Lucha Underground Producer Negates Financial Trouble Reports
News surfaced this week that Lucha Underground may be in some financial trouble. The story goes that the company has lost approximately half as much money as TNA had lost after being in business for a decade. This is according to a source who mentioned this to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer.
Lucha Underground producer Eric Van Wagenen took to Twitter to respond to this news. He stated that the report was “greatly exaggerated” and how the show has never gone a penny over their budget.
The rumors of @LuchaElRey's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Perhaps check with a real source instead of the same old disgruntled one?
— Eric Van Wagenen (@EricVanWagenen) February 18, 2016
The network gives us a seasonal production budget and we produce the show for exactly that, not a penny more.Thats how TV works @LuchaElRey
— Eric Van Wagenen (@EricVanWagenen) February 18, 2016
The company announced at the start of this month that Lucha Underground would be returning next year (early 2017) for a third season. There have also been rumors that Lucha Underground officials are trying to get a movie produced for a 2018 release date. I’d imagine that this “movie” may be a WrestleMania type event (similar to Ultima Lucha) that happens at the end of a potential season 4. We shall see!
For those interested, below is this week’s Lucha Underground main event between Prince Puma and Pentagon Jr. The El Rey Network’s YouTube channel usually releases each week’s Lucha Underground main event match, in it’s entirety, a few days after it airs live. Enjoy.
Mark’s reaction: I think Wagenen is a little harsh on Meltzer in his tweet. I know not everyone is fan of the guy’s, but I wouldn’t describe him as being an old disgruntled source that shouldn’t be taken seriously. Perhaps he was saying that about somebody that used to work for LU.
With that being said, I’m happy to hear from a Lucha Underground producer that the show hasn’t gone over the budget that the El Rey Network gives them. Figuring out whether or not Lucha Underground is profitable or “doing well” is a weird situation. Although LU is staying on budget, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are making a lot of money off the show.
However, the good news is that they have already confirmed a season 3 for next year and that the show is awesome. All that really matters to me is if LU is putting out quality content and that’s exactly what they’re doing. It’s arguably the most exciting wrestling show on television right now and every time I finish the current week’s episode, I can’t wait for the following week (which isn’t something I say too often about wrestling). Raw absolutely has its moments that hooks you for next week, but being three hours is just too long for me to get overly excited about. NXT is a close second behind LU for me. It kind of feels weird comparing LU with WWE or any other wrestling promotion because I feel like LU is almost in another medium, but what can I say. I like what I like.