Neal Jones passed this along.
Recap of Johnny Mundo on In Your Head Wrestling Radio, 02/09/2016
by Vic Schiavone
Host Jack E. Jones welcomed Johnny Mundo of Lucha Underground to IYH Wrestling Radio.
Highlights included the following:
His opinion of the differences between Season 1 and Season 2 of Lucha Underground:
“I’d say that Lucha Underground still right now is in its infancy. Season 1 especially though it was trying to find its identity, what it was going to be, and a lot of people had a lot of ideas and visions for what Lucha Underground should be. To everyone’s credit, DJ (Chris DeJoseph), Eric van Wagenen, Mark Burnett, Robert Rodriguez (producers of the show), they had this idea and vision and then had the creative integrity to let the writers write and the wrestlers wrestle and the producers produce, and I think that’s why it’s so successful (because) everyone’s doing their thing.”
“The difference between Season 1 and Season 2 is not much…Everybody’s getting better at their roles in front of the camera and behind the camera. You’ve got a slick, polished one-hour show of wrestling. If anything, Season 2 is getting a little bit darker, the characters are more defined so people know them, so the stories are starting to get a little bit more integrated and complex and interesting. Really though, I think it’s more of the same. I was a big fan of Season 1, I know a whole lot of people out there were…Season 2 has been going great; it’s on tape, it’s wrapped, and it was awesome. I can’t wait for everyone to see it.”
Comparisons between the original ECW and Lucha Underground:
“A lot of the vibes that I get from Lucha Underground reminds me of ECW in its heyday. It’s kind of got a cult feel to it, and it’s got the feel that the fans and wrestlers in Lucha Underground are part of a tight-knit family with its own culture that doesn’t really give a (crap) about what else is going on, and because of that I think is why it’s cool. It’s a fun atmosphere.”
His thoughts on man vs. woman matches in Lucha Underground:
“Traditionally it was something that I was always a little funky about, because it feels like it’s a hard situation to deal with. But, as far as that goes, ultimately I think it’s really empowering to the women on the Lucha Underground roster. It’s the only roster and the only show that treats men and women equally. We’re looking at everybody on our roster as a larger-than-life superhero, and why not? Why can’t women fight men? I know there’s arguments like pros and cons to the whole thing, but to anybody who says that shouldn’t happen or it’s not right, I would say you should have that discussion with Sexy Star, or Ivelisse, or Cheerleader Melissa, or Tara Valkyrie, and they’ll explain passionately why they feel they deserve to be in the ring with guys. They’re training just as hard as the guys, they’ve invested just as much of their life into wrestling as the guys, so why not do that?…At the end of the day, it just comes down to instead of women being valets or like sideshow characters, like they are in some wrestling organizations, and then it seems like there is a helpless female in the ring with this big dude, women but aren’t presented that way in Lucha Underground, so it fits better…Wrestling at the end of the day is wrestling. It’s a performance art that’s built on exploiting stereotypes and archetypes, and doing that in order to get people to relate to a type or culture or whatever. At the end of the day you can always pick apart any wrestling show if you’re going to go over it with a politically-correct fine-toothed brush…but people who do that I don’t think are wrestling fans. I think they’re critics, and they can suck it.”
Other topics discussed included:
His thoughts concerning Jim Cornette’s comments about Lucha Underground.
Whether or not Aztec Warfare will be an annual event in Lucha Underground.
The differences in his style when compared to Lucha Libre.
His thoughts concerning his All Night Long match with Prince Puma.
This interview is available for listening at
http://www.iyhwrestling.com/viewnews.php?autoid=27929
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jBnH9QPk_E