Lucha Underground will be making some major announcements soon, according to Court Bauer on the latest episode of MLW Radio entitled “Episode 182: Destination Drama.”

Court’s co-host MSL asked Bauer and former WWE head writer Alex Greenfield what the number two promotion is, now that Ring of Honor has secured a national TV deal with Destination America. Bauer said:

“Right now Lucha Underground is in a position where they might be able to announce something very soon that would then change the complexion of what they are both in the United States and then down in Mexico. [The news would] give them a boost in the financing end.”

Greenfield called the statement a huge tease, and accused Bauer of having more details than he’s letting on. Bauer replied, “No comment.”

Lucha Underground has yet to make an official announcement regarding a second season, but it seems like they could be on the verge of announcing a more significant TV partnership moving forward, perhaps with Univision.

A huge announcement would be they're moving to 2 hours and going on a network everyone has in the States. The Univision rumor's been around forever.

Spike would be solid.

LU is great

It's silly how people believe it's accurate to base who is the #2 company by what channel they are on. Lucha Underground is hot right now, and ROH getting a TV deal on Destination America is great, but neither is anywhere close to actually being the #2 wrestling promotion in the world. Having a TV deal means that there are more people who could possibly watch the product, more eyes on it, nothing more. WWE is #1 because they are a household name, they are known around the world, and they have marketed themselves to the point where they are synonymous with wrestling. The rules for the #2 are no different, because the #2 aspires to reach the level of the #1 if not surpass them.

TNA has been on mainstream television for about a decade now. They have built up their brand to a point where there is a chance someone will know who they are if they know anything about wrestling in the slightest. For some reason, maybe I've mentioned it more, or it's just one of those deja vu placebo things, but as of late I've had TNA mentioned in conversation and it blows my mind, yet I appreciate it at the same time. I'd get this twinkle in my eye and be like "Yeah, you know, yeah man, you know" and a single tear would just roll down my cheek. I will say these things such as Billy Corgan joining TNA and Hulk Hogan and etc, they do put TNA in people's minds. I heard recently, the other night at the bar actually upon saying I like wrestling, "Have you heard Billy Corgan signed with TNA". Honestly it still feels like a trick sometimes. Like how I supposedly have two bottles of the same shampoo in my house.

What I'm getting at is television shows are gauged on popularity and mainstream presence. ROH has a long way to go before they can be number two, namely in the realms of increased production values, marketable stars (because the Briscoes just aren't what you'd put on Times Square--Adam Cole tho), and honestly stronger storylines. Lucha Underground has differentiated themselves from the other companies by being more of a television show than a wrestling show, and with proper marketing and visibility, they have a high chance of becoming more known, but the truth is they won't be #2. It's a mexican-centric product and putting it on Univision isn't going to put it in a better position. It may garner a wider audience, but it'll be the wrestling fans who know about it, and a largely hispanic viewership. It brings back the point of mainstream presence and range. If the majority of their viewership came from Texas and California for instance, they would have high numbers, but would it be indicative or their overall popularity? No, it just means a lot of people somewhere like this, while most other places don't care or know nothing about it. For LU to be number 2, they'd need to appeal to the wider audience, not alienate them--if they want to be #2; they could just as easily continue what they are doing and maintain a decent fanbase. Appealing to that would be dropping the Mexican/Aztec stuff and just be a really show. Their major appeal is the artful cinematography and storytelling; more of this and less of the masked stars stuff (because people need faces, not men in masks. Masks are for a Mexican audience. Americans aren't used to and would be reluctant to accept something foreign as this) and they would prosper.

The matter of placing non-wrestling audience public appeal into the equation to determine rankings could be feasibly argued, but when determining the #2, one must use the same standards as those set for #1. WWE is known around the world by people who don't even watch wrestling and many of their wrestlers are well known and take on a celebrity status of sorts. The number 2 has to be one that can at least be the most similar to that (not those things entirely but you get the gist of it). If you took out the general population mainstream appeal and simply kept it to wrestling fans, and by that I don't mean WWE fans, I mean people who actually know of more than one company to some extent. If you put it to that, would WWE even be #1? Yes. Because we're not talking about popularity, we're talking about "Do you know this company?". TNA will get a yes more often than any of the other companies in the world. If they'd made better company moves in the past we wouldn't even need to ask the question. But we do, and will have to for a some time to come when speaking of a #2. It will take years to build up ROH and Lucha Underground as legitimate contenders for the #2 and by that time who is to say TNA hasn't made strides to close to gap with WWE? What I'm trying to say is you can't wake up one morning, or flip the channel and up and say "This is the new #2".

Also, Lucha Underground is not it's own promotion. I just have to say that. It's more or less a subsidiary or outsourcing of AAA. It's under that umbrella. That'd be akin to people saying NXT is going to overtake WWE or more similar, Dragon Gate USA being a better promotion than Dragon Gate--it's still Dragon Gate, it's all Dragon Gate.

(Seriously though, people need to watch AAA if you like Lucha Underground. It's fantastic. I don't speak spanish but I still watch it at times. My Sexy Star fantasies have been going on about 7 years now).

Darth Dante wrote:

It's silly how people believe it's accurate to base who is the #2 company by what channel they are on.

