Lucha Underground had a massive presence at this year’s Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, with network and company executives on hand to speak with fans and members of the media.
Wrestlezone’s Nick Hausman had the opportunity to catch up with some of the promotion’s biggest names including Rey Mysterio, Johnny Mundo, Vampiro, Taya Valkyrie, and even the AAA Vice President himself! Featured below are transcriptions from the full interview, which you can watch above.
Taya Valkyrie on the “women’s revolution” and intergender matches in pro wrestling:
“I’m an athlete, and I think that women deserve the same respect as men do in all facts of life. I’ve been wrestling in Mexico for five years, and in Mexico the intergender thing isn’t a new thing. That’s been going on forever. So this idea of the ‘women’s revolution’, and us being taken seriously, and being put against men – we’ve been doing this forever. So I’m really excited because now everybody’s eyes are being open to something that I’ve always loved. I’ve always loved wrestling guys. We’re as vicious as they are!”
Johnny Mundo on his upcoming movie “Boon the Bounty Hunter”:
“What I wanted to do was make a movie combining parkour, pro wrestling, and good ol’ fashioned 80s-style movie action.” … “It’s all the things that I’m best at. Goofy one-liners, comedy, action, huge wrecks, parkour, wrestling and some cool stunt [choreography]. Boon has a bit of a brawler MMA style about him.”
Mundo on a possible talent exchange between Lucha Underground, AAA and Impact Wrestling:
“I think it would be cool if Lucha Underground talent could wrestle other places. We’d get this sort of talent exchange, invasion-type thing, that would be real. It wouldn’t be one company invading itself with two different brands. It could be a couple different companies legit invading invading itself with different talent, and matches you’ve never seen before. “
Rey Mysterio on the incredible talent in Lucha Underground, and the success of Prince Puma (aka Ricochet):
“The evolution for me right now is just to not fall behind! Competition in Lucha Underground is just incredible. It’s either a stay up on my A-game or I’m gonna have to retire soon, because I can’t keep up with these guys. I had a great match with Prince Puma in season two; I don’t want to give anything away for the fans that haven’t seen it, but [he is] an incredible competitor, potential to become a big superstar. To be able to perform at the level he performs, to execute the moves that he executes, it’s just incredible.”
Mysterio on his 20-year-old son training for pro wrestling, and how it feels trying to live up to the legacy of his father:
“I don’t think it’s hit him yet. That will eventually come, and I hope he understands exactly what he’s going through. My kid is a very smart individual” … “I wanted him to continue with the legacy, so now that he’s here, I just gotta do my job. I just gotta make sure that I prepare him right. Once I do that, I’m sure that he’ll be bigger and better than his old man.”
Lucha Underground producer Eric Van Wagenen on the product coming to Netflix and what it means for the show:
“We know that El Rey is not a channel that is as widely received as a lot of other channels, so that’s the good and the bad of being with El Rey. We’re with probably the most supportive, most creative, most fun network on television – the downside is we don’t have a large viewerbase. We always, from the beginning, wanted a second option for people to watch it. We had it a little bit with iTunes, but you have to pay for that specifically. With Netflix people can sit and binge watch it, and we’ll soon have over 100 episodes, so that’s a lot of binge-watching.”
Van Wagenen on his favorite Lucha Underground match:
“The original Grave Consequences is up there, but I love the match with the Black Lotus Triad. Pentagon Dark against the three Japanese female wrestlers. I know it was controversial, and a lot of people hated it, but I loved that episode.”
AAA Vice President Dorian Roldan on the success of Lucha Underground:
“Basically with Lucha Underground, we have created something really special. With all the vignettes, with all the cinematics that [we are] making, we’re giving to the wrestling business a new way of how to visualize what is going to happen. We’re trying to enter much more – like in the Marvel Universe – presenting all these Mexican wrestlers to a worldwide audience. Right now with the El Rey network, with Netflix, with Amazing, with iTunes, we are trying to find exactly which are going to be the next to [distribute] our product. But I think we are super happy, and we are really glad that our fans are getting bigger and better in every way. I have been in Japan in the last couple months, and the fans have really engaged with the product. We have been in Asia, we have been in Europe, we are going to be in Germany. We are trying to expand the reach of our product to everywhere.”
Vampiro on how Lucha Underground has been different than the other promotions he’s worked for throughout his career:
“The environment, the other wrestling companies – the old school political way of doing things behind the camera doesn’t exist here. We’re taking a tradition that’s over 100 years old, and we are with so many partners, like the El Rey network, like with MGM, with big name people like Robert Rodriguez and Mr. Barnett, and Dorian’s experience”… “all of these generations of people, and this different way of presenting things, we’ve avoided the speed bumps of the politics that are usually involved. WCW, ECW, WWE – that really is not existing here. Things are a lot more friendly, they’re a lot more professional. We know where we’re going, we know what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it. It’s so much better as a workplace.”
