Tony Khan Talks AEW's Deal With Lio Rush

Following AEW Double or Nothing, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan spoke to the media in a post-show scrum. At Double or Nothing, Lio Rush made his AEW debut at the Casino Battle Royale. Khan revealed Rush's AEW status.

"I don't have a pen to paper [deal], but Lio and I have a handshake [deal] that he can work here and do New Japan both," Khan revealed. "I think we have something good on a handshake, and I think he's doing that on a handshake with New Japan too, and that's kind of what we've been doing and it's been pretty good. I think that's a good way to work."

It has been reported that Rush is currently signed with NJPW, and NJPW have allowed Rush to work AEW dates. Khan revealed his past talks with Rush.

"I think he's gonna come back. We'll get to it," Khan stated. "I'd like for Lio to come back. He's also doing some stuff for New Japan, so he's got some dates booked right now. He was free for this, and I'm going to respect the calendar, so I'm not gonna go out and ask him to cancel indie dates to do stuff for us. And he's got a pretty solid calendar, but he was free for this, and I wanted him to come.

"I had talked to Lio maybe about coming last year. We weren't able to do. We did the Casino Battle Royale at All Out last year. We weren't able to do it at Double or Nothing because I'll be honest guys, when I got the roster back together, I didn't have enough people to do a Casino Battle Royale. I threw that show together really quick, and it was one of the best pay-per-views we had done even with 10% capacity. That's when I had the idea to do the Casino Ladder Match. We did it at All Out last year.

"I wanted Lio to come last year, but he wasn't free. He was actually taping The Challenge and couldn't take his phone to The Challenge, and I heard back from his wife who said, he would love to do it, but he's doing The Challenge. He felt so sick that he wasn't able to do it. I thought, well, it would be great if he would still be able to do it, and it worked out. I think he's going to come here, but he's got New Japan and indies coming up too, so I think we'll see Lio back."

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