Money holding up season 2 of Lucha Underground on El Rey

Lucha Underground may be the best pro wrestling show on television right now but the future of the promotion is up in the air right now, what with no deals in place for a second season on the El Rey Network. The problem, of course, is funding, as explained by Eric Van Wagenen, a producer with the company, on the latest Steve Austin Show (transcription via PW Insider):

"El Rey absolutely wants us back. They've given us an offer on the table, they want us back for 40 more episodes. ‘We'd love to have you start airing in October. We want you back.' Now, what we're trying to do as an organization, is we're trying to maintain this certain level of production value. There's the amount of money El Rey is giving us, and then there's this amount of money that we need to spend in order to keep the same level of quality that we've established. [...] It's a high production value, we put a lot of emphasis on the production value, we don't cut any corner. So now, what we are doing is, myself and the other El Rey executives and the investors and Mark Burnett and the people who work at the United Artist Media group - there is a combined effort to bridge that gap, between the money El Rey is giving us and the money we need. All options are on the table, whether that's Netflix, iTunes, a secondary broadcast partner, or DVD sales, merchandise, you name it, everything's on the table. The money guys are trying to close that gap, and once we have that gap closed, we're announcing."

No wrestling show on television looks anywhere near as good as Lucha Underground but that comes at a great cost and the numbers simply aren't justifying the expense at present time. A better TV deal was always a necessity, especially if the company isn't getting into the pay-per-view business.

Stay tuned.