Former WWE Star Lio Rush Details His Relationship With Vince McMahon

Lio Rush's time with WWE was tumultuous, to say the least. The current NJPW star and Chaos stable member often found himself attracting the wrong kind of attention in WWE, once sending out a poorly timed tweet about a released talent in 2018, before gaining further heat due to his perceived bad attitude. With the controversy his time with wrestling's biggest promotion, one would think Rush and former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon wouldn't have had a good relationship. According to Rush, however, that assumption would be false.

In an appearance on the "Uncriptify Podcast", it was brought up that Rush once told Wrestling Inc. that Vince was his "best friend" in WWE. Years later, the former "WWE NXT" Cruiserweight Champion echoed that sentiment for McMahon, with particular praise being levied for his decision to pair him with Bobby Lashley. "That was his baby, that was his project. Me and Bobby was his creation," Rush said. "It was cool to be able to work with Vince week after week and get that one-on-one time with him. And he loved it, he enjoyed it. He loved what we were doing. I don't know if he felt we were best friends, but I felt like we were best friends."

Rush also went on to say that McMahon inspired him to develop his onscreen persona, following in the footsteps of the bombastic Mr. McMahon character. "You want to make him proud. You want to show him that you are that larger-than-life character that he wants on-screen. I definitely feel like there was some influence and some motivation there when it came to the Man of the Hour persona."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Unscriptify Podcast" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.