Lio Rish, the current Impact X-Division Champion, was set to take on “Speedball” Mike Bailey next weekend at My Name Is GCW in Detroit. However, yesterday, GCW announced that Bailey would instead take on Blake Christian for the GCW World Championship because Rush suffered an injury that took him off the show.
Haus of Wrestling has learned that the injury is “not serious” and that Rush is only expected to miss one month of action. This is good news for Rush, and his fans, who have enjoyed the renaissance he has been having since leaving WWE in 2020. During his run with the promotion, he held the WWE NXT Cruiserweight Championship and was briefly paired with Bobby Lashley, serving as his manager.
Bailey, Rush’s originally announced opponent, has been on a tear the last two years since signing with Impact Wrestling. In 2016, Bailey received a five-year ban from the United States after he attempted to enter the country without the correct visa. Because of that, in recent years, he has been relegated mainly to the UK independent scene and DDT-Pro in Japan. He is a former Impact X-Division Champion and was named X-Division Star Of The Year in 2022.
Like Rush, Christian, the current GCW World Champion, also spent some time in WWE but did not reach the same heights. GCW’s current top guy signed with WWE in February 2021 and was renamed Trey Baxter. As Baxter, he wrestled a slew of matches for NXT and 205 Live, but, ultimately, his run was cut short when he was released in October of the same year. He has also been seen in AEW, wrestling on the now-defunct Dark and Rampage.
My Name Is GCW takes place on Friday, August 4, from Harpos in Detroit and will be available to stream on FITE+. Outside of the GCW World Championship between Christian and Bailey, AEW and ROH star Komander will take on Joey Janela, and Jeff Hardy will be making an appearance, but not wrestling.