Lucha Underground star Johnny Mundo recently sat for for an interview to discuss a wide variety of topics. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.

On WWE Tough Enough: “The best way to describe Tough Enough is to just call it an opportunity. In my opinion its best opportunity any aspiring wrestler could possibly have. It’s a chance to learn from the best in the business and meet people who have achieved things in the business that usually take a long time and a lot of work to just be in the same room with. I think that it imitates what it’s like to be on the road and that you’re on Tough Enough and your walking on eggshells constantly everything you do in the ring, out of the ring affects who they select to win that show. I always thought it was a really cool show and I think it’s cool that they are bringing it back and its one of my favorite shows to watch. It’s always a little nostalgic watching that thing and me with Madcap Kelly up there with Al Snow and, Ivory and Bill (DeMott) was one of the most high pressured but also fun times of my life on Tough Enough.”

On life after WWE and working the indies: “That’s one of my favorite things about working the independent circuit. Wrestling for me is always an awesome challenge because you have the opportunity to constantly create something new your canvas is always the ring and there are similarities to every match that you have and what you do. But the canvas in independent wrestling is vastly different from show to show and what you are working is vastly different. On the weekend of June 6/7th, I was in Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) wrestling in the Maritimes two great matches Markus Burke and one against Titus. This weekend I’m going to Mexico to wrestle Rey Mysterio and Mistico and the styles couldn’t be more different. I’m imagining the crowds are going to be completely different and I like that. It’s cool, it’s never boring. Sometimes with the WWE you can get a little bit stale. Your travelling is usually with the same group and your generally working with the same person and the same type of match and it’s the same environment backstage. So professionally to go and get back out there I have control of my destiny and I have control of where I want to work, who I want to work with. There’s a lot more freedom for sure in my hands now on the independent scene and working with Lucha Underground.”

On the differences between the John Morrison character and Johnny Mundo: “Mundo can speak Spanish, that’s one. There’s a meme somewhere out there of Captain Picard hitting himself in the forehead saying ah, damn it. That time where a wrestler changes his name but not his gimmick. As Johnny Mundo I feel like I haven’t changed a ton from the babyface John Morrison gimmick that I started Lucha Underground with but I’ve just evolved to where we are now on TV, I am now a rudo which in English means bad guy and it’s been fun let’s put it this way Johnny Mundo now is darker and more sinister than John Morrison ever was.What is exciting to me is Lucha Underground feels like the opportunity to go even darker and have a deeper character than I had with WWE. It is there in front of me and I’m looking forward to doing it. To taking Johnny Mundo places athletically, emotionally, creatively that I never went with Johnny Nitro or John Morrison. I think people that have been watching it have been giving it good reviews and feedback on the character choices and as everything continues with Lucha Underground you are going to see Johnny Mundo slowly evolve into a very dark and villainous character.”

Check out the complete interview at clicking here.

• **BRAND NEW PHOTO GALLERY** — Ronda Rousey In SKIMPY Bikinis & SUPER-TIGHT Outfits!

Lucha Underground TV Results
Taped at “The Temple” of Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California
Aired on June 17, 2015 on the El Rey Network
Report by ProWrestling.net

This week’s intro video was based around the motivation and progression of the Johnny Mundo rudo turn. This video ended with Dario Cueto rewarding Johnny Mundo for his character change, with an Ironman Match for the Lucha Underground Championship on this week’s episode.

No more Ryobacks this week; The band known as Mexican Dubwiser poured in the smooth Latin beats for tonight. These beats were enough to pump up Vampiro again who was joined by the Sexy Matt Striker (vamp’s words not mine). Striker went straight to business by laying down the rules to the Iron Man Match that was going to happen “All Night Long”.

Johnny Mundo and Prince Puma were already in the ring to quickly start things off (obviously we’re not getting one hour since three minutes already passed). “PP” and “JM” were put in the bottom left corner of the screen to show the amount of pinfalls Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo accumulated.

1. Prince Puma vs. Johnny Mundo in a show-long Iron Man Match for the Lucha Underground Championship. Both luchadores stared holes into each other to start the match. Prince Puma extended his hand in respect for Mundo, and Mundo aggressively and respectfully obliged to the handshake. Mundo won the initial lockup with a drop toehold, but puma quickly linked in some countering chain wrestling moves. Mundo broke up the chain with a spinebuster and quickly went for a pin attempt. Mundo and Puma had another long staredown. Puma tried to target Mundo’s left leg, but Mundo eek out an enziguri.

