He talks about losing money from life on the road - which isn’t surprising. For so many guys Indies is the better choice. There’s no way people on the main roster should be struggling to pay the bills considering how much money this company makes but here we are. I’m sure he’s not the only one, just the only one with the balls to speak up.
The paying your dues things is also ridiculous for a publicly traded company. WWE can’t get all the benefits of that aspect, but keep all the carny bullshit from years past. Pick one or the other.
Also wondering who he’s talking about from ROH that is trying to get him fired. Only guys I can think of are Steve Corino and Adam Pearce who used to be ROH guys and now work in the office.
When you reportedly turn down 300K a year and ask for 600K instead, that gives me the feeling that he isnt exactly struggling to pay bills, he’s struggling to keep up with his over spending most likely.
“You’re likely not going to run into someone who knows the system like I know the system. He didn’t do that. He lied to my face. Sometimes you have to talk to people that know more than you do.”
“If you can’t pay for a rental car, you can’t pay for a hotel with the money that you’re making every week then you need to change the way you’re spending. You can’t blame that on the office. If you spent everything before you got it, that’s your problem.”
“Back in my day, they would’ve told him, ‘Lio, Bobby shouldn’t have to drive. He shouldn’t have to carry his bag.’ Yokuzana was my responsibility.”
"After these comments he’s gonna have to go somewhere, or the company’s gonna have to tell him “good luck with your future endeavors.”
“It’s not a race issue. It’s an ego issue. Who are you? Nobody is exempt from being respectful to the business and paying homage to the guys drawing money. We all have done it. Steve Austin did it. The Rock did it. You better than The Rock? Get the hell outta here!”
Maybe that’s what he wants? It’s almost impossible to get a release - see Luke Harper, Sasha, Revival, etc.
And when Henry was paying his dues WWE wasn’t a publicly traded company. Different ballgame now.
Ryback said the complete opposite -
“Good for you. Anyone who tries to pull anything like that should get knocked the fuck out and publicly embarrassed. Bunch of bullshit and that shit didn’t go on before when there. Expose who leaks shit and have no fear. More people need to speak up, good job.”
The bigger issue is Rush claiming that he wasn’t paid for merchandise bearing his catchphrase and that his overall pay was insufficient to cover road expenses.
Whether or not he conducted himself in the proper fashion vis a vis the veteran talent is debatable, but the claim about pay is a bombshell.
We already know that talent is underpaid and overworked, but not to what degree. This is a company awash in cash from the tv and Saudi deals and they are still hiding behind the independent contractor nonsense to deny health care coverage and pay undercard talent menial wages.
Does Lio Rush have a trademark on that catchphrase? No, so why should he get money from Lashleys merchandise? Why not Lashley get money for Rushs merchandise, since being with Lashley is putting more eyes on him.
He probably is an asshole but wrestling has some dumb as fuck traditions of “paying your dues” and being subservient to veteran wrestlers. It’s an embarrassing practice to still have going on.
How is showing respect to veterans being subservient? If I offer to help out older workers on a job site carry their tools off their truck and I being subservient?
Also…if your that guy on the same job site who just sits there watching the older guys carrying out their tools by themselves…guess what? All the other workers on the site are going to think you’re an asshole.
Paying dues is something done everywhere and to think you’re above it is a foreign concept to me.
Offering to help is very different from being told you have to basically be a servant to prove yourself worthy when it’s not even a part of your job. And no, it definitely isn’t something normal outside of wrestling. It’s some weird, carny shit.
It is something pretty normal inside of sports though. In an arena where the job depends on trust and mutual respect people showing that they care about more than just themselves is not a bad thing.
When I 1st read the quote from Mark Henry I rolled my eyes. When I heard the interview where he said it, it changed my perspective.
I still think its some slave shit to be expected to do more (just because you’re new). Why doesn’t the WWE have 2 water coolers of various temperatures available. Every indy I’ve been to seems to have it figured out. The promoters always arrive with a 24 pack
It doesn’t show that they care about more than themselves though… They’re being told to do it, so they do it and can’t wait to stop doing it. It doesn’t do anything other than tell talent they need to know their place and follow orders.
And getting lessons about being selfless from people running WWE? Come on now…
It isn’t about them showing us anything, it is about them showing it to the people they’re working with. And yes it also shows that they will follow directions. Sorry I just don’t see it as a huge deal, plenty of worse shit happens.
In this day in age, in a multi billion dollar company, that wants to be seen as being comparable to Disney - “paying your dues” for talent that have paid their dues for many many years to get to the main roster - is insane.
Vince could easily pay them more. But no, he has to cash out hundreds of millions of WWE stock to start another XFL because his ego was hurt 20 years ago when the original XFL failed. And of course he can do whatever he wants with his money, but he’s always just been a greedy prick who wants to die knowing everything he’s ever done has been a success.
What Culture estimated that around 8% of WWE revenue goes to the talent. If they had an association like major sports, they could get upwards of 35-40% and the McMahons would still be multi billionaires. Food for thought.
But at the same time, how many years did lio rush actually been in wrestling before being sign by WWE? 3, 4 years at best i’m thinking as i even heard of this kid a lot before he got sign. Anyway, my point is that he hasn’t been in the business for that long and everybody as been in his ear telling him how great he is when in reality he was just another one of those spot monkey trying to get notice by doing crazy shit that’s not even considered wrestling.
He’s the same guy that got heat from the pretty much everybody in the company when he made that dumb joke on social media about Emma when she got release.
The guy is young and stupid. he’s all about himself because that what he was thought when he was on the indies and at the age you think that you know more then the veterans that came before you. It’s a generational think as far as i know. Millennial think they know more about life then prior generation just like we did when we were there age. Now he’s lashing out because for the first time he’s doesn’t have everybody kissing his ass telling him how great he is. If he want to make it far in this business, he will have to learn to respect the others performers especially veterans who pave the way for him. Offer to help them out with they luggage is a start especially since he’s pretty much considered a manager for Lashley anyway. But in a way, a little bit of humility goes a long way especially in wrestling if he doesn’t learn it in WWE, he will learn it quickly on the indy scene because has great has he is, they’re not one super indy that will sign him if he keep that attitude.