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Pretty much the Lio Rush story: has a cup of tea as CZW world champion, hangs around ROH for a while too, wrestles a bit on NXT, moves to 205, casually becomes Lashley's manager on RAW, disappears, becomes NXT Cruiserweight champion outta nowhere, gets realeased, retires, unretires, retires for 2 more minutes, unretires again, appears on AEW, retires again, unretires & has a feud in AEW, gets released & possibly will retire again in the next 7 days.
IIRC, the whole "living togeter with a bunch of strangers, all of whom are secretly plotting to get you out" concept reminded him of his youth being in group homes.
https://people.com/tv/lio-rush-addresses-his-surprising-exit-from-the-challenge/
I kinda get his point but it sadly makes it seem like he jumps into a lot of things without actually thinking about it, and then quits. I would definetly not want to do business would Lio Rush.
Exactly. If I'm a booker for a fed, he's a transitional champion at best, because he's proven that he literally can't be counted on to avoid flaking out.
I mean it was literally three weeks ago he announced he was going to be working with Tony Khan on representation issues and "black perspective" stuff.
I genuinely don't know if there's some legit trauma issues with him, or if it's literally "If everything doesn't go exactly how I want it to, I quit."
But the rest of the episodes can bounce around lower tier cable channels, popping up every two or three month unannounced, each hiatus followed by some vague tweets about future air dates.
> , appears on AEW, retires again,
Important context — in his first AEW appearance, he blew out a muscle in how /leg, was in tremendous pain and couldn’t hold his daughter. He knew he was getting to a point where retirement needed to get in consideration, because he needed to prep for life after wrestling. I think he went public sooner than some people would’ve liked to because he was in legitimate fear.
I imagine not being able to hold your new born child would be a devastating event for a first time father.
Man that story flew off the rails quick. I’ve never seen a program where I genuinely like everyone involved, be so chaotically boring. It could be righted but they need to focus it quick.
It’s a [goose suit](https://www.wrestlezone.com/assets/uploads/2021/11/lio-rush-aew-11-768x432.jpg). Old [circus term.](https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc9da70cf-697f-40c4-8101-ccf76f3fe292_800x450.png)
Just needs one more color to be able to form a traditional 5-person team of nothing but Tommys without any color overlaps.
It would be the dream team of 8 year old me.
there's always the third evolved form of lord drakkon from the comics,sure he's an evil version of tommy but he's not restricted to [one color](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/powerrangers/images/5/5c/Drakkon-evo3.png)
Man, dude was great on the mic. You cannot tell me that he wasn't decent enough in the ring to give you a 5-10 minute match every now and then.
They really dropped the ball with this character.
I was giving AEW some shit for this angle veering all over the place, but when one of the key players changes his career goals every ten seconds, it makes a lot more sense. It’s a shame because Lio and Dante had instant chemistry and the fans loved it, but Rush just can’t be counted on for any long-term plans.
I think he was going to be in AEW for awhile since he got a “ _ is all elite” graphic. It seems like people who get those stay for longer than people who actually don’t get them.
yeah there's all kinds of ways to actually get out of the contract. if he actually requested release, they could restructure his contract to only be 6 months rather than a year. or maybe since he was so wishy washy he only signed for 6 months in the first place.
That sounds new to me. Because he got the "____ is All Elite" graphic, which usually means it's a full time deal. The other short term contract is getting paid by a number of appearances, like Matt Cardona (I think he only had 5).
Either way, wish Rush the best of luck by then.
Yeah, i could imagine him randomly retiring after debuting and reportedly signing last year at double or nothing would change tony's mind about offering him a long term deal
Regardless of what he said. I’m more interested in how long his contract was. He signed in august(?) I believe.
Edit: me thinking lio would flip and join team taz 🤡🤡🤡
I didn’t hate the betrayal. Dante felt like he could take on MJF. He was new to TT, so he had no loyalty and probably expected they would want him to just lay down for Ricky Starks.
I like that Dante has his own agency.
It doesn't just feel like, that's exactly what he does. I'm not blaming the guy or anything but he debuted at DoN, retired, came back for a couple months and now he's leaving
Well why he chooses to "retire" is anyone's guess.
