Former WWE star Lio Rush on his release, transition to ‘The Challenge’

A Q&A with the “Challenge” rookie.

Lio Rush has been everywhere in his young career — he wrestled in the NXT and WWE (where he once took a shot at Rob Gronkowski), and is a recording artist as well.

Now, he’s taking on something entirely different: MTV’s The Challenge: Double Agents, where he’s a rookie competing with names like Lolo Jones for a $1 million prize.

As we get set for this season’s premiere (8 p.m. ET Wednesday night on MTV), For The Win spoke to Rush about what it was like to go from the ring to a Challenge house and what’s next for him after this season (this interview has been edited and condensed).

How did you find yourself on The Challenge?

The WWE had a huge, mass release at the beginning of the pandemic, and I was let go. Super disappointing, but a couple of weeks later, I ended up getting an email from some people at MTV and they asked me if I wanted to be a part of this show because they heard about what happened to me.

How were you feeling after that release?

I was lost. I didn’t know what my future looked like, and I didn’t know when things would get back to normal or if [the pandemic] would be the new normal. MTV came to the rescue and gave me a much clearer view of what my future looked like.

Had you heard of The Challenge before you were invited on?

For sure. My life has been so busy the past few years with me starting my wrestling journey. It’s very hard to watch television when you’re on TV, but I used to watch it all the time when I was younger.

Did you watch thinking, “I can do that!”

No. I saw a few seasons of it and I was so young at the time — I’m 26 right now — so I wasn’t thinking I could do it. I did think I was cool and I was familiar with a few other wrestlers who took the route of going from reality TV to wrestling, like Mike “The Miz” Mizanin.

How did you prepare for this? Did you do any scouting in recent seasons?

I looked at the season before [Total Madness] because there was a possibility I’d see these people on this season. I wanted to get myself not only familiar with the game, but with the people because of the politics involved. I prepared physically with my training.

What did you change with your training?

I was doing a lot more weightlifting because I knew I’d be coming in as one of the smaller guys, so I wanted to build my strength up a little bit. I knew that with the division I was in with wrestling, I wasn’t so much focused on strength because when you have guys under 205 pounds, you want to build up endurance and conditioning. So I was doing a lot of speed drills.

What was it like filming a season in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic? I know there were adjustments made to the production.

I know with people who have done this before, they’ve gone through a different process. I did think it was a pretty long process before we got to Iceland. We had to quarantine before and then quarantine in Iceland before you got to the house. That was a little tedious with all the build-up and anticipation, you just wanted to start already. That’s what we had to do in a time like this. We wanted to be safe at the end of the day.

We all know what happens with rookies on the show getting targeted early. What can you tell me about that?

The rookie thing, it’s different in my head. I think it’s because I’m coming from a different field. Other people are coming from reality shows. Me having success in professional wrestling and a name behind me, I didn’t necessarily feel like a rookie going into the house. I did feel like a stranger since a lot of people already knew each other from other reality shows. As for the other rookies, I knew that they got attacked first and typically, they’d gather together. I knew if I was put in a situation like that, I would have to be that person to stand up to people. I don’t take [expletive], I don’t like being pushed around and bullied.

So is being a pro wrestler an advantage in that way?

From a psychological standpoint, for sure. It’s not just lifting up people or taking a slam in wrestling, there’s a lot of acting that goes into things and backstage politics and adapting if things get screwed up. So I definitely think I had a huge advantage.

Would you do The Challenge again?

Coming off of this season and being back home, first thing I said was, I’m NEVER doing this again, this was crazy. But looking back on everything and seeing certain things I’ve experienced and things I would never do in my everyday life and people that I’ve met, I probably would do it again, as crazy as that sounds.

What are you up to now? A new album?

I’m working on singles, I like to record at all times to have stuff in the bank. If I want to put out an album, then I have it. I’m still working on music, wrestling and I’m also working on my first film, which is the Power Rangers movie. I’m super excited about that. I know things go complicated with COVID-19, we were in the middle of casting when it hit. Now, they’re working on the script. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to be a ranger, but I do know there are a ton of villains. I do like playing the bad guy, so we will see.

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