Matt Striker noted that Konnan wasn’t in Puma’s corner this week and Vampiro continued to hate on Konnan like usual. Prince Puma lad a headlock during this time. Puma escaped with a shoulderblock and did some slick dodges to Mundo’s running attack. Mundo managed to send Puma to the outside with a roundhouse. Mundo missed on a corkscrew plancha, only plancha-ing air. Puma jumped quickly on the dizzied Johnny Mundo with a corkscrew plancha that was twice as fast as Mundo’s. Puma soaked in some cheers to send us to commercial. [C]

Puma was in the middle of a pin attempt when we came back, to no avail. A clock popped up on the screen saying that the match was timing in at about 33:43, counting down. Mundo escaped a fireman carry roundhouse. Puma escaped the moonlight drive, but took a forearm. After running the ropes, Prince Puma performed a bodyscissors rollup out of nowhere for the first pinfall in the match.

Prince Puma scored the first pinfall of the match to earn a 1-0 lead.

Puma and Mundo rested for a bit. Vampiro claimed that the ref did a fast count. Johnny Mundo hit a quick gut kick and neckbreaker. Puma kicked out of several pin attempts. Mundo moved his offense to a keylock and judo legsweep. Puma ended the offense of Mundo with a high dropkick. Mundo kicked out of a pin attempt of his own. prince Puma landed a standing shooting star, leading to a two count.

Mundo was shaken up a bit by a Puma kick. Mundo caught an incoming Prince Puma with a springboard dropkick. Puma kicked out of the following pin attempt. Johnny Mundo focused his current attack on the left arm of Prince Puma. Mundo also used this left arm to get shortarm kicks and strikes. Puma escaped the shortarm hold and hit a running cutter on Mundo. Puma tackled and kicked Mundo in the corner.

Mundo dodged a crossbody and tried to hit Fin De Mundo (Starship Pain). Puma dodged the pain but Johnny Mundo did an illegal pin attempt with his entire top half using the ropes as leverage. The ref didn’t catch the cheating and gave Johnny Mundo the tainted point. Johnny Mundo quickly rolled out of the ring to recover sending us to commercial. [C]

Johnny Mundo gained the second pinfall to tie the match at 1-1.

28:00 was the number on the screen telling us the time left in this match. Prince Puma started off with the schoolboy pin that didn’t work. Johnny Mundo tried a pin after a backbreaker legsweep. Johnny Mundo hit his signature running knee to the head of Prince Puma to get another two count. Johnny Mundo tried to hit a superplex on Prince Puma. After fighting on the second rope with punches, both men had a temporary stalemate. Puma jumped over the turnbuckle to send Mundo to the ground with a hurricanrana. Johnny Mundo crawled under the ring to pull out a wooden box and a chair.

Matt Striker quickly used Mundo crawling under the ring to make a Hornswoggle joke. Puma escaped a powerbomb on the wooden box and reversed into a Michinoku Driver, planting Mundo into the wooden box which shattered. Prince Puma stood up a bit shaken up after the move. Johnny Mundo found a crowbar and regained the advantage. Mundo nailed Puma in the head or shoulder with the (hopefully gimmicked) crowbar. Mundo dragged Puma in the ring and gained the next pinfall

Johnny Mundo scored another pinfall to take the lead at 1-2.

Johnny Mundo waited a bit for Prince Puma to get up and planted him with the Moonlight Drive for another quick pinfall.

Johnny Mundo scored another pinfall to lead at 1-3.

Johnny Mundo hollered in victory. Johnny Mundo hit Prince Puma with a beautiful disaster kick to put him in position for the Fin De Mundo, which he successfully hit. Johnny Mundo gained another visual pinfall.

Johnny Mundo scored another pinfall to lead at 1-4.

Johnny Mundo started gloating and flexing in the ring. Johnny Mundo told a ringside assistant that “I’m parched”. Johnny Mundo got a bottle of water to quench his thirst and wet his hair. Prince Puma laid prone in the ring while Johnny was on his water break. Striker and Vampiro started to worry about Prince Puma’s health. Johnny Mundo hit Prince Puma with the same water bottle of doom spot that R-Truth hit Mundo with once upon a time ago.

