Lucha Underground is praised for introducing novel concepts to the realm of professional wrestling and using cinematic aspects of telling stories. They did seasons, didn’t run live events, or hold pay-per-view events.
The television show debuted in October 2014 and continued to air until November 2018.
While speaking on AdFreeShows, Court Bauer recalled meeting with WWE about the possibility of Lucha Underground partnering with the company.
“That was towards the end,” he began. “I set up a meeting with Paul Levesque [Triple H] to go up there and explore what a future could look like in some capacity with Lucha Underground and WWE’s participation. For example, was there a world where Lucha Underground could be on WWE Network as original programming or is there a scenario where they were interested in possibly acquiring it or licensing seasons to air for archival reasons? We went to Stamford, I picked up Dorian Roldan and one of the principal investors, Alex Garcia. It was an interesting time. We went in and Paul Levesque and his team were incredibly gracious and very flattering toward all three of us in the meeting. It was a very ‘getting to know you’ meeting. We met in the Money in the Bank boardroom. In the end, it was really up to the ownership of Lucha Underground and WWE to decide if there was a future there and it kind of petered out after the meeting and didn’t go where it needed to go. With Lucha Underground, you didn’t just have Dorian and Alex Garcia, you had several people with a position in the company. Mark Burnett, MGM TV, other investors. To get everyone on the same page when you have multiple ownership groups, it’s a lot harder than when you have one guy running it or a managing director of the company or a sports team. That’s why it’s harder to be flexible and do deals. Lucha Underground was the bridge to what we have today in so many companies.”
Quotes via Fightful