Justin LaBar & Josh Isenberg Compare Lucha Underground & NXT Fans, Is Roman Reigns vs Triple H At WrestleMania 32 Inevitable?, More

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During their appearance they discuss:

  • Justin’s recent visit to the TV taping for Lucha Underground
  • What the differences are between NXT and Lucha Underground
  • Justin’s recent Pittsburgh Tribune article criticising Jim Cornette’s criticism of Lucha Underground and their recent back and forth with Cornette on Twitter
  • Whether it’s a given that Roman Reigns will face Triple H at WrestleMania
  • More…

You can listen to Justin & Josh’s appearance starting at the 28:25 minute mark in the embedded audio player below. Some of their comments have been transcribed below it:

On what Justin’s experience at the TV taping for Lucha Underground over this past weekend was like:

JL: It was something I’ve never experienced in all of my life. I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of wrestling experiences in my life. I can’t give away specifically what was in the ring. I’ll save some stuff for what you’ll have to read in the Pittsburgh Tribune in the coming weeks. I can say this, it truly is a reinvention. It is not a wrestling promotion putting on a TV show. It is a TV show that happens to have wrestling. It’s very appealing. It’s very interesting to see this community. We’re talking 400-500 fans. You’re right in the middle of a warehouse in a row of warehouses that so many Hollywood productions have been shooting in. There’s so many things I can name that I found out that have shot there. They turn this in to the “The Temple” and it’s 500 fans from Boyle Heights; which is not the most savory neighborhood. They are just wandering, standing outside, waiting to get in because it’s first come-first served free. They all come there every weekend to watch the tapings. Very ECW kind of crowd in terms of the same people. No guardrails anywhere. The wrestling going right in to their chairs. Roving cops that are armed. A lot of Spanish. I’ll say this, I’ve never felt as inadequate as I did not know Spanish. It was so unique because I didn’t know what was being said by a couple guys. One, in particular, who was a big star over the weekend and did all of his promos in Spanish. It really brought me back to the most… I guess, just watching wrestling. Sometimes I consider myself to be smart in terms of investing in to the wrestling. Watching it and doing the job I do and trying to be aware of all things going on. This was a great case because I haven’t been at all of the tapings in the last six weeks. I only have gotten to see the first episode of the season because that’s the only thing that has aired on television. I was out of the loop unlike most of the fans who had been there every weekend. I was out of the loop having not been able to see what’s going on because it hasn’t aired. I don’t speak Spanish so it really brought me back to watching wrestling. I was like a four-year old. I had to just really take the most basic, innocent things and tell myself, “Ok, I don’t know what he’s saying word for word but I’m sensing this emotion.” I don’t know why this person is fighting this person because I hadn’t seen the weeks leading up to it. Let me jump right in and get in engaged! It was a very unique experience for me. I had a great time and I can say enough thank yous.

Related: A Memo To Jim Cornette About Lucha Underground

On the difference between Lucha Underground live fans at The Temple and WWE NXT live fans at Full Sail University:

JL: Well the NXT fans are very passionate. Again, it’s the WWE brand so it’s somewhat controlled. There are security barricades and they sit down during the matches. All of them are very passionate. With NXT it’s controlled. It’s how it’s going to be done with a billion dollar company. With Lucha Underground while it’s got some top notch people from Hollywood working on it. I mean that sincerely. Top notch sound people and light people. While it is so sophisticated with it’s technology it just has such a raw… when you get in there you sign an iPad and they take a picture of you so they at least have a picture with you name. There’s no paper trail. It’s not like buying a ticket or anything with a credit card. They take a picture of you and then you sign on an iPad a waver of liability. I can’t say enough. There’s NO barricades in front of these chairs. Even sitting in the row of seats on the floor and the row with the bleachers right behind them. They say, “MOVE!” and you move. It’s that ECW style. There was a lot of debris flying everywhere. People trying to grab stuff. You are talking about these fans who were very nice to me but they are very rough around the edges. They are ready for chaos. You have twelve cops with guns constantly roving around The Temple for security precautions. It’s a truly an underground Fight Club feel.

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