea this was going to happen,” Rusev said to ESPN. “This was supposed to be a one-time ‘Rusev Day’ thing. I never thought in a million years it was going to be what it is today. It was something we planned to do, but just for one day. But it just caught on fire ever since then. Nobody expected that.”

While he might not have expected, Rusev says this has been the greatest part of his career.

“I’ve just been enjoying it,” Rusev said. “I’ve been booed out of the building for the past four years. So finally the people now appreciate me. But I’m just having fun, I’m just doing me. Every bad guy or good guy, we all enjoy the crowd reaction, so I’m just going with it.”

Rusev says he is even enjoying this period of his WWE run more than when he was undefeated and rode a tank to the ring at WrestleMania.

“By far it’s the most fun I’ve had in my career,” Rusev said. “I mean, I loved WrestleMania 31 with the tank — that was amazing, of course. But now I’m showing everybody that you don’t have to be stuck being a foreigner bad guy. Being a foreigner bad guy doesn’t have to be my destiny, and I can be much more than that.”