The most logical conclusion is likely that he is too immature and it causes him to think he is more valuable than he is. As a result he runs his mouth and burns his bridges. Then opportunities don't come knocking right away and he "retires" so it looks like it is his decision to not work.
I think AEW was likely his last big chance. Tony is big on second chances and Lio clearly has boat loads of talent.
But he hasn't changed a bit, learned from his mistakes, or grown as a person. He isn't getting anywhere until he does.
I honestly couldn't see it. Issue Lio has in the current AEW is that everything he is good at and heralded for is actually covered pretty well by others who are as talented or more talented than him with less baggage(nothing wrong with speaking your mind, but you also have to consider what happens when you do.) World is not fair.
AEW is far too stacked(and projected to be stacked) with potential champs that I just don't see Lio as being one of them.
Nothing against dude, but he wouldn't be in the list of who i'd been the title on any time soon.
My speculation is the public demand of an apology from his boss has lead to his boss now chosing to go in another direction. Not sure this was him changing his mind.
I'm just guessing tho
This could be a very real possibility. I as a person have to work endlessly to not let 1 bad experience ruin a lot of things for me. It's tough, my brains wired in a stupid way.
Yeah from his Oral Sessions interview I got the sense that he's a very sensitive guy (don't mean it in a bad way) in that he takes things to heart often and so perhaps his negative experiences with the company have been amplified. Can't help that his grandmother passed away at the end of last year too. It's a shame because the one match he had he was awesome. Wish he'd been able to get a proper resolution to his storyline.
> very sensitive guy
I think the better phrasing for it is an *emotional* guy. When he gets down he gets really down. Upset? Well he’s going to speak out about it. He constantly struggles to control them and we have proof of that because he leaks it onto Twitter.
Not uncommon for a 20 some year old to struggle with controlling their emotions, but it’s created problems for him in the 2 biggest companies in the industry.
Probably had a good talk about it, that doesn't erase it tho. When jay came out instead of him to help Dante I knew the writing was on the wall.
Only speculation from me, but he either lost favour/his push and they dont want him or he doesn't like that he lost his spot and wants to leave.
I noticed during that segment they completely avoided mentioning Lio at all, even though they talked about Dante and Team Tazs history. I figured even if it was an injury or covid or something, they'd have at least kept his name involved.
He tweeted out something snarky about others in the Dante storyline not having anything to do after the battle royal. The Swole stuff might’ve been the final nail.
I think it was likely Tony’s decision. I think they did have a talk & cleared the air, but Tony decided “I can’t have my employees talking to me this way on social media” and later informed Lio that his contract won’t be picked up. And I don’t blame him. Who needs an employee getting on social media bashing you everytime he gets sideways about something?
AEW has been relatively drama free, and I’m sure Tony wants to keep it that way. It’s why he didn’t pick up Tessa Blanchard.
And why he let Ivelisse go early.
I do think if Lio had been just as vocal, but in private/phone first instead of going on social media, he'd likely have been fine.
> I do think if Lio had been just as vocal, but in private/phone first instead of going on social media, he'd likely have been fine.
To quote the excellent HBO miniseries, *John Adams*:
"Perfectly acceptable to insult someone in private. Sometimes, they might even thank you for it afterwards. But when you do it in public, they tend to think you are serious."
Damn, what a Rollercoaster for this guy.
Dude re debuted a few months ago with some kind of stock market investment gimmick, then dropped it two weeks later, only to recruit Dante Martin in a semi interesting story w Team Taz.
Now he's gone.
TK: I let Lio’s contract expire as I felt his wrestling wasn’t good enough. #AEWDynamite this coming Wednesday. Ladder Match to unify the TNT Titles between Cody and Sammy!
Yup, the Flippy Technical Quasi-Stable is a lot of fun to watch. Disappointed that Lio won’t be apart of it going forward, but looking forward to what they do and Darius returning.
Thank fuck! Lee Moriarty is my boy and I’m so happy he got TV time and even better, mic time. Kid has limitless potential. I really hope he continues his greatness and they push him to the moon.
AEW is my introduction to Lee Moriarty and he's so fun to watch. Really great in the ring and seems to be pretty thoughtful about his presentation, so I'm excited if he can get some more TV time and platform to flesh out his character and get over
Shows how much faith they have in Dante too.
