Ivelisse recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Bill Pritchard about her involvement in the All Elite Wrestling Casino Battle Royal, as well as her tenure with Lucha Underground. Ivelisse was a featured performer on Lucha Underground’s first four seasons, but publicly asked for her release in January and said she felt like she’d been held hostage. She said that her remarks were not meant to be mean-spirited at all, and she was treated very well during her time on the show, but the terms of the contracts were not fair to talent.
“Well, yeah, like you said, it was never anything ill-intended. I went public with it—I didn’t know what else to humanly possibly do to fix my situation. And just, unhappiness. But it was just, it’s a great show. There is a lot of great people behind it and everything, it’s just, sometimes, when there’s too many people involved some people try to take things into a direction where it just doesn’t fit. And if it doesn’t fit then, you know, there’s nothing wrong or right, it’s just—if it doesn’t fit it doesn’t fit. Not on the same page for the talent.
It really was down to the fact that, the whole thing of wanting to keep a talent stuck on a contract to a TV show. Like, that’s just not realistically possible or fair or right. That was just really it. It’s great. Great show, great people, every time you go it’s fun, they treated us very well, and everything. But just that contract part was just too unrealistic, unfortunately.”
Lucha Underground’s future is still up in the air, and Ivelisse says if the show returned for a fifth season fans would still see a great show with a high production value, and their legacy will still live on for a number of positive ways the show helped wrestling. While she was able to have her release granted, she says the show was able to introduce new names and wrestling styles to the mainstream audience and we’ll see that influence live on.
“I mean, yeah. I think that’s kind of inevitable. I think anything that had a big impact, whether consciously or subconsciously, the rest—and there were a lot of great talent that were showcased in Lucha Underground. You’re seeing that as well too, You have Killshot, and now you have him in NXT. There were a few others that weren’t necessarily introduced as well to the TV show per se, but yeah, I would say so.”
Related: Ivelisse Talks Involvement In The AEW Battle Royal, Gaining Momentum & Goals In Wrestling
