At just 22 years of age, Lio Rush made a huge name for himself on the independent scene, and his signing with WWE was certainly a big moment in his career. Yet, even after impressing in his first match against The Velveteen Dream on NXT, his WWE career could be off to a rocky start.
Yesterday, we reported on the WWE release of Darren Young, Summer Rae, and Emma, and while they all came as a shock, the bigger story here is perhaps in a tweet that Rush sent out about the Australian beauty's release from the company. Just hours after Emma was released, the young, high-flying sensation released a tweet that read “I guess these are the things that happen when you’re not TRULY ready for Asuka”, and his fellow wrestlers reacted exactly the way they should have.
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After the tweet was released, everyone from Tessa Blanchard, Rosa Mendes, Buddy Murphy, Peyton Royce, and Bray Wyatt blasted him, calling him unprofessional, tacky, and even saying they were disgusted, with Wyatt exclaiming “You ain’t gonna make it here with the wolves, kid.”
Rush removed the tweet and posted an apology, but people blasted that too, with Jack Gallagher blasting not only his apology and the original tweet but his poor use of English during the apology. Referee Scott Armstrong was on Rush’s side with the apology, however, claiming “rookie mistakes are made to be learnt from”, and called Lio a "class act," but it’s safe to say, he is in the minority.
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Whether you think the joke was funny or not, you can’t deny that it was just a silly thing to tweet. At 22 years of age, it appears Rush needs to do a lot of growing up if he wants to make it in the WWE where simple tweets or photos can have detrimental consequences (looking at you, Jimmy Jacobs).
At the end of the day, this shouldn’t harm Rush’s career too much, but if he fails to learn from it, it could come back to hurt him again, as making a joke at the expense of someone losing their job just isn’t the classy or respectful thing to do. That’s just speculation, as we just mentioned, Jimmy Jacobs was fired for taking photos with his friends in Bullet Club, so who truly knows what Vince McMahon is thinking when it comes to this tweet, but we will find out if there are any consequences in the coming weeks.
So what do you think? Was Rush in the wrong sending out a tweet seemingly mocking Emma’s release? Was it just a harmless joke that people took too far? What impact do you think this will have on Rush’s career prospects heading forward in the WWE if any? Let us know in the comments below.