Johnny Mundo teased a corner splash on Puma, but Puma got some kicks in. Puma rolled the ground a bit to hit Mundo with a jumping DDT. Johnny Mundo and Puma fought on the apron a bit until Mundo hit a neckbreaker on Puma, on the ring apron. [C]

Johnny Mundo dragged out a giant ladder from under the ring with the match having 20:00 left on the clock. Prince Puma was met in the face with Mundo’s long ladder. Mundo took the ladder to get to the balcony of the Temple. Before he scaled it, Mundo set up a table beside it. This took several minutes, Mundo wanted to set up two neatly. Johnny Mundo went over to soften Prince Puma again to allow Puma to be set on the dual table setup.

Johnny Mundo scaled the ladder to reach the top of the grungy “balcony” area. Prince Puma recovered and didn’t use a ladder by climbing up the crossbeam metal to meet Mundo on the top. Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo fought in the crowd with Puma having the advantage. Puma suplexed Johnny Mundo on the top of the seating area, letting out an obvious thud. Prince Puma added a third table to the top of Mundo’s Dual table setup. Vampiro was hungry for pain. Prince Puma put a fourth table into the mix.

Prince Puma tried to Superplex mundo into the table structure, Mundo superkicked Prince Puma to the ground, missing the tables. Johnny Mundo parkoured his way to meet up with Mexican Budweiser. Mundo grabbed their mic and told everyone “Hola”. He also told everyone of his match lead. Mundo told the band to start playing music. Matt Stryker said the leader of Dubweiser was M. Bison.

Prince Puma tried to climb the ladder while Mundo was wetting his hair again. Mundo threw some of the water down on the climbing Puma. Mundo tried to use a wooden plank to hit Puma but puma stole the plank from him. Prince Puma grounded Mundo with the plank. M. Bison gave Prince Puma a Mexican guitar. Prince Puma hit Mundo in the head with the Mexican Guitar. Somewhere out there, Jeff Jarrett is smiling.

When both men recovered, but Prince Puma Psycho crushered Johnny Mundo from the top of the band area to the table structure a story down. (if Striker can make an M. Bison reference, I can be allowed to in regards to this spear right?). Striker made an audible “Oh, shit!” comment in regards to the spear. This took us to commercial when both men laid motionless in the mountain of debris. [C]

Prince Puma was the first one up. Johnny Mundo had a bloody head. Prince Puma tried to drag Mundo to the ring, but stumbled due to the fatigue. Prince Puma eventually got Mundo back in the ring after some struggling. Prince Puma gained the next pinfall.

Prince Puma scored the pinfall to trail 2-4.

Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo traded punches on their knees. Both luchadores struggled to stay on their feet when the punching became standing. Puma dodged the springboard roundhouse. Puma spun his way into a spinning roundhouse. Prince Puma hit Mundo with his fireman carry Pele Kick. Puma planted Mundo with a spinning Michinoku Driver to score another pinfall for himself.

Prince Puma scored another pinfall to trail 3-4.

Prince Puma got to his feet first with the rallying of the crowd. Johnny Mundo escaped a roundhouse from Puma by ducking out to the outside. Mundo played cat-and-mouse with Puma because he had the lead. Puma and Mundo utilized their parkour to chase each other around the arena. Johnny Mundo hid behind Vampiro and Striker. Puma eventually caught Puma with a feint kick on the apron to put him in position for a top rope move. Johnny Mundo rolled away, making Puma’s Phoenix Splash, only hitting air.

Johnny Mundo slowly walked to the top of the concourse. Johnny Mundo was met by a clothesline from another competitor at the top. That man was Alberto El Patron. El Patron kicked Mundo down the steps. Five minutes flashed on the clock as Alberto beat up Johnny ringside. Mundo was put back in the ring to allow Prince Puma to hit Mundo with a springboard 450 Splash. Prince Puma scored the pinfall.

Prince Puma tied the match up at 4-4.

Alberto El Patron grabbed the mic and said “Los Angeles! El Patron is IN THE HOUSEEEEEEEE!”. Alberto told “the perro” Johnny Mundo that this match looks even right now, but his troubles with El Patron were far from even. He said if Mundo walked away with the title tonight, he was going to be around to kick Mundo’s ass, and take the title. He then told Puma that if Puma won, just to be ready for a matchup between Alberto and Puma; but “of course, you already knew that” [wink]. 3:30 was ticking down at this point.

