AEW star Lio Rush recently joined Clinton Sparks on his Twitch Channel where the Man of the Hour discussed all things pro-wrestling, including when he was initially contacted by company president Tony Khan, and how he always had a desire to work with former two-time WWE Universal champion, Bray Wyatt. Highlights are below.
Says he was contacted by AEW while filming MTV’s The Challenge:
While I was at The Challenge, and I didn’t know this until I got back home but my wife had told me that the owner of AEW, Tony Khan, he had ended up reaching out to me while I was out in Iceland but I couldn’t go because I was in Iceland and I was supposed to be a part of a show that he was interested in having me be a part of. Ended up calling a wrestler to reach out to my wife and that’s how we found out about that but, I ended up getting back [to the U.S.], reached back out to him, just stayed in contact. I let him know that I was still interested in coming in if he was interested in still having me be a part of AEW in some capacity and months went by and I was still making a name for myself. I debuted for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and then a Super J-Cup tournament and you know, I just kept moving forward. I didn’t let that [WWE] release stop me from… loving wrestling.
On wanting to work with Bray Wyatt:
I remember at the time really enjoying Bray Wyatt’s work, and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was cool, I thought it was unique, I thought it was different and I looked forward to hopefully doing something with him while I was there [WWE] because I’m a creative person myself and I like the theatrics and I like doing things big. So, I was looking forward to working with him and I remember that was probably one of the only ones that really kind of cut me a little bit because I was like, ‘Ah man, this guy that I really enjoy watching and I kind of look up to his work is saying something about me in a negative way.’ But I didn’t take it in a negative way [Bray’s reaction to Rush’s tweet to Tenille Dashwood]. Honestly, I think that was one of the bigger ones that I didn’t take in a negative way and I kind of let that fuel me and I let that push me even further, so yeah. That was one of the only ones really.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)