In 1996, pro wrestling in the United States underwent a phenomenon which would leave a lasting impact on the industry forever more. But this had nothing to do with Austin 3:16 or Hulk Hogan siding with the New World Order. Instead, a selection of pint sized, high flying, death defying luchadores made the pilgrimage from Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) to World Championship Wrestling with the sole intention of dropping the jaws of every audience they performed in front of. Twenty years on from this watershed moment in American wrestling history, Lucha Libre is once again reinventing mainstream 'sports entertainment'.

Lucha Underground may have neither the audience or the funding that WCW enjoyed under the ownership of billionaire Ted Turner and his blank chequebook, in fact they're not technically a wrestling promotion at all (it operates as a regular TV show, from season to season) but with the help of AAA and Sin City director Robert Rodriguez they are in possession of a talent pool deep enough to make even the Powers That Be in WWE's Titan Towers weak at the knees.

Lucha Underground

In much the same way as the mid '90s invasion helped bring a new generation and style of aerodynamic wrestling into the consciousness of mainstream American fans, Lucha is hell bent on revolutionizing the industry once more. Rather than operating as a full time promotion, Lucha Underground is actually a fictitious company being run as an underworld Aztec Fight Club by its violence obsessed owner, Dario Cueto, out of an arena known as 'The Temple' in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. The scripted melodrama and flamboyancy of 'sports entertainment' is still present, but presented in a manner more akin to an R-rated Grindhouse exploitation flick. Backstage segments don't revolve around catchphrase laden interviews but are instead produced as cinematic masterpieces aimed at furthering character development and back stories where no amount of horror, science fiction or other worldly happenings are off limits.

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Matt Striker is here to get you hyped! #UltimaLucha Dos continues WED at 8p ET on @ElReyNetwork! #LuchaUnderground https://t.co/vyh9S87Ele

- Lucha Underground (@LuchaElRey) July 9, 2016





This isn't The Undertaker cheesily appearing in a B-Movie worthy apparition to freak out his rivals, this is Dario Cueto feeding a useless henchman to his monstrous, face eating brother Matanza. That's right, characters actually die in the Lucha Underground universe. Or if they're Mil Muertes (AAA's El Mesias), they are summoned back from the afterlife by a teleporting, face licking Queen Of Death called Catrina.

I wouldn't blame you for reading those last few lines and mouthing "WHAT...THE...FUCK!?" to yourself. Lucha Underground is officially pro wrestling's "We're not in Kansas, any more" moment and it couldn't have come along at a better time. This is punk coming along and smashing the fuck out of prog rock and scaring the old guard half to death in the process. A pulp novel brought to life, with it's larger than life superheroes and villains competing for Aztec Medallions and the coveted Trios, Gift Of The Gods and Lucha Underground Championship belts.

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Lucha Underground

"Obviously, with it being a TV show rather than an actual wrestling promotion it was a lot different to anything else in the industry" , says Karlee Perez, who plays the aforementioned Catrina, during our call conducted in mid-April as Season Two began to pick up momentum, "but as soon as I heard that it was Robert Rodriguez and Mark Burnett running things , I knew I had to be involved and it's turned out amazing. I always knew it was going to be good."



As Perez mentions, the show was the brainchild of Robert Rodriguez, the director who brought the world From Dusk 'Til Dawn, Desperado and the aforementioned Sin City. Rodriguez made a lucha libre show a priority when beginning his El Rey network in 2013 and the Texan immediately enlisted the help of executive producers, five time Emmy winner Mark Burnett (Shark Tank, Survivor) and five time Emmy nominee Eric Van Wagenen (The Contender, WWE Tough Enough). Come 2014, with the help of an influx of talent from both AAA and independent scenes around the world, Lucha Underground was ready to premiere to an unsuspecting audience.

"The science fiction stuff just sorta evolved as the show progressed. We didn't push the supernatural stuff too quickly but as we did, it took off and we've just embraced it" explains Van Wagenen, whose career has been firmly entrenched in reality television. "Superhero culture is obviously huge at the moment and that's helped us a lot and enabled us to take bigger risks with our characters, so that's why you see Drago transforming into a fire breathing dragon and Mil Muertes being resurrected".

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Catrina & Mil Muertes have a warning for King Cuerno. NEW #LuchaUnderground, TMRW @ 8 on @ElReyNetwork! #UltimaLucha https://t.co/auik7M7vxE

- Lucha Underground (@LuchaElRey) July 12, 2016





Given how extraordinary a concept Lucha Underground is, it wouldn't come as a surprise if the producers had a difficult time convincing talent to commit themselves to such an obscure project, but in the case of Johnny Mundo aka former multiple time WWE Intercontinental and Tag Team Champion John Morrison, the originality of the concept and its favourable schedule (shows are taped in bulk, in advance over weekends), the opportunity seemed too good to be true.

"I was ecstatic to be involved. The only hesitation I had was that I didn't want to believe anything until it happened."

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Lucha Underground

"I spoke to (head writer)Chris DeJoseph, who I knew from my time with the WWE, and thought it sounded too good to be true. He told me Robert Rodriguez and Mark Burnett were starting a wrestling show which would be filming 10 minutes from my house in Los Angeles and it's gonna be a mixture of Lucha Libre and action film drama and I'm like 'c'mon, seriously? No way is this real'

"I came down and checked out the set which was just this crappy, run down warehouse where I once filmed a movie with Danny Trejo and they'd managed to turn the place into this amazing Lucha Libre fight club."



