MATT STRIKER TALKS LUCHA UNDERGROUND, MORE
- 02/12/2016 (2:01:58 pm)
- Bob Mulrenin
…
Today The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling is joined by the Lead Announcer
for El Ray Network's Lucha Underground, Matt Striker. John, Chad and Matt get
down and deep regarding the success of Lucha Underground and how with the way
viewers consume television in 2016 Lucha Underground stands to be a difference
maker in how people view Sports Entertainment. We also break down Matt's entire
WWE career and find out how a kid from Brooklyn became the kind of breakout star
he admired as a lifelong fan of Professional Wrestling.
Matt Striker: Daniel Bryan's Sudden Retirement Is A Blessing For His
Overall Life & Long-term Health:
What can Lucha Underground's Season 2 possibly offer to fans that
enjoyed Season 1 so much:
I say this a lot and it always seems to come up and it always seems to
be so fitting but if you want to hear God laugh, you tell him your plans. I
think I've learned from wrestling and from television that you do what you are
there to do and you don't think about tomorrow, tomorrow has enough thought's of
it's own to paraphrase so I don't think we know. I think we were having a great
time doing Season 1 and other people felt that energy and here we are doing it
again and hopefully again and again.
Using the word "Season" when referring to Lucha Underground's
presentation of stories:
Well first and foremost I think certain words have worked their way into
our lexicon in 2016 that weren't readily at the tip of our tongues in 96. With
that said, I think the great term and I don't think they intended it to be this
pure and honest when he coined it but it's Sports Entertainment. When you say
"Seasons" baseball has a season and Shameless on Showtime has a season so I
think that what Lucha Underground is doing is its becoming a sport as well as
television show. So the person that says well I don't watch wrestling but they
watch Lucha Underground versus the people that say they don't really watch Tele
Novella's but they watch Lucha Underground is that it's able to cross everything
for a lack of a better term.
Now being a "Lead Commentator" vs. being the "color guy" partners of his
getting criticism:
I think that my origins in my teachings lend themselves that whomever is
in the chair next to me I am going to work to their strengths in a way from what
I perceive to be their weaknesses and I hope that people do the same for me. I
don't think the whole assignment of what position am I playing today, am I
playing first, am I playing the outfield, I think I am just going to try my best
in whichever chair I am sitting in whether it is a two man booth or a three man
booth. If people knock Yoshi Tatsu, I use what I am with and who I am working
with and I love Yoshi and think he did a great job and I'll talk about that for
days too.
What it is like announcing beside Vampiro and how have they built their
chemistry to be one of the most solid announce teams in wrestling:
I think first and foremost Vamp and I are really a lot better away from
wrestling then we are when we get to the building and get to the ring. We kind
of do avoid each other for the most part of the day because we understand the
whole riggamorow that gets involved but then five minuets before showtime we
together and we have a little room that we spit some lines at each other for
about five minuets and we go out there like a band and like a team we just play.
I can explain it, it's almost kindred.
Filming the opening scene of Season 2 and picking up Vampiro from the
Insane Asylum and the production value of the overall show.
It was definitely a lot of fun. I don't mean to be self deafening but
you could have put a monkey in that scene and it would still look cool. It's
just the way it is shot. It was very cool to be a part of it and to see it come
to life, out of the guy (who's name is Skip) to see it come to life out of his
mind on to the screen is thrilling and is inspiring. The beauty of the show is
it crosses boundaries. I am reminded of movies like Goodfellas or shows like
That 70s Show where they were shot in a way that they were to convey something
like a time period and the way it's shot it conveys something to the viewer and
that is a tip of the cowboy hat to Robert (Rodriguez) and everybody else
involved in the production and the concepts.
Wrestling fans evolving and wanting to be in on more of a "cool
wrestling product":
It is a great question and an analysis and more of a commentary on
society as a whole. What is happening that I am noticing you are getting these
dissects of fan-bases. You will have almost the "hipster" equivalent to the
fan-base that says look at me I am so knowledgable and I can grow a beard and I
happen to know when Nakamura first wrestled, ok dude I get it and that's great
but the fact that I know Tommy Rich and Buzz Sawyer doesn't make me any
different nor better nor anything of a fan than you. So there seems to be that
divide. There is also this wave of and I feel like the Lucha Underground fan
doesn't want to know the spoilers, they don't want to know the guy's real name,
they don't want to know that this guy is dating that girl, they just want to
watch the wrestling and that is the kind of fan that I was. I think the Lucha
Underground fan is like hey man I like this and I know Breaking Bad isn't real
and I know the guy doesn't have cancer but they want to watch and there you
go.
In the over ONE HOUR interview with Matt Striker he breaks down his
entire run with WWE, his back and fourth duties between wrestling
and announcing, Working with WWE Legends, Learning from Vince McMahon, Working
Wrestle Kingdom and where he sees Lucha Underground heading beyond Season you
will definitely want to DOWNLOAD THIS EPISODE to hear everything from the mouth
of YOUR TEACHER!
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