Lucha Underground In Financial Trouble

Reports suggest they've lost half as much money as TNA did in a decade.

With its high production values, deep storylines, and of course, Dario Cueto, Lucha Underground is unlike any other wrestling show in TV history. Unfortunately, the critical acclaim and devoted following that the company has won haven't helped the financial bottom line. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the promotion has raised the funding for a third season of the Lucha Underground TV show (which would be filmed this spring and would air through the summer of 2017), but they would need to raise more money in order to bankroll a fourth season, if they get another renewal. While Lucha Underground airs in English on El Rey Network, a Spanish-language version was taped for UniMas and was reportedly drawing three times the viewers of the English show. Despite the ratings, UniMas decided not to air the second season, leading to a huge overall decline in show viewers. Still, Lucha Underground remains ambitious - the company is allegedly trying to get a film produced for a 2018 release. Given their ratings, that seems unlikely, and the money situation is truly dour - according to a source in the company, Lucha Underground has lost half as much money as TNA did in their first ten years, meaning millions of dollars. Lucha Underground's parent promotion, AAA, is also reportedly experiencing financial difficulties, in part due to the weakness of the Mexican peso.
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Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013