Lio Rush BREAKS THE Internet With Wild New AEW Gimmick (AEW News)

Lio Rush's new gimmick is doing BIG numbers for AEW.

by Andrew Pollard
Lio Rush
AEW

Having undergone a major character change recently, Lio Rush is doing big numbers across AEW's socials.

As picked up on by WrestleTalk, Lio's appearance against Tommaso Ciampa on the Slam Dunk Sunday edition of AEW Collision this past weekend has drawn over 26 million views across All Elite's various social media platforms.

Rush debuted this new character at AEW Revolution, where he was a part of the 21-man Blackjack Battle Royal on the Zero Hour for Ricochet's National Championship. While the bigger talking point was Jack Perry emerging victorious in that match and becoming the new National Champion, many fans were left talking about Lio's new gimmick.

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Crawling around on all fours, sporting white contact lenses, acting generally erratically, referring to himself as the Blackheart, and stating that "he" is listening, this new Lio Rush was compared to Gollum from The Lord of the Rings by the Zero Hour commentary team at Revolution. And that was followed up by a similar performance as Rush came up short to Tommaso Ciampa on Collision.

Either way, with those strong social media numbers, this new Lio has certainly made an immediate impression.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer and Presenter, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.