Jack-Hammer
04-30-2019, 12:30 PM
Over the course of the last few months, more stories have been coming out more frequently regarding WWE talent being frustrated and generally unhappy with the way their career is going in WWE. Dean Ambrose is gone, Sasha Banks reportedly wants to sit out the rest of her contract so her status is totally up in the air, the Revivla, allegedly and very recently, turned down a 5 year deal with a downside guarantee of $500,000 per year, Luke Harper wants out but has had his contract extended to make up for the time he was out with an injury I'm sure it's nothing new for there to be to be rumblings of discontent among the talent but the landscape of wrestling has most certainly changed now that there's a new wrestling company slowly on the rise, namely AEW, that's backed by Tony Khan and his father, the owners of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the latter of which is even richer than Vince McMahon.
The latest word going down regards Lio Rush, Bobby Lashley's hype man and occasional wrestler on 205 Live. Last night was Rush's second consecutive Raw in which he wasn't by Lashley's side, or anywhere on Raw for that matter. Last week, Uncle Dave reported that Rush has reportedly made it very clear that he should be the top guy on the RAW brand, and he's not shy about sharing these thoughts. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter added that Rush is a very confident man and that can sometimes rub people the wrong way, even though it's what it takes to be a star in the business. PWInsider reports that there's talk about Rush's future in WWE with much of the talk revolving around him heading back to work as part of the NXT brand. The problem with that is Rush is said to have garnered heat during his time in NXT as well due to his attitude.
The latest word also states that there've been issues regarding Rush on the main roster going back as far as late last year; he's said to be quite a polarizing person and just has a knack of rubbing some people the wrong way. In November of last year, allegedly, Rush blew off what has been considered standard backstage etiquette for junior members of the roster on overseas tours, including being at the Gorilla position backstage to provide water to talents as they returned after their matches, and carrying coolers and drinks into the hotels where talents were staying, to set up a common area where everyone could privately socialize together. These tasks are often done to show respect to the locker room and the business as a whole. Several veterans reportedly tried to explain to Rush that he was making a mistake then, but he blew off the advice and complained to WWE officials, which didn't do him any favors. Things with Rush have calmed down in recent months, but there have been other issues. Rush allegedly has brought his friends and relatives backstage without the proper credentials, and there have been other moments where he has blown off counsel from senior members of the RAW roster.
WWE is in a strange place right now with Vince McMahon not wanting to let anyone go, even wrestlers that are almost certainly not going to wind up the next wrestling mega star if they head to AEW. Some wrestlers could use that to their advantage, like maybe Sasha Banks has been attempting to do, and it could wind up sending a message that Vince doesn't want sent in that talent can violate etiquette and not be subjected to any sort of significant punishment. After all, if Vince doesn't want to fire them yet doesn't really use many of them for anything significant, it's not like he can bury them. I mean, shit...you can't bury somebody when they're not being used in the first place, all you can do is send them home and pay them to essentially be on vacation.
As far as Lio Rush goes, this is something that could have and would have been the nail in the coffin of his WWE career 7 or 8 years ago. However, if you wanna get noticed, sometimes you're gonna have to make some noise and maybe tweak the nose of convention a little here and there. We've all heard stories and read reports that Vince wants people to step up, to speak out, make their voices heard, to show confidence; I read that Baron Corbin once spoke up during backstage meetings in which WWE's medical personnel were talking to the talents about concussions and neck trauma in which Corbin, allegedly, didn't share the same views that were being presented. Rather than be punished, Corbin's stock in WWE has only continued to slowly and steadily go up over the course of the last year or so and maybe speaking out during those meetings was the beginning? Maybe he disagreed with WWE's position, but maybe he did so in a respectful manner and actually had something to contributed to the discussion and debate with the medical staff on an intelligent level. Maybe he didn't come off like some loud mouth douche who had no idea what he was talking about and presented his side of things in a rational and intelligent manner. On the other hand, maybe some did consider it arrogant and not his place to speak up, yet some of WWE's higher ups were impressed all the same. If all this is true about Rush, maybe that's what he's hoping will happen with him.
You have guys on the smaller side in pro wrestling, you have guys who're considered little and then you've got guys like Lio Rush. Rush is about 5'3" to 5'4" and weighs around 140 to 145 lbs., he's roughly the same weigh tas Rey Mysterio circa 1997, and that's a major obstacle to overcome in WWE. Wrestling has evolved in WWE over the course of the last decade to where smaller guys, guys say in the 5'8" to 6'0" and 180 to 210 lbs. range have become major players but Rush is quite small even for a cruiser/light/junior heavyweight. Maybe he figures this is part of what he has to do, that he has to try playing his own version of the game backstage if he wants to break out as somebody that's just simply not another name on the roster or, worse yet, a guy that's gonna spend his entire career in WWE getting fed to everyone bigger than him, which is pretty much every man, and some of the women, on the WWE roster. It's a risky gamble but, again, it's unlikely that Rush will achieve any real success on the main roster if he doesn't take a risky gamble or two here and there.
