Photo Credit: Wikipedia.org
Ring of Honor star and Top Prospect Winner Lio Rush recently spoke with ESPN.com’s Tim Fiorvanti about his path to professional wrestling. You can read a few highlights below:
Lio Rush talks about amateur wrestling giving him a clear path to professional wrestling:
“I actually got into amateur wrestling because of what I saw on professional wrestling. I always wanted to be a professional wrestler and I didn’t know exactly what path I should take, but listening to commentators always talk about the wrestlers having such accomplished amateur wrestling backgrounds — guys like Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, Shelton Benjamin — gave me a path to follow.”
“When I was in high school, my very first year I made it to National Prep. I qualified for state my second year, lost one match. And in my third year I became an All-American amateur wrestler.”
Rush talks about being turned down by ROH after his first 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?'”
“After we had the actual tryout matches, they’ll line the two guys up and say if we will put you on Ring of Honor television tomorrow. And if there’s a yes, then it’s a yes. If there’s a no, they’ll say no, but they’ll tell you why. When I got up there after my match, literally everybody said no to me.”
“They definitely wanted me to go through some more rough patches in the wrestling business and appreciate the wrestling business a little bit more — not feel like I got handed an opportunity so easily.”
Rush says he will work harder to get his name out there even more in 2017:
“I’m 22, two years in the business and I’m living out my dream wrestling with guys that I grew up watching, like the Motor City Machine Guns. You know I have nothing to complain about. I’m definitely keeping the same mindset for next year — if you didn’t know who Lio Rush was in 2016, in 2017, you definitely will.”
