Willie Mack Talks Lucha Underground, WWE NXT, Stone Cold Steve Austin, More

As one of the most underrated performers in the wrestling business today, Willie Mack has made a name for himself on the independent scene, but has taken his career to the next level with Lucha Underground.

The Mack character he portrays on Lucha Underground is an everyman who teaches fans not to judge a book by its cover. His high-flying style and stunning feats of athleticism have made him one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster.

Mack recently spoke with Ring Rust Radio about his role with Lucha Underground and his thoughts on what makes the company unique, the signing process with WWE and why it didn’t work out in NXT, using Stone Cold Steve Austin’s stunner and more.

While many hardcore fans already knew Mack from his time in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, he has found his best exposure during his run with Lucha Underground:

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The thing about Lucha Underground that everybody loves is it caters to everybody. Some people aren’t wrestling fans, but they still tune into our show because they get captured by the storylines and everything else. Then they watch the wrestling along the way so it transitions them into a wrestling fan without actually being a wrestling fan. As far as the wrestling style, I actually trained in lucha libre, so I was already used to the style. I have already wrestled on TV before so I knew how to do that and it wasn’t anything new to me.

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Before Mack was stealing the show every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on the El Rey Network, he had signed with WWE as part of the NXT brand. Unfortunately, issues with his medical tests stopped his time in the company before it ever started. Mack spoke about what the signing process was like with WWE and the reason why he was let go before joining NXT:

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The signing process is a pain in the ass. The whole thing is like a six-month waiting process, so I was already signed when people found out about it. They just caught on at the end part of it. They put you through a whole process including flying you out to Pittsburgh to meet their doctors and background checks. The whole thing is stressful.

Then, at the end of the day, they said they didn’t like how the doctor read one of my test results, how my blood pressure was and how one of my knees felt. So they said they couldn’t use me. They didn’t offer me anything else, just said that they couldn’t use me down there. The funny thing about that is, when I asked to see the reports from my medical stuff to see what was wrong, do you think I have seen any of that stuff yet? Nope. Now you see me on Lucha Underground, so obviously someone isn’t telling the right story.

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The potential matchups in NXT would have been amazing with a wrestler of Mack’s skill set, but he has taken on a larger role with Lucha Underground and not signing with WWE has ended up being a blessing in disguise.

One advantage wrestlers working in Lucha Underground have over many of the Superstars in WWE is creative control. Mack takes full advantage of this ability when he uses Stone Cold’s stunner as one of his signature moves. When asked about using Austin’s finisher, Mack spoke honestly about why he added the move to his repertoire and how he’d like to meet Stone Cold someday to discuss it:

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A lot of the fans don’t like it and say I stole Stone Cold’s move. I say why aren’t they getting down other people’s throats every time someone throws a dropkick and say they stole that from Mr. Perfect. I would be down to meet him one day and talk about it. As far as I know, he doesn’t have a problem with it. I grew up watching Stone Cold, and when you see someone get hit with the Stunner, you knew that was it. You hopped up off the edge of your seat. Now I am trying to bring that back, and it’s been doing its job so far.

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What makes Mack so special is that he does things his own way. From his unconventional look to his supreme in-ring talent, there are few men in the company who can match what Mack brings as a performer to Lucha Underground.

Mack has never disappointed in the ring, but his expanded acting role as part of the storyline with Sexy Star has proved to Lucha Underground that he is an all-around talent worth building around for the future.

Fans of the show have come to love the Mack, and hopefully his role with the brand will continue to grow for the rest of Season 2 and into Season 3.

For more wrestling talk, listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot topics or catch the latest episode in the player above (some language NSFW).