WWE News: Former ROH Star Lio Rush Expected to Start in NXT Soon
Lio Rush is expected to start with World Wrestling Entertainment’s NXT brand very soon according to PWInsider’s Mike Johnson. Rush, who is a 22 year old that made a name for himself in Ring of Honor and Combat Zone Wrestling, gave notice that he leaving ROH a few months ago and at last night’s CZW said that he would have his CZW farewell match on August 5 against Joey Janella.
It was reported by PWInsider that people at the CZW show last night were talking about how Rush was in Orlando at WWE’s Performance Center last week and that he has been offered a NXT deal.
If you want to see an example of some of Rush’s speed and quickness in the ring, check out this clip from a PWG match against Ricochet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybo99bI05dk
In a recent interview with Ring Rust Radio, Rush talked about how he wanted to go to WWE:
“Of course, I feel like everybody’s long-term goal should be in the WWE. If you hear anybody say the WWE would never be my main goal, that’s complete bulls—. We all grew up watching WWE; there wasn’t any other thing on TV other than WWE. WWE was the main reason people wanted to actually become a wrestler. My interest in WWE again is through the roof. I haven’t been contacted by WWE, but the playing field right now with the cruiserweights, and that’s been somewhat of a main focus with them, it drives me to become better. It puts a bit of a chip on my shoulder and makes me a little bitter because that is considered to be the best cruiserweights in the world. So for me to not be a part the same conversation with the best cruiserweights in the world with the biggest promotion in the world, it just makes me want to be there that much more.”
I’m not sure when the interview was conducted, but most people WWE talks to are told to deny that they talked with WWE. It’s just company procedure to lie until it becomes official.
Rush originally trained to wrestle at the Maryland Championship Wrestling school and he was a tag team partner of Patrick Clark there. Clark was on the most recent WWE Tough Enough show and is now known as the Velveteen Dream in NXT. Rush talked about Clark in that same Ring Rust Radio interview.
“I absolutely love it and Patrick is a smart dude. He’s even younger than I am, which is crazy. He just turned 22 and he landed himself a job for life over there. He is a very smart dude, he is very humble and knows what he’s doing inside and outside the ring. I think that’s very important because you have to be a businessman as well as a professional wrestler/athlete inside the ring. It’s absolutely incredible to see what he’s doing right now. We both grew up in the business together, we knew each other in high school, both amateur wrestled in the same town so we knew of each other, we signed up with the MCW training center at the same exact time within that new school that open up in Maryland and graduated together. We formed a tag team and we both kind of made a name for ourselves. Fortunately for him, he was able to capitalize on that Tough Enough spot he had and landed himself a job so that’s absolutely incredible to see what he’s doing right now. I can’t wait to see the development of his Velveteen Dream character because Patrick is a smart dude and he knows exactly what he is doing despite his age. I’m happy to see what kind of reactions he’s going to be getting from the fans.”
Rush will turn 23 in November and Clark is only 22. They both have very bright futures in WWE.
A few days ago, Rush also got some attention when former Boy Meets Girl star Danielle Fishel (aka Topanga) took a pic with him after she bought his shirt at a PWG show.
https://twitter.com/itsLioRush/status/883555361264812034
Congrats to Lio Rush. It’s not official yet, but it should be soon.