In an exclusive for WrestlingNews.co, Steve Fall interviewed former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Lio Rush. Rush’s new music video “The Rub” can be watched by clicking here. He is taking bookings at LioRushNow@gmail.com.
During the interview, Rush talked about his WWE run, why he and Bobby Lashley were split up, his thoughts on hazing in wrestling, AEW, and more. Click below for the full interview.
Lio Rush on why he and Bobby Lashley were split up in WWE:
“I remember it was me and Bobby versus Finn at Elimination Chamber for the IC title and I believe Bobby turned on me. He picked me up and slammed me in the middle of the ring and I thought that was it. I thought it was done. I thought that I had failed Bobby Lashley, The Almighty and that was gonna be it, but the following night, me and Bobby are paired back up and now we’re wrestling the debut of Ricochet and Finn Balor. So there was a little confusion right there and that was the only time we felt like, what’s going on here? Are we splitting? Are we together? I feel like maybe the writers or whoever was in charge at the time was kind of contemplating on whether they wanted me and Bobby to stay together and I think that’s when things started to kind of drift and you started to see the separation after WrestleMania, and yea, we just weren’t together anymore. So I think from the very beginning it was an experiment and I think that experiment just started to fizzle out over time.”
Lio Rush’s thoughts on hazing in wrestling:
“I think it’s dead. I mean, we’re all professionals. We’re all adults. I think it’s something that shouldn’t be tolerated or something that should be put up with. Yeah, that’s all I really have to say about that. You’re going in there to work. You never know what’s going on in somebody’s personal life. You never know what’s going on behind the scenes and you don’t want to go to work and add to that. So, yeah, you just never know. We should all be respectable. We should all want to be respected. I mean it’s simple. Treat people how you want to be treated and it’s as simple as that.”
Lio Rush on why he retired from wrestling:
“I used to say a lot that the same reason I retired is the same reason why I came back and that was because of my family. I’m a huge family man. I love being around my family. I love being surrounded by my family. I love feeling that love and that energy and giving that love and giving that energy to my family. I mean, that time period, I felt like a lot of people were on the edge of what they wanted to do, what they didn’t want to do, different ventures that they were trying to go on. You know, it was COVID. It was a scary time. It was an unpleasant time. It was an unpredictable time. I suffered two injuries during that time. I got laid off from my dream job. I went on a reality TV show. I moved to LA. I did so many things during that time, so I think, not that it’s excusable that I kept saying that I was retiring and coming back, retiring, coming back. It is what it is. I’m here now. That’s what matters the most. It’s a love-hate relationship with wrestling that I have.”
Lio Rush on why his run in AEW was cut short:
“It was cut short because it was cut short. I mean, it just didn’t work out. I say this quite often every time that it is brought up. Yeah, it just didn’t work out and it, but regardless of what those reasons are, things just don’t work out. You know, it’s like that in life for many things and for many people. If it was a different time period, if it was a different situation, if it was, yeah, all of these what ifs, but they weren’t what ifs. It was what was going on in the present time and in that time, things just didn’t work out. So you know, not to say that you’ll never see me there again or not to say that the relationship is bad or anything like that. I think it was just a period in time that it just didn’t work out for both parties and we had to split ways”
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
