Lucha Underground Producer Eric Van Wagenen Talks Touring, More
Recently, 'Prime Time' Sam Roberts hosted the Lucha Underground Panel at New York Comic Con. During the panel, Lucha Underground Executive Producer Eric Van Wagenen discussed future plans for merchandise and taking the show on the road.
On the subject of new Lucha Underground merchandise, Van Wagenen, who also serves as the showrunner, said that more merch is on its way. He also stated that they did not expect the demand they are now experiencing.
"There is the LLC, which is a corporation that runs all the IP and there is merchandise, that is, more on the way. It's taking a little time, but there is more stuff that's happening. I mean, we're a bunch of TV people that didn't necessarily? we weren't prepared for the passionate fanbase, which we now have. And whereas we thought we could kind of keep up with it as it built, we're having a bit of growing pains, I suppose, but that's the one thing that we are aware of, that is more merchandise, diverse merchandise, character-based merchandise, and things outside of just t-shirts and hats. And those meetings are taking place. And those things are happening."
As noted, Lucha Underground will begin touring this month. The former Executive Producer of WWE Tough Enough explained that the plan is to shoot the Lucha Underground episodes during the first five months of the year and tour for remaining seven months. Van Wagenen even joked that Rey Mysterio would handle the ring announcing duties to avoid wear and tear on his body from wrestling on tour.
"One of the things that we're wise about is we try to watch the mistakes of others and it's better to go too slow than it is to go too fast and people get caught, a lot of the times, when their expectations for touring are too high. That's how you lose a lot of money really quickly. I'm not saying anything about TNA ever. And I think that there are some limited dates that are going to happen this year still and then there will be a bigger expansion of that next summer.
"We're getting ready to shoot. We're planning. There's no official pick up or anything, but our idea is to shoot our episodes in the first five months of the year. Then, go on tour for the last seven months of the year. Limited, not five nights a week. Rey is going to be our new ring announcer. It's not going to be a week in, week out thing. It would be selected cities, marketplaces that love the product, yeah, [New York] could be one of them. And we're just going to grow it slow."
Check out the interview here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Sam Roberts? Wrestling Podcast