The idea of a revival and what it would take is discussed.
A new podcast debuted on the Rewind Recap Relive YouTube channel and it is titled Goin’ Underground with Marty Elias & Jonah. The show is focused on the Lucha Underground show that aired from 2014 to its final season in 2018.
Former Lucha Underground Co-Executive Producer Anthony Jensen was the first guest and he confirmed the reason the show was canceled was due to the cost to present it. He added that what really sealed the deal was the cost of their state workers’ compensation.
Cost (was the reason Lucha Underground was canceled). We shot season four… February and March if I remember right… And I can tell you probably the backbreaker was the workers’ comp, our state workers’ comp. Because of the risk factor of wrestling, we couldn’t get workers’ comp through the payroll company like you normally do. So we had to get a separate policy through the state and they literally sent me a letter saying, ‘Hey, we’re doubling your policy’ so it went from like 100,000 bucks to like $200,000 and that was just the backbreaker, that was just that moment of like, we can’t keep going. We can’t keep sustaining this.
Jensen and Marty Elias then began speaking about the hypothetical idea of reviving the show. Both said they’d do it in a heartbeat. Elias held multiple roles within the promotion.
Jensen mentioned that someone reached out to him about starting a promotion and he questioned why they would not just revive Lucha Underground. Marty chimed in and discussed a point he thinks people would make which is bringing up that talents like Penta are not available.
Elias: Let’s say hypothetically, I won the lotto and I came into $50 million. People ask me, ‘Would you redo Lucha Underground?’
Jensen: You wouldn’t need $50 million. But…
Elias: Yeah, again, it was like, ‘Yes, I would.’
Jensen: Dude, in a f*cking heartbeat. The suggestion came up for another promotion a couple of months ago. Somebody reached out to me, was asking me about creating a new promotion through some other people and I said, ‘Why? Why don’t you just revive Lucha Underground? There’s brand equity in it, people know what the logo is and if you think you would have a hard time selling out an arena at a reunion tour –’ and Marty, we could probably make that happen.
Elias: I’m sure we could.
Jensen: Honestly, if we could reassemble the band, get the band back together.
Elias: And you know, the band is still out there and accessible too.
Jensen: And it would be a lot easier this time because we knew what we were doing.
Elias: And you know it’s great because people go, ‘Well, you won’t have Penta, you won’t have this.’ It’s like, that’s okay because you know what we did what other people couldn’t do? We created stars. We created characters. So we ain’t gonna have a problem doing that again.
Jensen: Yeah, if you don’t have certain people, it’s not a big deal. Not to say that they aren’t talented, but there’s a lot of talent out there, there’s a lot of excitement out there. If somebody could make it happen, if we can get the outlay — we would need an arena if we were to do a reunion show.
Jensen went on to state that doing a one-off show would be expensive. He thinks it’d be better to do a limited series and cap it off with a live show as the finale. He said someone out there has the money to fund a revival and him and Marty would be open to producing it.
Jensen: The problem with a one-off is they’re really, really expensive. You’re gonna do a million dollars out the door for one episode and we were 300 and some thousand dollars an episode when we did it. So if you’re gonna do a one-off, do a limited series. If you’re gonna do a reunion, do a limited series of 12 episodes that culminates into the big finale. Like a big live show and I think broadcast the finale live. Episode 13 is literally a live pay-per-view event.
Elias: Season five was written out already and the stuff that we were going to do and what we had planned for season five, it would be amazing to see that actually happen in those 12 episodes, 13 episodes.
Jensen: Somebody’s got the money out there willing to do it. We’re willing to produce it.
Elias: Absolutely.
Jensen: Let’s get it done.
At the conclusion of the final season of Lucha Underground, current WWE commentator Wade Barrett was revealed as the newest character. He spoke about the plans for his character in an interview with POST Wrestling.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Goin’ Underground with Marty Elias & Jonah with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