You could get rating information if you subscribed to The Wrestling Observer

Darth Dante wrote:

They have built up their brand to a point where there is a chance someone will know who they are if they know anything about wrestling in the slightest.

Yeah. People know what TNA is. This product that was mostly garbage for over 13 years. For most of TNA's live they have not been able to turn a profit. There's a reason people have been talking about TNA dying since it opened up. It's because Jerry and Jeff Jarrett had to sell the damn thing to Bob Carter.

Darth Dante wrote:

I will say these things such as Billy Corgan joining TNA and Hulk Hogan and etc, they do put TNA in people's minds. I heard recently, the other night at the bar actually upon saying I like wrestling, "Have you heard Billy Corgan signed with TNA". Honestly it still feels like a trick sometimes. Like how I supposedly have two bottles of the same shampoo in my house.

A lot of good Hulk Hogan did them. They're in worst shape now then they were before Hogan joined TNA. In fact the story in 2009 was that TNA was finally turning a profit.

Darth Dante wrote:

What I'm getting at is television shows are gauged on popularity and mainstream presence. ROH has a long way to go before they can be number two, namely in the realms of increased production values, marketable stars (because the Briscoes just aren't what you'd put on Times Square--Adam Cole tho), and honestly stronger storylines.

Well then there's no question ROH is number two now. They been out drawing TNA when it comes to crowds. And hey get this, they actually change you to get into an ROH show.

Darth Dante wrote:

The matter of placing non-wrestling audience public appeal into the equation to determine rankings could be feasibly argued, but when determining the #2, one must use the same standards as those set for #1.

You mean like during The Monday Night War? Well if we go by TV ratings then ROH isn't far behind TNA. In fact this year there was a few times they got a higher rating.

WWE also gets bigger crowds than anyone else. If we factor that ROH beats TNA in that department.

You got a whole lot of words in your post but you say a whole lot of nothing. You wanna project where a promotion is at based on your feelings for them and if you can talk about it with some random person at the bar. Well that has nothing to do with the facts. ROH is on the way up and TNA is on the way down.

And this didn't happen overnight. Maybe you were not paying attention. Maybe the news Destination America plans on canceling Impact this September and begin airing ROH this Wednesday hit you a little too hard. No this was in fact years in the making.

The fact is Spike TV gave a lot of money to TNA to pay for talent. Well guess what? That's not happening anymore. TNA doesn't have Sting or AJ Styles anymore. But now TNA has Destination America. But Impact doesn't bring high enough ratings to justify what they are costing them. So they plan to take an out this September.

Things are looking bleak for TNA and I do feel sorry for them. But this is something Dixie Carter has done to herself. For years she stuck by Vince Russo and she spent too much of her dad's money. The best they can hope for right now is that ROH airing before them helps bring their ratings up as well.

My post was less about my feelings for TNA and more about my feelings about how people gauge the rankings of companies. Some people claim New Japan is the #2 company in the world. That's incredibly wrong. If you want to say that, AAA is leaps and bounds ahead of them. AAA has been on American television for years while NJPW is a very niche product. Both are National level companies as far as rankings go.

You were focusing on ratings and numbers, when I was focusing on reach and mainstream presence. Of course ROH is going to be closer to TNA's ratings now. If you take away 2/3 of their audience you'd expect that. That doesn't mean those fans aren't still out there, they just don't have the channel. TNA's status by year's end is still up in the air, nothing is set in stone regarding if they will remain on DA or not. Or if ROH will do decent ratings on Destination America. It's a bad comparison to watch ROH and their low production values and then see TNA on next, which, though not at WWE levels, are leaps and bounds higher than ROH's.

I'm avoiding jumping to conclusions before this has been brought out further. Even if TNA lost Destination America, they still have options--granted fewer. Still, if they went under, the same rules I stated apply for ROH and Lucha Underground. They won't even get close to where TNA is currently in their current states.

I don't get why people don't wanna accept the fact that New Japan is the second biggest promotion in The World. I don't know if it's racism, nationalism or ignorance.

And it's funny. ROH does a show in New York City in December and they had to turn people away from a 3,000 "seat" building. TNA has Impact in NYC the next month and they can't draw 500 people.

No one judged The Monday Night War based on their feelings... Well maybe there's someone that does. But we got the facts.

Darth Dante wrote:

It's a bad comparison to watch ROH and their low production values and then see TNA on next, which, though not at WWE levels, are leaps and bounds higher than ROH's.

They're about the same now lol

The only reason Impact looks okay is because they're back in The Impact Zone. ROH could look a lot better if they just ran shows in The Du Burns or The 2300 Arena.

The "#2 spot" as being discussed is "average weekly viewers" and it's in "north america" not #2 worldwide.

^That's the thing. People base their #2 differently. Just look at Moosenugget claiming NJPW is #2 when they dont have the same ratings. And honestly, if you put NJPW in a conversation about the #2, you have to mention AAA first because they are the WWE of Mexico and have been on Univision and American television for years now. They also have a hot new sub-promotion in Lucha Underground increasing their reach and the popularity of lucha libre.

Are you stupid or something? New Japan Pro Wrestling is clearly the number two promotion in The World.

And I didn't say they were number two in The US.

You base TNA being number two based on your feelers