Lucha Underground’s Johnny Mundo recently sat with Colt Cabana on the “Art Of Wrestling Podcast” and during the interview, Mundo talked the creativity that is allowed in Lucha Underground. Also, the differences between his Johnny Nitro, John Morrison & Johnny Mundo personas as well as loving the high-flying of pro-wrestling.
Here are the highlights: (transcripts by WrestlingINC)
Working In Lucha Underground:
“When I get into Lucha Underground, now it feels like I’m part of a collaboration and I’m talking about story-lines; I’m talking about how we can put matches together, where we’re going to go, what’s going to happen to Lucha Underground as a promotion, what’s going to happen with my character and I was back in suddenly and I felt the creative autonomy I didn’t have in WWE, I finally had.”
The “Flippy Style” Of Wrestling & Refocusing On Wrestling:
“Absolutely, part of the reason that it’s working for me is I refocused on wrestling and I’ve been focusing not exclusively on it, but with ‘full force’, to quote an epic wrestling promo, for the past several years, especially since the beginning of Lucha because they really opened my eyes to this completely new style of wrestling, which I’d call the ‘flippy s**t style. Yeah, it’s that John Woo style. It’s just a lot of what’s happening now, like PWG and AAW, Pro Wrestling Revolver, and WrestleCircus, is faster paced, more acrobatic matches and when I started originally, I wanted nothing more than to do that stuff. Like, I can’t tell you how many spot shows little Johnny Nitro, like, pulled the chair out in the arena in Shelbyville Fair and did a moonsault only to get chewed out by Rip Rogers and Jim Cornette about it. I mean, I did years of it and when I was looking at the independent scene I was suddenly a part of, it’s like everyone was doing that and I was like, ‘argh, I want it, I want back in, I need to be doing this.'”
His Different Personas & Characters Throughout His Career:
“It’s weird, a lot of people ask me, like, how the characters are different between Nitro, and Morrison, and Mundo and the biggest difference is just the names. Like, wrestlers are usually a version of yourself and the versions of myself haven’t really changed that much. I always try to associate Johnny Mundo, John Morrison, or whatever my name is with high quality.”