The latest word going down regards Lio Rush, Bobby Lashley's hype man and occasional wrestler on 205 Live. Last night was Rush's second consecutive Raw in which he wasn't by Lashley's side, or anywhere on Raw for that matter. Last week, Uncle Dave reported that Rush has reportedly made it very clear that he should be the top guy on the RAW brand, and he's not shy about sharing these thoughts. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter added that Rush is a very confident man and that can sometimes rub people the wrong way, even though it's what it takes to be a star in the business. PWInsider reports that there's talk about Rush's future in WWE with much of the talk revolving around him heading back to work as part of the NXT brand. The problem with that is Rush is said to have garnered heat during his time in NXT as well due to his attitude.
The latest word also states that there've been issues regarding Rush on the main roster going back as far as late last year; he's said to be quite a polarizing person and just has a knack of rubbing some people the wrong way. In November of last year, allegedly, Rush blew off what has been considered standard backstage etiquette for junior members of the roster on overseas tours, including being at the Gorilla position backstage to provide water to talents as they returned after their matches, and carrying coolers and drinks into the hotels where talents were staying, to set up a common area where everyone could privately socialize together. These tasks are often done to show respect to the locker room and the business as a whole. Several veterans reportedly tried to explain to Rush that he was making a mistake then, but he blew off the advice and complained to WWE officials, which didn't do him any favors. Things with Rush have calmed down in recent months, but there have been other issues. Rush allegedly has brought his friends and relatives backstage without the proper credentials, and there have been other moments where he has blown off counsel from senior members of the RAW roster.
WWE is in a strange place right now with Vince McMahon not wanting to let anyone go, even wrestlers that are almost certainly not going to wind up the next wrestling mega star if they head to AEW. Some wrestlers could use that to their advantage, like maybe Sasha Banks has been attempting to do, and it could wind up sending a message that Vince doesn't want sent in that talent can violate etiquette and not be subjected to any sort of significant punishment. After all, if Vince doesn't want to fire them yet doesn't really use many of them for anything significant, it's not like he can bury them. I mean, shit...you can't bury somebody when they're not being used in the first place, all you can do is send them home and pay them to essentially be on vacation.
As far as Lio Rush goes, this is something that could have and would have been the nail in the coffin of his WWE career 7 or 8 years ago. However, if you wanna get noticed, sometimes you're gonna have to make some noise and maybe tweak the nose of convention a little here and there. We've all heard stories and read reports that Vince wants people to step up, to speak out, make their voices heard, to show confidence; I read that Baron Corbin once spoke up during backstage meetings in which WWE's medical personnel were talking to the talents about concussions and neck trauma in which Corbin, allegedly, didn't share the same views that were being presented. Rather than be punished, Corbin's stock in WWE has only continued to slowly and steadily go up over the course of the last year or so and maybe speaking out during those meetings was the beginning? Maybe he disagreed with WWE's position, but maybe he did so in a respectful manner and actually had something to contributed to the discussion and debate with the medical staff on an intelligent level. Maybe he didn't come off like some loud mouth douche who had no idea what he was talking about and presented his side of things in a rational and intelligent manner. On the other hand, maybe some did consider it arrogant and not his place to speak up, yet some of WWE's higher ups were impressed all the same. If all this is true about Rush, maybe that's what he's hoping will happen with him.
You have guys on the smaller side in pro wrestling, you have guys who're considered little and then you've got guys like Lio Rush. Rush is about 5'3" to 5'4" and weighs around 140 to 145 lbs., he's roughly the same weigh tas Rey Mysterio circa 1997, and that's a major obstacle to overcome in WWE. Wrestling has evolved in WWE over the course of the last decade to where smaller guys, guys say in the 5'8" to 6'0" and 180 to 210 lbs. range have become major players but Rush is quite small even for a cruiser/light/junior heavyweight. Maybe he figures this is part of what he has to do, that he has to try playing his own version of the game backstage if he wants to break out as somebody that's just simply not another name on the roster or, worse yet, a guy that's gonna spend his entire career in WWE getting fed to everyone bigger than him, which is pretty much every man, and some of the women, on the WWE roster. It's a risky gamble but, again, it's unlikely that Rush will achieve any real success on the main roster if he doesn't take a risky gamble or two here and there.