Former WWE and current Lucha Underground announcer Matt Striker recently spoke with Anish Vishwakoti of ProWrestling.net for an interview about Lucha Underground. Featured below are some of the highlights.
On what first drew him to the Lucha Underground product: "I was always taught to take every opportunity that you get. I received a phone call on a Thursday night and was asked, “Hey would you be interested in this?” And before I could say yes, Friday morning I was on a flight from JFK New York all the way out here to LAX I saw some old friends that I knew from my time in WWE. They explained to me the concept, I’ve always been a big fan of Lucha Libre and I thought let’s bring Lucha Libre to mainstream America. So anything I could do to be a part of it I was excited."
On what makes Lucha Underground's Temple venue and the fans so special: "I think it’s the location as well as the fans. Like any story, it’s gonna be your setting, it’s gonna be your characters. The temple has become a character in and of itself. We’ve speculated as to the special Aztec powers that may lie in the walls of the temple… but the believers, the fans that are here at all the live shows as well as around the world; they are the pulse. They make us go, anyone that’s ever run a few miles, they feel their heartbeat going faster, those are the believers. The heartbeat of what we do! As they go, we go. I think they’re a great barometer to the energy that the fighters are putting in every night."
On where he thinks Lucha Underground will be in ten years, and whether they will be able to compete with NJPW or WWE by then: "Well, my grandmother used to say if you want to hear God laugh, you tell him your plans. Nobody knows the future, but what I do feel believe and I’m comfortable in saying is that I do think that Lucha Underground will be woven into the fabric of Los Angeles sports and wrestling. We’re gonna see it as time moves on, we’ll look back, hindsight’s always twenty-twenty. Now we’ll say, I can see the influence of Lucha Underground there, oh I can see Vampiro’s fingerprints on something like that."
Check out the complete Matt Striker interview at ProWrestling.net.
