Rush further looks into his departure from AEW.
In the time since his exit from All Elite Wrestling in 2022, Lio Rush has spoken about his departure and why he feels his run turned out the way it did among other conversational topics surrounding his time there.
It was brought up again during his interview with Chris Van Vliet. Rush expressed that he likes company President Tony Khan and thinks he came into AEW with ‘trauma’ from his WWE run.
He shared that since leaving AEW, he’s been in communication with Khan ‘a number of times’. Rush is happy with what he’s currently doing and is not trying to will anything to happen between himself and AEW but said if something happens then so be it.
Um, probably a little bit (of animosity between myself & Tony Khan). I mean, how can there not be? But I think Tony, I like Tony a lot. I really, I really, really like Tony. I think that’s the first time I’m saying that out loud. Yeah, I can’t take it back now. But I do like Tony… One thing that made me so willing to give AEW a chance — because I feel like I was scarred from my WWE run. I feel like I was, you know, traumatized a little bit. Tony liked me a lot. I feel like we connected pretty quickly. And I feel like that’s why things probably, there was a lot of emotion involved with (it). And I probably shouldn’t have brought it, brought the emotion out, but I’m glad, again, I’m glad. I’m glad that I did. I’m glad that I show people that I stand for something. I’m glad that I show people that I care about myself, I care about others. It’s not always about a paycheck to me. Yeah, I am, I’m sorry, I’m kind of, I mean, this is huge. For me, like really, because this is the first time that I’m really, really speaking on it. I’ve talked about it, but I haven’t really, really talked about it in that sense, like with my actual like relationship with Tony and stuff like that. (Rush was asked if he’s spoken to Khan since leaving AEW) Yeah. I’ve talked to him a few times. Yeah. We’ve talked a number of times. And it’s always great. It’s always, you know, ‘How you been? Good to hear from you.’ You know, if the show was on the air, yeah, I try to pop out and see and stuff like that. So the love is still there. The support is still there. I think there’s just other factors into me actually being there. I mean, I’m doing so much right now. I’m happy with what I’m doing. It’s not really like I’m trying to force something to happen. If it happens, it happens. But I love the direction that I’m going in right now. I love what I’m doing, I’m glad that I feel like I don’t really have any true bad blood within wrestling. I feel like with me being so active right now, and being in front of people, it’s a lot different when you’re in front of somebody. You can see them, you can kind of feel their energy, you can see why they’re doing what they’re doing and stuff like that. So I think a lot of people with me popping back up like this so consistently and so kind of making a pretty big splash with, you know, any show that I do, I feel like people are starting to see me and see my characteristics more and you know, who I am as a person, as a performer. Maybe respected my work a little bit more realizing that I’m 28, but I’ve been doing this for almost a decade now. I think people are just kind of coming to terms and just really starting to see me. Yeah, it’s a nice feeling.
As a part of the New Japan Cup tour, Rush is going to getting his shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship when he takes on Hiromu Takahashi on March 21st.
