Young Ring of Honor star Lio Rush recently appeared in an interview with ESPN where he discussed a number of topics including the lessons that he learnt about the WWE Performance Center during his time there, his very first tryout at ROH and calling the WWE during his teens.
Rush revealed that he had contacted the WWE as a 16-year old in order to find out the minimum age for working with the company. To his surprise, they answered the call and informed that he needed to be at least 18 years old and when he attained that age, he decided to undergo some training for becoming a pro-wrestler.
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The 22-year old was quoted as saying:
“It all fell into place when I was 16. I called the WWE office and, believe it or not, they picked up. I asked them how old do you have to be to become a professional wrestler, and they said I had to be 18. So when I was around 18, and as soon as I graduated, I'm like, 'Man, I'm old enough to be a professional wrestler.' And I already have this All-American amateur status under my belt, so let me try to see if I can find some kind of training to be a professional wrestler.”
Lio Rush spoke at length about his experience at the WWE Performance Center and how things turned out to be quite contrary to what he had expected and eventually prompted him to return home. This is what the Maryland-born wrestler had to say:
“I saw that WWE Performance Center was opening up. It was around Full Sail University and I was like, 'Perfect. I can train at the WWE Performance Center, and I can go to school regularly, working on videography at Full Sail.' I was already good at doing videos -- I was a videographer, and my dad and my mom were into video production and just media in general, so I grew up around that stuff.
I got almost a year in, and I found out that the WWE Performance Center was not a training school for just anybody that wanted to sign up. It discouraged me [as far as] being in Florida and at Full Sail University, so I went back home to Maryland.”
Speaking about his very first tryout with Ring of Honor, Rush said that it was a memorable one for him as he managed to blow everyone away with his performance. The youngster claimed that a number of experienced athletes from the promotion were left amazed by his skills.
“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 travelling 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?” Lio Rush told ESPN.
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