Lio Rush Talks Calling WWE When He Was Young, Trying To Join WWE Performance Center, ROH Tryout
Lio Rush was interviewed by ESPN.com recently. In the interview, he talked about calling to WWE when he was young, the WWE performance Center and more. You can read some highlights below.
Calling to WWE when he was young:
"It all fell into place when I was 16. I called the WWE office and, believe it or not, they picked up. I asked them how old do you have to be to become a professional wrestler, and they said I had to be 18. So when I was around 18, and as soon as I graduated, I'm like, 'Man, I'm old enough to be a professional wrestler.' And I already have this All-American amateur status under my belt, so let me try to see if I can find some kind of training to be a professional wrestler."
Realizing that the Performance Center was not a training school:
"I saw that WWE Performance Center was opening up. It was around Full Sail University and I was like, 'Perfect. I can train at the WWE Performance Center, and I can go to school regularly, working on videography at Full Sail.' I was already good at doing videos — I was a videographer, and my dad and my mom were into video production and just media in general, so I grew up around that stuff. I got almost a year in, and I found out that the WWE Performance Center was not a training school for just anybody that wanted to sign up. It discouraged me [as far as] being in Florida and at Full Sail University, so I went back home to Maryland."
His Ring of Honor tryout:
"That first tryout with Ring of Honor is something I will never forget, because that is what lit the fire underneath me to excel as much as I did so quickly. I was six months into doing shows and traveling and trying to somewhat make a name for myself — [and then] I tried out for Ring of Honor and I absolutely blew everyone away. I remember a lot of the active roster guys were there, and they were just like, 'Who is this kid that we never heard of before?'"
Rush also talks about Ring of Honor final battle, amateur wrestling and more. You can read the full interview here.
Source: ESPN.com