Johnny Mundo let out a barbaric yell, and spinebustered Puma against the turnbuckle. Johnny Mundo clubbed on Puma with punches in the corner. Puma tried a rollup, Mundo escaped. Mundo tried a backslide pin, Puma escaped. Puma tried a sunset flip, Mundo countered into a rollup and failed. Mundo hit his signature running knee. Puma kicked out of the nearfall. Vampiro was energized with two minutes on the clock. Mundo escaped the fireman carry.

Johnny Mundo countered a Puma armdrag with a standing moonsault sideslam for a nearfall that invoked a “Lucha!” chant. Johnny Mundo put Prince Puma on the top rope as the crowd had dueling “Let’s go Puma”, “Puma Sucks” chants. Mundo tried to hit Puma with a frankensteiner but Puma escaped to the other turnbuckle. One minute started to tick down.

Both luchadores struggled to get up at around thirty seconds. Prince Puma hit a front dropkick nailing Johnny Mundo with the 630 with ten seconds on the clock.

Prince Puma scored the final pinfall over Johnny Mundo with less than ten seconds remaining to retain the Lucha Underground Championship.

Johnny Mundo writhed on the ground in frustration of losing the close match. Matt Striker sold idea of Prince Puma taking things up another level in this epic matchup. Prince Puma stood in the middle of the ring holding his belt high over his head, as far as his fatigued knees would allow. This would end this week’s Lucha Underground.

• Details On MORE WWE & TNA Stars JUMPING-SHIP To Fight In MMA!

The following matches are scheduled to air on tonight’s edition of Lucha Underground on the El Rey Network.

– Aerostar vs. Johnny Mundo

– Vampiro interviews Sexy Star

– Prince Puma vs. Hernandez for the Lucha Underground Championship

– Fenix vs. Mil Muertes in a Death Match

Above is a video preview for tonight’s show.

• PHOTOS: CM Punk Training For UFC Debut w/ Former Champions!

Lucha Underground star Johnny Mundo recently spoke with the folks at Inside Pulse to promote his role in “Boone: The Bounty Hunter,” as well as his work in the Lucha Underground promotion. Below are highlights from the interview.

On an awkward and/or embarrassing moment: “Um, I feel embarrassed all the time, you kidding me? Every time I ding my car because I’m trying to eat a burrito bowl while driving and I crash into a parking cone with somebody else in the car. That happened to me, I want to say three months ago. I dented in my passenger side door. I was trying to adjust the radio while eating Chipotle while driving at the same time. I felt pretty bad, especially when I spilled the beans on my shirt.

“There’s a ton of times, like I was trying to do J Step Gainers a few years back, I think I was in WWE and I was in the middle of the ring, and I was wearing these breakaway pants and I swung for the take-off on this J Step Gainer and I hooked my pants somehow and it rips my pants off. I was wearing underwear but I had momentum and I flipped, kind of landed on my stomach and face a little bit but my pants fell off, and they were attached to my ankles. I did a flip and pantsed myself at the same time and landed on my face. That was a pretty good one. Actually, I wish that was on videotape. That would probably be a viral YouTube video.”

On his new show, “Boone: The Bounty Hunter”: “Oh bro, Boone: The Bounty Hunter is literally the thing that I’m absolutely the most excited about of everything that I’ve done. I wrote it, produced it, I’m actually tomorrow shooting pickups for it again. Movie-making is a very, very, very long process. Especially if you’re dealing with a project that you’re very passionate about and you want to see it finished right. I’m spending so much time on Boone and when it’s done I’m probably gonna tweet every day for a year telling everybody to watch it and let everybody know. All my friends know that I’ve been working on this for, oh over two years now. Yeah, I’m super-pumped for Boone.”

On if wrestlers who get the offer, should sign with WWE: “I really loved being with WWE. I don’t think anyone should turn down WWE because at some level it gets your name out there to the biggest audience the fastest and the more that people know your name around the world the more you’re in demand and the more money you can make as a wrestler, so- if people are turning down WWE I hope they have a good reason. (laughs) The only good reason in my book is to work with Lucha Underground, which is what I’m doing.”

Check out the complete interview at InsidePulse.com.

• CONFIRMED: CHAEL SONNEN Signs With GFW — What Will His Role Be?!