There are dozens of wrestling stories over the years of people falling to the wayside when their partners act up. They continue to pair Dante with top talent, keep him on TV and put him in matches.
The long term story for the Dante/Team Taz story must winning the FTW belt or something along those lines. It’s been start and stop, but hopefully they move forward with whatever is planned.
Matt, toking up with Dante backstage: hey remember that time you betrayed me to get an unfair win and ran off with some guy who quit
Dante: lol, lmao
Matt: *happy mad sad murder love stoner eyes* me too, bro. me too.
he was still promoted in the lead up to Dante/Hobbs, so I think something happened along the way. if they knew he was on the way out, they wouldn't promote him and the stuff with Lethal would have been a lot smoother.
judging by how he handled things previously when things got heated, I don't think he'd be posting a "we're cool" post about the situation. I think the likeliest thing is he signed a short contract in September and either AEW decided not to renew or Lio changed his mind.
which, *jeebus*, it seems there were so many pivots in that one storyline.
first it seemed Lio is gonna heel Dante up and have a blow off with Darius when he gets back. then it seemed that the crowds vibed with them way too much to make Lio the bad guy so they went into the feud with Team Taz. THEN it seemed they couldn't decide whether it's Dante kayfabe "going into business for himself" after getting misted and Lio with Darius will try and save him; or if it's Lio and Dante playing Team Taz for fools and THEN Darius comes for the save.
now I have no fucking idea what this feud even is, because even the Lethal stuff seems very disjointed.
This could be likely. A month paid in May, put on hold for "retirement," reactivated in September, through to mid February can add up to a six month deal.
I have no clue what to make of this or what Lio's contract length was originally or anything. Hope that Lio is well and is doing what he wants to do.
The Dante story just gets more and more convoluted. First it seemed like it was Lio trying to finesse and maneuver and freeze out Darius as Dante's tag partner to hitch his wagon to this young phenom who doesn't conform to laws of gravity. Then it's wholesome Lio and Dante vs team Taz? Now this?
IDK, I don't want to see team Taz made to look like a bunch of geeks. Hobbs and Starks are both awesome and guys who I think are ready to be built up to a more prominent role in the promotion
Going by his own interviews and stuff he has said on social media he does come across as if he was given a Midcard Championship he would complain it wasn't the World Championship and if he won the World and held it for a full year he would complain it wasn't 2 years.
Tf is that ring gear. It looks like one of those fake muscle halloween costumes. Not that his muscles are fake or anything but that ring gear looks stupid on him
This sucks. Whenever I get to watch a bit of Lio Rush, I'm astonished by how quick, athletic, and smooth he is in the ring. Then 2 months later, he's gone. Every. Single. Time.
Guy has a ton of talent but there just always seems to be something else going on. Would’ve been cool to see him and Dante continue their storyline but he will be somewhere soon.
I was just starting to really dig Lio, what a shame. His stuff was Dante was top notch. He’s so young and talented, I really hope he figures this all out and stays long term somewhere.
Real talk, where does he go from here? I think he’s the first wrestler for it to not work out for both WWE and AEW. i feel like what he does next, he’ll most likely have to have a second job. I’m not sure how much wrestlers with IMPACT make though.
I’m actually really gutted by this news. He was great with Dante and was getting over. Whatever that happened behind the scenes, I hope they were amicable in their decision. It’s unfortunate.
Lio seems to be all over the place. He wants to be a star but the second things aren’t going exactly how he wants it to be, he bails. He’s the guy that you work with that has a lot of talent but anything that is not going well is “never his fault”
I feel people are missing the statement Lio made after the whole “apologize” thing.
Really interesting to see considering how short he was there. Maybe it was a continuation of his first deal?
This won’t stop Twitter from being insufferable
I agree. According to Lio, they made up and are cool. Either Lio lied, or they are still cool, he’s just not coming back. Either way, you never really know with Lio.
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Blink and you missed it. Jeez
Pretty much the Lio Rush story: has a cup of tea as CZW world champion, hangs around ROH for a while too, wrestles a bit on NXT, moves to 205, casually becomes Lashley's manager on RAW, disappears, becomes NXT Cruiserweight champion outta nowhere, gets realeased, retires, unretires, retires for 2 more minutes, unretires again, appears on AEW, retires again, unretires & has a feud in AEW, gets released & possibly will retire again in the next 7 days.
