The reputation of Lucha Underground is a mixed bag with both positive and negative stories coming out about the promotion. LU hoped to achieve something different than WWE or any other wrestling promotion by treating their show like an episode storytelling product leaning more into the Hollywood style.

RELATED: Every Lucha Underground Champion, Ranked From Worst To Best

Quite a few talented and popular superstars spent time in LU with names like John Morrison, Ricochet, Rey Mysterio, Io Shirai, and many others contributing to the series. Despite trying to be unlike anything else in wrestling, there was backstage drama like the average wrestling promotion. Find out more about what went down behind the scenes with the most fascinating stories about Lucha Underground.

10 Ivelisse Refusing To Apologize For Injuring Tessa Blanchard

Tessa Blanchard

The reputations of both Ivelisse and Tessa Blanchard have seen multiple wrestlers claiming they were hard to work with. Blanchard was young into her career when getting a dark match opportunity against Ivelisse in a Lucha Underground dark match.

RELATED: 5 Wrestlers Who Thrived After Lucha Underground Ended (& 5 Who Have Struggled)

The issues started backstage when Ivelisse called out Tessa out of the blue, stating that she didn’t have a family last name to get a spot. Their match would see Blanchard suffering an injury that required surgery, with Ivelisse never apologizing for her role in the injury or asking for updates on her health.

9 John Morrison & Ricochet Were Signed To Be Faces Of Company

John Morrison vs Prince Puma

Lucha Underground believed they had a strong foundation for the future of the company when signing the two names they wanted. John Morrison was the established star from his WWE days making his return to the wrestling world.

Ricochet signed as the rising star who was placed under the mask for the Prince Puma character. Lucha Underground marketed their first season around both performers and management wanted them to be the faces of the company for years to come, but it clearly didn’t work out that way.

8 Locked Talent Into $4,000 Annual Contracts

Sonny Kiss in Lucha Underground

Sonny Kiss gave some details behind the terrible nature of the Lucha Underground contract. Wrestlers to sign with the promotion would only get $4,000 guaranteed for the year which hurt them when the show did not film new episodes.

Kiss revealed he was one of the last wrestlers to get out of the contract, but many others were also stuck in wrestling purgatory due to it. Lucha Underground turned into a negative story of wrestlers advising each other to stay away if they did return with the same contracts.

7 Threatened TNA With Lawsuit Over Hernandez

The Beat Down Clan

Lucha Underground did not work well with other promotions when it came to disagreements. Hernandez was under a LU contract with a no-compete clause, but he lied about it to TNA when making his return there.

MVP recruited Hernandez to join the company as part of the Beat Down Clan faction. TNA taped a few months of television with Hernandez until LU reached out and threatened to sue for using him while under contract.

6 MVP Fired For Discussing Spoilers

MVP

TNA fired MVP for the miscommunication of bringing Hernandez into the company while almost getting them sued. Lucha Underground signed MVP a little while after the drama and was hoping to push him as a familiar name.

However, the backstage issues once again saw MVP getting released faster than expected. MVP discussed potential spoilers on his podcast, and it upset members of management. Lucha Underground fired MVP even though he removed the episode and apologized for it instantly.

5 Triple H Met With LU Officials

Triple H

WWE developing working relationships with Evolve, Progress and a few other independent wrestling promotions had fans wondering if any bigger companies would join. Triple H and Canyon Cemen met with a few members of Lucha Underground personnel.

RELATED: The 10 Most Shocking Things To Ever Happen On Lucha Underground

The mindset of Triple H was to work with any promotion he felt would benefit WWE in the long run. Nothing came from the meeting with LU, but this meeting even taking place showed that it was under consideration to work with NXT under Triple H's watch.

4 Jack Evans Quit Because Of Issue With Ivelisse

Ivelisse

Another Ivelisse story at Lucha Underground featured her getting into backstage arguments with Jack Evans. Both wrestlers confirmed the story of backstage heat when each referencing their side on social media.

Evans claimed Ivelisse making the work environment unpleasant caused him to demand his release and avoid the contract issues other dealt with at the end. Ivelisse called out Evans for being unprofessional and she only stood up for herself in the interaction. The former enemies are now each part of the AEW roster.

3 Wanted To Bring In Torrie Wilson

Torrie Wilson

Jim Ross shared some Lucha Underground details back when he reported the news during a portion of his weekly podcast. Both Torrie Wilson and Victoria attended a Lucha Underground taping when both were based in California.

The story was that LU wanted to bring them both into future seasons of the series and Torrie’s star power was viewed as an asset. Wilson never seemed to consider the offer and remained outside of wrestling until WWE called her for comebacks.

2 Went Back On Deal Bringing In X-Pac

 X-Pac in TNA

WWE Hall of Famer X-Pac revealed that he almost signed a deal with Lucha Underground to continue wrestling in a higher profile than smaller indie shows. The two sides discussed the potential of him coming in if he could talk to WWE first to get out of his legends contract.

Triple H told X-Pac no heat would be placed on him and WWE wouldn’t stop him when he went back to LU to confirm the deal. Unfortunately, they apparently changed their mind and never reached back out to X-Pac to bring in his name value.

1 Ryback Turned Down Huge Push

Ryback

Lucha Underground hoped to find bigger names to add to the roster as each season went by. Ryback was one of the biggest names on the market when he made the decision to leave WWE when his contract expired.

The huge push of Ryback in his WWE start featured him getting quite over before things fell apart. Lucha Underground hoped they could benefit from the name value of a former top WWE star, but Ryback turned them down. The story came directly from Ryback explaining that he did not want to sign a deal where he would be locked into a no-complete clause for a year after the taping of a season.

NEXT: Aztec Warfare & 9 Other Awesome Match Types From Lucha Underground