The following matches were taped for tonight’s edition of Lucha Underground on the El Rey Network:

– Son of Havoc and Angelico (w/Ivelisse) vs. Mr. Cisco and Cortez Castro (w/Bael)

– Texano vs. Delavar Daivari

– Prince Puma and Hernandez vs. Cage and King Cuerno

– Alberto El Patron vs. Johnny Mundo – The winner faces Hernandez to become No. 1 contender to the Lucha Underground Championship on next week’s show

Make sure to joins us here at SEScoops.com later in the week for a complete Lucha Underground television report.

Above is complete video preview for tonight’s show.

• CONFIRMED: CHAEL SONNEN Signs With GFW — What Will His Role Be?!

Lucha Underground star Johnny Mundo, formerly known as John Morrison, recently spoke with the folks at Ring Rust Radio about a number of subjects, including whether or not he’s interested in another run with WWE. Below are some highlights:

On whether there is pressure on him to take Lucha Underground to the next level and how it feels to be a cornerstone of the brand: “First of all, it feels really good to be in on something from day one and the ground floor. Being a part of something that is finding its own identity as it evolves is exciting. It’s in my hometown of Los Angeles, and it’s been awesome to be a part of it since day one. That feel really good and I am proud of that. As for pressure, it’s kind of nice to be an upstart since there wasn’t much expectation of Lucha Underground. Wrestling promotions are kind of like new religions, nine out of ten fail in the first year. So the bar was set low, and I think immediately we exceeded expectations. Especially as soon as Lucha Underground started airing on TV and people started seeing what the product looked like, we started having to turn people away at the tapings. Every taping especially toward the end of the season, we had to turn away 1,000 – 1,500 people. The tickets are free to the tapings, so it wasn’t like you paid for a ticket and got turned away, still, it was a case where demand exceeded supply, and that’s always a good position to be in.”

On the thought process leading up to his signing with Lucha Underground and why it’s such a good fit: “The first part was just logistics. Los Angeles is my home town, it’s where I live, and so no travel that appeals to me. Secondly, I was a little skeptical until I took a tour of the facility and the facility looked great. It was in this dumpy warehouse in Boyle Heights, where I shot a movie with Danny Trejo two years prior. Melina and I were sexy, underground mole people in the film and I remember we were killing time and hanging with Danny Trejo beneath the subways of New York in this warehouse. So when I went to this warehouse I remembered how it looked two years ago versus how it looked with the Lucha Underground set built and I was blown away. This is a production that cares about the art decoration and is running it like a movie instead of a TV show. Then you add to that the names from WWE that I was familiar with like Chris Roach, Matt Stillman, and Eric Von Wagner from Tough Enough. They started lining up other people that I knew of like Big Rick, Chavo, and a lot of indie wrestlers that I have always been a fan of like Son of Havoc and Prince Puma. Then they went and added huge stars from AAA that I was vaguely familiar with but now am very familiar with. I thought it was a really cool combination of Lucha, which I have always been a fan of, and films with Robert Rodriguez thumbprint and vide. Mix all that with American style pro-wrestling, like the story telling aspect of what we did in the WWE. So adding the psychology of Lucha, with the production value of an action film, is pretty much combining all my worlds or “Mundos” in one wrestling promotion.”

On the trigger for Lucha Underground’s success so far and the atmosphere like backstage among the other wrestlers: “Everybody gets criticized, and sometimes wrestling promotions start catering to the internet and fans. From day one, Lucha Underground had this belief in itself, as an idea, a new promotion, and had a vision of what it was going to be. Ya know, as a kid I was a huge fan of the Undertaker. He rose from the dead, used the lightning, he was an undead force. But now, a lot of the mysticism and mystery has left the WWE and now they are more reality based and going in a different direction. Lucha Underground sees wrestling in that same way. Drago is a fire breathing dragon, Muertes is raised from the dead, Phoenix has been reborn, and they are adding a layer of mystery to wrestling that is refreshing to me as a wrestling fan. I think that is one thing that really added success about it. Staying true to that vision despite criticism from wrestling fans. I think some people criticism and some people enjoy it, but at the end of the day when things are done well, everybody enjoys it. They put a lot of production value into the vignettes, and they hire talented people.”

On how Prince Puma has handled being the company’s first champion: “I think he handled himself extremely well and like a champion. He is somebody that the promotion can go to and represent Lucha Underground. He is a perfect combination of lucha, acrobatics, and storytelling; he gets it so to speak. It’s cool to see him really embracing his role as a champion of Lucha Underground and he has done great representing the company. He is probably doing almost as good as a job as I would do as champion.”