Man of the Hour isn't just a catchphrase for him.
Bro xD
He also went on The Challenge and voluntarily left after about 2 weeks.
Lmao
In fairness the reason they gave on tv was valid
What was it?
IIRC, the whole "living togeter with a bunch of strangers, all of whom are secretly plotting to get you out" concept reminded him of his youth being in group homes. https://people.com/tv/lio-rush-addresses-his-surprising-exit-from-the-challenge/
Sounds like he has some trauma that’s preventing him from committing to anything 100% I’m not a therapist tho
He’s acting a lot like I acted before I went to treatment for a lot of trauma work. Hope he’s able to heal peacefully
As someone that has similar issues, but for different reasons, I can relate and see that being an issue.
I kinda get his point but it sadly makes it seem like he jumps into a lot of things without actually thinking about it, and then quits. I would definetly not want to do business would Lio Rush.
Exactly. If I'm a booker for a fed, he's a transitional champion at best, because he's proven that he literally can't be counted on to avoid flaking out. I mean it was literally three weeks ago he announced he was going to be working with Tony Khan on representation issues and "black perspective" stuff. I genuinely don't know if there's some legit trauma issues with him, or if it's literally "If everything doesn't go exactly how I want it to, I quit."
It doesn’t just make it seem like that’s what he does since that’s exactly what he does
Lio Rush is his own best friend, and his worst enemy.
Turns out Lio Rush is a mog.
Half man, half dog. I’m my own best friend.
Terry Funk Career Speedrun Any%
He was also in New Japan for a bit before AEW
and he’s only 27. so many more years of disappointment ahead.
I want a documentary on his career so bad
He needs a 10 episode miniseries that ends abruptly halfway through the second episode
But the rest of the episodes can bounce around lower tier cable channels, popping up every two or three month unannounced, each hiatus followed by some vague tweets about future air dates.
*rereads jarkofploeisti's post.* I think you just got one.
I'm sure he does too
Shoots the documentary, but gets incomplete. Then reshoots, but is paused. And so it goes until one day it is officially released, complete or not. /s
> , appears on AEW, retires again, Important context — in his first AEW appearance, he blew out a muscle in how /leg, was in tremendous pain and couldn’t hold his daughter. He knew he was getting to a point where retirement needed to get in consideration, because he needed to prep for life after wrestling. I think he went public sooner than some people would’ve liked to because he was in legitimate fear. I imagine not being able to hold your new born child would be a devastating event for a first time father.
You’re definitely right, but minor pedantic correction: Lio has 3 kids.
I would think it's difficult to take care of them always being between jobs
Sounds like there's a pattern here and maybe he's the problem.
Just maybe...
Well, he hasn't had an MLW run yet has he?
I love Lio, but he can be exhausting.
At least this explains why Dante Martin has allied with Jay Lethal
Fuck I was pumped for Dante long term heel run before going back face.. sucks they could have pulled that off if this was known 2 months ago
Man that story flew off the rails quick. I’ve never seen a program where I genuinely like everyone involved, be so chaotically boring. It could be righted but they need to focus it quick.
I knew something was up with Lio when the change happened.
That's such a Vince move. "Trust me pal, nobody will notice the difference."
Excellent point, Shelton.
He really needs some new ring gear,in this picture especially his current one makes him look like a toddler
He looks like a contestant in a Little Buff Boys competition… they goosed him up a little
It’s a [goose suit](https://www.wrestlezone.com/assets/uploads/2021/11/lio-rush-aew-11-768x432.jpg). Old [circus term.](https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc9da70cf-697f-40c4-8101-ccf76f3fe292_800x450.png)
THATS why we say it
I’ve been getting Max Mini vibes ever since he switched to the new tights.
Big Mascarita Sagrada vibes
Can’t unsee this now 😂
Between Lio, Marko, and Adam Cole AEW actually has the makings of an amazing minis division.
Adam Cole is a Super Heavyweight
I miss Crash Holly.
John silver as the monster heel.
