Sports Illustrated caught up with Lucha Underground star Johnny Mundo, and executive producers Eric Van Wagenen and Chris DeJoseph for this week’s Extra Mustard “Week in Wrestling” column. The trio discussed what makes Lucha Underground a different product than anything in wrestling today, WWE taking a page out of their book with the Wyatt Family compound video, TNA and the Final Deletion, Kevin Owens, The Miz, and more.
John Mundo on The Miz:
“The Miz has his own style and his own technique, and he is very effective. How do you rate his wrestling? Is he an in-ring technician? Does he work similar to the way Bret Hart worked? No, he doesn’t. But out of all the thousands of wrestlers, people want to talk about The Miz, which means people are thinking about him, especially after that promo with Daniel Bryan – which was one of the best promos of Miz’s career. The whole wrestling world took notice, and if you equate wrestling to storytelling, it’s clear The Miz can go.”
Van Wagenen on the Lucha Underground audience:
“You can’t half-ass this. You’re either all the way in, or it’s going to feel clumsy. We want to make it OK to watch wrestling through a different lens, and our live audience is key. We have the scripted vignettes backstage, but whenever we have a match, the audience is there. The audience, as a character, is an important part of wrestling that you cannot diminish, so we’ll always have a visible crowd there to keep us honest. In an arena that only sits 300–350 people, that audience is much more present. We don’t have barricades, our space is very tight, and every seat is on camera.”
Van Wagenen on the ‘Final Deletion’:
“I thought TNA was mocking us with ‘The Final Deletion. And that is not to criticize the Hardys. I would never take a shot at what they do for a living. My complaint was from the technical producing standpoint. If they’re going to take a page from us, I just wanted it to be better. There is so much editorial care that goes into our show— the editing, the post-production process, the color correction process, the audio design and the building of the music—that is not an easy thing to replicate.”
Make sure to check out more of this interview at SI.com/extra-mustard.