On his interest level regarding a feud with Alberto El Patron and how the crowd would react in terms of who they’d support: “First of all, Alberto is extremely talented and I did wrestle him a few times in WWE, but we never had enough time to put on the kind of match that I am looking forward to with him in Lucha Underground. It’s very interesting the way he left WWE I think represents what pro-wrestlers should represent. He stood up for himself and the culture and that’s been resonating with me and the fans of Lucha Underground. You can identify with somebody who stands up for who they are and what they believe in. He is also a very talented wrestler and I am looking forward to getting in the ring with him because I think that people aren’t going to believe the type of match we are going to have. As far as how the fans will respond? I mean, Los Angeles is my hometown, and has been for Lucha Underground since day one, so I think a lot of fans that are going to see that and the hard work I have done, and chant “Mundo” until their faces melt. There are also a lot of fans that will respect Alberto and where he comes from and the talent he has in the ring and chant for him. The true winner is going to be the fans in the temple when Albert and I are in the ring.”

On how competitive the Lucha Underground locker room and whether there is a sense of one upsmanship: “Yes and I think that is one of things that is making it great. It’s a company that is very young in its inception. I have been pushed to new levels and doing things that I have never done in WWE. I have been pushed hard and made to think outside of the box. I think it’s a competitive environment but also supportive. People are in the locker room rooting for each other, and when someone does something new and innovative people are happy. People are hoping the move works out well and that everybody involved is safe, and when someone does something cool there will be a huge pop in the locker room when everybody watches it. I think that’s the kind of environment that breeds the most creativity and it’s another reason why I enjoy being there. It’s a family environment and everybody there is having a good time.”

On whether his work as an actor has helped improve his mic skills whether he would ever give any thought to another run with WWE: “Yes and yes. I think that my work as an actor has definitely helped. As far as my work with the WWE goes, you can never predict the future with pro-wrestling, anything is possible. I will say I am super happy with Lucha Underground. I’m not planning on going anywhere in the near future except for wrestling for Lucha Underground season 2. The crazy thing about wrestling is as soon as someone says you can cut a good promo, it means you can go cut a good promo. Perception is reality. I think I cut good promos while in the WWE and I cut some bad ones, so the perception was I couldn’t cut a good promo, then that became reality. Now with Lucha Underground, I cut some good promos, and I cut a few that weren’t so good, but most of everything I have done has been top notch and some of my best work. I feel like that has shone through and people identified that and have seen the improvement. That’s why it all of a sudden is perceived differently.”

On whether there anyone you worked with that he would like see come to Lucha Underground: “Johnny Mundo: Right now, Lucha Underground almost has too much talent. They have a packed roster, full of very talented wrestlers, and an hour of TV time to work with. They can bring in whoever they want; it’s just a matter of how much time they have for them on their program. I hope that we start going a little bit longer, like a 90 minute show to give people more time to showcase themselves and longer stories. That is my hope and it’s ultimately not up to me. There is talk about everything right now. There is so much talk about so many things. Every organization goes through growing pains, especially when people are excited about a wrestling promotion, people talk about everything: Action figures, games, endorsements, live tours, two hour wrestling shows. The main thing Lucha Underground needs to do is focus on continuing to produce a very good, one hour show, and grow slowly. Maintain the quality, so far everything I have seen is that, everyone’s head is in the right place, and everyone is excited for season two and everyone is excited about Lucha. Because of all those ducks lining up in an awesome row, Lucha Underground is going to continue to grow and be successful.”

On his vision for himself and Lucha Underground: “I am excited to be along for this ride and to see where it goes. I dig the vignettes; they come off like a gritty action film straight off an AMC TV show. I’m thinking that I’d love to be in one of those and see that happen. I really just am excited to be a part of what comes next. I’m looking forward to it, and glad with the feedback I have gotten from friends in the business and fans and personal friends have been all extremely positive. I am excited, everyone’s excited, and I am thankful for all the fans who are enjoying the product and without that, there would be no Johnny Mundo.”

Check out the complete interview at BlogTalkRadio.com.

• CM PUNK’S UFC Debut, Ronda Rousey/WWE Update + HOT Ring Girl Pics!

