83 Weeks - The Impact of Lucha Libre [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Now that I’m back from my trip from Mexico I think a great topic to discuss on 83 Weeks is the impact of Lucha Libre in American culture and how it really exploded with WCW.

Lucha Libre’s foree into the mainstream for America really begins with the emergence of Mexican wrestlers coming into WCW. But a lot of the credit is given to Paul Heyman originally bringing them to ECW first. Do you think that the credit should really go to who greenlit AAA’s foree into pay-per-view with When World’s Collide?

Without that pay-per-view do you think Heyman makes the move to begin the likes of Konnan, Rey Mysterio and others into ECW?

Justin Barrasso of SI wrote this a few years ago, “produced the When Worlds Collide show that brought lucha stars to pay-per-view in 1994, but despite the enormous popularity evidenced by the crowd at the show in Los Angeles, the lucha scene in the U.S. did not change until Heyman brought the style to ECW a year later. That formula was then copied on a substantially larger platform by WCW president Eric Bischoff with the debut of Monday Nitro in 1995.”

What do you say to that phrase - copied?

The likes of Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero were really making noise not just on pay-per-view but in the magazines like Pro Wrestling Illustrated and the newsletters like the Observer. Was that something that helped land on your radar?

Mike Tenay - the Professor - how much influence did he have on helping bring Lucha Libre to the forefront in WCW?

Konnan is a man who is so integral to the growth of lucha libre and the cruiserweight division. When you first talked with Konnan - how impressed are you with his knowledge?

Putting the mexican cruiserweights with the american and even japanese cruiserweights like Ultimo Dragon - were you worried about getting them to mesh well?

Do you think WCW could’ve treated the cruiserweights better and with more legitimacy? Do you think that was a mistake in hindsight?

Lucha libre was always going to grow in the United States due to the amount of people coming out of Mexico into the United States and the growth of spanish cable channels becoming more common in America. How proud are you to have been on the forefront of that?

Even after WCW closed - WWE never really bought into the concept. They ran a junior division on Smackdown in 2005 but TNA was really one of the few major promotions to buy in after WCW with the X division and bringing in AAA. You’ve been involved in the WWE as on-air talent and even creatively - what was it about Vince McMahon and Lucha Libre not getting along do you think?

Nacho Libre is one of the biggest pop culture moments for Lucha Libre when Jack Black starred as a monk who moonlights as a luchador to raise money for the orphanage where he lives and works. Two questions Eric - 1) what did you think of the movie?

2) This is 20 years after Rey Misterio made his debut in WCW. Do you think this movie is made without Rey coming to WCW?

Mucha Lucha was a cartoon series from 02-05 produced by Warner Brothers. Where do you think those in Warner Brothers got the idea from?

October 2014 saw Lucha Underground debut. What did you think of the concept and did you get a chance to watch any of it?

The masked wrestlers being such colorful characters lend itself to many things including licensing, cartoon characters as we talked about earlier, and also bringing millions of dollars of merchandising in…why do you think WCW was so geared up to taking masks off while Rey Mysterio immediately signed with the WWE and had his mask put back on?

Have you been to any of the shows in Arena Mexico? Is it on the bucket list?

Do you think the wrestling shows, the movies, the television shows - happen without WCW bringing in the cruiserweights?