Fortunately for Mundo, his career has been littered with bouts against some of the greatest luchadores in history, "My SmackDown debut in 2005 was a tag team match against Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio and over the course of my career I got to wrestle the Mexicools, Super Crazy, Psicosis and all those guys. What's funny is a lot of the luchadores here actually don't speak very good English, so it's like charades at times. That's something I've learned from Lucha Underground actually - how to be good at charades!"

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For season two, Lucha made perhaps their first major statement of intent when they announced the acquisition of Rey Mysterio, one of the originals who took lucha libre Stateside. The ability to attract such a legendary name was a testament to the show's rapidly growing cult following, who had quickly become enamored with performers such as Fenix, Pentagon Jr, King Cuerno and, most of all, Prince Puma or, as he's more regularly known in the independent world, Ricochet, one half of the duo who broke the Internet Wrestling Community recently with his feverishly debated Best Of Super Juniors match with Brit Will Ospreay.

Hear what Prince Puma has to say about his time in #LuchaUnderground & his #UltimaLucha Dos match with @ReyMysterio! https://t.co/pJJOwERbs2

- Lucha Underground (@LuchaElRey) June 25, 2016





This focus on emerging talent mirrors the exposure Mysterio, Psicosis, La Parka, Juventud Guerrera and the late, great Eddie Guerrero were given in the mid '90s. And two decades later, female luchadores are now being given their time to shine. While the WWE struggle to manage their strongest ever female roster, Lucha have had no such problem, pitting the likes of Sexy Star, Ivelisse and Taya Valkyrie not just against each other, but successfully against the men as well. Outside of the ring, it's a woman who is one of the cornerstones of the entire show, Perez's Catrina character.

Perez spent three years between 2009-2012 in the WWE's Florida Championship Wrestling and NXT developmental territories, where she tired of the company's treatment of her and decided against pursuing a full time in ring career, focusing more on the character driven acting work that has helped mould Catrina into Lucha's most fascinating character.

"The atmosphere is somuch better, here. It's a lot more comfortable and your ideas are encouraged instead of everything being one way like it is in WWE.



"Dusty Rhodes was the number one person in my life and career when I was with the WWE and even after that, we talked quite a lot. He always told me to keep going and to never give up, especially when I was looking to transition into the more character driven, acting side of wrestling and now I've achieved that with the Catrina character I know he'd be so proud because he always believed in me and encouraged me to pursue those roles."



Not only does Perez prefer the atmosphere at 'The Temple', but the lighter schedule is a God send, too, "It's been great. I much prefer it because after 365 days a year on the road you begin to lose track and this way, filming the seasons like a TV show allow me to pursue other projects and opportunities that come my way."

Mundo, meanwhile, has likewise thrived since departing the WWE in 2011 and couldn't be prouder of what the show has achieved in it's two seasons, so far, "Lucha is such a young promotion and it feels like everyone is excited to come to work. That permeates through everything. Everyone wants to put on the best match and the best show they possibly can. It takes the best of lucha libre and combines it with American style storytelling and the gritty, Grindhouse style of a Robert Rodriguez film. It's the most polished hour of television around at the moment and there's honestly nothing else like it."

Lucha Underground

The culture shock of a luchador dominated locker room didn't even phase Mundo, who has embraced the masked culture in which the names and backgrounds of many of the competitors is genuinely a mystery to fans, with the loss of a mask considered a major dishonour in Mexico (Máscara contra máscara matches are more eagerly anticipated than title matches).

"That aspect of Lucha is really cool. It really exists to protect the identity and retain the anonymity of the luchadores to seperate them from the public so ideally that person can lead a normal life with their family and friends. There is a big trust factor backstage with the people they work with. They've got to know you aren't going to post a picture of them without the mask on Instagram or something like that."

Lucha Underground

So where next for wrestling's most groundbreaking TV show? Touring isn't too realistic a prospect, unfortunately, given that the show exists in its own universe, seperate from the rest of the wrestling world. A special one off live show at Austin music and arts festival South By South West (SXSW) was put on in March, selling out almost immediately, but it isn't something Van Wagenen believes can happen full time, "Because this is a TV show about wrestling, rather than an actual promotion, full time touring isn't really possible, especially as a lot of the guys have other commitments, but there's definitely potential to do special one off sort of deals similar to what we did in Austin. At the moment we're just focusing on getting the show seen by as many people as possible."

Frustratingly, the show isn't readily available to watch in the UK at the moment (Youtube and Daily Motion are your friends), but it must only be a matter of time before demand eventually triggers supply and one television company or streaming service sees sense and delivers Lucha Underground to the British Isles. Until then, for those of you reading this who are able to (legally) view Lucha Underground and haven't done so already, Johnny Mundo has a couple of recommendations for you, " Check out Johnny Mundo vs Prince Puma 'All Night Long' from season one and 'Cage In A Cage' Johnny Mundo vs Brian Cage from season two." Terrifically biased heel work, if ever we saw it.

WORDS BY @JoeBaia