Johnny Mundo (formerly known as John Morrison) recently appeared on the Pro Wrestling Experience podcast to talk about a number of Lucha Underground related topics. Below are highlights from the interview.

On his experience at Lucha Underground: “Loving it. It’s a combination of lucha libre mix-in with American style pro wrestling and gridy action films. Three things that I like Action, Wrestling and Storytelling. The roster is like the best roster in the world as far as talent goes and everybody backstage is getting along well for a start up federation and it’s seems to continue to find it’s identity each week. Its exciting to be there, the show are great and continuing to improve and the roster is coming to it’s own and we’re continuing to define what Lucha Underground is each week!”

On his thoughts about Rey Mysterio joining AAA and possibly joining Lucha Underground: “I hope he comes to Lucha Underground for selfish reasons because I want to wrestle him. Rey is at a point in his career where he’s done everything and the next thing Rey does is going to be because he wants to do it and hopefully it is with Lucha Underground. I loved hanging out with him and wrestling him and the fans do as well so I think that would be really rad.”

On Alberto El Patron: “I had a bunch of matches with him when we were in WWE, but a lot of them were short tv matches. I’m really looking forward to having a ppv style produced match with him. He’s super talented and super nice guy. Had alot of fun with him on some Florida tours. When he and I get in the ring together we’re going to show what we can do.”

On his former tag team partner Joey Mercury being part of major storylines in the WWE right now: “Couldn’t be happier for him. When I was watching him in the ring with Jon Stewart the other night I was falling out laughing it was awesome. I couldn’t be happier for Joey that guy eat, sleeps and breathes wrestling. He was a genius in psychology when I met him 12 years ago and he’s been improving his game ever since then.”

On who he had the most chemistry in the ring with during his time in WWE: “CM Punk, The Miz, Jeff Hardy, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler”

On his favorite WrestleMania Match: “WrestleMania 24’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match absolutely for the fact that it was first time I had a spotlight on myself on such a grand stage, but also getting to be in the ring with such incredible talent in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match, so yea that’s the one for me.”

Check out the complete interview at Speaker.com.

• UFC Star Anthony Pettis Comments On His Teammate CM Punk’s Attitude!

Former WWE Diva Melina was a guest on The Ross Report podcast this week, which you can listen to at PodcastOne.com.

She spoke about a number of topics, including her WWE run, what she’s doing these days and more. She also commented on the long standing rumors that she cheated on her ex-boyfriend, Lucha Underground star, with Batista.

Melina and Mundo dated on-and-off for 11 years and revealed that the rumors of her cheating on him with Batista ultimately led to them splitting up. Melina flat out denied the rumor and said she is still asked about it 10 years later. She added that Batista is a great friend and a real life hero.

The following is a preview for tonight’s Episode 18 of Lucha Underground on the El Rey Network.

– Argenis vs. Pentagon Jr.

– Angelico vs. Ivelisse with Son of Havoc as special referee

– Johnny Mundo vs. King Cuerno in a cage match

Check back later this week for Rudy Cabrera’s full rundown of the show.

• The Undertaker To Debut A NEW Theme Song At WrestleMania 31?!

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.

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Lucha Underground star Johnny Mundo (formerly John Morrison) recently did a fan Q&A session with John-Morrison.net. Here are some highlights of what he said about:

Lucha Underground:

“Lucha Underground has gotten me really excited about wrestling again. The talent & production value are amazing. I really like the way the El Rey creatives are presenting the show. Lucha Underground feels like it’s own wrestling world. Not trying to copy any other organizations formula. It’s also really cool to be apart of something from day 1 and be here while it grows into something bigger.”

His Movie Career:

“I’m planning on doing movies for a long time to come. Wrestling and movies are the 2 things I find most fulfilling creatively.”

Other Projects He’s Working On:

“Developing some other ideas for movies & TV shows, training like a beast! – (check out www.OOYMFitness for details about that).”

His Thoughts On NXT:

“I love NXT, I think it’s a great show, and refreshing sometimes. The passion & ideas of the newer talent is cool to watch- Just like a lot of times college football is more fun to watch than the NFL .. I’ve had the privilege of wrestling some of those guys since I’ve been gone. I really enjoyed working both Sami Calihan & Kevin Steen- both very talented- I’d love to wrestle Generico (Sami Zayn).”

His Former Partner The Miz’s Current Gimmick:

“Love it! Reminds me of something I pitched as Johnny Nitro.”