10 Things We Learned From Speaking To Lio Rush
We sat down with the Man of the Hour and former Cruiserweight Champion.
April 15, 2020 was a dark day for the wrestling business, for this was the day where WWE made more cuts than at any point in the company's history. Whether it was wrestlers, referees, producers, or office staff, WWE handed releases out to an utterly staggering number of people.
One such person given their release on that day was former Cruiserweight Champion, Lio Rush.
Having carved a name for himself in organisations such as Combat Zone Wrestling and Ring of Honor before singing with WWE in August 2017, Rush was an in-ring marvel who combined a unique charisma with the fact that he could do things that nobody had ever seen before.
Unfortunately, the Man of the Hour's time with WWE was a major roller coaster of a ride, with him one week being a pivotal part of Monday Night Raw, to then being pulled from TV for months at a time. It was a strange situation for Rush to find himself in, yet he so often maximised his minutes when he was afforded an opportunity to showcase his abilities.
We recently sat down to have a chat with Lio Rush about his WWE departure, whether he'd ever return to WWE, whether he'll even ever wrestle again, what's going on with he and Mark Henry, and so much more.
And from that chat, here are just ten key things we learned...
10. He Believed He'd Be In The Current Cruiserweight Tournament
Right now, the NXT brand is in the midst of a tournament to crown an interim Cruiserweight Champion.
With current champ Jordan Devlin unable to travel and compete due to restrictions in place as part of the ongoing global situation, the call was made to pull a silver lining from this in the form of a tournament. After all, when done well, who doesn't love a good tourney?
The announcement of this tournament was made a week before Lio Rush was one of the multitude of WWE talents to be released on April 15, and Rush - like so many of us - presumed he'd be a part of the competition.
As a former Cruiserweight Champion who'd had an impressive two-month run with the title late last year, complete with show-stealing performances on a weekly basis, it seemed a no-brainer that Rush would be a key part of this tournament, or if not then his stock as a former champ would surely put him in line to square off with the eventual winner down the line.
Upon hearing the news of this tournament being announced, Rush explained to us that he texted one of the company's writers - who broke the news to him that he wouldn't be involved.
On hearing that news, Rush told us, "I'm not gonna lie, I was really shocked. I was pretty shocked, because I had a pretty good run with the title for a little while, so I just thought I was gonna be a part of it. Once I found out I wasn't, I just started doing promos on social media promoting the tournament and promoting the guys that were in it."