The latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter has a couple interesting items about something that writer/editor Dave Meltzer mentioned in passing a few days ago. Apparently, back in December, representatives of Lucha Underground had some kind of secret meeting with Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Canyon Ceman of WWE. The substance of the meeting was about some kind of talent arrangement, but it didn’t go anywhere.
It’s also worth noting that TNA officials reached out to Lucha Underground about doing a joint show during WrestleMania 32 weekend in Dallas, Texas. Lucha Underground turned them down, thinking it wouldn’t be a good fit for their brand.
A smaller detail from Meltzer’s account of the meeting is the one getting play on social media right now. In his Lucha Underground TV review, Meltzer expresses his frustration that the Lucha Underground braintrust believes that they’re ahead of the curve when it comes to pushing intergender matches, He added that during the WWE meeting, the Lucha Underground reps “bragged” about how forward-thinking the intergender presentation is, and Meltzer added that “I can just imagine [Levesque and Ceman’s] reaction.”
So, what are the issues here, besides the obvious?
- It’s something that WWE is very careful about, to the point that media who visits the Performance Center are told that while they’re free to take photographs, they are forbidden from shooting women training in the ring with men.
- Meltzer has referenced how Spike TV, amongst other cable networks (Spike was vocal about it when they had TNA), are VERY anti-man on woman violence when it comes to pro wrestling matches and angles. He’s made it clear that a lot of potential TV partners either would turn on Lucha Underground because of the intergender matches or would do so if pitched the show.
- Intergender wrestling has a history of being fetishized, which bothers some people. For example, there’s this old Dean Ambrose match that’s been linked on numerous wrestling forums by confused fans. Regardless of the motives of those involved (and there are plenty of wrestlers who do legitimately see it as empowering when done in a less ), a lot of people in and around wrestling have negative views for that reason on top of the more obvious connotations and complaints about a lack of realism.
Regardless of your feelings on the matter, if it’s a legitimate hurdle to Lucha Underground’s business interests, then it’s probably best to abandon the gimmick. And while nobody’s said it’s the reason (this probably has nothing to do with it), it’s certainly interesting that we’re hearing this after Lucha Underground lost their Spanish language slot on Unimas and nobody has explained why.
