Lio Rush Claims Lead WWE NXT Writer Texted During Promo Class
Lio Rush was a recent guest on Talk Is Jericho where the AEW star spoke about signing with WWE. He discussed how he was part of a brilliant class and didn't even have to do a tryout.
"I got signed to NXT when I was 22-years-old. I actually ended up being in the same class as Adam Cole, Dijak, Fish O'Reilly, all of those Ring Of Honor guys and I thought that was so cool," Lio admitted. "I don't know, that was very wild to me that I was a part of that class and I didn't have to tryout. I felt like I accomplished something."
However, despite being brought in with a great group, his initial impression wasn't good. WWE actually told Lio Rush he wasn't ready to work on television at the time, which he didn't understand.
"When I got there, it was strange because I was being told that, 'Oh, you're not ready for TV, you need more experience,' and stuff like that," Rush revealed. "At the time, I was just like, 'I guess I understand. But why did you sign me?'"
The AEW star then revealed a frustrating experience he had with an NXT promo class. After asking the lead writer to watch him, Rush felt like he was being ignored throughout his try.
"I'll never forget I was doing a promo class in NXT, I believe Corino was leading at the time. I remember the lead NXT writer was there, I had asked him to watch my promo and he said that he would," he said. "As I'm doing my promo, I'm kind of looking at him to see if he's watching and he's just texting. But I had asked him if he'd watched it and he had told me that he'd watched it. He had told me that I wasn't ready and that I wasn't going to be ready for a while."
Despite being told that, Rush continued working, admitting the situation motivated him. This led to some social media work that eventually caught Vince McMahon's eye.
"That kind of lit a fire underneath me and I started recording promos and putting them on my social media every day. That actually caught the attention of Vince," Rush claimed. "I think a writer had shown Vince my promo on social media and I got brought up to 205. I believe I only had about two matches in NXT before I got brought up to 205. Then I was only in 205 for about four months before I got the call to Raw and things were just moving pretty quickly."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho, with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions.