Lio Rush discusses the tweet that got him in trouble.
On Oct. 29, 2017, WWE released Emma from the company. Emma was well-liked by many backstage and was one of the top performers in the ring. She had just wrestled in back-to-back matches against a debuting Asuka, losing both contests. Following news of her release, Lio Rush tweeted, "I guess these are the things that happen when you're not TRULY ready for Asuka."
Lio was hired by WWE in July 2017 and many in the wrestling world took offense to his tweet. Sean Waltman, Bray Wyatt, Peyton Royce, Dash Wilder, Buddy Murphy, and more all expressed their anger and disappointment at Lio for his unnecessary tweet. Lio would eventually delete the tweet and issue an apology.
Speaking to Lilian Garcia on Chasing Glory, Lio Rush opened up about the infamous incident.
"It hit me so fast and hard. I was sitting in a Waffle House when I (tweeted it). I didn't mean it in the slightest way to be hurtful. I remember being so entertained with what Asuka was doing," recalled Rush. "Her saying, 'Nobody is ready.' Honestly, it was so stupid. At the time, people tried to tell me, as soon as it went up, 'Hey, I think you should take that down.' I didn't really see the negative in it. I left it up when somebody told me to take it down. 'It's fine, I didn't mean it in a negative way. It's not like I'm bashing her.' I started seeing hundreds and thousands of comments, people just raining down on me. I messed up. I messed up really bad. I felt bad and I reached out to Emma. At first, I had mixed feelings about it. Ultimately, I realized I messed up. It was new to me because I had never seen WWE tweet out anything about a release. I wasn't aware of how real the situation was."
Rush continued, revealing he reached out to Emma to offer an apology but didn't hear back. He then tried to relay a message to her through Paige, whose friendship with Emma is well-known and documented on "Total Divas."
"I tried to reach out to Emma. I didn't get a response. She tweeted a heartbreak emoji and then it really blew up. 'Oh, this is so bad.' I remember getting really depressed. I was thinking about disappearing," said Lio. "I remember reaching out to Paige because of the situation she went through and everybody saying negative comments to her. I saw her at the Performance Center and she was talking about the things she went through and how she dealt with it. I asked her if she could reach out to Emma for me and tell her that I didn't mean anything hurtful. I don't know (if she got any message)."
As a result of his tweet, Lio was pulled from NXT live events in November. He wouldn't spend much time on NXT television and was eventually moved to 205 Live and Raw in the summer of 2018. He is currently the manager for Bobby Lashley.
