Lucha Underground star Johnny Mundo (aka John Morrison) recently spoke with the Shining Wizards podcast to talk about his post-WWE career, as well as a number of Lucha Underground-related topics. Below are highlights from the interview.
On Lucha Underground: “I like a lot that you compared it to ECW, because that’s one of the comparisons that I make often. Not necessarily that it is ECW, but ECW really felt like it was its own world. It wasn’t WWE’s lights. It was its own thing, and I definitely felt that way about Lucha Underground from day one. It always had its own identity. That Identity is evolving as time goes on. As the bigger superstars get signed, and that happens more frequently, as we got (Alberto) Del Rio now and who knows what could be happening in the next couple of weeks. This isn’t just a wrestling show. This is a world we are creating and that appealed to me. It’s not just a typical wrestling show that’s going to be gone the next day or move. The Identity is not going to be changing. So far it’s been really good.”
On being happy post-WWE: “Oh, 100 percent. In WWE, you’re wrestling matches with handcuffs on. You come up with ideas constantly, and half the time you’re not allowed to do what you want. I understand why it’s like that because it’s a business and they’re very protective of talent, angles, and the things that they’re doing, but I feel like it started to become a case where they were trying too hard to resist all this new stuff, ideas, and moves. I think it started hurting their product, and it’s been hurting their product for a while. And it’s really nice to not have to deal with that and to go in and say that I’ve got 5 cool ideas, and Prince Puma has 5 cool ideas, and while we’re not probably going to be able to do all of them in every match, let’s pick the coolest stuff and do it.”
On Lucha Underground’s faith in him: “It means a lot. And like I said, I couldn’t be happier to be a part of this organization. I do think that what I’m doing in Lucha Underground is great for me and it’s really good for them too. I’m pouring a ton of energy into Lucha Underground and going out of my way to not even have the best matches that I can have, but have the best match I can have and then some. Taking risks and pushing myself to try things that I’ve never tried in WWE because they probably wouldn’t have been allowed or the people that I was working with might not have wanted to go that far. To have free range and the responsibility and the trust to let me pull the wagons so to speak for Lucha Underground has been really rad.”
On Lucha Underground vs. WWE creative: “For one, the Lucha Underground creative team is top notch. They are very all solid, talented people. There’s no eccentric billionaire who’s showing up at the last minute and demanding Lucha Underground to be rewritten the day of TV. I really feel like that is the difference. I feel like other promotions have too many chefs in the kitchen, so to speak. There are too many people with power, and they have different agendas, and when those agendas collide, and arguing starts to happen over storylines with stuff getting changed the day of, it starts to suck for the fans because you’re following a story and a couple weeks in the whole thing gets squashed or changed and it doesn’t seem like anything ever happens or pays off. I think Lucha Underground has done a good job so far of having their stories pay off and creating intrigue in this world they have created.”
Vince Russo’s involvement: “Yeah, he was there. I did an interview with him for his YouTube channel. He was there to watch the show, though. He is in no way going to be a part of the creative team of Lucha Underground. Everyone there knows that’s 100 percent true. Vince Russo knows that’s 100 percent true. I don’t know if he’s trying to tell people he is or not, but he’s not. He was there as a wrestling fan. He told me and everyone there that he watched the show and he had a good time. He interviewed some of the talent, and I had a really fun 20 minute interview with Vince Russo. Just shooting the shit about WCW, TNA, WWE, Lucha Underground, and when he puts it up on his channel I hope everyone watches, but he is not involved with the creative of Lucha Underground.”
Check out the complete interview at ShiningWizards.com.
