Tony Khan is holding the forbidden door open for Lio Rush.
Tony Khan posted the following on Twitter, noting that Lio Rush is a topic of conversation as of late, and it just so happens that they’ve been speaking as well. Khan went on to hint that Rush making another appearance in AEW could happen sooner than later.
“I see a lot of tweets talking about Lio Rush today. Coincidentally, I’ve been talking to @TheLionelGreen
a lot recently about returning to @AEW, and it feels like something that could happen in the near future,” Khan wrote.
Lio Rush previously appeared on AEW’s Double Or Nothing pay-per-view as the Joker in the Casino Battle Royale, and Khan said they’d been working on a “handshake deal” and hoped to see him return.
“I haven’t like a ‘pen to paper’ [deal] but Lio and I have a handshake [deal] that he can work here and New Japan both, and that we’d want to do it and he’d want to keep working here. I think we worked something pretty good out on a handshake. I think he’s doing that on a handshake with New Japan too, that’s kinda what we’ve been doing with New Japan and it’s been pretty good. I think it’s a good way to work, and so far, so good.”
Just weeks later, however, Rush unexpectedly announced his retirement from wrestling. Rush cited a separated AC joint sustained during his AEW debut, as well as the timing of the injury that led him to make the announcement. At the time, he said he would honor his commitments to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (where he is still under contract) before hanging it up so he could focus on himself and his family.
Rush had surgery in June, then offered another update in August, revealing that he’d been cleared for a full return. Rush has made six total appearances for New Japan this summer, with more scheduled in the future, but it remains to be seen if he’ll officially un-retire and make his way back to AEW.
Read More: Lio Rush On His Retirement: ‘I’m Happy’ With This Decision, I Can Spend Time With My Family Now