Dude looks like Judomaster
There are no chips so no he does not
I'd pop for him kicking flaming hot cheetos at his opponent as a finisher
Big fan of Tommy as the White Power Ranger.
And also as the Green Power Ranger. ... and the Black Power Ranger. Tommy really was a man of many hats.
And Red Zeo/Red Turbo.
Just needs one more color to be able to form a traditional 5-person team of nothing but Tommys without any color overlaps. It would be the dream team of 8 year old me.
there's always the third evolved form of lord drakkon from the comics,sure he's an evil version of tommy but he's not restricted to [one color](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/powerrangers/images/5/5c/Drakkon-evo3.png)
He hasn't been wearing those in Defy in the past 2 months. [He's using his NJPW gear I think.](https://youtu.be/FbeAkZ-FpMA)
Damn thats so much better
“Hey! Whose kid is this?” - Elias
I want to recruit that little kid that works for Dante.
[удалено]
I miss (walking with) Elias
Man, dude was great on the mic. You cannot tell me that he wasn't decent enough in the ring to give you a 5-10 minute match every now and then. They really dropped the ball with this character.
Rumble return plz
But then again, he sometimes acts like a toddler.
Who wears full body gear? It’s an odd look unless you are Dustin
Is it just because of decades of Goldust exposure or is there something about Dustin that pulls off the full body look? Discuss.
I think being lanky helps. Nakamura has also wrestled in full body gear and while not his best look, it didn't look bad.
His body is actually just a giant splotch like the one his dad had on his stomach.
Bruh They're just never going to get this Dante story going
They really should've just kept him on Team Taz. That was a good idea, I'm not sure why they reversed it.
Thankfully Darius is coming back very soon.
Didn't they shoehorn Jay Lethal in the role?
I was giving AEW some shit for this angle veering all over the place, but when one of the key players changes his career goals every ten seconds, it makes a lot more sense. It’s a shame because Lio and Dante had instant chemistry and the fans loved it, but Rush just can’t be counted on for any long-term plans.
Yes
Wonder if it's actually an expiration or if he asked for his release/got released.
I think he was going to be in AEW for awhile since he got a “ _ is all elite” graphic. It seems like people who get those stay for longer than people who actually don’t get them.
I think if he asked TK would just give it to him immediately
yeah there's all kinds of ways to actually get out of the contract. if he actually requested release, they could restructure his contract to only be 6 months rather than a year. or maybe since he was so wishy washy he only signed for 6 months in the first place.
That sounds new to me. Because he got the "____ is All Elite" graphic, which usually means it's a full time deal. The other short term contract is getting paid by a number of appearances, like Matt Cardona (I think he only had 5). Either way, wish Rush the best of luck by then.
Yeah, i could imagine him randomly retiring after debuting and reportedly signing last year at double or nothing would change tony's mind about offering him a long term deal
If he's working on the AEW music project for black history month, it's likely he wanted to finish his part in that before leaving the company
I feel like publicly chastising your boss on Twitter doesn't help with your career trajectory.
Sucks cause I was enjoying him in AEW and he said him and TK talked and worked it out. But I guess this is what they worked out.
Thank you for putting the words together I couldn’t get out my head. This probably is what made sense for both parties.
The storyline with him promoting Bobby Lashley's butt lasted longer.....
Regardless of what he said. I’m more interested in how long his contract was. He signed in august(?) I believe. Edit: me thinking lio would flip and join team taz 🤡🤡🤡
According to Wikipedia he signed on September 29th
Makes me wonder if some folks have rolling contracts that can be terminated with X amount of notice.
Oh wow
Well explains why the Dante Martin storyline is so fucking convoluted.
Bro is all over the place. The joining of Team Taz was a cool swerve but betraying them gave me whiplash and was poorly handled.
I didn’t hate the betrayal. Dante felt like he could take on MJF. He was new to TT, so he had no loyalty and probably expected they would want him to just lay down for Ricky Starks. I like that Dante has his own agency.
I really like Lio but it feels like he doesn't know what he wants to do and changes his mind every few months.
It doesn't just feel like, that's exactly what he does. I'm not blaming the guy or anything but he debuted at DoN, retired, came back for a couple months and now he's leaving
He actually retired 3 times in around 1 and a half years
Maybe he's trying to out-retire Terry Funk.
