John Hennigan understands how special Lucha Underground was and how much money it required to make it possible.
MLW National Openweight Champion John Hennigan was a recent guest on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about the possibility of a company like Major League Wrestling bringing aspects of Lucha Underground back, Hennigan believes it’s almost impossible to replicate.
“Here’s the thing, honestly, Lucha Underground will be near impossible to replicate,” John Hennigan admitted. “Because that was an hour-long drama on the El Rey Network with a sizable budget. And really, what that means is time. So we had shot the vignettes in Lucha Underground like a TV show, like an episodic with takes and angles, which is why it looks like how it did.
“Most promotions don’t have either the money or the time. If you’re a smaller promotion, you don’t have the money. And if you’re WWE or AEW, you’re live, right? So you don’t really have the time to do something and edit it in post and then throw it out there. With MLW, I love that they have Cesar Duran known as Dario Cueto. Really, his name is Luis. He’s a fantastic actor and also a really good dude.”
Hennigan believes Cesar Duran adds a lot of authenticity to the Major League Wrestling product and is hopeful the company can lean into more of a Lucha Underground direction in the future with the caveat of understanding that without some kind of big financial deal, it’s not possible to go as far as Lucha Underground did.
“He takes his craft very seriously, and that’s storytelling acting,” John Hennigan said. “So he lends a lot of authenticity. What he needs to be used effectively is a good story and a story that like has continuity and just doesn’t like end or change for some reason, [which] happens at all these places that have plenty of money and should be able to afford at least writers or have the means to pay off their storylines.
“So with him as an asset, I think he elevates whoever he’s on the screen with. And with MLW, yeah, I am hoping that they can go more that way with the knowledge that there’s no way that they can go as far as Lucha Underground unless they get some sort of financial deal or big-time money because it’s impossible to compete with that money.”
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