Tonight Lucha Underground’s second season begins. With the Temple finally reopening its doors, what can we expect from a show that brought us the most logically evil fighting promoter ever, a ninja skeleton who is under the tutelage of a former vampire cultist and some of the most athletic wrestlers from all over the world competing for Aztec gold.
Cage, who emerged victorious over the Mack in his Ultima Lucha match and former Trios Champion Ivelisse were able to talk about the new season as well as their thoughts on Lucha Underground as a whole.
Brian Cage in Lucha Underground.
(Note: While many of the second season episodes have already been filmed, this interview does not include any spoilers.)
At the conclusion of Ultima Lucha, we see Ivelisse, Son of Havoc and Angelico hitting the open road, vowing to retake their Trios titles but nothing was shown of Cage. So what has the Machine been up to since beating The Mack in a Falls Count Anywhere Match?
“Just kicking ass and lifting weights,” Cage said. “I didn’t think I needed an explanation since Ultima Lucha. I’m done with Mack now I look forward to what’s next.”
Cage made his debut in Lucha Underground and almost instantly challenged Prince Puma for the Lucha Underground championship. With his victory over The Mack, Cage believes he should be one of the few luchadors on the roster to consider as top contenders to take on the new champion Mil Muertes.
“I would put myself in the top three,” Cage said. “You could put in Puma and Johnny Mundo as well just because Puma’s the former champ and Mundo won his Ultima Lucha match.”
When Cage debuted, he said he didn’t care about lucha history, he cared about winning titles. That attitude may not have changed as he’s still hungry for the Aztec gold, but he is very happy to be working at Lucha Underground.
“The biggest pro of working with Lucha Underground is that it’s the best promotion. I’ve worked for them all. To put it bluntly there’s no bullshit here,” Cage said. “There’s no politics. It’s absolutely fun. This is what I thought pro wrestling would be like when I was 10 years old.
“I love that we don’t have to go very far. It’s in LA so there’s lots of things nearby. I can also work with Pro Wrestling Gorilla while I’m filming with Lucha Underground. Every so often I go out and travel but for me to not have to do that, it’s very convenient for me.”
For Ivelisse, she agrees with Cage about the benefits of having The Temple at one location rather than traveling around the country but does warn of a possibility things can become stale, especially with Lucha Underground now taping multiple shows in one sitting.
“When the show started, we’d film one show each week and then as it came closer to the end of the season we’d film two shows,” Ivelisse said. “This season we’re filming two episodes each time. Maybe even three. I’m still figuring it out but it’s getting a little exhausting. Nonetheless there are pros and cons to everything. I do enjoy how it’s going. I would like to say that live and filming in that manner are equally satisfying.”
Ivelisse added the familiarity of the Temple can lead to some interesting spots as the wrestlers learn more about their surroundings. Anyone who saw the ascension of the Unlikely Trios championship team remembers Angelico leaping off different portions of the Temple with each title defense.
“Even though there is joy to find in traveling to different locations, there’s joy in having that one place where you call home in terms of trying to find continuous and an innovative regimen when it comes to wrestling the same place all the time, it does get challenging,” Ivelisse said. “This season we didn’t get stuck. You’ll see we still did find ways to be innovative. I’m sure in Season 3 something will be added to the Temple to keep the innovative ways up. At least this season our creativity didn’t hinder.”
One of the other differences with Lucha Underground from other promotions was the lack of a strictly a woman’s division. Both Ivelisse and Sexy Star did wrestle each other once early in the season, but the rest of the year these girls took their lumps as well as gave plenty lumps of their own to the boys in the locker room. However, with more women being added to the roster, Ivelisse is planning on having more matches against women.
“The Sexy Star match was very early on in the program,” Ivelisse said. “It almost seemed as though that was the beginning of a sotyrline but it didn’t happen. I can say that because Season 2 does have more women that that calls for more ‘women on women’ action.”
While the show had Trios Champions and the Lucha Underground Champion for a large part of the season, the Gift of the Gods Championship was introduced at the end of the season. Without a current Women’s title, Ivelisse confirmed that the women can compete for these titles as well and both her and Cage are looking forward to challenging for these titles as well.
“It’s very logical to believe that any of us would want to go for another title,” Ivelisse said. “The whole reason that we came together was we want gold. If the opportunities came about I’m sure any of us would go for it.
“That’s what makes Lucha Underground so interesting. Everyone’s out for themselves but these Trios titles are what makes some interesting storylines and matches happen because even though we’re our for ourselves when it comes to Trios, whoever it is if they have that chance they have to put whatever differences they have aside. They have to take that opportunity.”
Ivelisse dives.
Cage started out in hot pursuit of Prince Puma’s Lucha Underground Championship, but he wouldn’t mind going the alternate route of claiming the Gift of the Gods title to get to the LU title picture.
“That guarantees you a title shot. You can’t just go in now and demand a title shot. I guess I did that at the beginning but they’re not giving out title opportunities like candy to everyone all the time,” Cage said. “But if you’re gunning for a title shot, that’s one way you can get it so I have no qualms about that.”
Ever since I first saw Lucha Underground I’ve tried to talk all my friends into watching it. But how do the wrestlers themselves describe Lucha Underground?
“It’s definitely something that I think will rekindle that interest in wrestling,” Ivelisse said. “This has nothing to do with people saying it’s fake. The point when you go to the theater to see a movie, you know that’s not real but it captivates you. It creates interest in what you want to see and you’re able to connect with it. That’s what Lucha Underground does.”
Lucha Underground can be seen on the El Rey Network.
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