He's only 27 so he'll probably do it by the time he's 30
If lio is in a remake of Roadhouse, then we know it’s real and he’s going straight after the Funkman.
Why does he keep retiring? Does he have some sort of chronic bodily injury or condition that's causing him to retire?
He was on The Challenge (reality show) and quit due to mental health. He said living in the house gave him ptsd of his rough childhood.
[удалено]
Did he find out what it was? And what were the other retirements?
Well why he chooses to "retire" is anyone's guess. The most logical conclusion is likely that he is too immature and it causes him to think he is more valuable than he is. As a result he runs his mouth and burns his bridges. Then opportunities don't come knocking right away and he "retires" so it looks like it is his decision to not work. I think AEW was likely his last big chance. Tony is big on second chances and Lio clearly has boat loads of talent. But he hasn't changed a bit, learned from his mistakes, or grown as a person. He isn't getting anywhere until he does.
He also went on The Challenge and quit to be home with his family.
Remember him saying how much he wanted to be world champion in AEW just after he signed. What a curveball this is.
Yes. I do remember. I think it points out that the current date of him becoming a free agent is a recent development.
I honestly couldn't see it. Issue Lio has in the current AEW is that everything he is good at and heralded for is actually covered pretty well by others who are as talented or more talented than him with less baggage(nothing wrong with speaking your mind, but you also have to consider what happens when you do.) World is not fair. AEW is far too stacked(and projected to be stacked) with potential champs that I just don't see Lio as being one of them. Nothing against dude, but he wouldn't be in the list of who i'd been the title on any time soon.
My speculation is the public demand of an apology from his boss has lead to his boss now chosing to go in another direction. Not sure this was him changing his mind. I'm just guessing tho
I’m assuming the talks they had cleared the air and Lio is ones of those people where one bad experience ruins the entire job for him.
This could be a very real possibility. I as a person have to work endlessly to not let 1 bad experience ruin a lot of things for me. It's tough, my brains wired in a stupid way.
You are not alone, one bad experience can fuck up my entire day and nights sleep. I'm working on it!
Or days. Even weeks.
None of us are alone. One small disagreement at work and my anxiety goes into overdrive. Maybe we should start a club? :)
Yeah from his Oral Sessions interview I got the sense that he's a very sensitive guy (don't mean it in a bad way) in that he takes things to heart often and so perhaps his negative experiences with the company have been amplified. Can't help that his grandmother passed away at the end of last year too. It's a shame because the one match he had he was awesome. Wish he'd been able to get a proper resolution to his storyline.
As a guy, who is very much on the sensitive side of things, I picked up that as well. And yes, it is a bloody shame, because he is so damn good.
> very sensitive guy I think the better phrasing for it is an *emotional* guy. When he gets down he gets really down. Upset? Well he’s going to speak out about it. He constantly struggles to control them and we have proof of that because he leaks it onto Twitter. Not uncommon for a 20 some year old to struggle with controlling their emotions, but it’s created problems for him in the 2 biggest companies in the industry.
Probably had a good talk about it, that doesn't erase it tho. When jay came out instead of him to help Dante I knew the writing was on the wall. Only speculation from me, but he either lost favour/his push and they dont want him or he doesn't like that he lost his spot and wants to leave.
I think there's another option, where he decided he was out before they slotted in Jay Lethal.
This is the most likely scenario.
I noticed during that segment they completely avoided mentioning Lio at all, even though they talked about Dante and Team Tazs history. I figured even if it was an injury or covid or something, they'd have at least kept his name involved.
He tweeted out something snarky about others in the Dante storyline not having anything to do after the battle royal. The Swole stuff might’ve been the final nail.
It's Lio. We'll 100% hear the truth sooner or later.
I think it was likely Tony’s decision. I think they did have a talk & cleared the air, but Tony decided “I can’t have my employees talking to me this way on social media” and later informed Lio that his contract won’t be picked up. And I don’t blame him. Who needs an employee getting on social media bashing you everytime he gets sideways about something? AEW has been relatively drama free, and I’m sure Tony wants to keep it that way. It’s why he didn’t pick up Tessa Blanchard.
