Referee Marty Elias on the differences in working for WWE and Lucha Underground, work as the referee for Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25, the attitude within the Lucha Underground writer’s room

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The Blake and Sal Show with guest Marty Elias
Hosts: Blake Reilly and Mark Palkowski
Interview available at Blakeandsalshow.com

On the difference between working in WWE and Lucha Underground: “The big difference with Lucha Underground compared to WWE to me personally is that I’m treated as a talent and what I mean by that is that I’m able to do interviews like this, I’m able to go out and do signings, I’m able to go out and do Comic Cons, or I’m asked to do these types of appearances and such for Lucha Underground. Whereas unfortunately in WWE, the referees don’t have the opportunities to do that or are they asked because referees are referees and I just think it’s a blessing because unfortunately referees have a stigma that they are just the referee and they are not talented and they don’t mean anything which is total nonsense because referees love the business more than some of the boys do.”

On his experience at WrestleMania XXV as the referee for the Shawn Michaels/Undertaker match: “For me it was everything I’ve ever wanted and worked for. I love Shawn Michaels to death because he’s my GOAT and Taker is right up there too. But Shawn is Mr. WrestleMania, the guy of guys for me and one of my goals was to work with Shawn. Being there was insane, I didn’t mark for it because I was there to do a job. When we were in the match, we didn’t know it was going to become the match it was going to become the match that it became and it was one of these things where you knew something awesome was happening but you just had to go in and do your job.”

On his thoughts after hearing the concept of Lucha Underground for the first time: “So I took a leap of faith because it was DJ (Chris DeJoesph) because he believed in Lucha Underground and seeing his passion for it and getting me excited for it and I went “Yeah sign me up man.” So I signed up and I’m glad I did and I’m glad I took that leap of faith and everything because when they explained it to me it was so different and so out there, I went “This might just work.” and here we are”

On the attitude in the Lucha Underground writer’s room: “That’s the thing I love about Lucha Underground is sitting in those meetings everybody’s thinking outside of the box. Everybody’s thinking “Well what if?” and “What if?” and “Nobody’s done this” and “Can we get away with that?” and that’s I what I think is so special about Lucha Underground is that you have those opportunities and you have that ability to say “Hey this has never been done before. Nobody’s ever seen it. What if we try it?””

Other topics include the feeling of being at WrestleMania, creative freedom for the Lucha Underground wrestlers, and how being the “blurry faced referee” on Impact Wrestling affected his bookings at WrestleCon.

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