Mark Henry weighs in on the Lio Rush situation.
Lio Rush has been in the headlines for the last week with reports indicating that Rush's attitude has caused problems in the WWE locker room. Rush recently spoke to Fightful and aired some grievances he has with WWE, namely pointing to his lack of income and the optics of a young black man carrying water and bags for other wrestlers. You can view Lio's full comments by clicking here.
Appearing on Busted Open Radio, Mark Henry had plenty to say regarding Rush and his issues.
"I pulled him aside and told him, 'I'm hearing stuff in the locker room, what's up?' (He said,) 'Oh, there's nothing wrong.' It was a blatant lie to my face. I was trying to help him and let him know that if you have a question to ask, now is the time because you're very likely not going to run into anyone that knows the system like I know the system. And he didn't do that. He lied to my face," stated Henry. "If you're walking around and you can't pay for a rental car or hotel with the money that you make every week, then you need to change the way you're spending. You can't blame that on the office. If you spend everything before you got it, that's your problem. What Lio is doing is nothing different than what I did. He's getting off very easy. In my day, they would have said, 'Hey Lio, Bobby should never drive. You should take his bags to the car. When he comes back from his match, you should have a bottle of water for him when he walks through the curtain.'"
Henry continued, stating that Lio's recent comments made to Fightful could lead to his departure from WWE.
"I promise you, after these comments, either he's gonna have to go somewhere or the company is gonna say, 'good luck to you in your future endeavors.' It's not a racial issue. It's an ego issue," said Henry. "Nobody is exempt from being respectful to the business and pay homage to the guys that are drawing money. We've all done it. Steve Austin and The Rock did it. You better than The Rock? Get the hell out of here. I remember when Chris Jericho came to WWE from WCW. I remember walking back from my match. His match was after mine and he had three bottles of water. One for him, one for his opponent, and one for the referee. This is Chris Jericho. You better than Chris Jericho? Get the hell outta here with that."
PWInsider reported that Lio Rush recently turned down a 5-year deal worth $300,000 per year, reportedly asking for double that number.
