Donald Wood from Ring Rust Radio interviewed Lucha Underground Co-Executive Producer Chris DeJoseph this week about the upcoming second season of Lucha Underground.
It was revealed earlier this week that season two of Lucha Underground premieres on the El Rey Network in January with the first round of tapings scheduled for November 14th. Here are some highlights from the interview:
What it was like behind-the-scenes getting the show back on the air:
Chris DeJoseph: I will say that behind the scenes it was a tad bit stressful. I was kind of out of that portion since I handle mainly the creative parts of the show, storylines, and things like that. For me, it was a wait and see game, and I got the news the same time around everyone else did. For me it was exciting because I hadn’t moved on to work on another show and now it gives me the opportunity to come right back and get in the swing of things for Lucha Underground. It was real exciting; everyone behind the scenes is super excited. Talent has reached out to me to let me know how excited they are. We are bringing back a lot of the same crew and people that helped make a fun and magical first season of Lucha Underground. Starting from scratch with something like that you will never know if it’s going to have some type of success or if people will like it. For the most part people enjoyed the show and that’s why we are coming back for season two.
The possibility of Rey Mysterio joining Lucha Underground:
Chris DeJoseph: If Rey was in Lucha Underground at all that would be amazing. What can you say about that guy? He is a former world champion and probably one of the most popular Luchadores ever. That would be amazing. As far as other new talent, that’s something that we are still in the process of. I think we would like to keep it a surprise for people. I will tell you there are some new characters, new faces, and some recognizable ones you will see.
Lucha Underground’s creative process & longterm booking strategy:
Chris DeJoseph: I think that other companies don’t look at their show like a drama for TV. Something you could tune into for every week, they keep looking at it as wrestling. We didn’t want to look at it that way. In my situation here on this show, Mark Burnett and Robert Rodriguez and the El Rey network put their faith in us and trusted us and our opinions and let us do what we were hired to do. Sometimes, not naming names, but in bigger places there are too many people trying to get their input in and sometimes those people at the top don’t see things the same way or just may change their mind just because. I think major politics are in play in those situations too. Somebody could have a bad match at a house show then the next week their story line is killed on Raw. We didn’t have the problem on Lucha. On the start of the very first day I told all the talent, we want everybody to be a part of this show, we want everyone to have some input on this, and we have to make this show together. We don’t get to season two unless everyone works together on season one. We had fun doing it. Toward the end of my WWE time, and I know this is true for a lot of talent and people that work for them, it stops being fun anymore. That’s one thing that we wanted to try to keep going at Lucha. Everyone comes in and has a good time and puts on a damn good show every week. I don’t have all the answers or best ideas and sometimes mine aren’t the best. But if people can come in and give their input and feel free to do those things and be part of the creative process it helps the show in whole.
Wrestling writers leaking news to the media:
Chris DeJoseph: I think when I was there, there were suspicions of some people who were, but you never really could prove it though. I never had a relationship with anyone who wrote any dirt sheet. I was too scared probably to even think about that there especially in my beginning times. There your life is so sheltered, but I think some come from talent not so much creative. I am not really sure on that but I know I never did. Sometimes things would get out that were true, but the majority of the times things that are reported are completely false or they don’t have all the information.
Changes for Season 2:
Chris DeJoseph: I think it’s already out there that we are beginning taping on November 14th, if it isn’t, it is now. You will see a lot of the same characters, but you will also see some new ones. We teased a few at the end of last season; hopefully there will be a little injection of new. You always need that to be successful with any show. Especially in wrestling it’s nice to see new faces and new matchups. As far as the other stuff, I don’t want to give anything away to spoil it for anybody. I will keep my lips sealed as far as everything else and what’s happening.