Lio Rush was recently interviewed on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette and spoke about his pairing with Bobby Lashley in WWE, as well as wishing he had more opportunities to wrestle in WWE.
Lio Rush had the following to say on the pairing with Bobby Lashley in WWE and how it came about:
“That was pretty surreal. Just my whole journey in WWE was pretty surreal to me. From the point of getting signed to me being in NXT for only two matches before I got put up to 205, and then I was only in 205 for about four months before I got put up on RAW. And I was doing 205 and RAW at the same time. That stemmed from me being in the PC and just wanting to be so ready for TV and asking – I believe his name Joe Belcastro – I remember one day asking him to watch my promo from promo class, and he said that he would. He was kind of texting while my promo was going on and I saw it in the corner of my eye, so I asked him if he watched my promo and he had said, ‘Yeah, it was great.’ And I was just like, ‘You didn’t watch it.’ It just lit such a fire underneath me. I was just asking for some tips and he had told me I wasn’t ready for TV and I wasn’t going to be ready for a while. There was just so much going through my head. I was thinking ‘why am I even signed?’ But I took that moment to say ‘you know what? I think I am ready for TV. And I’m going to show you that I’m ready for TV.’ So, I started cutting promos on my phone every day, and I would release a promo every day on my Instagram or my Twitter. And they started really catching fire. I was really doing it every day, all the way to me getting signed with 205.
Lio continued on saying:
“I got a call from when I flew back home from 205 saying I was needed to Monday Night RAW, and to send my flight detail. I was like ‘what? I’m needed for RAW?’ They wouldn’t tell me what I was doing, so I’m backstage when I get their and I’m panicking and I don’t know what’s going on. Paul Heyman walked up to me and said, ‘Vince saw one of your promos that one of the writers had shown him from your social media. He thought you were great and he wanted to pair you up with Bobby.’ I was like, that’s so cool. I just couldn’t believe that me taking that initiative to put out promos essentially landed me a job on Raw, and it was seen by Vince. Vince had pulled me into his office and said that I was going to be working with Bobby. And I didn’t know what it was going to be, and he kept saying like a hype man. I’m a WWE fan, so I never heard of a hype man. What is a hype man? He said ‘Paul will talk to you about it.’ We went into the weight room and he was saying that I was essentially going to be Bobby’s manager, but in a way of kind of like Jimmy Hart. I was going to be loud, and I was going to wear obnoxious suits and I was going to be that mouthpiece for Bobby. That was the most surreal day of my life. That original promo, that was Paul’s voice. That was all Paul.”
Lio Rush also spoke on his experience on RAW and wishing he had more opportunities to wrestle:
“I was just super grateful for the opportunity to even be on RAW. And then let alone to be paired up with Bobby? I mean, for me, it didn’t get any better than that. And all the while I was nervous, I was scared. I was thrown to the wolves in a sense. That was a lot. It taught me so much and it forced me to really hone in on my promos and be considered like a promo guy, which I never thought I was going to be. My whole life, I was just so focused on my athletics. Getting to WWE and signing there, of course, that’s my goal that I’d dreamt of since I was a kid was being a professional wrestling. I don’t think a lot of people say that they want to be a manager. That was hard for me to swallow, just because I have friends that I saw get signed that went in there and ended up doing a job that they didn’t want to do. But it’s stuck with them throughout their entire career. I was a little nervous that I was going to do it so good that I would trap myself and put myself in a position of just being a manager forever. And that was a lot, that was a lot. But at the same time, I wanted to do my best. I couldn’t help it. Of course, I would’ve liked to do a lot more wrestling. I think I would’ve put on some really good matches and I think I would’ve been talked about even more than I was talked about if I was wrestling. Yeah, I would’ve liked to have wrestled a little more.”
Credit to Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette and H/T to 411Mania for the transcription.
Please Follow me on Twitter @TheJesseBurns
Check out our official store at PRO WRESTLING TEES, show us your support and buy a shirt. You can visit our store by clicking here.
Make sure to follow us on Twitter @BodySlamNet and on Instagram @BodySlamDotNet
Also check us out on Facebook and give us a like and share by clicking HERE.
