Last night we had a mystery entrant in the Casino Battle Royale at Double Or Nothing. While names like Chris Hero, Andrade, and Bryan Danielson were what fans were hoping for, we instead got Lio Rush. This was a name that slipped completely under the radar, but one that was always possible. However, we likely won’t be seeing a “Lio Rush is All Elite” graphic anytime soon, as Rush reportedly isn’t signed, just showed up as part of a deal with NJPW.
Lio Rush Is Another Sign Of A Strong Working Relationship Between AEW & NJPW.
Despite him not signing a deal with AEW at this time, we will likely be seeing more of Rush on AEW programming, but it’ll be in a similar capacity to the likes of KENTA, Yuji Nagata, Rocky Romero and Ren Narita. Rush showing up at Double Or Nothing is yet another sign of a strong relationship between AEW & NJPW, and another way for NJPW to show that they aren’t aligned with WWE despite recent talks.
Lio Rush signed with NJPW in 2020, and mainly competes on NJPW Strong. We can expect him to show up in a future Best of The Super Juniors Tournament for the company, either in 2021 or 2022, as well as on AEW programming while he’s around. As per Tony Khan in the post media scrum, “I don’t have a pen to paper deal, but Lio and I have a handshake [deal] that he can work here and do New Japan both.”
Several Names In AEW Could Benefit From A Tour In NJPW
Once the pandemic situation finally starts to clear up in Japan, we can expect to see some crossover of AEW names to NJPW, and not just Jon Moxley as IWGP United States Champion. We could see names like Darby Allin, Rey Fenix, Jungle Boy and Sammy Guevara in a tournament like Best of The Super Juniors, or tag teams like Dark Order, Varsity Blonde, or Butcher & The Blade in World Tag League.
NJPW will often pull from other companies to fill these tournaments, but tended to opt for talent from ROH & CMLL in the past. 2020 was an exception, as they were stuck with the talent in Japan at the time. What talent from AEW could you see doing tours in Japan? Do you want to see more of Lio Rush in AEW? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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