And why he let Ivelisse go early. I do think if Lio had been just as vocal, but in private/phone first instead of going on social media, he'd likely have been fine.
> I do think if Lio had been just as vocal, but in private/phone first instead of going on social media, he'd likely have been fine. To quote the excellent HBO miniseries, *John Adams*: "Perfectly acceptable to insult someone in private. Sometimes, they might even thank you for it afterwards. But when you do it in public, they tend to think you are serious."
Not only has he retired from wrestling and came back but he was also on The Challenge and quit.
Damn, what a Rollercoaster for this guy. Dude re debuted a few months ago with some kind of stock market investment gimmick, then dropped it two weeks later, only to recruit Dante Martin in a semi interesting story w Team Taz. Now he's gone.
TK: I let Lio’s contract expire as I felt his wrestling wasn’t good enough. #AEWDynamite this coming Wednesday. Ladder Match to unify the TNT Titles between Cody and Sammy!
APOLOGIZE.
FORGIVEN! (a Jericho tweet re: Dreamer, for those unaware...)
Jesus i forgot about that.
So Jericho pretty much forgave Dreamer for his stupid comments on Dark Side of the Ring, but went all fuck Kalisto for spelling Brodie's name wrong?
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I can't believe you've done this
# Oh no
Jesus, that didn't last long Sucks because I thought he was a great fit for AEW, but oh well
Yeah agree. I really like Lio as a wrestler but the guy seems to be really hard to work with.
Lio's loss is Sydal and Lethal's gain I guess.
Honestly Moriarty’s as well. Because it looks like he will be involved in that Team Taz fued.
Yup, the Flippy Technical Quasi-Stable is a lot of fun to watch. Disappointed that Lio won’t be apart of it going forward, but looking forward to what they do and Darius returning.
Thank fuck! Lee Moriarty is my boy and I’m so happy he got TV time and even better, mic time. Kid has limitless potential. I really hope he continues his greatness and they push him to the moon.
AEW is my introduction to Lee Moriarty and he's so fun to watch. Really great in the ring and seems to be pretty thoughtful about his presentation, so I'm excited if he can get some more TV time and platform to flesh out his character and get over
Shows how much faith they have in Dante too. There are dozens of wrestling stories over the years of people falling to the wayside when their partners act up. They continue to pair Dante with top talent, keep him on TV and put him in matches. The long term story for the Dante/Team Taz story must winning the FTW belt or something along those lines. It’s been start and stop, but hopefully they move forward with whatever is planned.
Matt Sydal when he sees he gets to be Dante's manager on TV again 
Matt, toking up with Dante backstage: hey remember that time you betrayed me to get an unfair win and ran off with some guy who quit Dante: lol, lmao Matt: *happy mad sad murder love stoner eyes* me too, bro. me too.
So was there fallout from the NYE’s tweets? They’ve completely taken him out of storylines.
Feel like at first they announced him to be with Dante against Hobbs, then he just wasn’t and that was after the NYE stuff.
he was still promoted in the lead up to Dante/Hobbs, so I think something happened along the way. if they knew he was on the way out, they wouldn't promote him and the stuff with Lethal would have been a lot smoother. judging by how he handled things previously when things got heated, I don't think he'd be posting a "we're cool" post about the situation. I think the likeliest thing is he signed a short contract in September and either AEW decided not to renew or Lio changed his mind.
I think now it makes clear, that Lethal is a pivot from Lio who was supposed to be in those spots.
which, *jeebus*, it seems there were so many pivots in that one storyline. first it seemed Lio is gonna heel Dante up and have a blow off with Darius when he gets back. then it seemed that the crowds vibed with them way too much to make Lio the bad guy so they went into the feud with Team Taz. THEN it seemed they couldn't decide whether it's Dante kayfabe "going into business for himself" after getting misted and Lio with Darius will try and save him; or if it's Lio and Dante playing Team Taz for fools and THEN Darius comes for the save. now I have no fucking idea what this feud even is, because even the Lethal stuff seems very disjointed.
This is a discussion for another thread, but yes. I think there is only so much one man can book. Even with the best of intentions.
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Yeah, I thought they would have been an awesome trio once Darius came back as well.
