Lio Rush on How He Found Out About His WWE Release, Addresses Tweet That He May Not Wrestle Again

Lio Rush spoke with Forbes for a new interview discussing his WWE release, his wrestling future and more. You can check out the highlights below:

On how he found out about his release: “I was the first group of people that were announced. I actually made the call myself. I saw that there were a lot of news sites posting about it. It made mainstream news, so I was like ‘oh man, this might be a real thing.’ So I called the Head of Talent Relations and I just asked—like, straight up—’Am I one of these people who is going to be released today? Because I’m seeing it all over the internet and I don’t want to find out over the internet or through one of my fans.’ He said yes, unfortunately, you are.”

On being angry that he didn’t find out beforehand: “Yes. I thought that it was really crazy, man. Because obviously nobody did what I did. Nobody else did what I did, or at least not a lot of people did. I don’t know if people reached out to WWE to ask, but I can’t imagine the people who literally found out either through the internet or if they got a phone call. Regardless of how they found out, nobody was expecting to wake up that morning and literally their dream job just swept from underneath them.”

On his tweet that he may legitimately never wrestle again: “Yes, that was definitely a tweet that I made and have thought that it was very real comment. Even before the release, I would talk to family members, I would talk to friends—people that I’m close to in the wrestling business—people that I’m close to outside of the wrestling business. And I would just have this feeling in my gut or in my heart that my wrestling days were going to come to an end. So I don’t know why. I don’t know why I was feeling like that. I just said to myself, ‘I don’t think I’m going to be wrestling for that much longer. And then once the release happened, it made me just think about it even more and I said to myself: Why jump right back into something when I have all this time where I don’t have to wrestle right now? I had good times in WWE. I had bad times too. And some of those bad times were a little traumatizing to me. I just thought to myself: Why put myself back in a situation where I was going to be unhappy?”

On if he’d consider a company like AEW: “I feel like it’s going to take a lot for me to consider going anywhere because it’s not just about the money to me, you know? It has to be right for me mentally. It has to be like my family. You know, I got a wife, I got two kids and although that money will provide for myself, my family at the end of the day, if I’m not right mentally and I’m not right emotionally, then I’m not even going to be able to do this job.”

On if wrestling as a whole has had a positive or negative impact on his mental health: “I think both. Definitely both, and I would say that because it feels good to have been able to accomplish something that I put my mind to for so long. It feels good that I was able to be—literally—at the bottom of the food chain and in the world of professional wrestling, and work my ass off to obtain a goal that I set myself at such a young age. So I think that gave me a sense of pride, a sense of confidence. Super grateful for the WWE to allow me to literally live out my dreams. That’s what you see when you’re a kid, you see the bright lights, you see the action, you see the fans and that’s what you want and that’s what you aspire to be in, that’s the life that you aspire to have. You only see what they want you to see. But then once you get there you realize that you haven’t seen everything. You’ve only seen what they want you to see. Now you’re going through the backstage politics and going through the system and you have to deal with all of the bullshit that comes with it, excuse my language. But yes, that’s the stuff that you kind of have to deal with and a lot of things in the professional wrestling world or sports entertainment world I just don’t morally agree with.”