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If you watched this week's episode of WWE RAW, you'd have noticed that Bobby Lashley came to the ring without his trusted mouthpiece. While Lashley and Rush made a solid pairing, it does seem like the dream team has come to an end.
And the reason for the same stems from the fact that Rush may have rubbed multiple individuals the wrong way with his backstage antics. The last we heard of him, he was being sent back to NXT, in the light of which Rush was apparently asking for his release from WWE.
Why have things escalated so much and become so bad for someone as talented as Lio Rush? Apart from his incredible mic skills, everyone knows how gifted he is within the squared circle.
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Here are 5 incidents reported by reputed publications that may show you what got Lio Rush such heat!
#5 Bringing his wife to backstage rehearsals
One of the main issues that earned Lio Rush so much backstage heat follows an interaction that he had with Finn Balor. The Demon King advised Lio Rush to not bring his wife to rehearsals, and Rush did not take too kindly to the friendly advice. And this would lead to him earning quite a reputation backstage.
This is how the original report from Fightful.com reads:
A source on the WWE Roster tells me Lio Rush would be very lucky to be back on the main roster any time soon, if ever. The brash cruiserweight has repeatedly rubbed the locker room the wrong way, and we've heard from several WWE sources that the roster has wanted him out of the locker room for quite a while.
It goes on to talk about the incident at hand:
One apparently involves former WWE Universal Champion Finn Balor, who was making an effort to give Rush advice months ago. Balor allegedly let Rush know that it's quite likely that Vince McMahon wouldn't take kindly to his wife sitting in on rehearsals, and Rush responded unfavourably. Word got around the locker room pretty quickly.
It must be noted that Rush did say in an incident that him and Balor are cool.
#4 The original incident with Emma
This is the main incident that got the Man Of The Hour in trouble. Emma, after quite a career in WWE, was finally released by the company in the year 2017. Before she went, she had two matches with Asuka who was steamrolling through her opponents at the time.
Shortly after it was announced that she had been released, Lio Rush made a joke on Twitter about Emma not being ready for Asuka. Not only was this comment uncalled for in the light of the fact that Emma would no longer be able to pursue her WWE dreams, the issue was that Lio Rush was a relative newcomer at that point without a real place in the roster.
Many people responded to the original tweet and there was a scare at that point that Lio Rush would never make it to the main roster. Well he certainly did make it, but things aren't great right now either.
#3 Trouble with WWE security
This incident was first reported by PWInsider. It happened during a WWE TV taping and if you know anything about the WWE system at all, the days of tapings are extremely hectic because multiple hours of TV content have to be filmed.
So, it turns out that Lio Rush brought a whole group of people to a WWE TV taping despite the fact that none of them actually had the right credentials according to the rumor. And this resulted in them getting into a shouting match with a female security guard, which was a major issue.
Needless to say WWE did not take too kindly with regard to Lio Rush's friends causing such a massive commotion backstage. It was yet another nail in the coffin for The Man of The Hour, whose future was quickly turning sour.
And we have two more entries to go in this list!
#2 Problems during the latest European tour
There are certain WWE rituals that have to be followed in the backstage area that are a lesson in humility. As originally reported by PWInsider, Rush refused to do a few of these tasks.
Here is the summary of the incident:
On the November 2018 European tour, where, as the junior member of the tour, he blew off what has long been considered standard backstage etiquette for the junior member of the roster on overseas tours - including being at the gorilla position after matches to provide water to talents as they returned from the ring, as well as carrying coolers and drinks into the hotels where the roster was staying in order to set up a common area where everyone could socialise privately together.
Lio Rush explained his whole stance for refusing to do these menial tasks through a recent Twitter post that he put out:
#1 Lying to Mark Henry
Mark Henry is a very important backstage figure and is known by many to be one of the nicest and kindest individuals in the wrestling world. But even Henry went public with the fact that Lio Rush lied to him on his face when Henry asked him to clarify the ongoing situation.
Mark Henry went public on Busted Open Radio and voiced his criticism of Lio Rush for lying to him. These were his exact words:
I pulled him aside and told him, 'Hey, man. I'm hearing stuff in the locker room. What's up?' 'Oh, there's nothing wrong.' It was a blatant lie to my face. I was trying to help him. And he lied to my face.
While this incident may not seem like a big deal compared to the others, being in Mark Henry's good books counts for much in the backstage area. Let's hope that Rush is able to emerge from the current situation and able to reclaim his career again.
Whether it is in WWE or outside the company is another matter.