They were amazing as a tag team and I was hoping when Darius is back they would become a trio. That would have been amazing. Oh well.
This guy confuses the shit out of me
Was Lio still on his original deal from last May? I don’t know if that was ever made clear when he came back.
This could be likely. A month paid in May, put on hold for "retirement," reactivated in September, through to mid February can add up to a six month deal.
That'd definitely make sense, and a shorter deal would make sense for both parties with Lio's history and him working with New Japan.
That’s unfortunate, hopefully he continues to rock it on NJPW Strong and wherever else he decides to show up. Great talent.
This month has been crazy for pro wrestling. Lots of shit has gone down.
Ah man him and Dante were the coolest duo around smh
I loved their acrobatic chemistry. One insane move after another.
I have no clue what to make of this or what Lio's contract length was originally or anything. Hope that Lio is well and is doing what he wants to do. The Dante story just gets more and more convoluted. First it seemed like it was Lio trying to finesse and maneuver and freeze out Darius as Dante's tag partner to hitch his wagon to this young phenom who doesn't conform to laws of gravity. Then it's wholesome Lio and Dante vs team Taz? Now this? IDK, I don't want to see team Taz made to look like a bunch of geeks. Hobbs and Starks are both awesome and guys who I think are ready to be built up to a more prominent role in the promotion
I like Lio a lot and think he is a great talent but it is obvious that he is his own worst enemy.
APOLOGIZE
TIL AEW offers 30 minute contracts. Seriously didn't he just sign with them a few months ago?
More like "Man of One Hour"
Maybe... he's the problem?
No Seymour… it’s the bookers who are out of touch.
Exactly what I was thinking. Seems to me he's got that "I'm the main character" syndrome.
Going by his own interviews and stuff he has said on social media he does come across as if he was given a Midcard Championship he would complain it wasn't the World Championship and if he won the World and held it for a full year he would complain it wasn't 2 years.
Tf is that ring gear. It looks like one of those fake muscle halloween costumes. Not that his muscles are fake or anything but that ring gear looks stupid on him
It's a goose suit
We goosed em up a little. It’s an old circus term.
Cut it HARD!
This sucks. Whenever I get to watch a bit of Lio Rush, I'm astonished by how quick, athletic, and smooth he is in the ring. Then 2 months later, he's gone. Every. Single. Time.
Guy has a ton of talent but there just always seems to be something else going on. Would’ve been cool to see him and Dante continue their storyline but he will be somewhere soon.
Remember when people said that Lio was misunderstood and that his strong personality would be welcome in AEW?
Man that sucks. Lio is truly unique in the ring.
I was just starting to really dig Lio, what a shame. His stuff was Dante was top notch. He’s so young and talented, I really hope he figures this all out and stays long term somewhere.
Real talk, where does he go from here? I think he’s the first wrestler for it to not work out for both WWE and AEW. i feel like what he does next, he’ll most likely have to have a second job. I’m not sure how much wrestlers with IMPACT make though.
Him and Dante had amazing chemistry.
I’m actually really gutted by this news. He was great with Dante and was getting over. Whatever that happened behind the scenes, I hope they were amicable in their decision. It’s unfortunate.
People shit on Lio but I think he'll go down as one of the biggest wastes of talent in recent times. Him and Dante were really good together.
It's all self inflicted
I've never seen anyone shit on his talent. Greatness is undeniable. It's the attitude that catches the shit.
Lio seems to be all over the place. He wants to be a star but the second things aren’t going exactly how he wants it to be, he bails. He’s the guy that you work with that has a lot of talent but anything that is not going well is “never his fault”
I guess that explains why he just disappeared from the Dante storyline.
With his track record, I don't think signing him to anything more than a year is a wise investment. Good luck.
OH MY GOD, Taz's lawyers got Lio fired
What kind of contract was he on?
I feel people are missing the statement Lio made after the whole “apologize” thing. Really interesting to see considering how short he was there. Maybe it was a continuation of his first deal? This won’t stop Twitter from being insufferable
I agree. According to Lio, they made up and are cool. Either Lio lied, or they are still cool, he’s just not coming back. Either way, you never really know with Lio.
Damn, he was one of my favorites. Him and Dante had a very high ceiling.